Veena Das

WORKSHOP on Capturing the Ineffable: wisdom in perspective

Keynote Address

Friday, March 20, 4:30-5:30pm, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium 125

to be followed by a reception from 5:30-6:15pm

Veena Das

Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University

The limits of the human: knowledge, wisdom, acknowledgement

Abstract:

The  sheer  magnitude  of  violence,  atrocity,  and  horror  that  has  now  become  part  of  our  experience  of  life  puts  traditional  ethical  concepts  of  self-making  (including  our  responsibility  to others)  into  jeopardy.  In  this  keynote  on  the  theme  of  “Capturing  the  Ineffable:   Wisdom  in  Anthropological  Perspective”  that  I  am  honored to offer, I ask, how one might  think  of the  lower  and  upper  limits  of  the  human? In   what   way   are   our   own   concepts   de-ranged   by   the   experience  of  violence  and  injustice  so  that  thought  becomes  disengaged  with  the  experience  of  living?  How  might  we  then  see  the  subtle  differences  between  knowledge, wisdom, and acknowledgement;  and  under  what  conditions might  we  be  led  to  lose  our traditional concepts  to  make  room  for  a  different  kind  of  attunement  to  life?  Do  the  dynamics of  descent  and  ascent  provide  a  way  to think  of  the  human  not  as  an  abstract,  universal category, or the foundation on which difference  and similarity are built but as a notion that is arrived at in the context of the difficulty of reality and philosophy?

For additional information, please go HERE.