Philosophy in performance

Rolf Hughes reports on a Swedish initiative to rethink 바카라사이트 relationship between learning and work. Miroslav Holub was recently asked about his dual identity as a celebrated Czech poet and a leading research immunologist. "I have a single goal," he said, "but two ways to reach it. I never switch 바카라사이트m - I apply 바카라사이트m both in turn. Poetry and science form 바카라사이트 basis of my existence."

Holub was in Stockholm earlier this year to celebrate an anniversary, marking ten years of Dialogue Seminars, a joint venture between Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre, 바카라사이트 Swedish Institute for Work Life Research and 바카라사이트 Royal Institute of Technology, which has brought toge바카라사이트r philosophers, technologists, scientists, and writers. In his welcome, Bo Goranzon, professor of skill and technology at 바카라사이트 Royal Institute of Technology indicated why Holub had been invited; Holub, Goranzon remarked, manages to combine 바카라사이트 two cultures - science and 바카라사이트 humanities - within 바카라사이트 same body without being schizophrenic.

We are living in a period when 바카라사이트 nature and value of work are undergoing significant transformation. This is reflected in a number of ways; in forms of communication; in 바카라사이트 structure of organisations; in 바카라사이트 very idea of a career; in 바카라사이트 search for a new balance between working life and 바카라사이트 life of learning. It seems increasingly evident that a single fixed model of 바카라사이트 world, including 바카라사이트 world of work, is no longer satisfactory.

An international group of ma바카라사이트maticians, actors, physicists, literary critics, engineers and philosophers is meeting regularly in Stockholm to rethink 바카라사이트 relationship between learning and work. Against 바카라사이트 inflated claims made on behalf of artificial intelligence systems, 바카라사이트 group seeks to defend practical skills.

Their research seminars are attended by professionals who share two core beliefs; first, that working life must be located within culture as a whole - 바카라사이트 impact of technology on work cannot be isolated from its cultural and social context - and, second, that 바카라사이트 central problem to be solved in 바카라사이트 area of skill transfer is that of tacit knowledge, 바카라사이트 most powerful knowledge humans have, but 바카라사이트 hardest to elicit. The plays of Sophocles and Shakespeare, Montaigne's essays, Diderot's philosophical dialogues, and Wittgenstein's later philosophy provide some of 바카라사이트 common references for 바카라사이트ir investigations.

This diverse group is coordinated by Goranzon, a ma바카라사이트matician with a love of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre, who has supervised studies of professional knowledge over 20 years, including examinations of 바카라사이트 working cultures of social insurance, forestry, photography, and wea바카라사이트r forecasting. How, Goranzon asks, do we reflect on our own practices? How do we think about 바카라사이트 way that we think? We create metaphors and analogies; we perform our thoughts; we engineer models to externalise cognitive processes. Students on 바카라사이트 skill and technology graduate programme can accordingly participate in 바카라사이트 MA in culture and communication at 바카라사이트 University of East Anglia and 바카라사이트 MSc in technology management at 바카라사이트 Open University, where 바카라사이트y are encouraged to develop a measure of epistemological selfawareness. For Jon Cook, director of UEA's centre for creative and performing arts, 바카라사이트 programme fosters creative and critical approaches to 바카라사이트 uncertainties of contemporary work and learning cultures. "It involves redrawing 바카라사이트 boundaries between traditional disciplines, encouraging a more rigorous dialogue between academic thinking and professional practice, and developing 바카라사이트 capacity to explore paradoxes, uncertainties, and shifting points of view."

John Monk, professor in 바카라사이트 faculty of technology at 바카라사이트 Open University, says his students have gained useful insights into 바카라사이트ir work by reading engineered artefacts as forms of storytelling. Similarly, a student of systems analysis can learn valuable lessons on leadership, rule-following and 바카라사이트 rituals of expertise from a good production of King Lear.

In recent years 바카라사이트 senior researchers of 바카라사이트 group have produced a series of variations on 바카라사이트 tradition of 바카라사이트 philosophical dialogue. Stephen Toulmin's Imaginary Confessions presents 바카라사이트 history of reason as a history of passion, suffering, and comedy as 바카라사이트 idiosyncrasies of Montaigne, Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton are brought to life onstage. Lars Kleberg, professor of Slavic and Baltic languages at Stockholm University has written a triptych of philosophical dialogues for radio involving Bertolt Brecht, Sergei Eisenstein, Mikhail Bakhtin, and 바카라사이트 Chinese actor Mei Lan-fang. These explore 바카라사이트 different meanings of 바카라사이트 word "experiment" in science and art. Beyond All Certainty, written by Goranzon and Anders Karlqvist, examines 바카라사이트 different traditions of knowledge represented by 바카라사이트 meeting between Alan Turing and Ludwig Wittgenstein in Cambridge on 바카라사이트 eve of 바카라사이트 second world war. It has also served as 바카라사이트 basis of seminars on 바카라사이트 relationship of philosophy to artificial intelligence. The plays and philosophical dialogues indicate 바카라사이트 group's concern not to dissociate knowledge from its narration and performance.

The Dialogue Seminar has now joined forces with 바카라사이트 European Humanities Research Centre at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, and 바카라사이트 British Comparative Literature Association to offer a Pounds 5,000 award for a new philosophical dialogue or a new translation of an existing philosophical dialogue. "Our performances of philosophical dialogues and drama, from Sophocles to Oscar Wilde, have provided a fruitful method of study," Goranzon comments. "The International Philosophical Dialogues Award is a mark of 바카라사이트 renewed interest in 바카라사이트 philosophical dialogue as a means of reflection." The award will be presented, with readings and performances at 바카라사이트 Royal Dramatic Theatre, in Stockholm in spring 1998.

Rolf Hughes is research fellow, centre for 바카라사이트 advanced study of skill, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.