Join Tim Hayslip and Murray Smith for the launch of their new book Thinking Systematics: Critical-Dialectical Reasoning for a Perilous Age and a Case for Socialism. They will be joined in conversation with Jonah Butovsky.
About Thinking Systematics:
Thinking Systematics (TSS) is conceived as a “toolkit for the mind” — designed to improve how we think about the world, analyze information and pursue our goals. Smith and Hayslip make a compelling argument that individual thinking and collective decision making are being systematically constrained within limits imposed by outmoded forms of cognition and the determination of privileged elites to perpetuate an unsustainable status quo. The dialectical reasoning advocated in this wide-ranging book aims to overcome those limits and to allow a much more profound understanding of the human condition in the 21st century.
Mainstream problem-solving focuses almost exclusively on scientific/technological fixes on one side and moral/cultural remedies on the other. But to comprehend our world adequately far more serious attention must be given to the specifically social, economic and political arrangements shaping our lives. Once embraced by growing numbers of people, TSS strategies, methods and habits of thought can contribute significantly to a “new common sense” — one adequate to meeting the immense challenges facing humanity in our era.
About Tim Hayslip:
Tim Hayslip is a PhD student in sociology at York University. His research focuses on the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and economic sociology, seeking to explain the popularity of the Austrian School of Economics and its remedies for economic malaise: higher interest rates, less market regulation and allowing the bankruptcies of “zombie companies.”
About Murray Smith:
Murray E.G. Smith is professor emeritus in sociology at Brock University, with interests in social theory, political economy, health and illness, social movements, philosophy and dialectical methodology. His previous books include Twilight Capitalism and Invisible Leviathan.
About Jonah Butosky:
Jonah Butovsky teaches quantitative methods and political sociology. He has a BA from McGill University and an MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Professor Butovsky has published articles on Canadian political values, migrant agricultural workers in the Niagara Region, and on the presentation of survey data in the press. He is currently working on one project that examines the political potential of Canadian popular music and another that studies the effects of left-nationalism on the development of Canadian socialism. Professor Butovsky is involved in the labour movement, and is on the executive of the Niagara and District Labour Council.
Jonah Butovsky is affiliated with the Centre for Labour Studies at Brock University. He has written articles on the New Democratic Party and on Canadian political values. His current research is on migrant agricultural workers in Niagara and the representation of public opinion in the press.
