First Principles and Second Sight
With Iain McGilchrist and Alistair McIntosh (*with sign up to event included*)
*With apologies, this is a slightly tweaked version of a post you may have already received from Perspectiva, where we neglected to share the sign-up link to the event in question. The link is now below and here.*
I am delighted to announce that Perspectiva’s final public event of the year will feature a conversation between Iain McGilchrist and Alastair McIntosh on Tuesday 19th December at 7pm UK (8pm CET / 2pm EST / 10am PST).
This event marks a continuation and resumption of our Attention as a Moral Act series exploring the ideas in The Matter with Things.
We have shared short versions of Iain and Alastair’s biographies below, but for many, these two much-admired figures are expert generalists and are often thought of as Scottish sages. It is exciting that this is the first time they will speak in person.
They have many points of shared interest and experience. They are both islanders, with Alastair hailing from Lewis, and Iain living on Skye. They are also both scientifically trained philosophers and have a keen appreciation for what science helpfully discloses, but they also recognize that the limits of science are not the limits of the world. They are both what might be called ‘first principles’ thinkers, interested in the deep roots of reality or metaphysics. It took me a while to understand exactly what the scope of metaphysics is, but I now think of it in terms of the co-arising of ontology (what exists), epistemology (what and how we know), axiology (what is of value), and cosmology (what is the overarching story of the universe).
There are some noteworthy differences between Iain and Alastair too. Iain’s background is as a literary academic, (neuro)psychiatrist, and scholarly writer, while Alastair has deep knowledge of our ecological predicament, stories to tell about pilgrimages and partnerships, and a rich history of activism and community building, particularly through land reform. This ‘same but different’ combination is often perfect for a generative conversation.
Speaking personally, I have learned a great deal from both of them, as I detailed on Iain here in The McGilchrist Maneouvre where I discuss what I see as the central pattern in Iain’s work; and here on Fishing in the Field of Truth which is simply the story of a memorable day when Alastair took me and my sons on a fishing trip and turned it into a spiritual experience.
“Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur....”
- Dr. Johnson (In The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. 1791)
There is no set agenda, but we anticipate the conversation will move from their shared interest in science and the sacred to the possibility of exploring the phenomenon known as ‘second sight’ or premonition, which is still widely believed to be a real human capacity in the island communities that Alastair and Iain are familiar with, as outlined in this Scotsman article from a few years ago.
Such possibilities of course have to be approached with scepticism and discernment, and yet not so much caution that it precludes opening up to larger realities that may be of value to us all. The depth of Alastair’s lived experience and Iain’s scholarship are such that it is possible to ‘go there’ without leaving one’s critical capacities behind.
The full quote by Dr. Johnson goes as follows:
“Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. Yet the Second Sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams.”
See you on Tuesday?
~Jonathan Rowson, Co-founder and CEO of Perspectiva
*This event is open to everyone and will be recorded and edited for future viewing. Perspectiva also has events that are offered exclusively to members of the Perspectiva community of inquiry. To ensure you don’t miss out, or simply to support our charity at Christmas, please consider an annual membership that will give you access to all our events and our mighty network. Thank you!
Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London, a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He now lives on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of North West Scotland, where he continues to write, and lectures worldwide.
He has published original research on neuroimaging in schizophrenia, the phenomenology of schizophrenia, and other topics, and contributed chapters to books on a wide range of subjects, as well as original articles in papers and journals. His books include Against Criticism (Faber), The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale UP), The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning; Why Are We So Unhappy? (Yale UP), and Ways of Attending (Routledge). His latest publication is the two-volume work, The Matter with Things which was published in November 2021 by Perspectiva Press.
Alastair McIntosh (Scotland) has been described by BBC TV as “one of the world’s leading environmental campaigners.” A pioneer of modern land reform in Scotland, he helped bring the Isle of Eigg into community ownership. On the Isle of Harris he negotiated withdrawal of the world’s biggest cement company (Lafarge) from a devastating “superquarry” plan. He then served, unpaid to avoid conflicts of interest, on the company’s Sustainability Stakeholders Panel for 10 years to help further corporate social and environmental responsibility.
Alastair guest lectures on nonviolence at military staff colleges including, for over two decades, on some of the UK Defence Academy's most senior courses. His books include Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power (Aurum), Spiritual Activism: Leadership as Service (Green Books), Poacher’s Pilgrimage: an Island Journey (Birlinn 2016, Cascade USA 2018) and Riders on the Storm (Birlinn 2020) which was long-listed for the Wainwright Prize in Global Conservation 2021. A Quaker with an interfaith outlook, focusing much of his work around spirituality, he lives in Glasgow with his wife, Véréne Nicolas. There he is a founding trustee of the GalGael Trust which works with with poverty, community and human potential, and an honorary professor in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow.