2021
Institute Founded
50+
Articles Written
4
Rooms In The Institute
1
Central Idea
The idea behind the Institute
Justin Glass founded the Institute of Reflection in 2021 with a single animating conviction: that the West has its own deep tradition of meditative thought — and that it is time to give it a name, a home, and a capital letter.
The word “meditation” has, since the 1960s, acquired an orientation toward the East. It has earned its capital M. Justin’s argument — developed over years of reading, thinking and writing — is that a capital R is now the due of Reflection. The West has a vantage point on reflective thought that has been long in the brew. It is time to signpost it properly.
“It could be a better world for all of us if Reflection was more valued as a norm.”
What the Institute is – and isn’t
The Institute is not a philosophy website, though it draws on philosophy. It is not a science journal, though it takes science seriously. It is not a self-help platform, though it believes that careful thought can transform a life.
It is, in Justin’s own words, “a place where someone might start their journey into realms worthy of reflection that they hardly realised awaited them.” A virtual Agora — an internet version of the public square in ancient Greece where thinkers of all kinds exchanged ideas. A jumping-off point, not a final destination.
Its spirit is captured in a line Justin returns to often, from Joseph Addison: “I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I brought philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea tables and in coffee houses.”
Mission Statement
“To establish Reflection as the West’s own tradition of meditative thought — a practical discipline for clearer thinking, better judgement, and a more considered life.”
The spirit of the Institute
Justin is not interested in founding a movement, a school of thought, or a set of rules. The Institute is deliberately undogmatic — it asks nothing of its visitors except a willingness to think more carefully.
It is, he says, an antidote to an increasingly fast-paced world — a counterweight to the instant modes of communication and the foghorns of stridency that have come to dominate public life. It encourages open-mindedness, respect for the reasonable opinions of others, and the kind of reflective thinking that is both a private good and, if enough people do it, a public one.
The person who thinks up ideas for himself is in clover here.