As Milton said, "The mind is its own place and of itself it can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven". But how then does the mind make itself? Scientists, poets, and philosophers have long grappled with the apparent paradox of the mind making sense of itself. Even more paradoxical, perhaps, is thinking of the mind as its own creator. As modern science and thought make increasingly clear, the mind never works in a vacuum, but is inextricably linked to the body, the emotions, and the world around it.
The second annual Utah Symposium in Science and Literature will bring together three distinguished speakers, neurologist Antonio Damasio, poet Jorie Graham, and philosopher Thomas Metzinger, as well as other specialists in literature, neurology, philosophy, computer science, history, psychology, and related disciplines, to talk about these mysteries with each other and interested members of the public.
"Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves."
What?
The contemporary study of human neurology is a profoundly interdisciplinary endeavor, providing an intersection for the consideration of biology, reason, cognition, emotion, and language. The 2003 symposium will examine the human mind itself, including the question of what selfhood is and of what, or from what processes, it might be made. We will bring three foremost experts, neurologist Antonio Damasio, poet Jorie Graham, and philosopher Thomas Metzinger, to discuss their examinations of the human brain from their individual perspectives and to imagine how these perspectives, and the processes through which they are created and expressed, cast light upon and influence one another. Among them, our three visitors have written over a dozen books, all in their different ways stretching the limits of our knowledge about the mind.
Who?
When first approached about a symposium that would bring him together with a major poet, someone who uses language to explore the emotionally and intellectually complex territory in which our interior lives come into contact with external reality, neurologist and bestselling author of Descarte's Error Antonio Damasio said, "Poets are precisely the people I want to talk with about my work." This is no surprise, considering the priority Damasio's work gives to emotion and feeling. Indeed, MacArthur-winning poet Jorie Graham imagines her poems as enacting the brain's responses to its complex environment, as enacting, in other words, the ongoing construction of consciousness and therefore of a selfhood in which emotion and reason are inextricable from one another. Consciousness as ongoing construction is also the field of inquiry pursued by Thomas Metzinger, Europe's foremost philosopher of mind, who considers the self not as an entity but as an ongoing phenomenological process, "a transparent self-model" that constantly emerges out of the interaction of the mind with objective reality. These three thinkers do not consider their work to be separate or competing endeavors. Rather, all three work to imagine how our brains, and therefore our very identities, are illuminated by examining them from various points of view.
What's In It For You?
In addition to fostering collaboration and discussion among scholars and students of various disciplines, the main goal of the symposium is to open this conversation to the general public—people who have thought long and hard about these issues, people who are curious, and people who are just beginning to consider questions of selfhood as it relates to human biology, to emotion, to language, and to cognition. All who attend will be invited to be full participants in the conversation through panel discussions, question-and-answer periods, and hands-on demonstrations. By Saturday morning, we should all have a more richly inflected response to the question, Is it me, or is it just my brain?
When?
The Symposium will begin on the evening of October 9 and wrap up midday on October 11. The main events of the symposium will include keynote lectures and readings on Thursday and Friday evenings and on Saturday morning, and, all day Friday, a rich offering of panel presentations, discussions, and hands-on demonstrations.
What Else?
To broaden the discussion beyond the University of Utah campus, the King's English Bookshop will help to assist and arrange book groups for community members who would like to read and discuss books by symposium participants. And participants will be interviewed by local, regional, and national writers and media hosts. For these and other events, keep your eyes on this space.
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