Spirituality in Higher Education

1. Spirituality in Higher Education Cognitive Foundations and Practical Implications Arthur Zajonc Physics, Amherst College Arthur Zajonc

2. Mission of Higher Education • Harvard: VERITAS -- Truth (1644) What is the relationship of the spiritual to the pursuit of truth? • AAC&U Statement on Liberal Learning What might be the larger contribution of the spiritual to higher education? Arthur Zajonc

3. Emerging Trend: the Outer Signs • Conferences: University of Massachusetts (2000) and Wellesley College (1999) • ACLS/Contemplative Mind in Society, Contemplative Practice Fellowships: six years and 100 fellows • Institute and Initiatives: Mind & Life, Kira Institute, 5-College Faculty Group,… Seeking a place for the contemplative and spiritual in teaching and research Arthur Zajonc

4. Barriers to Inclusion of the Spiritual in Higher Education • Legal and Institutional Barriers • Commitments to a materialist metaphysics • “Wrong Map” Problem • Epistemological Challenge Arthur Zajonc

5. Religion Faith Moral code Values Science Reason Natural Knowledge Facts Wrong Map Neo-Orthodox – Karl Barth NOMA – Stephen J. Gould Arthur Zajonc

6. In a Neo-Orthodox or NOMA world there is no place for a cognitive spirituality. In this view spirituality can play only a marginal role within the academy. Arthur Zajonc

7. Extending Knowing • Dianoia, valid inference, Verstand, ratiocination, … • Well-developed • Episteme, direct perception, Vernunft, insight, imagination • Underdeveloped Arthur Zajonc

8. Objectification & Idolatry • “Principle of Objectification,” Schrödinger • Scientific models as idols. Owen Barfield • “Misplaced Concreteness,” Whitehead • “Yet how difficult it is not to put the sign in place of the thing.” Goethe Arthur Zajonc

9. Beyond the scaffolding Hypotheses are like the scaffolding erected in front of a building, to be dismantled when the building is completed. To the worker the scaffolding is indispensable, but he must not confuse it with the building itself. Goethe Arthur Zajonc

10. … to “Being" Yet how difficult it is not to put the sign in the place of the thing; how difficult to keep the being (das Wesen) always livingly before one and not to slay it with the word. Goethe Arthur Zajonc

11. Challenges of Relativity and Quantum Physics • Quantum mechanics and relativity as mere calculation. • Meaning of : • Entanglement and ontological holism • Quantum parallelism and alternate models of thinking. • Relativity and relational ontology [The Quantum Challenge, Greenstein & Zajonc] Arthur Zajonc

12. Contemplation: Cultivating Episteme or Insight • Central place of experience • Participatory and embodied • Bildung – Organ formation • Open to spiritual as well as sensorial experience • Action originates from empathetic connection Arthur Zajonc

13. Experience: Its Levels • Goethe: “The highest thing would be to comprehend that everything factual is already theory.” • Empirical phenomena • Scientific phenomena • Archetypal phenomena • Rudolf Steiner: levels of meditative awareness • Sense perception • Imagination • Inspiration • Intuition Arthur Zajonc

14. Goethe’s summary • There is a delicate empiricism that makes itself utterly identical with the object, thereby becoming true theory. But this enhancement of our mental powers belongs to a highly evolved age. Goethe Arthur Zajonc

15. We only see what we animate, and we animate what we see. Emerson Arthur Zajonc

16. “no discovery is ever made except by a poetic perception.” Emerson Arthur Zajonc

17. Concentric Capacities • “Every object well contemplated creates an organ for its perception.” Goethe • “I could stand here for six months and paint this scene again and again and again.” In a letter to Emil Bernard, he said: “Nature is the true teacher, and through looking and working we must make ourselves concentric to her.” Cezanne Arthur Zajonc

18. Molding the Self To grasp the phenomena, to fix them to experiments, to arrange the experiences and know the possible modes of representation of them … demands a molding of the poor human ego, a transformation so great that I never should have believed it possible. Goethe Arthur Zajonc

19. Courses with Contemplation • Contemplative jazz performance and composition – a new major. University of Michigan • First-person epistemology. Contemplative introspection. Philosophy, liberal arts college • Eros and Insight: Knowing Contemplation – Amherst College • Holocaust and slavery literature. Contemplative engagement with the readings and places. Bryn Mar Arthur Zajonc

20. Research and Contemplation • Mind & Life: Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson – “Neurophenomenology” Full involvement of the subjects in the cognitive science research. Both fully trained contemplatives and naïve subjects (PNAS). • Goethean science practitioners: • The Nature Institute, Schumacher College • See Seamon and Zajonc, Goethe’s Way of Science (SUNY) Arthur Zajonc

21. Vocations, Not Jobs • Vocation and contemplative practice • What are the contemplative modalities suited to teacher, doctor, farmer, musician, parent,…? • Vocation and transformation • What change does our vocation ask of us? • Occasions for collective insight • Working with others as an opportunity for mutual awakening. Community Arthur Zajonc