Philosophy

The Pari Center for New Learning was conceived as a haven of peace and gentle action in a world increasingly gripped by turmoil. In adopting Carlo Levi’s maxim that ‘the future has an ancient heart’ we look to the future while bearing in mind the wisdom of the past. Beginning in Andalusian Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries, Europe saw a New Learning emerge as Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars worked side by side, inspired by a vision of erudition, awareness, and a harmonious society. It was out of these seeds that the Renaissance was born. We believe that a similar transformation is possible today.

Our society is undergoing enormous and rapid changes. We are still assimilating the implications of ideas, discoveries and technologies developed in the twentieth century. New technologies revolutionize the way we work and communicate. The human genome project asks what it means to be human. In such a world we need a place in which to pause and reflect on our personal lives, as well as on values, meaning, the directions of society, and the possibilities the future might hold. Where better than the hilltop village of Pari in a community that stretches back a thousand years?