It is no secret that Mikhail Svetov dismantled the LPR with a single goal: to rid himself of the burdensome obligation to participate in organizing the Adam Smith readings and to conduct his stream dedicated to the US elections without interference. Therefore, the 2020 readings will take place in a strange format, where lecturers will speak before a giant audience of as many as thirty people, and the main emphasis will be shifted to the online broadcast.
Historically, there have always been some problems with the broadcast of the readings. And even now, although they start tomorrow, the links to the stream are still nowhere to be seen. They promise to provide it an hour before the broadcast begins to those who perform an additional pointless action—registering on the event’s Timepad. Of course, this is not required— here is the link. However, we love the readings not for their strange streaming policy, but for their interesting program. Let’s see what they have prepared for us this time.
Economic Section “The Wealth of Nations”
12:05 — 12:45 Grigory Bazhenov, economist, Friedrich von Hayek’s Sensory Order. He previously spoke at the IX readings with a report on whether an ethically neutral economic science is possible. He currently runs the YouTube channel Furydrops.
12:45 — 13:30 Valery Kizilov, economist, The Economics of the Corona-crisis: Old and New. I don’t know if he has spoken at the Adam Smith readings before, but here is an example of his lecture at last year’s “Constitution of Freedom” conference.
13:30 — 14:10 Farid Khusainov, economist, The Railway Industry and the Invisible Hand of the Market. Here is an example of his previous presentation: How the State Took Over the Railways – IX readings.
Ethical Section “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
14:30 — 15:10 Lyudmila Petranovskaya, psychologist, Ethical Aspects of Discussions Around COVID-19. She doesn’t seem to have spoken at the readings before; the web mostly contains videos about child psychology.
15:10 — 15:50 Alexey Raksha, demographer, Truth and Mortality in the Age of Covid. Here is an example of his yesterday’s presentation on Echo of Moscow. I suspect it will strongly echo the theme of the lecture.
15:50 — 16:30 Anton Kuznetsov, philosopher, Free Will and Science. His presentations regarding the problem of consciousness are mostly available online. Here, for example, is last year’s.
Political Section “Political Rhetoric”
16:50 — 17:30 Alexander Filippov, sociologist, The Revival of Leviathan as a Challenge and a Problem. Here is an example of his presentation within the Open University project on the meaning of the state.
17:30 — 18:10 Daniil Tsygankov, sociologist, author of the telegram channel Commission on Regulatorics, The Russian Frontier: The Birth of the Political Field from the Regulatory Oppression of the State? As an example of his presentations, I can suggest an interview with Tsygankov on the SVTV channel— from those times when Mikhail Svetov knew how to cooperate with Sergey Boyko.
18:10 — 18:50 Evgeny Varshaver, sociologist, Integration of Migrants in Russia: Theory and Practice. Here is an example of his presentation on PostNauka—specifically about the integration of migrants.
In general, if you get a bit bored during the election night on Svetov’s stream (or on the competing stream from Leonid Volkov), you will have the opportunity to get acquainted in advance with the lecturers of the upcoming Adam Smith readings. As for me, I will be commenting on the readings in text format in my telegram channel (remarks in twitter are possible along the way, although I don’t really know how to use Twitter).