[In-person] Intellectual Autonomy: Thinking for Yourself

Some things we learn from other people, and some things we figure out for ourselves. While we couldn’t possibly acquire all the knowledge we have on our own, there seems to be something worthwhile in exercising our intellectual autonomy: coming to know something by ourselves, as a result of gathering our own evidence and doing our own reasoning, rather than just taking someone else’s word for it. Upon closer inspection, however, it might not be obvious why we value intellectual autonomy, nor when we should exercise our intellectual autonomy — perhaps by doing our own research — and when we should listen to others.

How should we balance the need to rely on other people to learn about the world with the thought that it’s better to learn things on our own?

Some of the questions we will address include:

• Is intellectual autonomy a virtue? What does it look like to have too much or too little intellectual autonomy?
• Why do we value intellectual autonomy? Should we value it at all?
• Does being intellectually autonomous mean we have to be lone knowledge-seeking wolves, or can we still be autonomous when relying on others?
• What is the role of intellectual autonomy in science? What about in education?
• Some people will encourage you to “do your own research.” When should we listen to this advice, and when should we ignore it?
• And more!

Join our special guest moderator Ken Boyd and Being and Becoming’s own Zachary Grey on Tuesday, July 8th, to explore these questions and more!

Space is limited! Please obtain a “Pay-What-You-Can” ticket from Curiosity Café here to attend this event. See the ticketing page for more info about tickets and other options including a limited number of free tickets. Come and hang out with us, grab food, and read through our handout from 6-6:30pm. Our structured discussion will run from 6:30-8:30pm with a 10 minute break in the middle.

Hope to see you there!

(Also check out our next Curiosity Class "The Experience of Grief" on Saturday July 5th and our next Philosophical Skills Workshop "How to Evaluate an Argument" on Saturday June 21!)

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This event is brought to you by Being and Becoming, a Toronto based non-profit. We aim to create community around exploring everyday concepts and experiences so that we may live more intentional, thoughtful, and meaningful lives. We use philosophy as a tool with which we can come to a richer understanding of the world around us.

By offering activities, spaces, and other opportunities for conversation and co-exploration, we hope to enable the meeting and fusion of individuals and their ideas. Everyone is welcome, regardless of background: indeed, we believe the journey is best undertaken alongside explorers from a variety of disciplines, cultures, backgrounds, and experiences.

Find out more about Being and Becoming here.

About the Curiosity Café Series:

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to join us at our Curiosity Cafés and are wondering what they’re all about: every two weeks, we invite members of our community to come out to the Madison Avenue Pub to engage in a collaborative exploration of our chosen topic. Through these events, we aim to build our community of people who like to think deeply about life’s big questions, and provide each other with some philosophical tools to dig deeper into whatever it is we are most curious about.