Portrait by Doug Gimesy
The Frederik van Eeden lecture is an annual tradition at the ISVW. In 1916, Frederik van Eeden, together with some of his dearest friends, founded what is now the International School of Philosophy in the midst of WWI. Today, a century later, the ISVW remains a not-for-profit organisation and continues to bring philosophy to a wide audience by means of public events and accessible but in-depth philosophy courses. The estate includes not only our Philosophy Institute, but also a publishing house and a state-of-the-art hotel and conference venue. Six years ago, the first Frederik van Eeden lecture was delivered.
Every year, the ISVW invites a thinker who has actively published and contributed to urgent international public debates and does this with philosophical rigour. Thus, the Frederik van Eeden Lecture connects the public with engaged philosophy and is, amidst our various courses and summerschools, our key annual event. The Frederik van Eeden lecture takes place in the Frederik van Eeden lecture hall, our largest hall (>180 capacity).
Previous speakers include Francis Fukuyama, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Sloterdijk, Will Kymlicka, Mogobe Ramose, Patricia Churchland and Frans de Waal.
Frederik van Eeden Lecture 2024
Transformation to The Symbiocene
Glenn A Albrecht PhD
The book, Earth Emotions, is an account of the relationship between the state of the Earth and our mental and emotional states. It presents a now commonly accepted scenario that during the epoch known as the Anthropocene, our relationship to the total Earth has turned bad. Not only have we threatened the health of the planet with a toxic, cruel, parasitic, extractive and wasteful economy, we have also triggered an avalanche of mental and emotional distress on humans and non-humans all over the planet. The negative psychoterratic (psyche-Earth) mental and emotional health impacts of the Anthropocene, or age of attempted human dominance, have included my concepts of solastalgia, global dread and tierratrauma, and, from many others, eco-anxiety, eco-grief and ecoparalysis. In other words, the lack of intelligence as represented by the ecocidal Anthropocene and its tragically flawed anthropocentric thinking is leading us to sickness then extinction.
In order to confront our imminent collapse, we need the very opposite of the despotism of the Anthropocene. An actively created symbiotic relationship with the rest of life on this wonderful planet is one that emerges from positive psychoterratic mental and emotional states. These include my concepts of soliphilia, eutierria, endemophilia and, from many others, topophilia, biophilia and ecophilia. The combination of positive psychoterratic states and life-affirming science and technology will give point and purpose to those who undertake this transformational work. From a healthy mental and biophysical base, we humans can build the Symbiocene using bioscience and symbioactive technologies that are safe, renewable and non-polluting. As the Anthropocene collapses, the Symbiocene must be built. Bad growth (dysbiosis) is transformed by human intelligence into good growth (symbiosis). In other words, the anthropocentric thinking of the Anthropocene needs to be supplanted by symbiocentric thinking in the Symbiocene. We move from a death and disease economy into a living and healthy one.
The collapse of the Anthropocene shows us “This changes everything”.
The creation of the Symbiocene shows us “This is how we change everything”.
This Frederik van Eeden lecture is a collaboration with the Vereniging Vrienden van de ISVW and organized with its support.