Topic: Certificate Program 2024 Commencement

Presenters: Certificate Program Leadership, Faculty, and Participants

Since its inception, the Cobb Institute has provided a number of compelling and fascinating educational offerings. In our Learning Lab, as we sometimes call it, we’ve conducted a wide variety of experiments, all with the aim of transforming education for ecological civilization. Whitehead once said, “What education has to impart is an intimate sense for the power of ideas, for the beauty of ideas, and for the structure of ideas, together with a particular body of knowledge which has peculiar reference to the life of the being possessing it.” As important as ideas are, the impact they have on our lives is equally if not more vital. Indeed, we offer an approach to learning that seeks to bring about transformations in both our students and the worlds they inhabit: from value-free research to personal growth; from isolated learners to learners-in-community; from attachment to dogmatic ideologies to openness to evidence; from gaining knowledge as mere data to knowledge as wisdom nourished by multiple ways of knowing; and from the primacy of analysis to the primacy of creative synthesis and embodied discovery.

The Cobb Institute’s most ambitious educational offering is the Certificate Program in Process Thought & Practice. The program provides an occasion for students to learn about the great diversity of process philosophies and the many ways in which those ideas can be expressed in everyday life. It begins with a general introduction to process thought and ends with an opportunity to creatively and concretely express what participants have learned. In between students participate in courses covering Whitehead’s philosophy of organism, major religious traditions, the complex landscape of ecological civilization, and the relevance of Whitehead’s cosmology to the natural sciences. 15 students recently completed the 2024 program, and for our gathering this week, we will take a break from our usual format to host their commencement ceremony. During our time together, we’ll hear from the program dean and the faculty members about their experience, the graduates will each give a brief presentation on their capstone synthesis and springboard projects, and we’ll take a brief look at what’s on the horizon for the 2025 program.

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Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.