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DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20241013T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20241013T130000
DTSTAMP:20260415T054913
CREATED:20240720T021923Z
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SUMMARY:Philosophy Walk: Re-Indigenizing Public Lands (Registration Full)
DESCRIPTION:What We’ll Explore\nIn this walk led by Dr. Shane Doyle (Apsáalooke nation) we’ll reflect on the significance of public lands as both the nexus point & the dividing line between ancient ways of life and the post-colonial world.  Some of the questions we’ll consider include together: \n\nPublic lands belong to everyone\, and no one; how do we most appropriately honor those lands in perpetuity? And what variables should be considered when thinking about how best to protect (all or parts of) those landscapes?\nDid wilderness exist before white people came to Montana\, and if it didn’t\, how would we know?\nHow do Tribal oral traditions inform our understanding of wilderness from an Indigenous perspective?\n\n\n  \nWhen\nSunday\, October 13th from 10am-1pm \nWhere\nTen Mile Creek Park (1505 Williams St.\, Helena MT 59602) \n~ As you are head west out of Helena\, turn right (North) onto Williams Street and follow it around until you see the fenced parking area on the east side of the road. ~ \nRSVP\nOur walk is at max capacity. If you’d like to be placed on a waiting list please e-mail us at marisa@merlinccc.org & we will contact you if someone cancels to see if you’d like to join us. \nCost\nFREE (Donations appreciated) \nOther\nWear weather appropriate attire & comfortable shoes \n\n  \nWalk Leader\n \nShane Doyle\, Ed.D (Independent Educational & Cultural Consultant\, Native Nexus Consulting) is a Crow tribal member who grew up in Crow Agency\, and currently resides in Bozeman\, MT.  A singer of Northern Plains tribal style of music for 30 years\, Shane also holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction\, and completed a post-doctoral appointment in genetics with the University of Copenhagen\, Denmark\, in 2016.  With 20 years of teaching experience\, Shane is a full-time educational and cultural consultant\, designing American Indian curriculum for many organizations\, including Montana public schools\, the National Park Service\, and the Museum of the Rockies.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Bozeman-based Extreme History Project\, Hopa Mountain\, and the Archaeological Conservancy\, as well as serving on the Montana Arts Council culture and aesthetics committee and the Governors Parks in Focus Committee.  Shane was a founding member of the Montana Wilderness Association’s Hold Our Ground Campaign in 2017\, and speaks throughout the region on the topics of northern Plains Tribal culture and the importance of public lands in Montana.  He was instrumental in the repatriation of the Anzick Clovis Child\, and worked as a consultant and actor for the History Channel’s “Lost Treasure of the Little Bighorn Battle.” \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 
URL:https://merlinccc.org/calendar-event/philosophy-walk-reindigenizing-public-lands/
LOCATION:Ten Mile Creek Park\, 1505 Williams St.\, Helena\, MT\, 59602
CATEGORIES:Philosophy Walks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://merlinccc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Re-Indigenizing-Public-Lands.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Marisa Diaz-Waian":MAILTO:marisa@merlinccc.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20241016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20241016T203000
DTSTAMP:20260415T054913
CREATED:20240720T023916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T235002Z
UID:10000107-1729105200-1729110600@merlinccc.org
SUMMARY:Reading & Discussion Series: Jewish Environmental Wisdom
DESCRIPTION:What We’ll Explore\nThis reading series will be guided by the following central question: What wisdom might Jewish traditions offer for our current environmental crises? Philosophy\, as the love of wisdom\, should be open to wisdom wherever it embeds itself. The Tanakh\, the textual source of Judaism\, arose from within a largely agrarian society with deep connections to particular lands and places. It seems reasonable\, then\, to start with the assumption that the traditions of thought and practice that have grown out of the Hebrew Bible (and inspired it!) might offer environmental wisdom for our pressing times.  \nThe French and Jewish philosopher\, Emmanuel Levinas\, had something similar in mind for his own philosophical project\, which has been described as an attempt to translate Hebrew into Greek—that is\, to express a Hebraic way of thinking within a Greek\, or philosophic\, context. Following in Levinas’s tracks here\, we will also consider larger\, contextualizing questions about the possibility of “translating” non-philosophical ideas into philosophical terms.  \nTogether\, over 4 every-other-Wednesday sessions\, we will closely read and discuss the contemporary import of essays from a variety of Jewish authors including Abraham Joshua Heschel\, Jacob Howland\, Daniel Delgado\, James Hatley\, and others.  Sessions will be discussion-based\, facilitated by Kaleb Cohen and Mitchell Conway\, with one additional guest facilitator joining along the way. \nWhile each session will be self-contained (such that you can attend a stand-alone session and still benefit)\, participating in as many sessions as possible will allow more time to make and experience larger connections between readings\, ideas\, and questions explored. \nFREE & open to the public. Donations appreciated. \nWhen\nEvery Other Wednesday \nSeptember 18th - October 30th\, 2024 \n7pm - 8:30pm\n\nWhere\nReeder's Alley Conference Center (101 Reeder's Alley)\n\nRSVP\nSign up here! (Seats limited)\n\nOther\nReadings will be e-mailed upon sign-up\n\nCost\nFREE (Donations Appreciated)\nSession Readings & Focus Questions\n\n9/18 — Judaism\, Philosophy\, and Translation \n\nReadings:  Jacob Howland\, “Plato and the Talmud”\nCore questions:  How might Hebraic ideas inform philosophy? Are they philosophical or solely religious ideas? Can those ideas have any meaning outside of their cultural context?\n\n10/2 — Between Home and Exile  \n\nReadings:  Daniel Delgado\, “You are but Tenants and Settlers” (supplemental/optional: Susannah Heschel\, “An Exile of the Soul”)\nCore question:  What role might the Jewish notion of exile hold for an environmental ethic?\n\n10/16 — Jewishness and Montana: Bison and the Soul (with guest scholar James Hatley) \n\nReadings:  James Hatley\, “Living with Ghosts”\nCore question:  In Montana\, how ought we respond to a history of violence against buffalo and Indigenous peoples and what could Jewish traditions teach us about these responses?\n\n10/30 — Shabbat and Sh’mitah: Rest\, Release\, and the Land \n\nReadings:  Abraham Joshua Heschel\, “Architecture of Time” and Nigel Savage\, “Resetting the Planet through Sh’mitah”\nCore Question:  What is the meaning of rest in an age of industrialization and unrelenting resource extraction?\n\n\n\nSeries Facilitators\n \nKaleb Cohen’s work sits at the intersection of philosophy\, environmental studies\, and critical theory. He has presented and published papers on various topics\, including the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas\, settler colonialism and environmental responsibility\, and the importance of oral traditions. He holds an MA in Environmental Philosophy from the University of Montana. His graduate work culminated in developing a distinctly Jewish and anti-colonial relationship with land. He also has a background in farming\, gardening\, ecological restoration\, and conservation. Kaleb lives in Missoula\, where he teaches for the Wild Rockies Field Institute\, makes bread\, and hibernates during the winter. \n\n  \n \nMitchell Conway is a Community Philosopher at Merlin CCC\, an adjunct philosophy instructor at Carroll College\, and serves on the Academic Advisory Board & Questions? Journal for The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization. A student of philosophy\, a theater maker\, and a teacher who cares ardently about empowering young learners\, his work has often been an interweaving of education\, story\, and inquiry.  He also relishes walking in the forest.  Mitchell has a Bachelor’s degree in Theater from Skidmore College and a Master’s degree in Philosophy & Education from Teachers College\, Columbia University. \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 
URL:https://merlinccc.org/calendar-event/reading-discussion-series-jewish/2024-10-16/
LOCATION:Reeder’s Alley Conference Center\, 101 Reeder's Alley\, Helena\, MT\, 59601\, United States
CATEGORIES:Workshops & Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://merlinccc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Reading-Discussion-Series-Jewish-Environmental-Wisdom.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Marisa Diaz-Waian":MAILTO:marisa@merlinccc.org
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Denver:20241017T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/Denver:20241017T200000
DTSTAMP:20260415T054913
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
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