On Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) invites you to take part in “Mind, Soul, World: Consciousness in Nature,” a Templeton Colloquium led by Dr. David Bentley Hart, 2015-2016 Templeton Fellow at the NDIAS.
In this Templeton Colloquium, Professor David Hart will explore the mystery of consciousness (the entirety of mental life), posing critical questions such as the place of nature within mind, and probing more traditional assumptions about the physicalist emergentist accounts of the origins of consciousness. In dialogue with other scholars he will take up the idea that careful reflection on the nature of consciousness yields an understanding of consciousness to which certain classical understandings of the soul (Western and Eastern) may prove far better suited than more materialist reductionist approaches.
No registration is necessary, and the colloquium is free and open to the public.
This colloquium brings together scholars from history, philosophy, and theology to examine critical topics about consciousness including whether consciousness can evolve or emerge from matter, intentionality and the transcendental ends of consciousness, classical metaphysics of the soul, Eastern contributions to the understanding of consciousness, and the soul and the whole of being. Presenters include: John Betz, Stephen R. L. Clark, William Desmond, Rob Gimello, Paul Griffiths, Michael Hanby, Gerald McKenny, John Milbank, Trent Pomplun, Cyril O’Regan, David C. Schindler, and Janet Soskice.
Sessions will take place in 104 McKenna Hall and will also be simulcast live on the NDIAS website. We also encourage you to review a pre-circulated paper written by David Bentley Hart.
This colloquium is sponsored by the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, with generous funding from the John Templeton Foundation.
Monday, March 14
•9:00 am — Introduction
•11:00 am — The Problems with the Materialist Reduction of Consciousness (Presenters: Gerald McKenny and Janet Soskice)
•2:00 pm — Can Consciousness Evolve or Emerge from Matter? (Presenters: Stephen R. L. Clark and Michael Hanby)
•4:00 pm — Intentionality and the Transcendent Ends of Consciousness (Presenters: John Betz and David C. Schindler)
Tuesday, March 15
•9:00 am — The Classical Metaphysics of the Soul (Presenters: Paul Griffiths and John Milbank)
•11:00 am — Eastern Contributions to the Understanding of Consciousness (Presenter: Robert Gimello and R. Trent Pomplun)
•2:00 pm — The Soul and the Whole of Being (Presenters: William Desmond and Cyril O’Regan)
•4:00 pm — Conclusions and Discussion of Closing Thoughts and Comments
Please send any questions you may have for our panelists to ndias@nd.edu and we will do our best to have them answered during the question-and-answer portion of each session.
Live streaming video by Ustream
Originally published by at ndias.nd.edu on February 22, 2016.