On ethics and contemplation — The Contemplary

The place of contemplation in the ethical life, and the place of ethics in the contemplative life, has been a point of tension in the Western philosophical tradition since Aristotle. It is also a question that has been addressed in various ways and with various answers in the world’s major religious traditions. The relationship between these two domains plays itself out in how we think about a number of age-old binaries: body vs. soul; the mundane vs. the divine; political engagement vs. contemplative retreat; justice vs. wisdom. Likewise, some of the major fault lines in modern politics – the rule of law vs. individual liberty; economics vs. politics – can also be traced to the idea of an original rift between the ends of ethics and contemplation.

In early 2017 The Contemplary was proud to host a discussion with three speakers rooted in different philosophical and religious traditions in order to examine this complicated relationship between ethics and contemplation, and to defend or challenge this notion of a ‘rift’. Ultimately, the speakers task was to explore the place of contemplation amidst the ever increasing sense of urgency and crisis that characterise the new millennium.

Moderated by Tom Hardman.

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Brennan McDavid

Brennan McDavid is the Seymour Reader in Ancient History and Philosophy at Ormond College. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne and teaches subjects in ancient philosophy and Latin. Her research investigates the workings of Aristotle's theory of knowledge, spanning from scientific knowledge to craft know-how to practical wisdom.

Simon Moyle

Simon Moyle lives in the Merri Merri watershed with his wife and four children. He is the elder at GraceTree, a small Christian community who practise hospitality, contemplation, and work with their hands. He is a nonviolence trainer and an activist who has been involved in the antiwar, climate, and refugee movements.

Edwin Ng

Edwin Ng is a cultural theorist and teaches media and communication at a university in Melbourne. He describes himself as a postcolonial “Western Buddhist” convert and researches into the colonial legacy of contemporary Buddhism and the ethics and politics of mindfulness. He is co-organising a think tank for the Mind & Life Institute addressing “Socially-Engaged Mindfulness Interventions (SEMI) and the Promise of Making Refuge”. Of late, Edwin has become more curious about meowfulness than mindfulness.

Tom Hardman (Moderator)

My involvement with The Contemplary originated out a friendship with Charles that had developed while I was tutoring his son in Latin. When he told me of his idea for The Contemplary, the prospect of exposure to different teachers and a community of meditators appealed to my own burgeoning interest in meditation. And indeed, the friendships I have developed and the remarkable people I have met through The Contemplary have been the most rewarding aspects of my involvement in it. In 2018 I finished an honours degree in philosophy. At the moment I am particularly interested in thinkers such as Heidegger and Kant, both of whom are intensely concerned with the relationship between subjectivity and the world at large, or being as such (although neither of them would phrase it like that). Other important sources for me are Simone Weil, Nagarjuna, and the canonical figures of Christian mystical tradition (especially St John of The Cross).