Get ready for a week-long philosophy festival in celebration of World Philosophy Day

From Tuesday, November 19 to Saturday, November 23, 2024, Being and Becoming, with support from Public Philosophy Network, celebrates World Philosophy Day with a week-long philosophy festival at various locations around Toronto.

Programming includes workshops on different methods of inquiry and dialogue, and the festival’s closing social event features interactive programming centred on collaborative exploration and curiosity.

Can’t get enough of philosophy?

World Philosophy Day (November 21) was proclaimed an international day by UNESCO in 2005. Philosophy is an inspiring discipline, as well as an everyday practice that can transform societies. By enabling people to discover the diversity of the intellectual currents in the world, philosophy stimulates intercultural dialogue. By awakening minds to the exercise of thinking and the reasoned confrontation of opinions, philosophy helps to build a more tolerant, more respectful society. It thus helps to understand and respond to major contemporary challenges by creating the intellectual conditions for change.

So why are they doing this, exactly?

We live in a time of rapid technological and informational change. We can access knowledge at the push of a button, hold conversations with AI, and browse social media feeds curated by algorithms to show us the exact right content at the exact right time. What has not changed is how we collectively search for truth and understanding — namely, sharing, discussing and debating ideas with other people. As far as we can tell, conversation, as a method of exploration, is not going anywhere. At least for a while.

”Dialogue is a powerful tool for understanding the world. When we engage in dialogue, our interlocutors can offer us important clarifications, objections, or simply different perspectives that can expand or enrich our own. Indeed, we believe that through conversation with others, we can live more intentional, connected and meaningful lives.”

– Being and Becoming

At the same time, there are many ways in which productive dialogue can be subverted. We can fail to take another person’s perspective. We can neglect to ask enough questions about why someone holds a given belief. Moreover, we have a host of cognitive biases that, whether we like it or not, make us less likely to seek out or give a fair hearing to views that do not align with our own.

But collaborative dialogue remains indispensable. Luckily for us, philosophers have developed methods to facilitate conversations that help us better understand others and the world around us, while avoiding the pitfalls of bad dialogue.

Throughout the festival week (November 19th-23rd), evening workshops on different methods of inquiry and dialogue will be on offer. The final evening of the festival, on Saturday, November 23rd, will be the festival’s closing social with interactive programming centered on collaborative exploration and curiosity.

 

About Being and Becoming

Being and Becoming: A Community for the Curious is a Toronto-based non-profit. They aim to create community around the philosophical exploration of ideas, questions, and experiences so that we may live more intentional, connected, and meaningful lives. They use philosophy as a tool with which we can come to a richer understanding of the world around us.

About Public Philosophy Network

Public Philosophy Network promotes philosophy that engages issues of public concern, and works collaboratively with civic and professional communities. They support philosophers who use their concepts and skills to serve communities outside of academia and who aim to make positive changes in society, plus they reflect on how philosophy is transformed by various types of public engagement.

(Photo credits: Being and Becoming.)

 

Event details

Hosted by: Being and Becoming, with support from Public Philosophy Network 

Type of event: philosophy workshops

Program dates & times: The festival runs from Tuesday, November 19 – Saturday, November 23, 2024. Featured speakers/facilitators and workshops are as follows:

• Tuesday, November 19 (7:30 – 9:00 PM ET, online event via Zoom): On Philosophical Disagreement with Ellie and David from the podcast Overthink: Podcast co-hosts Ellie Anderson and David M. Peña-Guzmán explore various approaches to disagreement in philosophical discourse.
• Wednesday, November 20 (7:00 – 9:00 PM ET, Madison Avenue Pub – location TBC): Chris Mastropietro and Taylor Barratt on Virtuosity: What is the meaning of virtue? This session will explore virtue through the practice of “dialogos”.
• Thursday, November 21 (7:00 – 9:00 PM ET, at Alternity – Community Hub): David Suarez on the Phenomenological Method: This workshop will introduce the method by way of a guided tour through a few examples illustrating how phenomenologists study experience.
• Friday, November 22 (7:00 – 9:00 PM ET, at OISE, room 5150): William Paris on the Meaning of Race/Culture: We often speak of race and culture being real, but what are they really? Is race an artifact of social construction or a biological reality? This event will be held in collaboration with UofT’s Philosophers for Humanity. Philosophers for Humanity is an organization that aims to combine theory with practice to effect philanthropic change through a philosophical lens.
• Saturday, November 23 (7:00 – 10:00 PM ET, at Cecil Community Centre): Closing Ceremony with Food, Drink, and Activities: Join Being and Becoming for a social and closing workshop to celebrate Being and Becoming’s anniversary and World Philosophy Day! This event includes refreshments, drinks & a workshop on Philosophical Exploration with Others.

Cost: Zoom event: free / In-person workshops: C$18.00 / Final event: C$35.00

Locations: Various locations around Toronto. Please see the program dates & times above for specific event locations.

• Online event: A Zoom link will be sent out to all registered attendees one week before the seminar, so keep an eye on your inbox as the date approaches.
• Madison Avenue Pub (to be confirmed), 14 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5R 2S1
• Alternity – Community Hub, 333 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 1W7
• OISE Building, room 5150, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V6
• Cecil Community Centre, 58 Cecil Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 1N6, Canada

Booking link: Book your tickets here by clicking on the individual events you want to attend.

Contact details: Being and Becoming, info@beingnbecoming.org, beingnbecoming.org

 

Content warnings: This is an all ages event.

Accessibility: Please refer to the registration link above for accessibility info for each individual event.

Refund policy: For workshops, they’ll provide refunds five days prior to the event; however, no refunds will be available for the final day due to upfront cost.