Course: Opening the Eye of Value during the meta-Crisis (with Zak Stein)
A Parallax Course
Who is David J Temple?
David J. Temple is a fictional personality created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as be part of the collaboration.
In his new book, First Principles and First Values, David J Temple has argued that the collapse of value at the heart of global culture is the root cause of proliferating Global Catastrophic and Existential Risks making up the Metacrisis. Exploring the truth of this suggests that radical educational innovation is needed to (re)align humans with the Universal Field of Cosmic Value. Essential to the survival of humanity is the capacity to engage the "eye of value"—the human ability to perceive intrinsic value. The question of what kinds of capacities are needed for humanity to navigate planetary meta-crisis reframes our debates. Concrete recommendations and ongoing projects are discussed, in the context of the imminent planetary catastrophe, driven in large part by the incapacitation—the blinding—of the eye of value.
Saturdays
April 6/13/20/27
2024
11am PDT (Los Angeles), 2pm EDT (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
90 Minute Sessions
Full Ticket includes 4 Saturday Zoom Classes with Q&A/ 4 Digital Campfires Zoom discussion groups
Online Ticket includes 4 Saturday Zoom Classes with Q&A
Offline Ticket includes all recorded Saturday Zoom Classes with Q&A
All tickets include the digital version of First Principles and First Values by David J Temple
Price: €260/200€/100€ Tiers
Course Content
Class 1 - First Principles and First Values: What does it mean to open the Eye of Value?
Saturday April 6th 11am PDT (Los Angeles), 2pm EDT (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
Prerequisites: Readings: pp 1-30, First Principles and First Values
Discussion: In the first week Marc Gafni joins Zak Stein in discussing the major themes of CosmoErotic Humanism. This includes a reconstruction of the history of the work of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, and an introduction to the life and work of the great David J Temple. Initial discussions of what it means to open the Eye of Value frame the rest of the work to be done in the course.
Assignment: Document your experiences with the metacrisis and the collapse of value. Do this either in writing or through photography and words. Submit to the instructor three days before the next class. (More details given in class session.)
Class 11 - First Philosophy and the Foundations of CosmoErotic Humanism
Saturday April 13, 11am PDT (Los Angeles), 2pm EDT (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
Prerequisites: Class one assignment: Readings pp 31-93, First Principles and FIrst Values
Discussion: After sharing student work from last class to ground the discussion, Zak Stein provides an overview of the philosophical issues implicated in the work of David J Temple. Significant revisions of epistemology, ontology, and ethics are at stake in the project of CosmoErotic Humanism, which the next steps in coherent World Philosophy require.
Assignment: Consider the reading done so far and raise the most significant philosophical concerns that you can. Submit these as questions in writing three days before the next class. (More details given in class session.)
Class III– The Metacrisis and The Eye of Value
Saturday April 20th, 11am PDT (Los Angeles), 2pm EDT (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
Prerequisite: Class two assignment; Readings: pp 94-170, First Principles and FIrst Values
Discussion: Taking up the philosophical concerns raised by student work, Zak hardens and expands the discssions of CosmoErotic Humanism. A detailed look at aspects of the sensemaking crisis and metacrisis help frame the need for new kinds of philosophy. The blinding of the Eye of value must be undone; explorations of what this requires are undertaken with an eye towards practical and educational implications.
Assignment: Explore practices in your own life or experience that unblind the eye of value. Write a brief overview of a class, training, or set of guidelines and insights. Submit to the instructor three days before the next class. (More details given in class session.)
Class IV – The Metacrisis and The Eye of Value 2
Saturday April 27th, 11am PDT (Los Angeles), 2pm EDT (New York), 8pm CET (Paris)
Prerequisites: Class three assignment: Readings: pp 171-269, First Principles and FIrst Values
Discussion: Reviewing student work aimed at unblinding the Eye of Value, Zak brings home the educational and practical implications of the work. Imagining the future of education, culture, and high-technology, this final class invites us to hold an image of the future in which humanity is transformed through navigating the metacrisis. Emergent religious forms meet unprecedented human capabilities, as digital technologies render the planetary conditions ripe for civilizational transformations.
About your facilitator
Zak Stein studied philosophy and religion at Hampshire College, and then educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education at Harvard University. While a student at Harvard, he co-founded what would become Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the research-based, justice-oriented reform of large-scale standardized testing in K-12, higher-education, and business.
He is also a writer whose work has appeared in a variety of journals including American Psychologist, New Ideas in Psychology, Mind, Brain, and Education, Integral Review, and the Journal of Philosophy of Education.
He has published two books, Social Justice and Educational Measurement a dissertation that traces the history of standardized testing and its ethical implications, and Education in a Time Between Worlds, which expands the philosophical work to include grappling with the relations between schooling and technology more broadly.
with a special appearance by Marc Gafni in Session 1:
Dr. Marc Gafni is a visionary thinker, social activist, and passionate philosopher. He is known for his “source code teachings,” including Unique Self theory, Non-Dual Humanism, Evolving Perennialism, the Intimate Universe, and Digital Intimacy. He is author of over twenty-five books, including A Return to Eros and the award-winning Your Unique Self: The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, as well as Orthodox rabbinic ordination. He teaches both publically and in long term mentorship’s with leading students, with the aim of participating in the articulation of what Dr. Gafni together with Dr. Zak Stein, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ken Wilber and colleagues are calling CosmoErotic Humanism. At the core of CosmoErotic Humanism is what Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein are calling ‘First Principles and First Values,’ Anthro-Ontology and a “Universal Grammar of Value” which can then serve as the matrix for a global ethos for a global civilization. Dr. Gafni is the Co-Founder and Co-President of the Office for the Future, the Center for World Religion and Philosophy and the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. At the core of their shared missions is the articulation and delivery into culture of a Great Library - in multiple forms - which participates in evolving the source code of consciousness and culture in response to the Meta Crisis.