School of Thinking

Sessions will be held at CLEA (Krijgskundestraat / Rue de la Stratégie 33) on the following days (19:00-22:30):

• 25 November 2020;
  Introduction session I/20 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  • Welcome & Introduction
  • Identifying frameworks / methodologies of thinking?
  • Locating topics / Preparing Topic session II/20
    no preparation required
• 16 December 2020;
  Session II/20 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  • Welcome
  • Thinking session based on individual methodology of thinking on QII/20:
    How to (not) align personal goals/needs with group goals/needs   (introduction by Joeri Meij)
    A group or entity that can serve the goals of its members while still achieving organization-wide goals, is a group or entity that will be more productive. The opinion of the group is not always the opinion of the individual, there can be a conflict of interest/goals. Conflict? Resistance? Must we avoid or embrace?
    Q:  Defining parameters / definitions (goals, entity, group, alignment)
    Q: Are individual goals secondary to the group’s goals or vice versa.
    And what about decision making, on the boundary of individuality and groups. Can we provide gamechanging end-results in supporting the individual (animo).
    Use this issue as a catalyst for all other issues.  see workdoc
• 13 January 2021;
  Session I/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom UPDATE ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89224735911?pwd=U0w5RklQb0NEMExXcWRDRjA0cHVYZz09
  • PART 1: Welcome
  • PART 2: The expansion of human population and the demands of our rising human family place strenuous demands on our climate. We have changed our environment forever through human interference. Nevertheless, while some of these alterations may be disruptive, people still have the ability to change our failures and alter our environment for the better. How to deal with the power with which man intervenes in the world. Introduction by Geert (initial approach).
    Q: defining properties for “power”, “man”, “world”, “interference”, “environment”, … -> based on individual selected heuristics and frameworks of thinking
    Q: connect the definitions with Geert’s initial approach: We often see the tendency (in our group, or with certain individuals) to broaden the focus and put the questions we have in a bigger or larger perspective. That might be interesting and helpful, but often it leads us away from the question itself. Therefore, I propose that, in this part of the discussion we focus on the issue itself. (which is IMHO already big enough). I also think that a limited question or topic might make it easier to keep our chosen position or point of view, we discussed the previous times. I wrote a text that can be used as an introduction into veganism, from the point I see it. There are many different topics in it. Some obvious, other might be more surprising or intriguing. We can see which topics we can discuss during the meeting. Complete document: click here (introduction by Geert Vandamme) 
    
• 17 February 2021;
  Session II/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  • Part 1: Welcome
  • Part 2: In a way, we as students and teachers of SoT are thinkers in our era, and this era is deeply rooted in postmodernism. At some point in time during the SoT curriculum, I was quite frustrated of the over-relativism in thinking models and discussions. Introduction by Dirk Van Helder: How could post-postmodernism look like? Or how can we capture the beauty of postmodernism, by adding thinking frameworks for a better world society? Read more here
• 10 March 2021;
  Session III/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  In our ordinary experience, we are able to perceive the difference between experience originating in thought (T) and experience independent of thought (non thought – NT). In the absence of any sensuously perceivable thing (abstract thinking) the mind slips into a conditioned response based on memory and sustains the belief that thought originates independently of thought. The process becomes so intense that it gives the impression of reality and we come to believe that thought encompasses all that is possible and thinkable. Total thought is in fact a form of art that gives rise to new perceptions, like a poem, but we know that there is no ultimate poem. As thinkers, we should become aware of thought as a flux in progress prone to such hijacking by memories. Question: how to grow from a state such as children under the age of three unable to make the distinction between their inner world and reality (T), into disciplined thinkers able to steer their minds again and again on external objects of thought (NT)? This is not a discussion about biases, because discussing biases puts you in the T mode: you think that if you remember them, you avoid them. It is rather like when you are meditating and suddenly worry if you bought the tomatoes: how do you go back to emptiness? The question is: how can we focus on this distinction T/NT to achieve clearer and more productive thinking? – introduction by Luis Schoeberl. Read more here
• 31 March 2021;
  Session IV/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  
  Blaise Pascal once said: “one’s heart had reasons or motives one’s reason does not know”.
  Everyone has heard the instruction to “follow your heart.” In fact, our daily lives are peppered with sayings that gives the heart in a star role when it comes to decision making and emotions.Think about words like heartbroken and heartless, or the expression “taking something to heart.” In many situations; it seems difficult to always have a pure logical solution. We are often guided by feelings to make decisions. How can we explain this interconnection? Or even better, how can we reinforce this interconnection.
  We are used to being educated within the concept of the three “R’s” (writing, reading, and reasoning). Nowadays, students at schools are encouraged to learn the three “Rs” but also the three “C’s” (care, concern, and connection). The cognitive component could be responsible for the logical structure involved, for example, in any human behavior but its emotional/ intuitive component might be the energizer behind the focal behavior. But does our heart really shape our thoughts, memories and emotions? How does our heart affect our thinking, on a personal level but also from a global perspective? An introduction by Veerle Meurs.
• 28 April 2021;
  Session V/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom
  Evaluation of the previous year, discussion about the creation of a systemic method to understand how well the Fellows achieves its goals. You are kindly invited to help determine what works well and what could be improved. What information do we need to aid further development and what could/should be the impact of the Fellows on one’s life / one’s environment and on the society as a whole.  Introduction about Gys Godderis;
• 19 May 2021;
  Session VI/21 for SoT Fellows 19.00h – 22.30h – doors at 18.30h @ Zoom

  One way of understanding the world is to focus on how we engage with it (versus how it functions such as in physics, systems theory, etc.). Over the last months I’ve come to realize that – as a group, and as a consequence also as an individual – we (humans) are retracting from our physical environment. It occurs to me this process isn’t new: what we experience today are the current windings of an ongoing process. One might postulate this retraction is what defines us as a species – setting us apart from all the rest.

  I would like to explore with you whether you can discern this process in your own environment and would accept to some degree the postulated theorem. If so, I would suggest to (vaguely) structure the discussion along the lines below

  1. Can you please bring the examples that strike you most – positively or negatively.
  2. How does this relate to other humanity-defining concepts such as “consciousness”?
  3. Do you believe we should proactively engage in this effort of retraction, or is it a trap? Where do you think this is leading us?Introduction by Luc De Proost.
• 9 June 2021.

Wed 19:00 – 22:30; Session 1, Launch of the workflow