Science and Beyond

Science and Beyond - Daniel Bernardus meets Rolf Sattler

2022-08-30T15:18:00.001+02:00

Rolf Sattler recently published a book called "Science and Beyond" - the same title as this blog. That's more than enough reason for an in-depth conversation!

Some relevant links: Rolf's book. Rolf's website. Daniel's blog. Daniel's website.

In need of some inspiration while sitting at home? Podcast on being human in modern times: Freedom in Quarantine.

2021-12-21T10:23:00.001+01:00

Emma Cohen de Lara and Daniel Bernardus discuss what modern thinkers commonly think is most important about being human.

Video version

Audio version

More on Leonardo Polo @ The Heights Forum.

The Canyons and Stars website.

Info / order "Freedom in Quarantine" here.

Thanks to Joost Bibian of BL productiesfor producing this podcast.

Podcast on Freedom in Quarantine at the Heights Forum.

2021-07-03T20:58:00.003+02:00

The American school "The Heights" recently posted a podcast on their "Forum" about my book Freedom in Quarantine.

If you're interested you can listen to it here.

"Win Win Win" has hit the shops!

2021-01-08T09:42:00.004+01:00

The day has finally arrived: our novel "Win Win Win" has been printed and is available for purchase.

You can use it as a creative way to build trust among colleagues, for example: read it together and discuss the book. I'd be happy to assist!

Click here for more info and orders.

Publication Date and Cover Release of Win Win Win!

2020-12-16T15:13:00.002+01:00

"Win Win Win" the novel by Lans Bovenberg, Manon Blanke and myself, will be published the 8th of January! The cover has now been released, you can see it below!

"Win Win Win" tells the story of Miriam, an ambitious student who, on the verge of resisting her mother and independently deciding her future, is invited last-minute to a prestigious contest. She decides to join with two other students. She never expected them to become such a stumbling block. The team opts to attack the contest by re-thinking economics from a relationship angle. But as soon as the contest starts Miriam must learn in practice in what way money and relationships should truly combine. If not, her team falls apart and she loses the opportunity to follow her dream.

In this book you will discover:

What radically different attitudes towards life, communication and collaboration can look like
A mirror on our way of dealing with others that is not always comfortable, but inspiring and ultimately very rewarding
A source of deep conversations that help people

Giving this book signals your appreciation, trust and confidence. Discussing this book together is a method for identifying obstacles to trusting collaboration and overcoming them together. You want to build trust, and this book will help you make that a reality.

If you like an original gift that can really help a person, this is your book.

Click here to pre-order today via the website of the publisher, Amsterdam University Press:
https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463723268/win-win-win

Nice Mercatornet interview on "Freedom in Quarantine"

2020-11-12T10:06:00.001+01:00

Mercatornet was so kind to interview me about "Freedom in Quarantine", of which the paperback came out recently.

I think the interview captures the core of the book quite well. Happy reading!

If you'd like to get a copy of the book, this website shows were you can find it.

" Freedom in Quarantine" has been launched and is available!

2020-07-20T11:40:00.001+02:00

The 4th of July saw the online launch of "Freedom in Quarantine". This is a short summary of what happened.

In case you are interested in the booklet, it is available as e-book in these places. The print version will appear in October.

Freedom in Times of Quarantine. Free webinar!

2020-03-29T10:56:00.000+02:00

Are you up for some quiet reflection after the so-many-th corona update? Discover powerful insights about freedom and how these are useful for you, also now!

Sign up here for the English webinar, Saturday April 4th 14:00 Amsterdam time: bit.ly/freedomquarantine A replay will be available for those who sign up.

Sign up here for the webinar in Dutch, Thursday April 2nd 19:30 Amsterdam time: bit.ly/quaravrijheid A replay will be available for those who sign up.

Is the future uncertain at times? Do you have big dreams, but is the road towards them not always clear? Do study or work not always easily combine with personal relationships? Discover that big thinkers have been tackling these questions for ages, and that they have very useful insights. Convert wisdom from the past into power for the future.

In the Spanish-speaking world the philosopher Leonardo Polo is regarded as an expert in the field of philosophical anthropology, which contains the philosophical study of freedom. His “lo radical y la libertad” (roots and freedom) is an impressive summary in 60 pages of the main points in the European though tradition on freedom. His work will open new horizons for you.

In “freedom in times of quarantine”, Daniel Bernardus will make the most important points of “lo radical y la libertad” accessible to you. He will explain the main questions posed, the answers given, and their internal coherence. In this way you’ll get an inspiring overview of the most important insights on freedom in European thought.

In “freedom in times of quarantine” you’ll discover:
- Why in modern times production and creative freedom are so highly valued and why that goes together with uncertainty.
- Why the modern ideal of freedom has entered a postmodern crisis.
- Why the classical view of freedom can give more serenity, but where it is lacking.
- What insights Christian thinkers have to offer about personal freedom.
- How we can combine the strong points of the different streams of thought.
- What that means for daily life, also in times of quarantine!

“Freedom in times of quarantine” is a free webinar that will help you get deeper insight into what freedom is and what that means for you. You can join live and ask questions or view it back later. If you like thinking about important questions in an accessible way, you will enjoy this webinar.

Sign up here for the English webinar, Saturday April 4th 14:00 Amsterdam time: bit.ly/freedomquarantine A replay will be available for those who sign up.

Sign up here for the webinar in Dutch, Thursday April 2nd 19:30 Amsterdam time: bit.ly/quaravrijheid A replay will be available for those who sign up.

The Bank of Good Intentions

2019-11-30T21:09:00.000+01:00

Recently Marcel Canoy gave a lecture at Amsterdam University College on his book "The Bank of Good Intentions". I made this lecture into a podcast in three parts.

You can download them here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Relax, Relate, Reflect goes next level

2019-11-16T17:53:00.002+01:00

On my Dutch blog www.daanvanschalkwijk.nl I have been using the slogan 'Relax, Relate, Reflect' for a while now. It expresses the core of how I would like people to use my popular writings.

Now, I am taking this slogan to the next level with a monthly mailing list aimed at helping people have good conversations with friends, family, and colleagues about big questions in their lives. You can sign up here. Here's a short intro.

Do people really behave the way classical economics expects them to?
I explore this theme in a story on Claudio, an economics student, who dresses up as Sinterklaas and tries to play game theory pranks on his cousins, risking a family disaster.

(*) I'm starting to use my first names Daniel Bernardus as a writing name more accessible to international audiences than the 'interesting' Dutch sounds...

Mercatornet Article on Loneliness

2019-11-16T17:41:00.001+01:00

Recently, I've been working with students at Amsterdam University College on mental health issues. It's a big problem in our western societies. Loneliness is one aspect of it, on which I wrote this op-ed piece at Mercatornet some time ago. Apologies for only posting it here now. The fact that it rose in most-read rankings, underlines the seriousness of the issue.

AUC student writes about faith at university

2019-01-28T10:36:00.000+01:00

For an internship, an AUC student is writing a series of articles about faith at university. One of these articles is about Christianity. For it, she interviewed several people, me among them. The article has turned out very nice and can be read here.

A Better New Year's Resolution: Find Peace of Mind

2019-01-09T10:13:00.001+01:00

This article was published on Mercatornet today. It is the fruit of my philosophical studies over the Christmas break, and wants to help people find some peace of mind in tumultous times.

You can find the article here.

Interesting article: Five Surprising Facts about the Religious Beliefs of Scientists

2016-11-05T11:21:00.002+01:00

This article is rather interesting

Five Surprising Facts About the Religious Beliefs of Scientists Around the World - See more at: http://biologos.org/blogs/guest/five-surprising-facts-about-the-religious-beliefs-of-scientists-around-the-world#sthash.t8NOXVJF.dpuf

Five Surprising Facts about the Religious Beliefs of Scientists Around the World

C.S. Lewis on Religion and Science

2016-07-19T14:24:00.002+02:00

An interesting passage from a C.S. Lewis book on Religion and Science, beautifully illustrated.

Inspiring interview with Oxford Professor Alister McGrath

2016-03-08T16:14:00.004+01:00

Mercatornet has just published a very nice interview with Oxford Professor Alister McGrath, who holds a chair in "Science and Religion".

You can find the interview here.

Polo's Challenge to Biologists in his Introduction to Philosophy

2016-01-21T11:02:00.001+01:00

Recently, I published an review of Leonardo Polo's 'Introduction to Philosophy' in the Journal of Polian Studies. In it, I highlight the challenge Polo's thinking poses to biologists, even in this introductory work. Polo is a 'systemic thinker' who has thought through very fundamental concepts that will prove very useful now that the study of the Human Genome and other 'omes' is proving just how interrelated everything is in an organism.

You can access my full review here.

Interesting website on John Henry Newman

2016-01-04T16:25:00.001+01:00

Paul Shrimpton has recently written a book about John Henry Newman, entitled, "The making of men: the Idea and reality of Newman’s university in Oxford and Dublin" (Gracewing, 2014).

He has now published some of the material in this book on a website, which can be browsed for specific themes of interest. One topic mentioned there, of special interest to me is the one on the compatibility of faith and reason. But there are many others worth exploring.

The homepage of this website can be found here.

Booklet published about Faith and Science: Can I, a Scientific Student, Believe?

2015-08-14T11:17:00.000+02:00

A few years ago I gave a lecture at Amsterdam University College about faith and science, at the request of a student. The response was good then, and I still like the project, so I decided to publish this lecture as a booklet, in electronic format. This booklet is available for free and written in English. You can find more information below.

Can I, a Scientific Student, Believe?

A science student’s intellectual battle to unite himself to his religious parents.

When his Jewish family invites Nicodemus to move with them to Jerusalem, he asks a religious scientist how faith and science can combine; but when fast answers are in short supply, he must both learn that faith requires serious study and that there is more to faith than knowledge alone, or his family’s convictions will remain beyond his reach forever.

The booklet can be downloaded without charge from this page.

4 Paradoxes About Our Personal Desires that will Make You Wonder

2015-05-30T14:43:00.000+02:00

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be completely free? What it would be like to get to know the things you love as deeply as possible? What it would be like to always be together with the person you love most? And have you ever wondered why it is, that we have a great desire to be in these situations, but that these desires seem never to be fully fulfilled?

In this talk, given in a TED-like style, I take you on an exploratory tour of four paradoxes we find within us, related to our deepest desires. I explain why the natural sciences will never be able to explain these paradoxes, and under what conditions they could be explained. Finally, I draw some fundamental conclusions about the science and faith discussion.

These thoughts were inspired on prof. Sellés description in “Antropología para Inconformes” of the personal transcendentals that Leonardo Polo discovered. Enjoy!

About happy families and happy children

2015-03-18T11:30:00.001+01:00

The family is an important theme this year. In the Netherlands, the social systems supporting them have changed quite drastically recently. I have written an article on Mercatornet about that, that you can find here:

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/welfare-reform-needs-strong-families

In the article, I also mention some positive initiatives, like the Parents2B app that my sister has launched. I think that her initiative is really important, and here's why.

How to raise a happy child from Daan van Schalkwijk

Why I am happy to teach about ecology

2014-11-11T10:37:00.000+01:00

Today, I will be teaching the first class in the Big Questions in Science course at Amsterdam University College. In this course, we deal with all the major areas of biology, and we try to focus on the ‘big questions’, which are often in those areas where science and society meet. The first class about ecology is a wonderful opportunity to talk about the importance of taking care of our environment.

In this class, I usually talk about the Lake Victoria disaster, which is a disaster story with a twist. We first focus on the disaster story as it is usually told, then go into the science, which shows the story is more complicated than it seems, and finally move to the management of the ecosystem, which shows that not only the biology is complicated, but the social side of it is as well. In the end, I hope to paint a more complete picture of all the things that go into taking good care of our environment.

Personally, I am very happy to be able to teach about this subject, because I think it is very important that we take good care of our environment, as well as of the people that interact with it. As a Catholic Christian, I think that God has created our planet for us to be our home, but has given us the task to take good care of it, and the task to take good care of each other. Both of these dimensions are intimately related to each other: we cannot take good care of people without taking good care of their environment, while we also cannot take good care of the environment and leave the people that live in it out of the equation, or even try to get rid of them. Only by paying full attention to both people and environment can we establish the wonderful harmony between the human being and creation that God has intended.

Interestingly, the Vatican has over the last years shown with deeds that the Church values the environment. They have for instance installed many solar panels, which have resulted in its being called “the greenest place on earth”. Pope Benedict has also been called “the Green Pope” for this reason, while Pope Francis is seemingly preparing a pastoral letter (encyclical) about the environment issue. So the environment and its inhabitants are important for the Church. All the more reason for me to be happy to be able to teach about it!

Conquering Mental Castles on Mercatornet

2014-11-11T09:13:00.002+01:00

Recently I wrote an article on Mercatornet, about the philosopher Leonardo Polo. In it, I focused on his methodological proposition of "detecting the mental boundary so that we can go beyond it".

In my view, the issue Polo points to is a an important interpretative key for understanding what often goes wrong in the science - religion media debate. Both sides come to the table with their frame of mind, and opening up to the valid points the other makes is sometimes quite difficult. But just this is the challenge.

You can find the article here: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/conquering_mental_castles

Tourette article now also available in Dutch

2014-05-12T10:56:00.001+02:00

The website Tourette Net, a portal for information on Tourette's syndrome, has published the article on genetic determinism and my experiences with Tourette as a guest column.

You can find it here: http://tourettenet.nl/gastcolumns/daan-van-schalkwijk

Why Genes + Environment ~= Us

2014-01-30T14:25:00.000+01:00

Recently, I have started writing a series of popular articles on issues related to science, philosophy, and faith. The first article is about my experience with the syndrome of Gilles de la Tourette, and what this tells us about the limits of current biological thinking, especially genetic determinism.

You can find the article here:

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/why_genes_environment_us

I hope you enjoy the read!