84. The Horizons Will Remain – Jonna Bornemark

Philosophy is life. It is always present in life. In a way, every human being is a philosopher. But we also have collective thinking and collective experiences, and that's what a professional philosopher deals with.

Philosophy professor Jonna Bornemark works at the Center for Studies in Practical Knowledge at Södertörn university in Stockholm. Many Swedes have come to appreciate her everyday approach to philosophy. She often appears in the media.

A couple of years ago she released a book about judgment that was much discussed, and her latest book, about pregnancy, was on the shelves a few days before this conversation.

Jonna Bornemark argues that the room for judgment has shrunk in modern professional life. And the room for action.

”To follow a manual is not to act”, she says.

In every profession there is a space for collective judgment. Professional knowledge can be developed within this space, according to Bornemark.

We sometimes talk about judgment as a personal characteristic.

”I think  that is unfortunate. Instead, it is a kind of knowledge. We can be differently skilled at it.”

Jonna Bornemark hesitates to liken judgment with intuition. And she does not like the concept of ’following one’s gut feeling’.

”To follow only one source of knowledge, your feeling, is not judgment. We should follow as many sources of knowledge as possible.”

Often we have to act fast, and sometimes we just have a sense that we must act in a certain way.

”That may seem like acting on gut feeling, but when you look at it closer, it is much more.”

”To have judgment is to be intimately in touch with the newness of every situation. To be able to always act without knowing everything.”

Not-knowingness fills Jonna Bornemark with a euphoric feeling.

”It means we can always explore more. To some it may trigger anxiety because you are not in control. To me it is mainly positive.”

The constantly moving horizons of uncertainty and of not knowing are the lifeblood of science, but the scientific and educational systems are bad at acknowledging this, Bornemark thinks.

Sometimes we need to use our judgment to deal with conflicting forces. Jonna Bornemark has coined the term ”pactivity” for situations where we are passive and active at the same time. She first felt the need for such a concept when she tried to understand the experience of giving birth.

”The labor pain was not mine. It belonged to life itself. I experienced it like some kind of monster going through me. But I had to not object to it, that would have been dangerous. I had to continue its movement in order to give birth. So I wasn't purely active and I wasn't purely passive. I was pactive.”

When does life begin?

”It is a continuum. To draw a line, to give it a timestamp, is just a human desire. The logic of life is the logic of a continuum. That is why we need to look at the question of abortion anew.”

The fetus probably doesn't have the sense of ’I’. Even a newborn displays a sense of oneness. When does the sense of a separate self begin? Is it conditioned? Is it possible to maintain the sense of oneness throughout life? Those are questions we raise during this conversation.

Bornemark doesn’t like the reductionist materialism that is so prevalent in society.

”It is a poor worldview. And not true. But I like matter.”

”One way of responding to reductionist materialism could be to only emphasize the spiritual side, but my response is to work with the concept of matter, to re-understand what matter is: living, self-forming – and also including the spiritual side.”

Jonna’s university profile https://tinyurl.com/ywsh5bne

Jonna’s books https://volante.se/forfattare-och-talare/jonna-bornemark/