The logo of the ISHE

I made the logo of the Institute for Science & Human Existence (ISHE) yesterday. It was a quick job of about 15 minutes, because thinking too much makes matter more and more complicated. As I started to design it, the image of a lighthouse and an owl immediately came up. Perhaps because those images would perfectly match the spirit of the ISHE. I hope the message of the institute will spread as widely as possible.

The activities for this fall by the Institute for Science & Human Existence

It is our pleasure to announce the activities of our institute ISHE for the coming month. The list is shown below. We are looking forward to seeing people interested in these activities.

● The Fourth Sci-Phi Cafe SHE in Sapporo

Date: October 6, 2017 (18:30 - 20:30)  

Place: Sapporo Cafe, 5F Space

Think about what a desirable inner life is

Poster

● The Second Bergson Cafe

Date: October 14 & 21, 2017 (16:00 - 19:00)

Place: Ebisu Carrefour, Conference Room B

Text: Pierre Hadot, « Apprendre à vivre », Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique (Albin Michel, 2002)  p. 19-38

Poster

● The Sixth Cafe Philo PAWL

Date: October 20, 2017 (18:30 - 20:30)

Place: Renoir Iidabashi-Nishiguchi, Room 2

Read Platon's Phaedo

Poster

● The Twelfth Sci-Phi Cafe SHE

Date: October 27, 2017 (18:30 - 20:30)

Place: Renoir Iidabashi-Nishiguchi, Room 2

Think about minimal cognition

Poster

 

● The Second Sci-Phi Forum FPSS 　

Date: October 28, 2017 (13:40 - 16:25)

Place: Maison franco-japonaise, Salle 509

Discuss the topics presented by four members of the Forum

Poster

Le premier Sci-Phi Café à Paris

Nous avons eu le premier Paris Café le samedi dernier dans le Quartier Latin. Le sujet de cette rencontre était « Penser à la relation entre la science et la philosophie ». Le résumé se trouve sur cette page, malheureusement en japonais. 

Le premier Bergson Café à Tokyo

 
　　Participants du ler juillet 2017


J'ai décidé d'ouvrir une petite réunion dans laquelle nous lisons et discutons des textes philosophiques en français, et l'ai appelé Bergson Café. Le premier café a eu lieu le 24 juin et le ler juillet à Tokyo. Dans ces deux rencontres, nous avons lu le texte de Pierre Hadot, « La philosophie comme manière de vivre », Exercices spirituelles et philosophie antique, pp. 289-304 (Albin Michel, 2002). Le résumé en japonais se trouvve sur cette page.

The First Sci-Phi Forum FPSS was held

One of the two new projects for this year, Sci-Phi Forum FPSS, was held successfully yesterday in Tokyo. About twenty people in the field of science, philosophy, and science communication attended from Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and Kansai areas to discuss future directions of this forum. The summary is found in this page.

Translation of La nouvelle microbiologie de Pascale Cossart

I have translated another book, La nouvelle microbiologie de Pascale Cossart (Odile Jacob, 2016) since the beginning of this year. It was requested by a Japanese publisher. I finished it yesterday. Compared with Kourilsky's book, this was easier to translate, probably because the text is scientific and fact-based. I am now waiting for the proofreading process, which should come after Kourilsky's book. I think it won't start until next year, unfortunately.

Deux nouveaux projets pour l'année prochaine

During my stay in Japan this fall, two new ideas occurred to me. As Montaigne already noticed, we think elsewhere. One is to open a new cafe for reading philosophical texts written in French and discussing them in Japanese. I named it "Bergson Cafe". According to a view (Alain Badiou), there are two schools of philosophy in the 20th century's French philosophy. One stresses theoretical aspects of philosophy, the founder being Léon Brunschvicg, and another is originated from Henri Bergson who pursued a philosophy of life. Before entering into philosophy, I had an impression that a goal of philosophy is to establish a theory or a concept. If that is the case, I thought philosophy did not suit me. However, I happened to read Pierre Hadot in a bookstore in Paris in 2006 and came to realize there is another aspect of philosophy, namely "philosophy as a way of life", as he called it. This experience changed my perception of philosophy. That is why I chose "Bergson" for the name of this cafe and we are planning to read the texts in this line of philosophy.

The second project is to organize a forum where scientists discuss with philosophers and researchers in the field of humanities problematics in science and medicine, and themes that are not explicitly clear to scientists and thus have not been discussed by scientists. I named it "Forum of philosophy of science for scientists (FPSS: pronounced fipsee)" and posted an announcement in the internet at the end of last month. I have received positive responses from more than 20 Japanese scientists.The aim of this activity is to recognize current situation of science and to make it publicly open, in the hope that it will make science much closer to non-scientists and that many (philosophical) themes hidden in scientific achievements will be revealed to scientists.