Interpret Europe’s (one of our partners in The Big Green project) Conference 2024, Sustainability: Challenging mindsets through heritage interpretation, was held in Koper, Slovenia, on 21-24 March 2024.
Among others Philipp P. Thapa, a colleague of the Sustainable Europe Research Institute Germany (SERI), and not least another partner of our project, participated and also submitted full paper entitled ‘The ethics of changing others’ minds’ to be published.
Abstract of the paper:
That we try to persuade each other of what we believe to be true and good is a commonplace and often beneficial part of social life. More so, some situations are inherently about and for persuasion. When we attend a lecture or read a newspaper comment, we at least accept the risk of having our minds changed, and we often want just that, in that we want to learn something. The same applies to guided heritage tours. Still, heritage interpreters, like teachers or journalists, find themselves in a position of special trust and hence special responsibility. If they use it to challenge and influence their audience’s habits of mind, they have a moral obligation to make their agenda transparent and be prepared to support it with arguments, not just appeals or suggestive storytelling.
The conference summary publication and a summary of Philipp’s paper are available here:
https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/iecon2024_proceedings.pdf
Read the full paper here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380547012_The_ethics_of_changing_others’_minds_summary
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Philipp P. Thapa is an ecologist, philosopher, and writer. He has worked in international conservation and development, taught ethics
and environmental philosophy at several universities, and published literary writings and translations. As a fellow of the Sustainable
Europe Research Institute Germany, he leads the research under The Big Green (2023–27), an EU project on culture and sustainability.
Contact: philipp.thapa@seri.de