The Joy of Embodiment
18th April, 2021
15:00 – 16:30 BST
This event is the third in a series of seminars under the general title, Unity in Diversity.
Led by Andreas Weber
Seminar Description
In our daily perception of our environment, we tend to see ourselves as animated, while moving through a world of things which are made of mere matter. For some, higher animals also belong to the animated category. For others, plants do as well. But matter? Is it not just stuff? Or can it be said to be experiencing as well in some way? In my talk I want to argue that this is far from a merely philosophical question. Indeed, we have the key to it in our hands, as in our embodied existences we are at the same time matter (our physical body) and we have an experiencing standpoint. We hence can say something about the joys (and sorrows) of being matter. Discussing this I will try to sketch a picture of perception not as representation of things, but as co-creation in a “poetic space”.
These sessions are supported and sponsored by The Beshara Trust.
Speaker
Andreas Weber is a Berlin-based philosopher, biologist and writer. He teaches philosophy at the University of Fine Arts, Berlin and holds visiting professorships at the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. His books include ‘The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling, and the Metamorphosis of Science’ (2016), and ‘Matter and Desire: An erotic ecology’ (2017). In an interview in Beshara Magazine, he argues for a radical non-dualistic understanding of nature, at the heart of which lies the desire of all living things – from the simplest cell to the human being – to connect with each other in a process of mutual transformation.
Andreas also delivered the 2019 Beshara Lecture: Ecosystems as Love Processes
Booking
Cost: FREE via Zoom
Registration is via Eventbrite
