Consciousness or Collapse
Jordi Pigem talks to Iain McGilchrist
Saturday, 5 April 2025
2:00pm
1 hour
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre
£8 - £15
Catalan philosopher and writer Dr Jordi Pigem talks about his new book in which he asks where we should turn to find direction in a world clouded by propaganda and digital mirages.
Pigem ranges across neuroscience, psychiatry, German and Asian philosophies, theoretical physics and the history of literature. He says there are two basic styles of knowing in the mind, the algorithmic mind that leads to a world of control, dehumanisation and meaningless, and the holistic mind that opens a world full of humanity, life and charm. Pigem says these two styles help us to orient ourselves and find meaning.
Pigem has been a visiting professor and speaker at several universities in Europe and America. He was a professor and coordinator of the Philosophy Department of the Masters in Holistic Science at Schumacher College in Dartington, University of Plymouth, England. He has received the Philosophy Prize from the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Here he talks to psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar Dr Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.
Part of the festival’s programme of Spanish and Latin American literature and culture.