Micro-Phenomenology of Nature, FranceMicro-phenomenology is a new scientific discipline that stems from an astonishing observation: a substantial proportion of what we live moment after moment, of what is thus the most intimate to us, escapes our awareness. For example, how does an emotion of joy or anger, a memory or an idea arise, evolve and disappear? We know very little about these experiences. Living an experience does not necessary mean being fully aware of it.
Among those experiences, one is particularly unrecognized: our relationship to what we call “nature”. What exactly are we experiencing when we get close to a tree, a river, when we cross a forest, meet an insect or a bird? Recent scientific studies show, with supporting figures, the positive effects of nature on our health, especially on our immune system. They also show that the loss of contact with nature, due to the extension of the urban way of life, creates a psychological suffering called “nature deficit disorder “. But the corresponding experience - what we feel when we are in contact with nature or when we are deprived of it – has been little studied, in the absence of suitable method, and remains ignored, including by ourselves. As we are not in contact with these feelings, we represent ourselves as individuals whose inner space is separated from the environment by a rigid border. We perceive this environment as made up of objects intended to be categorized, controlled and consumed: plants and animals for our food, fossil energy for our trips, rocks and forest for our houses, seas and mountains for our leisure activities. This attitude is characteristic of our relationship to the world, that transforms any activity into an object that can be measured and consumed: education into ready to consume knowledge, health into medical treatments, leisure into ready-made shows and trips, which leads to catastrophic ecological and societal consequences. Yet if we stop our run and take the time to connect with ourselves, a whole different picture emerges. When we allow to let ourselves be touched by the tree, the animal or the water, the rigid border that we usually perceive between ourselves and the outer world fades. We discover rhythms, sounds, colors that do not stop at this frontier, a subtle dimension where our ideas originate and which gives meaning to our words and acts. Being cut off from this vibrant dimension depresses and exhausts us, being connected with it makes us joyful and reanimates our lives. |
October 18th - 21st 2021
EXPLORING THE EXPERIENCE OF NATURE THROUGH MICRO-PHENOMENOLOGY
SEE POSTER FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON OBJECTIVES VENUE AND REGISTRATION:
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The TECT Summer School, Iceland |
August 9th to 13th 2021 |
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The Erasmus+ summer school, Embodied Critical Thinking and the Environment, took place at the University of Iceland from August 9th to August 13, 2021. The summer school is part of the larger course HSP912F: Embodied critical thinking: theoretical foundations and practical applications at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Iceland, and is the second part of this three-step TECT-course (consisting of a 12 week webinar in the spring, the summer school and an independent project in the fall).
In the summer school, students/researchers were introduced to methods of embodied critical thinking. The participants got a training in the ECT methods and participated in outdoor exercises taking place in the lava fields of Reykjanes. The summer school teachers/trainers were Prof. Donata Schoeller, Prof. Sigríður Þorgeirsdóttir, Prof. Guðbjörg R. Jóhannesdóttir, Assist. Prof. Ram Eisenberg, Prof. Marieke van Vugt and Monika Lindner. Students and trainees came from the Erasmus+ partner universities in Groeningen, Ljubljana, Jena, Haifa and Iceland as well as from many other countries with a total of 35 people attending. |
The weather during the summer school was wonderful by Icelandic standards, sunny days and warm, allowing group work to take place in the arena outside the building. One highlight of the week was an afternoon/evening excursion to the volcano at Fagradalsfjall with a glorious sunset as a backdrop to the active volcano and the burning lava flowing out of the crater.
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The Nalanda Debate - Winter School |
January 25th to 29th 2021 |
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Join Marieke van Vugt, University of Groningen member of TECT, and expert monks of Sera Jey monastery for an online winter school from January 25-29, 2021 on Nalanda Debate.
In an era where new knowledge is produced at unprecedented rates and at every stage of its production is challenged by misinformation, skills of critical analysis have never been more valuable. Nalanda Debate provides a formal structure for researchers to engage in a constructive dialogue which brings an extra degree of clarity to an investigation into any given aspect of our world. Utilized by Tibetan scholar-contemplatives for the past thousand years to investigate the functions of cognition and perception, and to ultimately probe the very nature of reality, it is a tried and true method of enhancing our critical thinking capacities. Guest lecturers include Jeffrey Hopkins and Jose Cabazon. Click here for information: http://ow.ly/BexE50D2hRf #contemplativescience #mindandlifeEU #dalailama #debate #winterschool ‘One unique thing about the Nalanda Tradition is that we extensively use a logical approach… Single-pointed meditation is good, but it is even better to do analytical meditation and engage in discussion, debate.’
- H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, Dec. 9, 2020 |
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