The Kira
Institute proposes to work toward the development of a 21st century
world view that respects and accommodates modern science and is
grounded in human experience. Its major activities will be in
multidisciplinary research and education at an advanced level.
Our most recent activity is the Yamaneko
Project.
Education
During a five year period, 1998-2002, our main educational activity has
taken the form of an annual Summer School for advanced students in
the sciences or in related areas, such as the philosophy, history,
and sociology of science. The summer schools included lectures as
well as group and private discussions. For information about these
Summer Schools, click on:
For more of our educational activities, see:
Research
Our main research projects are carried out through collaborations
between two or more Kira members, some more informal and spontaneous,
others more structured. An example of the latter is an ongoing
collaboration started by Piet Hut and Steven Tainer in 2002, centered
on:
In addition, the whole Kira core group has held regular focus meetings:
In general, most of our joint research is carried out in small groups,
in a series of workshops and other private meetings. Some early
results of our research have been reported at the following
conferences:
- Tucson II Conference '96
- Mind and Life Conference '97
where Piet Hut and Arthur Zajonc, together with three other physicists,
engaged in a five-day long series of discussion with the His Holiness
the Dalai Lama. This conference, Mind and Life VI, was organized by
Arthur Zajonc.
- Tucson
III Conference '98
- State of the World Forum '98
where Piet Hut and Arthur Zajonc took part in a roundtable discussion.
The session, on The Role of the Subject in Science, was organized by
Piet Hut.
- Mind and Life
Conference, on `Epistemological Questions in Quantum Physics and
Eastern Contemplative Sciences' with the Dalai Lama, in Innsbruck,
Austria, June, 1998
where Arthur Zajonc participated in the plenary dialogue.
- Toward
a
Science of Consciousness, Tokyo 1999 - Fundamental Approaches
where Piet Hut gave a talk on the Role of the Subject in Science.
- World Economic Forum,
Davos, Switzerland, 2000,
where Piet Hut had a dinner discussion with Prof. E.O. Wilson from
Harvard, titled `Is moral behaviour determined by nature, nurture or
God?'
- Columbia
University's
Center for the Study of Science and Religion, New York City, April
2000,
where Piet Hut, Roger Shepard, Steven Tainer and Arthur Zajonc attended
a lunch session, followed by discussions the CSSR Director, Prof.
Robert
Pollack.
- Camaldolese
Monastery, Big Sur, CA, June-July 2000,
where Steven Tainer gave a talk on Buddhism and Taoism
- Workshop on the Known, the
Unknown, and the Unknowable in New York City, October 2000,
sponsored
by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
where Piet Hut gave a talk on Gravitational Thermodynamics.
- Yale
University, New Haven, CT, October 2000,
where Roger Shepard gave the Hovland Lecture in Psychology, on `The
Cognitive Grounds of Science and Ethics'
- General
Theological Seminary in New York City, December 2000,
where Piet Hut gave a talk on `One Reality, in the Light of Science and
Other Ways of Knowing'.
- The Husserl Circle
in
Bloomington, IN, February 2001
- Teachers College,
Columbia
University, in New York City, March 2001,
where Arthur Zajonc co-organized a 3-day research symposium on `The
Challenge of Technology for Spiritually-based Higher Education'.
- Nailsworth Festival in
Stroud, England, April 2001
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `Technology and Spirituality'.
- Science and the Spiritual Quest,
in Paris, May 2001
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa
Fe, NM, May 2001,
where Roger Shepard participated, as a member of the Science Board of
the Santa Fe Institute, in the annual SFI Science Symposium.
- The Flux Foundation,
in
Oslo, Norway, May 2001
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `Phenomenology of Consciousness'.
- Yale
Graduate School Alumni Association, New Haven, CT, May 2001,
where Roger Shepard received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal.
- Beyond
the Brain IV, in Ripon University, England, August 2001
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `Phenomena as Theory: Goethe,
Steiner and the Encounter with Consciousness'.
- Tribal
Link Foundation, New York, September 2001,
where Piet Hut gave a talk on `Beholding the Eye of the Beholder; The
Subject in Objective Science'.
- Philosophy
Department and Physics
Department at Seattle University,
where Piet Hut gave the inaugural lecture for a colloquium on Science
and Philosophy, titled `Six ways to view the world: Looking through
Windows from Science, Phenomenology, and Non-Duality'.
- Harvard University's
Center for the Study of World Religions in Cambridge, MA, February
2002
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `Light in Scientific and Religious
Imagination'.
- The Center for Theology and the
Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA, May 2002,
where Steven Tainer gave a talk on `Investigating No Mind--The Future
of Orthogonal Approaches' at the Graduate Theological Union, as part of
the conference on "Wisdom, Compassion, and Consciousness: Buddhist
Practice and Cognitive Science."
- Mind and Life
Conference, on `The Nature of Matter, The Nature of Life' with the
Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala, India, October, 2002
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `The Sciences of Complexity'.
- The Centre for Subjectivity
Research, in Copenhagen, Denmark, was opened in 2002, sponsored by
the Danish National Research Foundation,
where Piet Hut is a Member of the Board of Advisors.
- M.I.T.'s School of
Architecture and Planning, Cambridge, MA, October, 2002,
where Arthur Zajonc gave a talk on `Falling Light: a History of Light,
Space, and Human Perception'.
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