04 Jun Summary: Interpretation of the world and workation. The Summer Academy of the School of Philosophy 2023
144. One hundred and forty-four hours of philosophizing in a foreign country. A journey that I embarked on alone as a stranger and now, having returned home, describe as a friend. As a friend of previously unknown people, as a friend of philosophy, as a friend of new methods, come amico della Scuola di Filosofia. So this is my report on six nights and six days at the School of Philosophy.
144 – A stroke of luck instead of an emergency call
In Austria, we dial the emergency number 144 for all medical emergencies – it is available around the clock, specialist staff ask the right questions and help is provided. That’s probably how I imagined it when I spontaneously booked the School of Philosophy on a tip. Out of an inner urge to interpret the world and thus generate new ideas, I wanted to get involved in an unusual setting: World interpretation and workation in Tuscany in unknown company. An inner distress call turned into a stroke of luck!
The renaissance of philosophy
Why did I want to go to the Silicon Valley of the High Renaissance and Villa Rigacci in Reggello with blue lights and a siren? The ability to ask outstanding, unposed or creative questions will be a way of distinguishing artificial intelligence, at least for a while. I am sure of that. It therefore seems possible to me that as AI models advance and the importance of questions grows, we may see a renewed interest and urgency in philosophical inquiry and thinking. It is also for this reason that I wanted to go to the temporary classroom in Tuscany to train, educate and discipline myself in this practice.
Il magico I medici: Bernd Waß and Heinz Palasser
Under a mostly radiant Italian sun, we were guided by the scholars, Dr. Bernd Waß and Dr. Heinz Palasser, through the biographies and thought structures of the titans of thought Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Arthur Schopenhauer. While Schopenhauer and Leibniz are antipodes, Palasser and Waß are two medals on the same side. The directors Waß & Palasser have succeeded in erecting a large philosophical cinema building under a sky full of burratina clouds. With thought-provoking classic films that have earned far more than they cost. My sincere thanks for this!
3 days Leibniz: Outline of a philosophical masterpiece
Dr. Bernd Waß began with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. His metaphysics is fascinating: God conceives an infinite number of possible worlds, chooses the best one and realizes it. The realized world – the world in which we ourselves live – develops along the divine blueprint without exception. But how can this determinism be reconciled with human freedom and how the hell can it be that the best of all possible worlds has so many evils? Probably because it is not God.
And how can I, as a self-employed entrepreneur and creator, even think this idea?
3 days Schopenhauer: The world as will and imagination
Dr. Heinz Palasser moved seamlessly on to Schopenhauer. For Schopenhauer, the world is inevitably full of suffering. Standing on the shoulders of Kant, he develops a theory of knowledge in his main work “The World as Will and Representation”: the world is nothing but representation and beyond this representation, blind, eternally pressing will – the cause of all suffering in the world. With fierce empathy for the human condition, Schopenhauer nonetheless searches for islands of peace and finds them in art, especially music, and in morality, especially compassion.
Il mio amico Arthur, of the two offered and famous interpretations of the world, your pre-frame seems closer to me. But what do I know?
No empire of empire
Not everything can be measured, not everything can be shown. For me, it was a week full of intellectual world experience and pure joie de vivre, which I would heartily recommend to every philosophy lover, escapist and bon vivant.
The Summer Academy offers the opportunity to immerse yourself in the philosophers’ world of thought without any prior knowledge. With a seriousness that surprises me and a dolce vita at the same time. The Summer Academy of the School of Philosophy was a blend of art and culture, an intellectual inspiration and a sensual pleasure. One that tastes of repetition!
Compagno d’armi, the fellow thinkers, a privilege to get to know those men and women, couples and singles, young and old, blossoming and wounded characters. All strangers, now all friends.
Have the courage to use your sat nav
The start of this journey is like the beginning of a joke: a philosopher and an artist are traveling by car, the AI of their navigation system advises an alternative route every minute, the two decide on the route that is “best” for them. Blockabfertigung teaches them that you should trust artificial intelligence in certain situations.
That was the first enlightenment that this journey brought. Now, back at Hausruck, I’m thinking about how we can use the insights of philosophy – knowing that it doesn’t “want to”. I’m thinking about where we could set up temporary School of Philosophy classrooms: In the technology workshop of the present, the GRAND GARAGE? In the upper secondary school for digital humanism, the Rose? In Wilhering Abbey? On the premises of the DELTA Group‘s pioneers? At friendly companies? At least I will find an answer to that. And soon.
The Phantom of Weimar
CM
P.S.: For the time that has already begun, I think we will need intellectual guidance. I would therefore like to think about a quota for philosophers in companies.
