Mark Kingwell, philosopher, professor and cultural critic, spoke at Havergal College about the intimate connection between individual meaning and community action. He was at Havergal to introduce the Institute’s Food for Thought – our effort to connect our collective purpose to make a difference in the world with our individual action to contribute to the world we want.
Professor Kingwell started with our question, “What kind of world do I want?”, and “Who am I in that world?” He linked these to one of life’s eternal questions: how do I make meaning of my life while conscious of my own mortality? As he acknowledged, many people do so through religious and spiritual practice, which connects meaning to life in the present and to the afterlife. Kingwell said he prefers to make meaning in the life of the present.
In response to our persistent fears of our own mortality, he asked, “how do we live on?” He believes that to live on we must make a contribution to something larger than ourselves; for that this is the burden of consciousness. His personal purpose is to create a legacy through his writing. While each of is will find a different purpose, he argued that there are no individuals outside of the communities of which they are a part. We must recognize others to be recognized by them, and our fate is to be linked.
Kingwell urged us to expand our “horizons of care” – the ripple effect each of us creates through the impact of our actions. This expansion is what he believes make life meaningful. Kingwell was careful to caution us that a life of purpose is an outwardly focused life, it is not one of selfish indulgence. Our purpose is our meaning and our gift to the world. To make the most of each day is to live a life of purpose, and a life with few regrets.
Before responding to student questions, he asked us to find the narrative of our own lives, to give them meaning: to keep questioning, to be thoughtful and deliberate each and every day.
Students asked Kingwell about issues such as suicide to which he responded that, for those who contemplate suicide, he believes that no one would find life easier without you. In response to a question about what purpose does a person have in killing another, he said he has never heard a good enough reason to take the life of another. Kingwell also responded to questions about finding meaning in a life focused on simple survival, offered his thoughts on the ephemeral nature of celebrity that is not linked to achievement, and to questions about his own purpose as a philosopher and educator. To the latter he responded that great educators draw out what is on people’s minds already, and, hence, education is a key aspect of a just world.
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This is our own take on what Dr. Kingwell presented. Please feel free to add comments below.
For more information and photos of Prayers on Sept. 17th, please visit: Havergal College News
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