the Mindfulness of Nature
The historical discussion concerning the relationship of mind and nature has often centered around the well-worn battle between reductive materialists and mind-body dualists. Typically the scientific consensus was set against philosophical arguments regarding science’s epistemic limits. These debates often made little progress, and one sometimes has the sense that the participants are talking past each other.
Today, however, a new aspect of the topic is emerging. Across multiple scientific disciplines, there is a growing recognition of nature’s mindfulness - that is, of the prevalence of diverse kinds of minds within nature - as well a philosophical renaissance of more robust and expansive naturalisms.
During this gathering, we intend to explore this generative intersection and the way it could help reconfigure our vision of mind and nature.
- How widespread is mind or mentality in the natural world?
- Is there a diversity of kinds of mind, or kinds of mentality?
- Which aspects of the mental are open to scientific inquiry?
- Does the prevalence of minds in the natural world have any philosophical implications?
Seminar Facilitators
Sarah Lane Ritchie & Tripp Fuller, from the University of Edinburgh, will be co-hosting this research gathering. It is part of a three-year project titled God & the Book of Nature supported by the John Tempelton Foundation.
So often scholars get stuck in disciplinary silos, over-determined by the inherited prejudices and unaware of potentially vibrant conversation partners in other disciplines. Our goal is to bring together multiple disciplines for a scientifically-rigorous, skeptically-persistent, experientially-informed, and spiritually-humble conversation.
Seminar Contributors
[video lengths varies between 22 minutes and more]]
Claremont School of Theology
Allen Institute
University of Aberdeen
University of St. Andrews
University of Strathclyde
Durham University
Center for Open and Relational Theology
University of Berlin
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The Mindfulness of Nature
with Tripp Fuller & Philip Clayton
Philip Clayton returns to the podcast! This conversation was inspired by an online academic conference I put together as part of the God & the Book of Nature project at the University of Edinburgh titled the Mindfulness of Nature. You can find videos of all the papers from the gathering here.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection points of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization.
In the conversation, we discuss...
how the conversation around mind and consciousness is changingthe dramatically changing character of science engaged theologycan confessional theologians fully engage the sciences?how panpsychism became a live option in philosophy and scienceTripp gets uncomfortable when Phil makes him pick between his position and John Cobb'sis there mental causal power?Tripp ends up venting about philosophical theologians who complain without understanding Whiteheadthe correct answer is pneumaterialismare there guardrails for theological thinking?how does a process theologian end their emails? "keep it zesty"
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Philip Clayton @ the Mindfulness of Nature
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