BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Merlin CCC - ECPv6.15.15//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://merlinccc.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Merlin CCC
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Denver
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
TZNAME:MDT
DTSTART:20230312T090000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:MST
DTSTART:20231105T080000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
TZNAME:MDT
DTSTART:20240310T090000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:MST
DTSTART:20241103T080000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
TZNAME:MDT
DTSTART:20250309T090000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:MST
DTSTART:20251102T080000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20241017T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20241017T200000
DTSTAMP:20260414T162322
CREATED:20240925T154520Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241113T193126Z
UID:10000110-1729189800-1729195200@merlinccc.org
SUMMARY:How Did We Get Here?: Ghost in the Machine
DESCRIPTION:What We’ll Explore\nUntil roughly the 16th century\, nearly everyone in Western Europe — from common farmers and laborers\, to highly educated scholars and clerics — took for granted that they lived in a cosmos teeming with a wide range of spiritual beings: living yet discarnate powers who occupied various intermediate positions between God and human beings\, and who were a good and necessary part of the smooth operations of the world.  These beings were known as ghosts or spirits (terms which were interchangeable in this period: the English word ghost\, German geist\, and Latin spiritus were all used to translate one another)\, or by various more specific names for their different kinds.  In its broad outlines this was\, as anthropologist Marshall Sahlins notes\, a view Europeans shared with “most of humanity.”\nThen\, the story goes\, everything changed\, as the Scientific Revolution cast out all these intermediary spirits\, leaving a cosmos that resembles a collection of inanimate machines\, rather than an ecology teeming with living agents: a process which the pioneering sociologist Max Weber famously termed “the disenchantment of the world.”\n\nAnd yet.\n\nEven within Europe and its diaspora\, large numbers of people still believe in — and interact with — angels\, demons\, and other ghosts and spirits.  And this doesn’t have to be a “religious thing” — as indeed\, for most of European history\, it was not a religious thing.  Just consider the popularity of “ghost hunting\,” or how many of us name our automobiles\, and talk to them to encourage them in challenging conditions.  Maybe the Revolution was not quite so total as we’ve been told\, and some vestiges of these spirits live on amidst the mechanized cosmos: ghosts in the machine\, as it were.\n\nIn this evening’s program\, we’ll consider this process of disenchantment within its historical context\, and its consequences for ourselves and our modern Western worldview.  We’ll examine the older\, pre-Revolutionary world-picture\, which historian C.S. Lewis has famously termed “the discarded image\,” as it appears in history\, literature\, and the “natural philosophy” that would be supplanted by the modern physical sciences.  We’ll consider the context in which the intellectual battles of the Scientific Revolution were fought\, including the political and theological polemics of the Protestant Reformation and its aftermath\, as well as the craze for witch-burnings that swept Europe and the Americas during this period.  And we’ll observe some of the impacts of the disenchanted\, mechanistic worldview in the development of the new social sciences\, especially sociology and anthropology.\n\nFinally\, we’ll reflect on the consequences of the mechanistic worldview\, however fully or partially it has been adopted:  What has all of this done\, to the ways that we’re able to interact with the wider world and its inhabitants?  What has it done to our own self-understanding\, both as individuals and as societies?  And what does it mean\, that the ghosts in the machine seem to live on\, however awkwardly and uncomfortably\, in everyday life and discourse?\n\n \nWhen\nThursday\, October 17th from 6:30pm-8pm \n\nWhere\nReeder’s Alley Conference Center \n\nRSVP\nSign up here! \n\nCost\nFREE (Donations appreciated) \n\nOther\nHot tea & lights snacks provided.  BYOB. \n\n\n \nEvent Facilitator\n\n\nDavid Nowakowski is a philosopher and educator in the Helena area whose professional work is dedicated to helping people of all ages and backgrounds access\, understand\, and apply the traditions of ancient philosophy to their own lives.  David began studying ancient philosophies and classical languages in 2001 and has continued ever since.  A scholar of the philosophical traditions of the ancient Mediterranean (Greece\, Rome\, and North Africa) and of the Indian subcontinent\, reading Sanskrit\, Latin\, and classical Greek\, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 2014.  His work has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals\, including Philosophy East & West\, Asian Philosophy\, and the Journal of Indian Philosophy\, as well as in presentations to academic audiences at Harvard\, Columbia University\, the University of Toronto\, Yale-NUS College in Singapore\, and elsewhere.\n\nAfter half a decade teaching at liberal arts colleges in the northeast\, David chose to leave the academy in order to focus his energies on the transformative value of these ancient philosophical and spiritual traditions in his own life and practice\, and on building new systems of education and community learning that will make this rich heritage alive and available to others.\n\nA hermit by nature and by committed choice\, he balances contemplative solitude with his active work in teaching\, counseling\, and the healing arts.  David can be reached at david@merlinccc.org or via his personal website.\n\n \nMake a Donation Here\nOur philosophy activities are FREE to the community.  While donations are never expected\, they are always appreciated and help to keep programs like these going. Donations help to cover activity leader honorariums\, implementation\, and resource archiving\, and more!  If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution you can do so by clicking here.  For those facing more challenging financial circumstances\, we ask that you please try to “pay it forward” with acts of kindness for your neighbors and community. \n\n 
URL:https://merlinccc.org/calendar-event/how-here-ghost-machine/
LOCATION:Reeder’s Alley Conference Center\, 101 Reeder's Alley\, Helena\, MT\, 59601\, United States
CATEGORIES:How Did We Get Here?,Philosophy Shorts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://merlinccc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Merlin_Ghost-in-the-Machine_Witches.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Marisa Diaz-Waian":MAILTO:marisa@merlinccc.org
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR