Thinking for
someone else
What happens when one thinks for
someone else?
We continuously do so and we
cannot just stop it, but perhaps there is more to it
than we think. When we, consciously or not, pour out
our ideas and well-meant plans over other people,
these may get hurt because of that. And if we note
that, it’s confusing. Indeed, we have the best
intentions, don’t we?
The philosopher Levinas talks extensively about this
sobering experience. He considers it to be a source of
reflection and of mental growth. If the confrontation
with someone else’s grief about our actions triggers
the question ‘What am I doing?’ or ‘Do I go too far?’,
then we may be on the track of one of our blind spots
or illusions, Levinas says.
The workshop investigates the
question when our thinking blinds us, and which
confrontations help us to become conscious of that
blinding. Proceeding along that path Naud van der Ven
shows how Levinas’s thought can be translated to daily
life.
See for a possible reaction to the workshop Something
small.
Time: one-and-a-half
to three hours
Number
of participants: three to seven
Costs:
€ 150,- per person
Literature (forthcoming): Naud
van der Ven, The Shame
of Reason in Organizational Change - A Levinasian
Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer,
2010.
|