Can you look at something without automatically categorizing or labeling it? Can you think without making a value judgment?
Much of our (Western) language is predicated on the assumption that reality can be split into opposites. You know them well: black and white, man and woman, right and wrong, true and false, up and down, us and them, beautiful and ugly, sacred and profane, etc. Every thing or concept with its very own (often ‘inferior’) opposite. But we know reality is significantly more complicated than that. So why don’t we have more common knowledge terms for the various shades of gray?
I’ll kick today off with a short presentation on various forms of logic, alternatives to black-and-white structures of thought. In passing, we’ll take a stick and poke around a bit in paradox, morality, and discrimination. By the end of it, if we have the time, I hope to have found out whether or not we can experience reality without thought – without language – and if not, if we can at least try to live without getting stuck in false opposites.
EXISTENTIAL TUESDAYS
Existential Tuesdays are small weekly* lunch discussions in the Nook of the TUD Library. Practice your critical thinking skills, learn to see the world from different perspectives, and hang out with your fellow deep thinkers in Delft.
Interested in other events in the Nook? Sign up for the newsletter to find out what else we’re planning.
* no sessions during exam weeks or study weeks
Explore SG’s and the TUD Library’s related events this quarter on the theme: Language x Power
The stories we tell construct our reality, shaping our minds and the way we see the world, ourselves, and each other. But who wrote these stories, and to what end? Are we telling ourselves tales to liberate or dominate, to hope or despair? Can we tell those stories differently? And if so, what would we change?
11 Feb 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: What is language? @ TUD Library, the Nook
18 Feb 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: What would life look like in a scientific dictatorship? @TUD Library, the Nook
25 Feb 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: How do you become wise? @ TUD Library, the Nook
27 Feb 12:45 | Writing Huddle: Body Language @ TUD Library, the Nook
27 Feb – 27 May | Exhibition ‘In the Beginning was the’ @ TUD Library Hall
27 Feb 16:00 | Exhibition Opening Reception
3 March 20:30u | SG’s Critical Mass: Kolonialisme en taal: wie claimt het verhaal? @ Theater de Veste (in Dutch)
4 March 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: What is our culture’s grand narrative? @ TUD Library, the Nook
11 March 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: A workshop in paradoxical logic @ TUD Library, the Nook
13 March 16:30-18:30 | Politics of the Unsaid | Negation x Writing Workshop @ TUD Library
18 March 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: How do you manipulate people with words? @ TUD Library, the Nook
20 March 19:00 | Documentary Film night | The Mindscape of Alan Moore | VOX Film Club @ TUD Library
29 March SG’s festival For Love of the World @ Theater de Veste
