Dear Bradley, Tania, and colleagues:
Please remember the purpose of the TOK listserv. I believe we, as the Executive Board, need to do a better job of communicating that purpose & clarifying what we are trying to accomplish. In the meantime, I'd like to remind everyone that the TOK space is not the place to advocate for political movements, however important you may view the cause, and whether pro- or anti-establishment in nature. If that were the purpose, then I'm confident you'd see this list dominated by critiques and condemnations and perhaps petitions in response to the current U.S. administration's handling of the pandemic and a range of COVID-19 responses. I suspect most of us would agree that's extremely "low-hanging fruit." Whatever your position on the political spectrum, I'm merely reminding the listserv that this is not what we're here to do.
More generally, from a TOK perspective & if you look at Gregg's blog posted today, what we're trying to do is understand the dynamics of human reasoning and justification systems (among other things), including the importance of social influence and relational value in shaping our perspectives, within the broader context of a TOK/UTOK framework. That includes my own "bias" toward scientific research and explanation. I've tried to demonstrate how and why asking scientific questions leads down a very different path, and provides for a very different type of discussion: whether about COVID-19 (not many interested on this list, it would seem!), about consciousness (lots of activity!), the impact of AI, and many other interesting topics. See Gregg's earlier email today, as well as the blog from yesterday on 8 ideas. Respectfully, though, let's focus on these sorts of issues with open hearts and minds so that we can genuinely learn, and learn deeply, about metamodern sensibilities, the Enlightenment 2.0, and the types of knowledge we want to develop & share to build and thrive "in the garden" together. Respectfully, -Joe
Dr. Joseph H. Michalski
Professor
King’s University College at Western University
266 Epworth Avenue, DL-201
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 2M3
Tel: (519) 433-3491
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eiπ + 1 = 0
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