Five years since the crisis: Towards a New Economic Imagination
In September of 2013, five years will have passed after the largest economic crisis in the United States since the Great Depression. Yet veteran experts and mainstream economists seem content remaining within familiar limitations – austerity, neo-Keynesianism, re-regulation, and well-worn variants of the state v. market debate. What is necessary now, in this…
One World: Many Religions
There is one world, but many religions. Since the bustle of cross-cultural spiritual exchange starting during the 1960's, religious pluralism and interfaith learning has come a long way. However, tensions remain--sweeping claims of the unity of all religions exist alongside dogmatic rejection of the authority of other religions. If the religions of the world are to coexist peacefully, what are the limits of pluralism? …
Complexity Theory: From Cells to Cities
The emerging field of complexity theory defines a key paradigm for understanding the nature and behavior of complex systems such as cells, ant colonies, and ecomomic markets, spanning diverse disciplines, bridging the "soft" and "hard" sciences.
The concept of emergence--how simple interactions among a large number of individuals produce surprisingly complex and unpredicatable behavior on the level of the aggregate--is of great interest to TRACT, as it has potential to inform the gaps among different levels of scientific understanding--i.e. the relationship between the microsopic and macrosopic, between parts and aggregate.
meditaiton: a series
TRACT along with Art of Living, Bhakti, and the Columbia University Buddhist Association is proud to announce our series of events on meditation starting this Friday 4/13.
Columbia can be a stressful place, especially as we approach finals. How can meditation help us? Why do people meditate at all? What is meditation?
Join us for a series of events dedicated to exploring the various aspects of meditation and also convenient opportunities to try it yourself!
Under the looking glass: Your Ivy League Education
TRACT and SFER (Students for Education Reform) are proud to announce our event "Under the Looking Glass: Your Ivy League Education". Please join us for a panel discussion with Professor David Hansen from TC and Professor Shamus Khan from the Dept. of Sociology on the educational philosophy of our nation's top universities and how it shapes our society.
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Quantum Physics: Perspectivs on Reality
This week TRACT is proud to announce our event "Quantum Physics: Perspective on Reality". Please join us for a conversation with Professor David Albert on the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics.
Questions include:
- What are the philosophical differences between Newton's classical physics and modern quantum physics?
- What is the role of chance and uncertainty in QM
TRACT Winter Trip
Last fall, TRACT explored consciousness and its relationship with science, religion, and meditation with the panel discussion, Zen and Cognitive Science. Inviting Zen Master Jue Ming from China, Bernard Faure and Chun-fang Yu from Columbia Religion, Betsy Sparrow from Columbia Psychology, and Zoran Josipovic from NYU Cognitive Neuroscience, we attempted to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries in search of the common ground between these fields.
Financial Crisis-Humanity Crisis?
This Thursday 10/27, in light of the financial crisis and the recent Occupy Wall Street movement, TRACT is hosting a panel discussion "Financial Crisis or Humanity Crisis?" between Economics Professor Marcellus Andrews and Religion Professor Robert Thurman.
Professor Andrews and Professor Thurman will be discussing and debating the human factors behind the financial crisis, devling into the fields of education, ethics, psychology, and philosophy.
Zen and Cognitive Science
In Zen and Congitive Science, TRACT put together a rare panel of experts to discuss the connections between the Zen experience and the recent developments in neuroscience and psychology. Topics included the neural patterns of meditation, the psychology of spiritual experience, and the meeting of eastern philosophy and western science.