 | Will Vernon is a producer for BBC News. He has been covering the former Soviet Union region since 2010, and has produced a huge amount of material from Ukraine for BBC TV, radio and online during the current crisis. Previous to joining the corporation, Will worked as a translator for a gold-mining company in Russia. |
Free will: just an illusion?
"I was impressed by the intensity of the debate and the high level of intellectual engagement, not least by the audience. It was an invigorating, even exhilarating experience to be part of a festival based on the conviction that disagreement is good. The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic concept, may it spread epidemically to the rest of the world. I am already looking forward to next year's event."
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; novelist
follow the Academy of Ideas
