Last year, one of the highlights for me was the opportunity to participate in the Aspen Institute’s Young Executive Seminar in September.
This program provided a unique space to ponder the essence of education and the liberal arts through Eastern and Western classical literature.
It was an enlightening experience, shared with peers from various industries.
Program Overview
The program was structured into four sessions:
“World & Japan,” “Recognition,” “Humanity,” and “Society & Democracy.”
These sessions fostered deep thinking and dialogues rooted in universal values, addressing human, cultural, societal issues, and global challenges.
Participants
The seminar included moderators (former corporation executives), resource persons (Univ. professors), and a total of 19 participants (young executives) from 11 highly acclaimed business companies.
READING LIST:
Western Classics:
- José Ortega y Gasset: “The Revolt of the Masses”
- Shakespeare: “Julius Caesar”
- Plato: “Phaedrus”
- Aristotle: “Metaphysics”
- Blaise Pascal: “Pensées”
- Immanuel Kant: “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals”
- John Dewey: “Reconstruction in Philosophy”
- Henri Bergson: “The Two Sources of Morality and Religion”
- Hippocrates: “On the Old Medicine”
- Henry David Thoreau: “Walden”
- John Stuart Mill: “The Subjection of Women”
- Abraham Lincoln: “The Gettysburg Address”
Eastern Classics:
- Natsume Sōseki: “The Civilization of Modern-Day Japan”
- Mori Ōgai: “Under Reconstruction”
- Uchimura Kanzō: “How I Became a Christian”
- Mencius: “Mencius”
- Murasaki Shikibu: “The Tale of Genji”
- “The Tale of the Heike”
- Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki: “Oriental Perspective”
- Kiyoshi Kiyosawa: “A Dark Diary”
- Tomonobu Imamichi: “Eco-Ethica”
My personal favorite from these classics was “The Tale of the Heike.”
As is well known, it depicts the fall of a once-glorious clan. The Buddhist values woven throughout the narrative teach the importance of humility and self-reflection at all times – a truth applicable across politics, entertainment, business, and other spheres.
It also provoked deep thought about the significance of our current lives and our achievements.
Key Learnings
Attitude Towards Learning:
At Aspen, two principles were emphasized: deep thinking and repetitive dialogue.
Learning began with individual engagement with the selected classics, confronting the written concepts and expressions.
After exhaustive contemplation, participants gathered to share insights and engage in dialogue.
This exchange of diverse perspectives and interpretations led to profound learning and new understandings.
Understanding “Not Understanding”:
Instructors provided fascinating insights into students’ expressions of difficulty or lack of understanding.
There are two aspects to this:
- Difficulty in comprehending content due to language translation, historical context, vocabulary, and regional differences.
This challenge is vital as it drives the effort to understand and see the world from new perspectives. - Not understanding why certain issues are important.
This requires learning and insight to recognize and engage with these issues, thereby expanding our world view.
Liberation from Limitations:
The seminar also touched upon learning through liberal arts, defined as techniques to liberate humans.
This liberation involves overcoming four kinds of limitations:
- Knowledge Limitations: Expanding beyond what we know.
- Experience Limitations: Deepening understanding through interaction with others and texts.
- Perspective Limitations: Freeing ourselves from our current views and broadening our perspective.
- Thinking Limitations: The most crucial, breaking free from fixed mindsets and making borrowed words our own through personal reflection and thought.
Applying Learnings to Work:
The seminar provided various perspectives from Eastern and Western classics, applicable not just to life and worldviews but also to everyday work.
The complex theories of Kant, Plato, or the narrative artistry of Shakespeare, for instance, offer practical applications and techniques to enhance teaching and impact learning.
Future Endeavors:
The instructors encouraged revisiting these classics, emphasizing that re-reading might change perceptions and bring new insights, signifying personal growth.
The goal is to continue learning, not out of blind obligation, but to cherish the “unknown” within, to expand our world, and to free ourselves from limitations.
Conclusive Thought:
This year, as I continue my learning journey, I will focus on not just acquiring knowledge but also on engaging in meaningful dialogues and applying these insights.
It’s about enjoying the process of learning and growing, both intellectually and personally.
