Annual Philosophy Lecture 2024 The Democratic Brain: Body, Soul, and the Politics of Listening by Matt Qvortrup

Annual Philosophy Lecture 2024:  The Democratic Brain: Body, Soul, and the Politics of Listening | Professor Matt Qvortrup

Democracy is listening and learning; it is a system for gaining knowledge from others and for expanding the pool of practical wisdom for the ‘commonwealth’. Our brain is uniquely suited for this. But we are not fully using the unique powers we possess. Using the language of Plato, we succumb to thymos (blind rage) when we should be using nous (reason). Combining neuroscience and examples from the canon of Western philosophy (especially Plato and  Aristotle), the speaker will argue in the lecture that while we are hardwired to reason and learn from each other, we also have a darker side. This is Plato for fMRI scanners. The great philosophers always used the most up-to-date scientific knowledge to develop their ethical and metaphysical theories, drawing on state-of-the-art neuroscience and classical political philosophy. The lecture aims to show how we can re-engage…