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東文研セミナー「Graham PARKES先生(ハワイ大学元教授)のご講演Managing Humanity’s Insanity: Rethinking our Place in Nature through Classical Chinese Philosophy」が開催されました

報告

2024年5月17日、東文研セミナー「Graham PARKES先生(ハワイ大学元教授)のご講演Managing Humanity’s Insanity: Rethinking our Place in Nature through Classical Chinese Philosophy」が開催された。本セミナーは「東文研P4NEXT(旧「新しい啓蒙」)」の一環として、ボン大学「R4GREEN」との共催となりました。

講演では、「プラネタリー・バウンダリー」という地球システムの限界を超過した/しつつある状況を考えるため、現代社会のインサニティ(insanity)、とりわけリバタリアン個人主義やテクノロジーやメディアの従順な受容について概観したのち、荘子哲学をはじめ「家」や「気」など中国的発想が持つ普遍的示唆について論じられました。会場には7名の参加者が集まり、Parkes先生と活発な議論がくりひろげられました。

 

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開催情報

講演者:Graham PARKES ハワイ大学 元教授(現 ウィーン大学 リサーチフェロー)

講演タイトル・日時:
2024年5月17日(金)16時30分〜18時00分(日本時間)

“Managing Humanity’s Insanity:
Rethinking our Place in Nature through Classical Chinese Philosophy”

会場:東京大学東洋文化研究所 大会議室(3F) *対面のみ

使用言語:英語

総合司会:中島隆博(東洋文化研究所 所長)

要旨:
Why the extreme term ‘insanity’? Well, because the way that we in the developed countries are currently living is beginning, through its impact on the climate and the biosphere, to render the planet uninhabitable. And only a very few among the ultra-rich are going to be able (they hope) to go somewhere else to live. This presentation examines the roots of this insanity and proposes some ways of managing it. We know how risky the global situation is thanks to the idea of ‘planetary boundaries’, elaborated by some of the world’s top climate and Earth System scientists. For nine of Earth’s subsystems they have identified a range of thresholds beyond which human pressure could trigger abrupt changes that would tip the entire system into a state that’s distinctly inhospitable for human existence.
A large part of the problem is a prevalent idea of who we are as human beings. A right-wing libertarian (neoliberal) ideology has convinced many people that we are basically autonomous individuals at liberty to extract from the natural world whatever we need to satisfy our desires for material comfort, as assured by continued economic growth. Another factor behind our blindness to the severe risks of climate breakdown and the destruction of biosphere integrity is ‘the posthuman spectacle’. Our enthusiastic immersion in information technologies and social media tends to reinforce Cartesian ‘indivi-dualism’, keeping us narcotised in a virtual world of ‘representations’ and oblivious to the dangers of our physical situation.
A more plausible and beneficial understanding of who we are regards us not as individuals but as relatives—related to other humans and myriad other beings on which we depend. Indigenous philosophies from numerous cultures share this kind of understanding, but for pragmatic reasons we do well to draw from the ancient Chinese philosophical tradition to heal our indivi-dualist derangement. After all, without enthusiastic cooperation from China it will be impossible to slow global heating and preserve the integrity of the biosphere. While revising our self-understanding to a saner mode, we can be making major changes in our social, political, and economic institutions, which would let us avoid the worst—and live more fully human lives.

 



登録種別:研究活動記録
登録日時:MonMay2015:46:212024
登録者 :上田・多田
掲載期間:20240521 - 20240821
当日期間:20240517 - 20240517