How much spontaneity is good for us? (Beckenham venue)

NOTE: the pub does not charge for our space on the understanding that we all purchase something from the bar. Please support them.

I'll be there from around 7pm if anyone would like a social chat before we get started. Please arrive in time for a prompt start at 7:30.

When did you last do something spontaneously? What made it spontaneous? How did it feel, and did it turn out well?

Spontaneity has an obvious appeal. We celebrate the “free spirit”, the “open road” and being “free as a bird”. We talk about following our intuition or gut feeling rather than thinking everything through. Spontaneity seems to promise freedom from routine, obligation and the constraints of careful planning.

Yet much of adult life involves the opposite: making plans, weighing up options, pursuing objectives and honouring commitments. Our past decisions, responsibilities and expectations can leave us feeling hemmed in with no time for spontaneity. But while spontaneity can be liberating, it can also be reckless, disruptive or simply unwise.

So how much spontaneity is good for us? What place should it have in a well-lived life?
In this discussion, we'll explore questions such as:

• What is spontaneity? How does it differ from impulsiveness, intuition and acting without thinking? Can an action be spontaneous if it has been influenced by our past experiences and character?
• How free are we to be spontaneous? How do our commitments, habits, social expectations and circumstances constrain us? Do we sometimes impose unnecessary constraints on ourselves? Can we be spontaneous and rational at the same time?
• Does spontaneity change as we age? Are some stages of life more conducive to spontaneity than others? Can retirement or growing older bring a new kind of freedom – perhaps even more so than the early stages of life before careers, families etc?
• Is spontaneity good for us? When should we trust our instincts rather than deliberate carefully? Is spontaneity essential to creativity, or can creativity flourish through planning and discipline? What are the dangers of too much spontaneity?
• What kind of freedom is spontaneity? Is there a distinctive sense of freedom in being able to depart from our plans and expectations? How does this compare with:
  - Isaiah Berlin's ideas of negative and positive liberty;
  - Jean-Paul Satre’s notion of being “condemned to be free”
  - Ideas of autonomy and free-will.
• In what ways can we cultivate the capacity and opportunities to be spontaneous? Should we? Or does trying to plan for spontaneity undermine it?

Optional pre-reading/watching:
https://jonathangingerich.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/gingerich-spontaneous-freedom.pdf Spontaneous Freedom - the paper I came across that inspired this topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHE08GSThZs Berlin’s Negative and Positive Liberty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YYlJroSSf8 Satre’s Paradox of Freedom

Looking forward to another interesting discussion. Hope to see you there. (Or perhaps we’ll spontaneously decide, on the night, to talk about something completely different!)