Tom CulhamUniversity of British Columbia - Vancouver | UBC · W Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics (CAE)
Tom Culham
Ph D Philosophy of Education Simon Fraser University MASc UBC
About
30
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76
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Tom Culham currently works at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser - Vancouver. Tom conducts research in Ethics, Higher Education applying contemplative practices and social emotional learning to develop student's self-awareness and character . The current research project is 'Evaluation of The Impact of Business Ethics Education'.
Publications
Publications (30)
How can Daoism benefit Western education?
Here open Access Government speaks to Dr Tom Culham on the benefits of incorporating Daoism in Western education. Throughout this illuminating interview, Dr Culham looks at how Daoism could be used to progress current societies on an international scale. Culham explains that the world is in crisis - we have...
This paper traces Heesoon Bai’s contributions to science education. Over the course of her career, Heesoon has written many scholarly articles that explore the foundational theories relevant to the culture of science education. Drawing from Eastern contemplative traditions, Heesoon aims to repair the separation between subject and object, a dualism...
The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to our working knowledge, practice and pedagogy of compassion through consideration of a Daoist perspective on the matter. I begin with a consideration of Daoist cosmology and a sage’s compassion drawn primarily from the Daodejing, This serves as a backdrop to consider Daoist contemplative pedagog...
Can the philosophical foundations of spiritual practices inform management education pedagogy and in the long-run support emotional development and more ethical and responsible business practice? In this paper, we introduce the essential aspects of three different spiritual traditions – Daoist inner work, Buddhist mindful reflexivity, and Quaker di...
Can the philosophical foundations of spiritual practices inform management education pedagogy and in the long-run support emotional development and more ethical and responsible business practice? In this article, we introduce the essential aspects of three different spiritual traditions—Daoist inner work, Buddhist mindful reflexivity, and Quaker di...
Chapter 6 is an introduction to Part II of the book which is inspired by Tom’s personal journey of grappling with the concept that science and spirit are a unity. This struggle arose from his involvement in engineering and business in his work life and his personal interest in Daoism. These ways of thinking and being seemed to him to be worlds apar...
This chapter is an introduction of Jing Lin’s personal experience of cultivating meditation methods mainly based in Daoist traditions. She shared her personal experience of being opened up to new horizons, and gaining direct and embodied understanding of many of the Daoist classics. Through expanding inner awareness and obtaining new abilities to r...
This chapter focuses on the Daoist epistemology, that is, the integration of knowing and being. Adjustment of one’s heart-mind is vital for energy and wisdom, that is, aligning our beliefs, values, mindsets, attitudes, dispositions, habits, intentions, speeches, and actions with virtues. Achieving ever-deepening levels of tranquillity is to tap int...
This chapter goes deeply into the Daoist pursuit of immortality, detailing some of the stages Daoist practitioners went through and the phenomena of physical, spiritual, moral, and energy transformation. The birth of the immortal child requires filling oneself with more and more of the powerful Original Qi. This energy is refined to become Zhen Qi...
The Daoist virtue and the nature of the technology required for its development are explored more deeply. Ancient Chinese believed there were two ways to understanding the universe: one through rational understanding, and the other through intuitive non-rational means obtained through contemplative practices. The latter provided access to experient...
This chapter highlights the challenges in our society and in education, and advocates the need for reviving our interest and curiosity in the profound secrets of life, going beyond the mundane and exploring the fundamental principles and realities of life and the cosmos. Jing Lin posits if we understand and embody virtues such as love, compassion,...
This chapter considers neuroscientist views that there are significant differences in the consciousness and values of the left and right brain. The right takes a holistic perspective, perceiving itself to be in unity with the world and expresses altruistic values, whereas the left takes a reductionist view for the purpose of getting things done, an...
This chapter integrates the content of Chaps. 6 to 10 providing Daoist inspired education insights. Where possible current scientific supporting evidence is provided. Two fundamental ideas provide context and framework for Daoist informed education: the need to place virtue development as the first priority, and second a shift in pedagogy to includ...
This chapter provides an overview and rationale for the value of cultivating virtue and qi as articulated by the Daoists. First, a brief overview of the differences and similarities of Daoist and western enlightenment concepts is provided. A key point they share is that enlightenment comes about through individual effort. A significant point where...
This chapter lays out the Daoist cosmology and axiology, or the philosophy of qi and virtues. It details how Dao is viewed as the Primordial Energy and the Creative Force, and that in Daoism, meditation is taken as “cultivating Dao”. Dao has specific qualities that a practitioner can embody and become immortal like the Dao. When one is transformed...
This chapter gives an introduction to the book. The first part highlights the necessity for this book, given our world’s challenges in many fronts. The chapter then gives an introduction about the arrangement of the book, mainly that the book is written as two separate parts by Jing Lin and Tom Culham but on overlapping themes. Part I by Jing turns...
Chapter 10.1007/978-3-030-44947-6_9’s ideas are developed more deeply by describing the process of one’s alignment with virtue: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The parallel views of selected western thinkers and scientists in relation to the claims of Daoists are considered in the vein of unifying science and spirit. For example...
This book explores the Daoist philosophies of qi and virtue through inquiry into their potential as technologies for cultivating good among individuals and society within educational settings, as well as more broadly in the modern world. The first part of the book, authored by Jing Lin, examines Daoist cosmology, axiology, and epistemology. In so d...
This presentation explores the paradigms of western science and Daoist practices such as traditional Chinese medicine in the form of qigong to consider how a spiritual research paradigm might be developed. While this might seem unusual, our justification is based on an aspect of comparative philosophy that draws insights for contemporary life from...
Einstein held that intuition is more important than rational inquiry as a source of discovery. Further, he explicitly and implicitly linked the heart, the sacred, devotion and intuitive knowledge. The raison d’être of universities is the advance of knowledge; however, they have primarily focused on developing student's skills in working with ration...
The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to our working knowledge, practice and pedagogy of compassion through consideration of a Daoist perspective on the matter. I begin with a consideration of Daoist cosmology and a sage’s compassion drawn primarily from the Daodejing, This serves as a backdrop to consider Daoist contemplative pedagog...
Events on Wall Street and Main Street tell us that some business leaders make dramatically unethical self serving decisions that ignore the public interest. How can business schools educate future business leaders to make ethical decisions? Unfortunately, most business schools fail in teaching ethical decision-making. They erroneously assume that s...
In recent times, the economic crisis and associated meltdowns of companies have contributed to an increasingly negative perception of business and industry. Numerous corporate scandals and failures have motivated people to ask questions about the leaders at the forefront of these organizations, and about their integrity. The public is losing trust...
Projects
Project (1)
Study Purpose:
The purpose of the research is to determine the short-term contribution to the ethical development of business students with a focus on character virtues in an undergraduate setting utilizing virtue ethics pedagogy that employs emotional intelligence (EI), and contemplative practices.
Research Questions
Education of character virtues requires not just the acquisition of knowledge; rather it requires development of awareness of one’s intuitive values and a transformation of one’s traits, disposition and ultimately character. That is: “Education into the virtues involves the mastery, the disciplining, and the transformation of desires and feelings” (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 109). An important aspect of character development therefore, is personal transformation. There are four research questions regarding character virtue education that can be evaluated all of which involve personal transformation:
1. Is the individual better able to regulate their emotions?
2. Has the individual become more aware of their implicit values?
3. Has the individual been caused to consider, question and or transform their implicit values?
4. Has the individual gained an awareness of their purpose? (Culham, 2015).
Culham, T., (2015), Virtue Ethics as a Framework for Teaching and Evaluating Business Ethics, Journal of Business Ethics Education, 12 (4).
MacIntyre, A. (1988), Whose Justice? Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
