CafeLitt 182: Rational Thinking

Thu 2 Sep 2010, 19:00, by Esmaeil Naderi, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)

Relieved from the non-secular metaphysics, the modern Man is struggling with a new kind of metaphysics which we may call it "metaphysics in the sense of Heidegger" or "secular metaphysics". In contrast to natural sciences in which the Man gave up the idea of being at the center of the universe, and got benefited from this incredibly, when it comes to "knowledge", he still implicitly assume a central role for himself. He assumes he has the responsibility, and morally obligated to discover underneath "truth" about the nature which later would serve him as an indicator that would direct him along the future that he is destined for. He also unconsciously assumes that nature is also responsible for him somehow. This seek of "certainty" instead of "hope", borrowing Rorty terms, is what we mentioned as "metaphysics in the sense of Heidegger".

It seems physcological prefers of the Man i.e. certainty over hope, stability over freedom, faith over skeptics opens the way for the growth of new kinds of metaphysics in his cultural affairs. Even some philosophical thoughts have not been immune from these hardly visible tensions and have satisfied these irrational demands by providing a sophisticated intellectual framework for rationalization of the mentioned desires and prefers; however, they kept the distance from non-secular metaphysics to have the prestige of being Modern or sometimes Postmodern.

In this presentation, we will emphasize that the Man is at the same touch with the nature as other beings. And his lingual abilities don't make any responsibility for none of the sides of Man-Nature; however it enables him to conceptualize his situation and solve his issues. In fact, he should give up any kind of metaphysical thoughts in favor of highly contextualized ones in order to have a better life. We will comprehensively explain this paradigm as a proper illustration of rational thinking. Finally, we will have a brief discussion on "philosophy" itself as a major cultural activity to see if still it can serve us toward our aims or it is destined to fade away from our cultural world.


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About us

CaféLitt is not a place; it is a gathering of minds. We are a group of mostly Persian young students, scholars and professionals who gather every Thursday evening around 19h00 to discuss various subjects and share different ideas, ranging vastly from history to science, from literature to fine arts. We started these gatherings on Jan 17th, 2006 with 5 people and have reached an average weekly audience of about 40 people. Each week, one of us takes the responsibility of presenting a topic for about an hour in a subject s/he is intimately familiar with or has an expertise in. Afterwards, the evening turns into a discussion forum and all members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask their question(s) and share their points of view.

Some new and exciting ideas were born out of CaféLitt sessions. We have started a series of monthly meetings called CaféCinema during which a movie is presented and discussed in some detail afterward. This year's program of CaféCinema revolves around the history of Iranian cinema. Some Cinema students hold these sessions (mainly conducted in English) on the last Sunday of each month.

Likewise, CaféLitt BookClub is an activity where people who like books decide to read a book each month and discuss it during a cozy Café session on the second Sunday of every month.

CaféTheatre is a series of semi-rehearsed sessions in which we select a play, divide the roles among different people and read the play from the text in front of an audience. Similar to other CaféLitt sessions, each CaféTheatre session will end with a discussion of that day's play.  

CaféScience and CaféPhilo are our plans for near future. The purpose of CaféScience is to provide a forum for the public discussion and understanding of all scientific findings and ideas, with an emphasis on new, interesting and publicly relevant topics. During CaféPhilo sessions, we will talk about philosophy, its history and all its related aspects.

CaféLitt is pen to all comments, suggestion and new ideas. CaféLitt provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning about culture, science and philosophy in a relaxed and friendly environment, and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with like-minded members of your community.

CafeLitt is a nonpartisan, nonreligious and nonpolitical entity.


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