INVITATION: Salon on Ethical Biocentrism

[Carolyn A. Parker]

Dear Colleagues:

The AEU Ethical Action Committee will host another Activism at a Distance Salon–”Ethical Biocentrism”--on May 18 at 8:00 PM Eastern.  The Salon has been called as a follow up to our recent Salon on Sentientism to consider another perspective on climate change and how humans can thrive in relationship to the planet and all things that live upon it.

Curt Collier will lead our consideration of how biocentrism and Ethical Culture can fit together.  Says Collier:

"Eighty to ninety years after its founding, Ethical Culture saw the rise of Humanism as a new organizing set of ideas in which. to describe the aspirations of the Ethical Movement. It can be argued that this was very different from Adler’s original philosophical orientation and revealed the triumph of “Deweyism” over “Adlerianism.” Some Ethical Culture congregations went even further afield, stating that Ethical Culture and Unitarianism were more aligned in thought. Sixty years later, we have to ask whether Humanism has served our ideology well."

For the past 20 years, Curt Collier, the Leader of the Bergen Ethical Society and Consulting Leader for the Ethical Culture Society of Silicon Valley, has challenged the notion that congregations need to be aligned with Humanism and called for a return to some of Adler’s original thought. He argues that Ethical Biocentrism is more consistent with Adler’s Ethical Culture than Ethical Humanism and, therefore, is a better model going forward. This salon will cover these topics, including a discussion of what Ethical Biocentrism is and what an Ethical Culture congregation who adopts this philosophy would do differently.

Here’s the Zoom link for the Salon:  https://bit.ly/biocentrism-salon

Here’s the link to a flier that you can use to announce the Salon to your Society.  The flier is also attached as a PDF file.

If your Society would like to be a co-host of the event, sign up on Facebook and join Ethical Society of Austin, Susquehanna Valley Ethical Society, Washington Ethical Society, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Ethical Humanists of Central Iowa, Ethical Humanist Society of Rochester, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture.  (We will continue to update the flyer asap.)

We look forward to seeing you at the Salon on Ethical Biocentrism.  Bring friends!

Peace and goodwill,

Carolyn A. Parker

Chair, AEU Ethical Action Committee