A very special episode this week, completely free for all listeners. The world-famous philosopher Charles Taylor joins Wisdom of Crowds editors Samuel Kimbriel and Santiago Ramos for a conversation about his new book, Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment.

Professor Taylor has spent a long and fruitful career trying to understand the basic questions of modern life. What does it mean to be a modern person? How do we form our sense of identity? How do we relate to the sacred? What does it mean to be secular? What happened to religion? In Cosmic Connections, he tells the story of how the Romantic poets of the nineteenth century sought to reconnect with nature through art, after the rise of modern science and the industrial revolution left many people wondering about man’s place in the universe.

Appropriately enough, Sam called in from a log cabin somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, and he enthusiastically supported Professor Taylor’s thesis that a connection with nature is an essential component of a healthy society. The more city-bound Santiago took a more skeptical approach, at least at first. He questioned Professor Taylor’s claim that a connection with nature entails a connection with a transcendent, spiritual reality. Along with these heady topics, the conversation touched upon Beethoven’s symphonies, A.I. “friends,” and the idea of progress.

Required Reading (and Listening):

* Charles Taylor, Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment (Amazon).

* Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Amazon).

* Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Amazon).

* Damir Marusic, “Beauty and Niceness in an Accidental World” (WoC).

* Romanticism (School of Life).

* Henry David Thoreau (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

* Beethoven, Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement (YouTube).

* Beethoven, Sixth Symphony “Pastoral” (YouTube).

* “Wear This A.I. Friend Around Your Neck” (Wired).

* Joni Mitchell (Official YouTube Page).

* Leonard Cohen (Official YouTube Page).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.

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