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MLE Inaugural Panel 2023: "Caring for Life"

In a world that is inherently precarious and inclined toward bewildering complexity, what does it mean to care for life and to know what ‘the most important thing’ is at any given moment? How do we understand the multiple valences of care (i.e. care as a form of attention, care as an expression of sentience, care as a praxis for the here and now, care as an ethical imperative, care as a mode of moral reasoning, care as a form of relatedness…)? How can the work we do at MLE – rooted as it is in the enactive perspective – help us to both critically reflect on caring and apprehend it as something not separate from our very mode of being in the world? Can caring also be a deliberate practice? What might it look like in the mind and life of a scientist, a philosopher, a contemplative? Is there a care that can be as robust and radical as the other groundbreaking intellectual traditions to which we are indebted?

In 2023 we will attempt to unpack – playfully, enactively – the notion of care, in not just its theoretical guise, but as a form of ethical know-how and ecological imperative. The inaugural panel on January 25th at 6pm CET will offer a dialogical space for eight distinguished colleagues and friends to explore the various dimensions of caring, from philosophical, scientific, contemplative, psychological, and educational perspectives. We will ask ourselves some key questions that will hopefully shape many of our activities in the upcoming year. How does care manifest in a world that is perilously ‘standing at the edge’? What is the relationship between care, sentience, and responsibility? What does it look like to care for all of life, in all its myriad and bewildering manifestations?

This year’s panelists include (in alphabetical order):
Dr. Elena Antonova
Dr. Amber Carpenter
Dr. Edel Maex
Dr. Giuseppe Pagnoni
Matthieu Ricard
Dr. Donata Schoeller
Dr. Katherine Weare
Amy Cohen Varela (moderator)

Jan 25, 2023 06:00 PM in Amsterdam