Thu, Aug 15 at 7 p.m. | 90 minutes
In this Olio, we will explore the manifestations and possible reasons for the repulsion people feel for their suffering peers, and how that repulsion might be connected to the pressure for performance in a narcissistic “burnout society” we live in.
To the conventional “How are you?”, most people would automatically answer the emphatic “GREAT” we all know, and rarely question.
Why display such a positive attitude towards the people who inquire about our wellbeing, even when our life might be falling apart?
In this Olio, we will explore the manifestations and possible reasons for the repulsion people feel for their suffering peers, and how that repulsion might be connected to the pressure for performance in a narcissistic “burnout society” we live in.
We'll try to redefine what a more "authentic joy" could be and the benefits of a certain type of laziness, by discussing views we can find, for instance, in the essay "The Agony of Eros" by Byung-Chul Han, but also in several classical works of continental philosophy by Bertrand Russell, Pascal or Epicurus. Some quotes to ponder before our conversation:
Russell - “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”
After studying in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris, Jeanne Proust has been teaching Philosophy, Art History and French Literature for the last 10 years in the US. her research has focused on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives, but her interests are wide: among many fields, she does research in Ethics, Philosophy of Technologies and Aesthetics.
Think Olio is here to put the liberation back into the liberal arts.
Classically, the liberal arts, were the education considered essential for a free person to take an active part in civic life. To counter a humanities that has been institutionalized and dehumanized we infuse critical thinking, openness, playfulness, and compassion into our learning experience.
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