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‘Together in Our Differences’
Freeman Dyson (1923-2020)
The John Templeton Foundation mourns the passing of one of the 20th century’s greatest scientists, Freeman Dyson, who received the Templeton Prize in 2000. He passed away on February 28 at the age of 96. A physicist and mathematical prodigy who served as Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Dyson’s accomplishments extended beyond physics into technology and an extensive and celebrated writing career. An original thinker who viewed the future with optimism, Dyson dedicated much of his life to advocating the development of “joyful and useful” technologies for the benefit of all humankind. Speaking…
“An innate tendency to believe”
Excerpts from Alvin Plantinga’s prepared remarks for the Templeton Prize ceremony on September 24, 2017. I want to thank the John Templeton Foundation for this wonderful award. I’m not at all sure that I deserve this prize, but I’m not going to let that interfere with accepting it. This prize is given for spiritual progress or progress in religion. I don’t know if I’ve made progress in religion – I started out as a member of the Christian Reformed Church, and I’m still Christian Reformed – but maybe that’s not the sort of progress they had in mind. What I…
Early-Career Astrophysicists and Social Scientists Will Have a Front-Row Seat for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Groundbreaking Night Sky Survey
When one of the most important new ground-based telescopes in a generation begins operation as early as next year, a cohort of astrophysics and social science fellows, backed by $6.9 million in funding from the John Templeton Foundation, will be able to collaborate on some of the first discoveries made with its images. The Vera Rubin Observatory (also known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope or LSST) will make nearly-weekly full surveys of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky, as seen from its mountaintop location on Cerro Pachón, Chile. With its 8.5-meter primary mirror reflecting starlight into the largest digital camera ever…
Learning with L’Arche
The groundbreaking community centered on people with intellectual disabilities will examine how to foster humility and compassionate love The L’Arche community began in 1967 when a French Canadian named Jean Vanier invited two intellectually disabled men to live with him as friends in a house in a small village north of Paris. Today, L’Arche — whose name alludes to its role as both a bridge and an ark of refuge for its members — encompasses 154 communities in 38 countries and more than 10,000 residential and non-residential participants. For Vanier — who passed away in May at the age of…
New Grant to Expand the Science of Kindness
Applying ‘growth mindset’ techniques to a playground virtue Parents often tell kids to “be nice,” hoping this will encourage kind behavior. But would be it more effective to treat kindness not as an inherent trait — being a “nice person” — but as a quality that can be strengthened through effort and practice? Thanks to a new two-year study funded by the John Templeton Foundation and led by Arber Tasimi and Carol Dweck of Stanford University, several potential mechanisms for strengthening kindness may soon be better understood. Through a series of four experiments, the project co-leaders hope to learn how…
Character Lab Educator Summit 2017
The 2020 Educator Summit is going virtual this year! The Educator Summit is an annual event, hosted by Character Lab and Relay GSE, designed to give teachers the knowledge and skills they need to help all students develop character. Check out the lineup of speakers and presenters for this year's summit, happening on Wednesday, July 22, 2020: https://educatorsummit.org/ Our recap of the 2017 summit is below, and highlights from previous years can be found here: https://characterlab.org/ed-summit/ How do you help students build strength of heart, mind and will? Researchers and educators gathered recently in Philadelphia…
Is Empathy a Renewable Resource?
New interventions may help people open up rather than shutting down when confronted with others’ needs Empathy — the ability to look at the world from another person’s perspective — has long been recognized as vital for human cooperation and for the development of related virtues like compassion. The ability to extend empathy in both thought and action is an important skill for social and interpersonal thriving — but is it also a limited resource, something that you can over-extend or run out of? Recent studies have shown that people’s tendency to be empathetic can drop off in response to…
WATCH: What Makes an Honest Person? It May Be More Complex Than You Think.
Honesty is intrinsically good. Society, by and large, appears to agree on this notion. We uphold honesty as an important virtue and extol its benefits — it helps us foster healthy relationships, strengthens organizations and communities, and promotes credibility and trust. We celebrate historical exemplars of honesty, like President Abraham Lincoln, and decry public displays of dishonesty, like those committed by Tiger Woods or Bernie Madoff. Why then, if honesty is so important and unanimously appealing, is it so often neglected by academic research? And how can we begin to study its many complexities? These are some of the…
In Memoriam – Michael Bourdeaux (1934-2021)
The John Templeton Foundation and the Templeton Philanthropies mourn the passing of the Reverend Canon Dr. Michael Bourdeaux, champion of religious liberty, founder of the Keston Institute in England, and winner of the 1984 Templeton Prize. He died peacefully in the early hours of March 29 at the age of 87. An Anglican priest, Bourdeaux devoted his life to defending the rights of people persecuted for their religious beliefs, particularly in Eastern Europe. He received the Templeton Prize in 1984 in recognition of his efforts to examine and explain the systematic destruction of religion in Iron Curtain nations during the…
