WELLINGTON

6pm Thursday 1 September

Lecture Theatre, Te Whare Apārangi, Royal Society of New Zealand

Intelligence vs Ignorance

Our brains have altered in ways that should make us more rational and moral, yet education and lifestyle are failing to capitalise on this. Many people are reading less and less – both serious literature and works of history. This should be labelled a national tragedy. The literature of today is not at fault. Researching The Torchlight List and its sequel The New Torchlight List, his provocative assessments of books and authors, have convinced Flynn the literary canon is as rich as it ever was. How can the tide of ignorance be reversed? And why does it matter?

About Jim Flynn



Jim Flynn is the author of many groundbreaking books, including What is Intelligence?, Are We Getting Smarter?: Rising IQ in the 21st Century, How to Improve Your Mind, Fate & Philosophy, The Torchlight List and The New Torchlight List. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Otago University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 2011 he was awarded the society’s inaugural Aronui Humanities Medal. Jim Flynn’s TED talk “Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’” has received over 2.55 million views.