The Hard Problem
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The Hard Problem
''The Hard Problem'' is a play by British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, first produced in 2015. The title refers to the hard problem of consciousness, which Stoppard defines as having "subjective First Person experiences"; he notes the strangeness in the illusion of consciousness in which, clearly, you have to be conscious to experience. Plot Hilary, a college student, and Spike, her TA, argue over the paradoxes encountered when trying to explain human consciousness, moral sense, altruism, and parental sacrifice. Do humans act predictably, like computers, calculating risks and benefits, or do they act unpredictably, according to each person's innate sense of what is "good"? In either case, is their behavior a product of Darwinian struggle, sometimes disguised as compassion or altruism, or can it spring from the soul in a relation with God? Hilary is somewhat defiantly in the latter camp — Spike is astonished to learn that she prays each night before going to sleep. Hilar ...
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Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. Stoppard was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright. Stoppard's most prominent plays include ''R ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ...
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Russia-K
Russia-K (russian: Россия Культура, translit=Rossiya Kul'tura "Russia - Culture") is a Russian nationwide not-for-profit television channel that broadcasts shows regarding arts and culture. It belongs to the state-controlled VGTRK group. History The creation of ''Kultura'' channel was authorised on 25 August 1997 after the presidential Decree No. 919 was signed by Boris Yeltsin. Its creation was supported by Mstislav Rostropovich, Dmitry Likhachyov, Rolan Bykov and other public figures. Mikhail Shvydkoy became the first editor-in-chief of Kultura. The channel began broadcasting on 1 November 1997 at 10:00 AM. At the stage of launching, it was planned that it would be called "RTR-2" (while RTR was labeled as RTR-1). The corresponding logo was briefly used in a number of printed TV programs, while the stylized "K" letter was used as the logo from the beginning of broadcast. The channel was rebranded as ''Russia-Culture'' (''Rossiya-K'') on 1 January 2010 along wi ...
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Mitzi E
Mitzi or Mitzy is a feminine given name of German origin. Originally a nickname for girls named Maria in German-speaking populations, Mitzi became a given name in its own right, even outside of Germany. Several early-20th-century American actresses chose it as part of their stage name, for example Mitzi Green and Mitzi Gaynor, increasing its popularity. In the United States, Mitzi first appeared on the Social Security Administration's list of the top 1000 most popular names for baby girls in 1930, peaked in 1955, and has since fallen out of favor, dropping off the list entirely after 1979. People * Mitzi Cajayon (born 1978), Filipino politician *Mitzi Cunliffe (1918–2006), American sculptor *Mitzi Gaynor (born 1931), American actress, singer and dancer born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber *Mitzi Green (1920–1969), American child actress born Elizabeth Keno *Mitzi Hajos (1889–1970), Hungarian born American actress *Mitzi Kapture (born 1962), American actress * Mitzy Lar ...
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Court Theater (Chicago)
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. In both common law and civil law legal systems, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all people have an ability to bring their claims before a court. Similarly, the rights of those accused of a crime include the right to present a defense before a court. The system of courts that interprets and applies the law is collectively known as the judiciary. The place where a court sits is known as a venue. The room where court proceedings occur is known as a courtroom, and the building as a courthouse; court facilities range from simple and very small facilities in rural communities to large complex facilities in urban communities. The practical authority given to the co ...
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Wilma Theater (Philadelphia)
The Wilma Theater is a non-profit theater company located at 265 S. Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia. The company's current 296-seat theater opened in 1996 and was designed by Hugh Hardy. History The Wilma Theater began in 1973 as the "Wilma Project", founded to produce original material and to develop community-orient artists. The name "Wilma" refers to an imaginary oppressed sister of Shakespeare created by Virginia Woolf. Blanka Zizka and Jiri Zizka from Czechoslovakia joined the project in 1979 as artists-in-residence, and later took over artistic leadership, changing the name to the Wilma Theater. The company staged their productions at a variety of different theaters, in particular a 100-seat converted garage on Sansom Street, but opened their current 296-seat theater on S. Broad Street in 1996. Jiri Zizka left the theater at the end of the 2009–2010 season and died in January 2012. Productions b ...
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The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph & Courier''. Considered a newspaper of record over ''The Times'' in the UK in the years up to 1997, ''The Telegraph'' generally has a reputation for high-quality journalism, and has been described as being "one of the world's great titles". The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since 19 April 1858. The paper had a circulation of 363,183 in December 2018, descending further until it withdrew from newspaper circulation audits in 2019, having declined almost 80%, from 1.4 million in 1980.United Newspapers PLC and Fleet Holdings PLC', Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1985), pp. 5–16. Its si ...
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Henry Hitchings
Henry Hitchings (born 11 December 1974) is an author, reviewer and critic, specializing in narrative non-fiction, with a particular emphasis on language and cultural history. The second of his books, ''The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English'', won the 2008 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award. He has written two books about Samuel Johnson and has served as the president of the Johnson Society of Lichfield. As a critic, he has mainly written about books and theatre. As of 2018, he is chair of the drama section of the UK's The Critics' Circle, Critics' Circle. Life He was a King's Scholar at Eton College before going to Christ Church, Oxford, and then to University College London to research his PhD on Samuel Johnson. Books ''Dr Johnson's Dictionary'' In 2005 Hitchings published ''Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book that Defined the World'', a biography of Samuel Johnson's epochal ''A Dictionary of the English Language'' ( ...
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The Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after being purchased by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and became a free newspaper, doubling its circulation as part of a change in its business plan. Emily Sheffield became editor in July 2020 but resigned in October 2021. History From 1827 to 2009 The newspaper was founded by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard on 21 May 1827 as ''The Standard''. The early owner of the paper was Charles Baldwin. Under the ownership of James Johnstone, ''The Standard'' became a morning paper from 29 June 1857. ''The Evening Standard'' was published from 11 June 1859. ''The Standard'' gained eminence for its detailed foreign news, notably its reporting of events of the American Civil War (1861–1865 ...
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Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington OBE (born 16 November 1939) is a British author and arts critic. He writes for ''The Guardian'', and was the paper's chief drama critic from 1971 to 2019. Billington is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts. He is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008). Early life and education Billington was born on 16 November 1939, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and attended Warwick School, an independent boys' school in Warwick. He attended St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1958 to 1961, where he studied English and was appointed theatre critic of '' Cherwell''. He graduated with a BA degree. As a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), in 1959, Billington played the Priest in '' The Birds'', by Aristophanes, his only appearance as an actor, and, in 1960, he directed a production of Eugène Ionesco's ''The Ba ...
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Hard Problem Of Consciousness
The hard problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining why and how humans have qualia or phenomenal experiences. This is in contrast to the "easy problems" of explaining the physical systems that give us and other animals the ability to discriminate, integrate information, and so forth. These problems are seen as relatively easy because all that is required for their solution is to specify the mechanisms that perform such functions. Philosopher David Chalmers writes that even once we have solved all such problems about the brain and experience, the hard problem will still persist. The existence of a "hard problem" is controversial. It has been accepted by philosophers of mind such as Joseph Levine, Colin McGinn, and Ned Block and cognitive neuroscientists such as Francisco Varela, Giulio Tononi, and Christof Koch. However, its existence is disputed by philosophers of mind such as Daniel Dennett, Massimo Pigliucci, Thomas Metzinger, Patricia Churchland, and Keith Fr ...
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Lucy Robinson (actress)
Lucy Jane Robinson (born 1966) is a British actress working mostly in television. Her television roles include Louisa Hurst in ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1995), Robyn Duff in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth series of '' Cold Feet'', Mayoress Christabel Wickham in the second series of '' The Thin Blue Line'' and Pam Draper in '' Suburban Shootout''. She has also played Frau Clovis, secretary to the Duke of Manhattan, in the ''Doctor Who'' episode " New Earth" and Mrs. Elton in the 1996 TV adaptation of ''Emma''. She also appeared in a single episode of the ‘IT Crowd’ as a prospective employer to Jen. She had a role as Harriet Burgess in ''EastEnders'', and appeared in a single episode of BBC TV children's series '' Powers''. In 2006 she played the part of Louise Mallory in 'Expiation', the final episode of the first series of Lewis. She has also appeared in ITV drama ''William and Mary'' as Mrs Rick, alongside Martin Clunes and Julie Graham. She has more recen ...
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