The Arts and Humanities provides an intellectual playground for capacities that are traditionally viewed as distinctively human, like creativity, inquisitiveness, and rationality. But a variety of non-human animals also appear to have these remarkable capacities. Among the most striking examples are octopuses.

This event explores the nature of creativity, inquiry and play from the perspective of both octopuses and humans, and draws attention to neglected presentations of these capacities. In doing so, it also seeks to develop a more diverse and less speciesist understanding of the traits that are most central to the Arts and Humanities.

The event will feature short talks by two members of the University of Southampton Philosophy Department, Dr Heather Browning (a specialist in animal welfare) and Dr Kurt Sylvan (a specialist in epistemology and philosophy of mind), as well as by University of Southampton Philosophy students. After the talks, there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion from everyone attending.

The event is the latest installment in a series by Dr Kurt Sylvan on the Philosophy of Neurodiversity.