An Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Mind & Nature

the Mindfulness of Nature

The historical discussion concerning the relationship of mind and nature has often centered around the well-worn battle between reductive materialists and mind-body dualists. Typically the scientific consensus was set against philosophical arguments regarding science’s epistemic limits. These debates often made little progress, and one sometimes has the sense that the participants are talking past each other.

Today, however, a new aspect of the topic is emerging.  Across multiple scientific disciplines, there is a growing recognition of nature’s mindfulness - that is, of the prevalence of diverse kinds of minds within nature - as well a philosophical renaissance of more robust and expansive naturalisms. During this gathering, we intend to explore this generative intersection and the way it could help reconfigure our vision of mind and nature. 

• How widespread is mind or mentality in the natural world?
• Is there a diversity of kinds of mind, or kinds of mentality?
• Which aspects of the mental are open to scientific inquiry?
• Does the prevalence of minds in the natural world have any philosophical implications?

Seminar Facilitators :

Sarah Lane Ritchie & Tripp Fuller, from the University of Edinburgh, will be co-hosting this research gathering. It is part of a three-year project titled God & the Book of Nature supported by the John Tempelton Foundation.

So often scholars get stuck in disciplinary silos, over-determined by the inherited prejudices and unaware of potentially vibrant conversation partners in other disciplines. Our goal is to bring together multiple disciplines for a scientifically-rigorous, skeptically-persistent, experientially-informed, and spiritually-humble conversation.