Footnotes2Plato

I enjoyed my chat with James Faulk the other day. Here’s the video: I had a mustache for like 5 minutes a few years ago. I have had to accept that online the stache may be restacked forever.  Anyway. Here’s a recap of what was basically a long argument about why natural science is not equivalent to physicalism. Science Is Not Physicalism There is a lot of conflation of science with…

When I turn away from world-weariness, the child in me finds room to wonder,  What is the grass? Is it the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven? Is it a scented gift designedly dropped by God?  Or, is it the beautiful uncut hair of graves? Walt Whitman was a cosmic optimist, but he was not naïvely so. Having been a stretcher bearer during the civil war, he knew the shapes…

The Rosy Crux The central issue is not simply whether Hegel is right, or whether we can derive a more empirically grounded metaphysics than absolute idealism from Darwin’s humble hypothesis of descent with variation. I agree with Charles Taylor that Hegel’s treatment of historical evolution is “disastrous.” By my lights what we are in urgent need of today is the healthy progeny of a happy…

Following up on my contribution to the Latour/AIME reading group, I wanted to say a bit more about the confused concept called “matter.” There are many varieties of materialism, but for the sake of time, let’s follow Robert Jackson by dividing them up into two basic categories: 1) that variety of materialism which understands matter as some ultimate stuff that all emergent forms can be reduced…

Transcript: Dialogue on Raymond Ruyer with Jack and Pedro Matt: Well, I had already been reading some Raymond Ruyer—is that how you pronounce it? Jack: Yeah. Matt: Close enough? Okay. I guess it was you, Jack, who first suggested him a while ago because of my interest in Whitehead. I finally got around to it. Maybe a month ago, I started reading his book on cybernetics. Jack: Oh yeah, it’s…

In our last Whitehead Research Project editorial board meeting, a very interesting issue came up as the critical edition of Science and the Modern World moves toward publication. It turns out that the position of a single “s” opens a huge can of metaphysical worms. In Science and the Modern World, there is a passage where an “isolated system” is described as free from “casual contingent…

It was rather serendipitous that a media agent representing Stephen Meyer reached out to me several weeks ago, since the Discovery Institute’s work popularizing intelligent design had just been brought up in a comment exchange I was having.  The agent shared a link to the new film, The Story of Everything, which is based on Meyer’s book Return of the God Hypothesis. I found it well produced and…

An LLM summary based on the transcript of my panel discussion with Ed Kelly and Iain McGilchrist, moderated by Curt Jaimungal, at last week’s Mind-at-Large conference. Videos of the event will be posted soon! Curt Jaimungal opened by cutting past preliminaries and asking the most basic metaphysical question possible: “What do you all think exists? Like what is your fundamental ontology?” He…

The following is a transcript of my talk last week at our Mind-at-Large Project’s inaugural conference, “A New Dawn.” Video of all the talks, including this one, will be available in a few weeks on the Mind-at-Large website. Buenos días, everyone. I’m here at the Casa Oasis Guest House in Mérida, on the ancestral lands of the Yucatec Maya, whose descendants continue to live here on the Yucatán…

A recap of my remarks on Day 2’s Mind-at-Large Conference Plenary Panel (also featuring Ed Kelly and Iain McGilchrist, moderated by Curt Jaimungal). I repeat the questions when relevant so you will know what Curt asked.  1. Well, I am tempted to take this in a direction that might sound a little idealistic, but when you ask what is real, I want to begin with human personhood as the most basic…

LLM transcript of my chat with Seekers Mindtalks. Chapter 1: Exploring Reality and Consciousness [00:00] Raj: What if the way you experience reality isn’t reality itself? What if this constant feeling of disconnect, the low-level anxiety, the sense that something’s missing isn’t modern life, but just a misunderstanding of who you are? In this episode of Seekers Mind Talks, I sit down with Matt…

Was there ever a time before metaphysics? Will there be a time after it? Pre and post, a priori and a posteriori, the here and now and the infinite Beyond: always and everywhere the opposites are meeting and making one another! We can strive to grow out of puerile metaphysics, but the claim to have transcended metaphysics entirely is not a sign of philosophical maturity. It is adolescent…

Nathan Hawkins and I just finished a podcast recording (above) that I hope will contribute to amplifying the deeper notes that are still just barely audible beneath the surface noise of the culture war. We both agree that dialogue must replace partisan shouting, and that philosophy has an important public role to play in helping to bring such a shift about. We have both noticed the way that…

We finished our Hartmut Rosa reading group this morning (recordings are available here). I am grateful for Tripp Fuller’s invitation to study this text. It was my first time reading Rosa, and I found his sociological intervention convergent with many of my own ways of thinking. As I’ll relate below, Tripp and I had no trouble finding connections to Whitehead’s cosmology. Some of the essays we…

I came to this cityat the edge of the continentas so many dreamers before mefollowing the westward winds of timelike the gold-glinting eyesof greedy men who mistook the ocean’s endless horizonfor a promise made only to them.I was destined by a different orenot yet hardened but still molten to the core,something older than the veinstorn open for profit by 49ers.After the gold rush came the god…

The frogs are croaking on my left down in the Eel River, and on my right is the low roar of semis on the 101. This is nearly my last night in Humboldt County. I came out to the hot tub one last time to take in the night sky. It happened to be clear tonight, for a moment. The fog has already rolled in, but I was able to sneak a few prayers through to our astral ancestors before they vanished.…

Rahul Samaranayake has had me on his podcast a few times over the years, including an especially generative conversation with Peter Rollins last year. This time he invited me and Graham Harman into dialogue. Below is the transcript.  Whitehead popping Kant’s phenomenal bubble. RAHULIt’s funny. I was reading some of your articles, Graham. You mention Whitehead quite a lot. So obviously my head…