Malcolm CC Armstrong, Ph.D.
Managing Director

Malcolm Armstrong considers himself a journeyer. He has come to value the process of living within the confines of life’s labyrinth and to appreciate the beauty and mystery of life’s uncertainties. The vision of the Zeitgeist Project awoke him one night and from that moment he felt compelled to urge the project toward reality.

Before beginning his academic career with a liberal arts degree from the University of Waterloo, Malcolm served as an infantryman in the Canadian Armed Forces. Later he made his first trip to India to help serve in a Himalayan village for a year. After Waterloo he embarked on a photographic journey via motorcycle across North America. During the road trip he took a three month hiatus to work on a tall-ship while sailing through the Caribbean before making his way to the Amazon.

Upon completion of his photographic journey, Malcolm then completed his first MA degree in Charlotte, N.C. before heading to South Africa to play as a member of a touring soccer team. While there, Malcolm became aware of the significance of learning from other cultures and how important preventive philanthropy can be.

With this in mind, Malcolm returned to Canada to continue his studies in Philosophy and World Religions. He obtained a second Master’s degree at the University of Toronto while spending his summers interning as a research assistant with an international organization headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

In 2001, Malcolm moved to India for four years so that he could complete his PhD in World Religions. He later switched to the faculty of Philosophy because he felt compelled to write on a pertinent subject more relevant to today's world.

The area of Malcolm’s doctoral research is in Epistemology. His extensive travels and interactions with the people of India led him to develop an original approach to the subject of truth which began with a question: Why is there so much divergence over similar truth claims and why do such claims often cause divisiveness and sometimes even violence?

While spending a month alone in the Thar Desert of north-western India, near the Pakistani border, Malcolm began to tackle this question. While contemplating over the silence of the desert, he journaled prolifically. Through the harshness of the desert an answer began to emerge amongst the experiences of solitude, lack of food, extreme heat, and sand storms.

He later would call this answer Heuristic Epistemology —an approach to limit divisiveness by creating a propensity for authenticity. His dissertation is based on the premise that in the order of enquiry how we think must take precedence over what we think. In doing so, Malcolm created an epistemic paradigm shift by developing a dispositive approach to how we think about truth and how we dialogue . . . in the hope of limiting conflict. To read a PDF summary of Malcolm’s findings click here.

Malcolm is also an accomplished photographer and recently began showing his work publicly. In his first exhibit, he had the privilege of having his images exhibited alongside critically acclaimed photographer Steve McCurry (who shot the famous "Afghan girl" cover for National Geographic) and world renowned portrait photographer Mary Ellen Mark. His images can be viewed by clicking here.

For the past four years, he served as the Project Director for World Heritage Project. Malcolm Armstrong resides in Toronto.