Iain McGilchrist’s new masterpiece, The Matter with Things, has been described by Charles Foster of Oxford University as “one of the most important books ever published.”
A profound meditation on life’s deepest questions, it has far-reaching implications for our understanding of reality, our view of ourselves, and the deep stories on which our civilisation rests.
In this free event series, Perspectiva brings Dr. McGilchrist into dialogue with a range of inspired thinkers to probe further into the key ideas and their significance to this historical moment.
You are warmly invited to join. Sign up below!
Bonnitta Roy is an award winning author, philosopher and insight guide. She currently runs the Pop-Up School, an innovative online educational platform, and has previously held esteemed posts as a Professor in Residence for the MA in Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology at the Graduate Institute, and as an Associate Editor of Integral Review. Bonnitta is also an Associate at Perspectiva, collaborating and advising us on myriad projects.
In this conversation, Bonnitta and Iain will focus their conversation on the following question: “Will future generations look back on our historical epoch as a time of collective insanity, and if this is the case, what can we do to address this?” In particular they will explore this layered inquiry with reference to the importance of embodiment – the need to put the mind back into the body, and the body back into nature; as well as the need to revise our fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality if we are to find our way back to collective sanity.
True learning, growth, and transformation come from being in relationship with others who are also at the edge of their explorations. For this reason, alongside these conversations, we’re hosting fortnightly Connection and Inquiry Sessions facilitated by Perspectiva Associates Leigh Biddlecome and Michael Bready.
These Connection Sessions will give you the opportunity to connect and reflect with others on the significance of the ideas shared in the previous weeks’ conversation.
The sessions will begin with embodied and relational practices to enable genuine human-to-human encounters, before journeying into authentic conversations in both breakout rooms and in the whole group.
In Spring of 2023, we’ll hold an ongoing series of events deepening the inquiry into The Matter With Things.
These conversations will involve a range of inspiring guests: Iain will be joined by the philosopher of education Zak Stein, the Imagination Activist Phoebe Tickell, the philosopher and Insight Guide Bonnitta Roy, and the theoretical physicist Philip Goyal – with more to be announced soon.
These conversations will explore such themes as collective (in)sanity, valueception, the application of imagination to rebuilding the world, and what the hemisphere hypothesis can reveal about theoretical physics.
Sign up below to keep up-to-date with news of future events:
Past events in this series
Our first event will feature Iain McGilchrist in conversation with Jonathan Rowson.
Jonathan Rowson is the Founding Director of Perspectiva, a chess Grandmaster and philosopher.
In this conversation, Jonathan and Iain will examine the relationship between the brain and the world, the centrality of attention, and in particular, consider the question: “Is the way we attend to the world itself a moral act?”
Zak Stein is a writer, futurist, philosopher of education, and co-founder of The Civilisation Research Institute, The Center for Integral Wisdom, and Lectica Inc.
In his own words, he works ‘to bring a greater sense of sanity and justice to education.’ Zak has taught graduate students at Harvard and advised technology start-ups, but he is also a long-time meditator, musician, and caregiver, which, he says, have shaped him more than any professional engagements.
Zak is also an Associate at Perspectiva, where he advises us in a range of ways and has had several essays published, including Education is the Metacrisis and Education must make History Again. Near the beginning of the Pandemic, he wrote Covid 19: A War Broke Out In Heaven for our Emerge website, which has been read by many thousands of people and widely discussed.
Iain and Zak plan to focus their discussion on the nature of value, asking questions such as “what are values, where do they come from, are they important, and if so why?” They will consider the possibility that values are fundamental to the nature of the cosmos. And alongside this, they will explore Max Scheler’s concept of valueception – the idea that we can directly perceive value underived from any cognitive calculation.
