UC EVENTS

The Culture and Creativity seminar series is run by the Centre for Cultural and Creative Research. It explores culture, creativity and the myriad connections between them.

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Culture and Creativity seminar series, s1 2023 - The Doubt Function

Speaker: Jan Lauwereyns (Kyushu University, Japan)

Date\Time: Monday 20 Feb 2022, 14:30-15:30

Location: Building 1 Level C Room 01C50, University of Canberra (above the Refectory, campus map: https://www.canberra.edu.au/maps). Online: https://zoom.us/j/99588852661

Abstract

“I think therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum). Everyone knows these words by Descartes. His Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences was based on exploring his personal experience with the faculty of doubt. Doubt drove the chaotic itinerancy of consciousness. We can rephrase it as “I doubt therefore I think therefore I am” (Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum). But is this a method, or a way of being? And what choice do we have in the matter? Perhaps it is a Deadly Serious Party sure to give us a hangover. Luckily, we have ichi-go ichi-e, the once-in-a-lifetime encounter, and “Dunno” in Japanese sounds like Poetic Rebellion or Death Orchid – an unexpected gift, a thing of beauty, that is, a joy forever. So, let’s explore that doubt function.

Bio

Jan Lauwereyns (b. 1969, Antwerp, Belgium) is a writer and scientist. In 1998 he obtained a PhD at the University of Leuven with a thesis on the control of attention. He conducted research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and at Victoria University of Wellington, before shifting to Japan in 2010. His work ranges from the experimental to the theoretical, in science as well as in literature, but always centers on the topic of doubt as an engine of consciousness. Lauwereyns currently serves as Senior Vice President at Kyushu University, where he teaches cognitive science and bioethics. He has published papers in journals such as Nature and Neuron, monographs such as Brain and the Gaze (The MIT Press), and more than twenty works of poetry and fiction in his native language Dutch. His awards include the VSB Poetry Prize and the Hugues C. Pernath Prize. https://www.janlauwereyns.com/

Supported by Kyushu University 

Culture and Creativity Seminar Series is hosted by the Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR), Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. To discover upcoming seminars, please follow us on facebook @uccccr, or instagram and twitter @uc_cccr. Alternatively, join our mailing list by emailing cccr@canberra.edu.au. 

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