Mission Statement

SynThink: A Forum for Meta/Physical Pragmatics provides an outlet for critical, artistic, scientific and spiritual investigations at Loyola Marymount University. SynThink stimulates a synergetic exchange of ideas, theories, and practices, encourages speculative thought and experimental intellectual expression, and places particular emphasis on combining creative and critical work.

The fundamental premise driving SynThink is that the university must revitalize its connection to the universe.  The university must reinvent itself in ways which heighten human sensitivity to the disparate timescales that shape our lives; we need to spin tales that weave the threads of cosmic, evolutionary, and cultural histories into a fragile yet supple web.

SynThink pursues this mission by forging links between the natural and human sciences, between knowledge and belief, and mind and spirit.  It also encourages a collective atmosphere of learning by integrating academic scholarship, pedagogy and study.  SynThink serves as a forum for interdisciplinary communications using the means at its disposal:

On a global level, it will promulgate selected critical and creative work through its website and whatever ways become possible as the institute evolves.

On its local campus, it works with faculty, students, and administrators interested in making connections across different fields.  This work involves new course design, collaborative research, and community building aimed at improving the intellectual and spiritual quality of campus culture.  Each semester SynThink offers a course and holds a colloquium on a related topic.