Seeing Ourselves
1. Rescuing the Self from Science
Raymond Tallis
conducts Inner Circle Seminar No. 250
introduced by Anthony Stadlen
Sunday 2 June 2019
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Raymond Tallis
conducts Inner Circle Seminar No. 250
introduced by Anthony Stadlen
Sunday 2 June 2019
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 |
| Raymond Tallis |
Raymond Tallis is one of our best-loved invited speakers. Today he conducts his sixth Inner Circle Seminar (his first was on 2 December 2012). It is the first seminar of a pair with the joint title Seeing Ourselves. Today’s seminar has the subtitle Rescuing the Self from Science, and the second one will be on 6 December 2020, with the subtitle Rescuing the Self from God and Science.
Tallis has shown in five profound Inner Circle Seminars that he is one of the world’s leading demystifiers of what he calls the ‘neuroscience delusion’ (‘neuromania’) and the ‘intellectual plague of biologism’ (‘animalism’). His ruthless, good-humoured exposure of reductive natural-scientism continues the tradition of Heidegger and Szasz, for example, but is utterly his own. Psychotherapists are free to choose to go on pretending to be ‘validated’ by ‘neuroscience’; but their work, such as it is, sometimes radically transforming and helpful, sometimes best passed over in silence, speaks for or against itself as the case may be, and no pseudo-scientific ‘validation’ can disguise this.
Raymond Tallis is one of the select few who affirms and advocates the devoted use of devotedly human language to depict and describe the human world and human relationships.
In his book Logos Professor Tallis exposes the absurdity of the argument that evolutionary biology or neuroscience show that our thinking is merely a function of our bodies-as-objects-for-science and therefore can have no truth-value of its own unless it is in some way itself derived from evolutionary biology or neuroscience, which are taken to be ‘objectively true’. But those sciences are themselves human creations, and therefore, by this argument, not ‘objectively true’. Professor Tallis remarks that those who use this argument are worthy successors of the Cretan of old who said all Cretans were liars.
In today’s seminar he focusses on the so-called problem of ‘the self’ .
Raymond Tallis writes about today’s seminar:
‘Many, perhaps most, contemporary philosophers and psychologists are suspicious of the idea of the self, dismissing it as either a hangover from the soul discussed by theologians or from discredited Cartesian thought. The seminar will address these concerns. It will then develop a notion of the self and of personal identity. While this will encompass memory – particularly autonoetic memory – and enduring psychological faculties and traits, the role of self-affirmation will be emphasized. The account of the self will also emphasize the irreducibly interpersonal dimension of the self: how selves and worlds are mutually constructed. The conclusion may be summarised in a sentence: ‘The self is not a thing, but it is not nothing, either.’
For an account of how Raymond Tallis writes his extraordinary books, see his article ‘My writing day: In my favourite pub, the staff turn down the speaker in my writing corner’, in The Guardian Review of 29 April 2017:
Tallis has shown in five profound Inner Circle Seminars that he is one of the world’s leading demystifiers of what he calls the ‘neuroscience delusion’ (‘neuromania’) and the ‘intellectual plague of biologism’ (‘animalism’). His ruthless, good-humoured exposure of reductive natural-scientism continues the tradition of Heidegger and Szasz, for example, but is utterly his own. Psychotherapists are free to choose to go on pretending to be ‘validated’ by ‘neuroscience’; but their work, such as it is, sometimes radically transforming and helpful, sometimes best passed over in silence, speaks for or against itself as the case may be, and no pseudo-scientific ‘validation’ can disguise this.
Raymond Tallis is one of the select few who affirms and advocates the devoted use of devotedly human language to depict and describe the human world and human relationships.
In his book Logos Professor Tallis exposes the absurdity of the argument that evolutionary biology or neuroscience show that our thinking is merely a function of our bodies-as-objects-for-science and therefore can have no truth-value of its own unless it is in some way itself derived from evolutionary biology or neuroscience, which are taken to be ‘objectively true’. But those sciences are themselves human creations, and therefore, by this argument, not ‘objectively true’. Professor Tallis remarks that those who use this argument are worthy successors of the Cretan of old who said all Cretans were liars.
In today’s seminar he focusses on the so-called problem of ‘the self’ .
Raymond Tallis writes about today’s seminar:
‘Many, perhaps most, contemporary philosophers and psychologists are suspicious of the idea of the self, dismissing it as either a hangover from the soul discussed by theologians or from discredited Cartesian thought. The seminar will address these concerns. It will then develop a notion of the self and of personal identity. While this will encompass memory – particularly autonoetic memory – and enduring psychological faculties and traits, the role of self-affirmation will be emphasized. The account of the self will also emphasize the irreducibly interpersonal dimension of the self: how selves and worlds are mutually constructed. The conclusion may be summarised in a sentence: ‘The self is not a thing, but it is not nothing, either.’
For an account of how Raymond Tallis writes his extraordinary books, see his article ‘My writing day: In my favourite pub, the staff turn down the speaker in my writing corner’, in The Guardian Review of 29 April 2017:
Raymond Tallis was a Professor of Geriatric Medicine and consultant physician in Health Care of the Elderly. He has published two hundred research articles in the neurology of old age and neurological rehabilitation, as well as a novel, short stories, three volumes of poetry, and thirty books on philosophy of mind, philosophical anthropology, literary theory, the nature of art, and cultural criticism. He has received many awards and honorary degrees. In 2009, the Economist listed him as one of the world’s twenty leading polymaths.
Nicholas Fearn wrote in The Independent:
‘When Kirsty Young was asked to name her favourite guest on Desert Island Discs, the rock star Paul Weller was beaten into second place, for her own luxury item would be the writer Raymond Tallis.’
Raymond Tallis, whose sixth Inner Circle Seminar this will be, kindly confirms that our seminar structure, in which dialogue is of the essence, enables him to communicate and reflect on his ideas. He wrote, after his first Inner Circle Seminar, The Intellectual Plague of Biologism, on 2 December 2012:
‘The seminar was for me an incredible experience. I have never previously had the opportunity to discuss the topics we covered in such depth with a group of people who came at it from such different angles but in a way that I found illuminating. I learned a lot. It was a tremendous privilege.
Venue: Durrants Hotel,
Cost: Psychotherapy trainees £132, others £165, some bursaries; coffee, tea, Durrants rock, mineral water included; payable in advance; no refunds or transfers unless seminar cancelled
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue , London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com
For further information on seminars, visit: http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
The Inner Circle Seminars were
founded by Anthony Stadlen in 1996 as an ethical, existential, phenomenological
search for truth in psychotherapy. They have been kindly described by Thomas
Szasz as ‘Institute for Advanced Studies in the Moral Foundations of Human
Decency and Helpfulness’. But they are independent of all institutes, schools,
and universities.
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