Information and
Decision Support Center (IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet
Friends of Environment
and Development Association (FEDA)
Fundación
Cultura de Paz
Universe Awareness
(UNAWE)
United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
The Third Advanced International
Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind (BtSM2009) follows
in the footsteps of two prior colloquia on the same issue, all
of them under the patronage and with the support of UNESCO, namely
BtSM2007, held in Vancouver,
Canada, in May 2007, and BtSM2005,
held in The Hague, The Netherlands, in May 2005. This third colloquium
is deliberately being planned to take place in Egypt so as to
favor participation from the Mediterranean Basin, Africa and
the Middle East, while continuing the practice of the past colloquia
to discuss issues regarding the scientific mind in a global perspective.
In other words, participation from all parts of the world will
be encouraged and we hope to see many familiar faces from the
past colloquia as well as many new ones. Check the above links
to find out more about the past colloquia to have an idea of
what to expect in 2009.
Click on the forms and documents
below to register for the colloquium; to submit a proposal
for a session or activity(deadline April 1, 2007); and
to obtain information about payment of the conference
fee. If you use the MS Word versions of the forms, right-click
on the relevant form and use the 'save target as' option to place
it on your hard drive. Then open it, fill out the various details,
save it and email the completed form to [email protected]. For
any queries, or to request that we send you the forms by email,
please also contact [email protected].
BtSM2009 consists of a series of national one-day
meetings with key stakeholders in Egypt in addition to the international
colloquium that takes place from 10 to 14 May 2009. Both the
national meetings and the international colloquium take place
with the support of the Information and Decision Support Center
(IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet. The series of national meetings
was inaugurated on 26 November 2008 at IDSC with a lecture by
Jan Visser, President of the Learning Development Institute,
on The
Scientific Mind: An integral Concern in the Development of Human
Learning for the 21st Century. Clicking on the link
gives you access to the slides used during the lecture. If you
wish to listen to the lecture, click here
to get access to the audio
file (the lecture itself begins at 6'11" from the
start of the recording, it lasts 44 minutes, is preceded by introductory
remarks and is followed by discussion).
BtSM2009
takes place in the framework of the (IYA). Through the sub-theme defined for
the colloquium--In Seach of a Home in the Universe--we
pay special attention to the universe as a source of inspiration
for a mind that searches to understand itself and its place in
the universe. The year 2009 also marks the 200th birthday of
Charles Darwin as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication
of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This provides inspiration
beyond the concept of the universe in its traditional
sense. We, humans, are not only observers of the universe, we
are also an integral part of it. The search for our home in the
universe is thus not unrelated to questions about our own emergence,
our evolution and possible futures. It is expected that the above
thematic emphases will set the stage for a most interesting and
valuable conversation. The previous colloquia attracted the participation
of researchers, thinkers, students, practitioners, and policy
makers at the highest level, including Nobel laureates Leon Lederman
and Carl Wieman in addition to philosopher/sociologist Edgar
Morin, cognitive neuroscientist Kalina Christoff and former UNESCO
Director-General Federico Mayor. We expect the current colloquium
to be equally attractive to generate participation from among
leading thinkers. Connections with the work of neuroscientist
Vilayanur Ramachandran, biochemist Christian de Duve (1974 Nobel
Laureate in Biology & Medicine), sociologist of science Bruno
Latour, and historian David Christian, co-originator of 'Big
History' come to mind. Following are a few thoughts for further
clarification of the ideas behind BtSM2009. And don't forget
to also check out the Colloquium
Flyer.
The theme--In Search of a
Home in the Universe--should not be interpreted merely in
the narrow astronomical sense of the phrase but be taken more
generally. We have in mind a focus on the eternal quest of humans
to understand their place in the universe in a more inclusive
sense, inspired by the questions "Where do we come from?
What are we? Where are we going?" Those questions are the
theme of Paul Gauguin's contemplation of life and death in his
well-known 1887 painting inscribed with those same words in French:
"D'où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?"
Participants and
authors of papers, roundtables, panels and workshops will thus
be encouraged to think of the scientific mind as that dimension
of human intellectual behavior that thrives on disciplined inquiry
and the rigorous pursuit of knowledge but that at the same time
is fully conscious of its own limitations and of the need to
transcend disciplinary boundaries and rise above them. Christian
de Duve says in that regard, as he refers in his Vital dust:
Life as a cosmic imperative (Basic Books, New York, 1995)
to our inability to master much more than just one or at most
two disciplines: "Though no exception to such limitation,
I have ventured beyond the boundaries of my competence because
I feel that the attempt must be made if we are to understand
the universe and our place in it." Indeed, while adhering
to scientific rigor we should also continually challenge the
boundaries of our capacity to know if we are to continue to play
a role in the universe. Ultimately, "we are made of star
stuff," as Carl Sagan used to emphasize. We thus have a
profound connection to our evolutionary past, present and future,
giving us a sense of humility on the one hand and deep responsibility
on the other. Shepherding planet Earth and its ecology are definitely,
if not dominantly, among the things we want to promote in the
framework of BtSM. The premise of the colloquium is that doing
so requires the right mindset, the scientific mind being a dominant
dimension of it.
The universe and the scientific
mind: For you to discover and to explore.
traditional sense. We, humans, are not only observers of the universe, we are also an integral part of it. The search for our home in the universe is thus not unrelated to questions about our own emergence, our evolution and possible futures. It is expected that the above thematic emphases will set the stage for a most interesting and valuable conversation. The previous colloquia attracted the participation of researchers, thinkers, students, practitioners, and policy makers at the highest level, including Nobel laureates Leon Lederman and Carl Wieman in addition to philosopher/sociologist Edgar Morin, cognitive neuroscientist Kalina Christoff and former UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor. We expect the current colloquium to be equally attractive to generate participation from among leading thinkers. Connections with the work of neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, biochemist Christian de Duve (1974 Nobel Laureate in Biology & Medicine), sociologist of science Bruno Latour, and historian David Christian, co-originator of 'Big History' come to mind. Following are a few thoughts for further clarification of the ideas behind BtSM2009. And don't forget to also check out the Colloquium Flyer.
Participants and authors of papers, roundtables, panels and workshops will thus be encouraged to think of the scientific mind as that dimension of human intellectual behavior that thrives on disciplined inquiry and the rigorous pursuit of knowledge but that at the same time is fully conscious of its own limitations and of the need to transcend disciplinary boundaries and rise above them. Christian de Duve says in that regard, as he refers in his Vital dust: Life as a cosmic imperative (Basic Books, New York, 1995) to our inability to master much more than just one or at most two disciplines: "Though no exception to such limitation, I have ventured beyond the boundaries of my competence because I feel that the attempt must be made if we are to understand the universe and our place in it." Indeed, while adhering to scientific rigor we should also continually challenge the boundaries of our capacity to know if we are to continue to play a role in the universe. Ultimately, "we are made of star stuff," as Carl Sagan used to emphasize. We thus have a profound connection to our evolutionary past, present and future, giving us a sense of humility on the one hand and deep responsibility on the other. Shepherding planet Earth and its ecology are definitely, if not dominantly, among the things we want to promote in the framework of BtSM. The premise of the colloquium is that doing so requires the right mindset, the scientific mind being a dominant dimension of it.