Events

Science is more than an academic activity circumscribed to laboratories and seminar rooms; it is a human creative effort that has political implications and bears societal responsibilities. In this installment of The Future Scientist series, we will explore what scientists actually do, aren’t doing, and could do in the wider picture of the troubled relationship between human beings and the Earth. Drawing from science and philosophy, but also from real-world activism, we will explicitly address the pervasive and pernicious effects of the neoliberal tide and discuss how to enact reciprocal transformations at the individual and planetary levels, so as to honor the land, the feminine and, above all, mother nature. The Future Scientist shall not be the modern Prometheus.

We live in a challenging time of transition which promises both hope and peril.  How are we to navigate a course that will take us from a story of separation, competition, and distrust to a new narrative of inter-being, cooperation, and love? How do we begin to give up and move beyond an incoherent and too often destructive structure of consciousness and a world which seems rarely to see the mediating presence of what has been called ‘evolutionary love’?

A. N. Whitehead’s Process and Reality can be read as a sustained meditation on Locke’s characterization of time as ‘perpetual perishing.’ But he refuses to see time solely as an occasion of perishing. Colapietro will seize this occasion itself to reflect on time and tragedy. Is time by its very nature tragic, entailing the irrevocable loss of whatever emerges and, for a time, endures in its flux? Or is time a site wherein forms of ‘ immortality’ are attainable? But of even more basic concern are several different senses of time, above all, the time envisioned by the most influential physicists (including Einstein) and the conception of time implicit in the activity of physicists themselves. Are physicists in time in the same sense that they so often conceive time (specifically, time as a reversible process or even an illusory phenomenon)?

The foundational literature of many societies contains reflections on the nature of love. These sources come in the form of stories, aphorisms, and even theoretical discussions. Ancient Greek literature has a variety of philosophical reflections on the nature of love and narcissism. Classical Hebraic literature, biblical and rabbinic, evidences a lack of theoretical discussions in favor of more concrete expressions. This literature contains moral rules and regulations, wisdom teachings, and a great variety of stories. My presentation will center primarily on the narratives of love in both biblical and rabbinic sources.

The idea that the end of science “as we know it” is near may sound absurd to many. And yet, in the era of “Big Data and Artificial Intelligence” the limits of human insight seem to saturate, as scientific revolutions and revelations stall. In this instalment of The Future Scientist series, we will reflect upon the limits of knowledge, the idea of scientific progress, and current exciting directions in both in fundamental physics and consciousness studies. We will also discuss the role of science journalism in shaping the public perception of science in the age of selfies, outlining future challenges and present opportunities at the intersection of science and society.

This session will explore selected familiar works of literature and popular culture in order to consider what clues these they contain to the implicit meanings of love that haunt us. What secret does the song suggest when it tells us:
Love makes the world go ‘round
Love makes the world go ‘round
Somebody soon will love you
If no one loves you now

As gravity holds the physical world together, love holds the metaphysical world together.  Love permeates through all our activities and gives us a sense of joy, fulfilment and contentment. Satish Kumar will speak about personal love, love of people, love of nature; love at all levels.

A well-known wisdom teaching from de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince mirrors what Vedic rishis, Sufi and Christian mystics alike have imparted for millennia: ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.’

How then do we perceive this unseen field of potential-filled guidance? And how, once aware of it, can we engage with it in a conscious and coherent way? That’s what researcher-clinicians and integrative medicine practitioners Ramona Rolle-Berg, Ph.D. and her sister, Renée Rolle-Whatley, Ph.D. will discuss using the results of their published and ongoing research about parental love.

Love is often used in nebulous or ill-defined ways, which means that its nuanced perceptions and mature forms can be hard to grasp. The need for a deeper awareness of love becomes particularly acute in times of crisis, though times of crisis also offer moments to understand love move fully. In this talk, Mark Vernon will explore the links between love and personal development, different types of power, its relationship with freedom and mind, as well as erotic yearning, suffering and loss, and so also to the knowledge of the ways in which reality itself is shaped by love.

It is often noted that the ancient Greeks had an advantage in possessing several words for love. Eros, philia, agape and others allowed them to be nuanced about love and navigate its differences. So is there benefit in considering how love has been understood in different wisdom traditions, too? This conversation will explore how love has been understood in various faith contexts and across time, looking at Christian, Sufi, Platonic and other insights. The aim will be to tease out similarities and differences so as to deepen and refresh the felt presence of love in our lives.