"Farewell, civilization" - opinion peace in Khrono

Yesterday my letter to the editor "Farvel, sivilisasjon" (Farewell, civilization) was published in Khrono. The text draws on Peter Wessel Zapffe´s "Farvel, Norge" (1958) and relates to a debate about academic studies started by politician and member of parliament Peter C. Frølich.

#49

Today I have had a book writing day, with some 1.500 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. This is my second-most productive writing day this year so far in terms of number of words written.

So far this Spring I have had 49 writing days, including 41,5 book writing days. So far this year I have written in excess of 40.000 words, mostly on my monograph.

Verdibørsen interview on "humanity in puberty" aired

An interview with me aired on Verdibørsen earlier today, titled "Menneskeheten i puberteten" (Humanity in puberty). In the interview I relate to Arne Næss´ thoughts about war and peace and the long-term maturing of humanity, admit to occasionally longing for a new civilization, and identify as a liberal deep ecologist. Program host Jostein Gjertsen presents the interview as Verdibørsen´s contribution to Forskningsdagene, an event which this year has "oppvekst" (childhood, upbringing) as theme.

Bibliographical data for animal play article

Final title: "Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play (exemplified by the playfulness of Muki and Maluca)"

To be published (available by January) in Sign Systems Studies 37(3/4), 2009, pp. 205-223 (19 pp).

Play, love etc. - UiA Philosophy Forum in preparation

I have previously mentioned the UiA Philosophy Forum (Filosofisk Forum) - see here, and here. Today the committee of the forum gathered for the second time. We have made a draft of the spring programme, which looks more or less like this:

1) Tuesday, January 19th (16-18)
Morten Tønnessen: "Lek som sivilisasjonens opphav" (Play as the origin of civilization), followed by discussion

2) Tuesday, February 16th (16-18)
To filosofiske samtaler (Two philosophical dialogues)

3) Tuesday, March 16th (18-20)
Filosofisk samtale om tro (Philosophical dialogue on faith), led by Håvard Løkke

4) Tuesday, April 13th (16-18)
Håvard Løkke: Kjærlighet som moralsk følelse (Love as a moral emotion)

5) Tuesday, May 25th (18-20)
Public lecture with invited lecturer, in town. Name and title T.B.A.

In addition, there will be a course session in "philosophical dialogue" (filosofisk samtale) - in preparation of the February dialogue and the public event in March - February 2nd.

While events 1, 2 and 4 are "internal" (university area) events - though open to all - the 3rd and 5th event will take place outside of campus, and aim at engaging a wider audience, in each their way (strictly speaking, this may apply to event 3 more than to event 5, which will nevertheless be made available for a general audience). The methodology for the dialogic events has in the Norwegian context been further developed by amongst others Øyvind Olsholt.

Besides talking at event 1, I will coordinate contacts for event 3, where we hope to gather individuals from different faiths etc. - protestants, catholics, muslims, agnostics and atheists - for a common philosophical dialogue.