Why Believe in the Self? Western and Eastern Explorations of Self, No-Self, and the Divine
Author: Kai-man Kwan, Visiting Professor of PhilosophyKai-man Kwan, chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University, was a visiting professor in the philosophy department at Calvin College in the spring of 2009. He gave this presentation at Calvin on April 30, 2009. It was co-sponsored by the department of philosophy, the Nagel Institute, and the Asian Studies program at Calvin.
Introduction
Nothing seems more certain to us than the fact that we exist, i.e., our selves exist. The father of modem philosophy, Descartes, makes the existence of the self (I think therefore I am--cogito) the foundation of his philosophy. Many philosophers are really self-enthusiasts. For example, J. B. Pratt says: “We know that the self is, and we know what it is by observing what it does. And this we know because every theory of the inner life which fails to recognize a knower and actor does violence to the facts of experience.” H. D. Lewis also asserts that “the self, far from being a mysterious reality behind the scenes, is in fact what we know best. But we know it in a very special way in the very fact of being it and having the experiences we do have, including the activities we initiate.”
Read or listen to this presentation
Eat Well Food Tour 2009
Author: Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, Research and Program Coordinator, Student Activities
Throughout the summer of 2009, *cino directors Rob & Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma will conduct workshops, interviews and other events on food and faith throughout the Midwestern U.S. and Canada. Check out the blog Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma keeps throughout the tour.
Financial Crisis and the Culture of Risk
Author: John Tiemstra, Professor of EconomicsPerspectives
In the Josiah Stamp Memorial Lecture which he delivered on January 13, 2009, at the London School of Economics, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reser ve System, listed the causes of the credit boom that led to the current financial breakdown: “widespread declines in under writing standards, breakdowns in lending oversight by investors and rating agencies, increased reliance on complex and opaque credit instruments that proved fragile under stress, and unusually low compensation for risk-taking.”
This is not moral language but the language of the scientific economist looking for explanations rather than making judgments. What Bernanke described was the behavior of many important actors in the financial system. Yet that behavior had a moral dimension, and it can only be described as irresponsible at best. Sir Josiah recognized as much in his 1938 book Christianity and Economics, when he talked about “the reign of law, decency, honour, industry and thrift in which alone a complex industrial system can work” (p. 189). Justified as passing judgment is, however, to understand the roots of our financial crisis we must examine how risk changed from being a morally fraught but unavoidable problem of human existence to being a commodity traded on markets like wheat or copper. The neglect of the moral reality of risk is a recent phenomenon that lies at the bottom of our problems.
How to Be More Moral: Think Less, Go to Church More?
Author: Nathan Bierma, Minds editorThinkChristian
I was about to skim the rest of Brooks’ column when, about two-thirds of the way through, he added this fascinating footnote: in the emerging view of neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists, moral judgments are formed in social groups.
Exceptionalism with a Twist
Author: James Bratt, Professor of HistoryBooks & Culture
Americans have always struck outside observers as being a bundle of contradictions. Europeans from Tocqueville on have noted how, in the strange world across the Atlantic, forthright materialists are consumed with spiritual ardors while the mantra of liberty sounds forth from compulsive conformists.
Guest Presentation: The Pursuit of Justice: Finding Courage Amidst the Chaos of Human Rights Abuses
Author: Sharon Cohn Wu, guest speakerThe January Series of Calvin College
This guest presentation was given as part of the January Series 2009 of Calvin College.
The enormity of injustice against the poor can overwhelm us—27 million slaves, millions sexually abused, hundreds of thousands illegally detained and tortured. Our impulse may be to run far from it. But the experiences of those who suffer these abuses and those who fight them can change our trajectory.
Sharon Cohn Wu serves as Senior Vice President of Justice Operations for International Justice Mission. IJM is an international human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. Based on referrals of abuse received from relief and development organizations, IJM conducts professional investigations of the abuses and mobilizes intervention on behalf of the victims.
Guest presentations disclaimer
