Fly close to the sun; catch a touch of sun stroke from the heat of the argument.

 The Wapping Project brings philosophy and debate to the garden for three Saturdays in July. Inspired by Epicurus – to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more – The Wapping Project invites leading thinkers to stir your imagination and challenge your intellect. Accompanied by Pimms and the smell of magnolias, talk ranges across a thousand ideas.

13 JULY 14.00-15.00 THE EROTIC MAGUS: SOCRATES, EROS AND MAGIC

Professor Angie Hobbs FRSA is Professor of Public Understanding of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

15.30-16.30 THE SECRET MUSEUM

Molly Oldfield- read our interview with Molly here.

17.00-18.00 HOW TO BE AN EPICUREAN

Professor David Sedley is Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy and a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge

20 JULY 14.00-15.00 JOAN SMITH

is a columnist, novelist, human rights activist – and a Classicist

15.30-16.30 BROOKLYN BRIDGE: THE GREAT EAST RIVER BRIDGE AND WAGNER’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE MAN WHO BUILT IT

Erica Wagner is an author and is the Literary Editor of The Times

17.00-18.00 ETERNITY IS OVERRATED: THE USES OF TIME IN ARCHITECTURE

Rowan Moore is architecture critic of the Observer and author of ‘Why We Build: power and desire in architecture’.

27 JULY 14.00-15.00 EMPTY TO DEPOT: ROUGH RIDES ON AN OVERLOADED ARK

Iain Sinclair is an author, historian, film maker and provocateur Following his talk at The Wapping Project on 27 July, Iain will present a rare screening of ‘The Dark Eyes of London’, a 1939 film by Walter Summers based on the 1924 novel by Edgar Wallace. In what is widely considered one of Bela Lugosi’s most sinister roles, he plays Dr Orloff, an insurance broker whose clients are regularly found dead in the River Thames

15.30-16.30 FEDERICO CAMPAGNA

17.00-18.00 EPICURUS AND THE CLIMAMEN

Rye Dag Holmboe is a doctoral candidate at University College London and the co-founder and editor of LOCUS