Philosophy in the City

Beverley Clack, “Loss and the Struggle for Meaning”

Educational interventions designed to promote wellbeing have invariably sought strategies for maximising positive feelings and ameliorating negative ones. This strategy reflects a broader cultural narrative about what makes for the ‘successful’ life that ignores the common – perhaps universal – experience of loss and failure. This paper reflects on those experiences where what has previously given one’s life meaning is lost, and argues that rather than seeking strategies that turn our attention away from the misery that accompanies such experiences, it might be possible to allow them to form the basis for a new kind of engagement with self and world.

John Atherton, “Sex and the City: Insights from Wellbeing Studies for our Agenda”
Two recent events in the summer of 2011 in the UK lead into current wellbeing research: first riots of young people and connections to US research into 18-23 year olds, with few thinking morality rooted in anything outside personal experience (relationships, two of Layard’s Big Seven of Happiness); second, the banking crisis, with one banker declaring ‘ we are proud to make money, not be moral’ (two of Layard’s Big Seven).  Both raise questions of how to operationalise ethics in relationships and economics.  Insights from current wellbeing research may help, in areas of relationships (psychology) and economic/banking (economics):first: from Kahneman (psychologist and economic Nobel laureate) on formation of moral judgments,  as primarily intuitive and only then cognitive; and second, from positive psychology (Seligman) as flourishing (as eudaimonia),  with two areas of his work particularly relevant (a) for broader and more deployable definition of wellbeing and for interactive relationship of basic and applied research; (b) then: developing such applied research through schools, US army, and business.

David Lewin, “Wellbeing and Post/Transhumanism”

My paper discusses the post/trans-human idea of being ‘better than well’ and its relation to cognitive enhancements. In particular,  I will consider the idea of a theological (apophatic) anthropology and how post/trans humanism fails by over-determining its conception of human nature and our anticipated ability to overcome that nature. This is directly pedagogical because the anthropology within much pedagogy is often broadly consistent with the trans/post-human view, i.e. education is geared towards being smarter, largely in reference to a very narrow anthropology.

Chris Baker, ‘“Moral freighting” in religious communities in the UK – the missing link between religious practice, therapeutic pedagogy and wellbeing’

This paper seeks to ground some of the themes emerging from this colloquium within recent empirical research undertaken by the speaker for the Leverhulme Trust. It will do this with reference to a nuancing and fleshing out of Robert Putnam and Campbell’s concept of ‘moral freighting’ within American faith communities, whereby belonging to churches and other faith groups increases indicators of participation and neighbourliness relative to secular individuals and groups. The evidence of more sustained levels of civic engagement within this sector suggests that it is belonging to religious groups (more than the believing) that motivates a sense of neighbourliness and civil participation since religious friends ‘are more likely to raise moral issues, principles and obligations’ (American Grace 2010: 477). The paper thus addresses the possibilities of applying this thesis to the more diverse and pluralised UK context (Buddhist, Islamic and Christian faith communities will be explored) and notes the current context of UK public policy as contained within the new Localism Bill. It will also address some of the key philosophical ideas explored by the colloquium, including the relationship between the practice of virtues and emotional resilience and spiritual wellbeing in an age of austerity.