Footnotes2Plato

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
–Alfred North Whitehead

Month: December 2010

  • The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method: newyorker.com

    The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method: newyorker.com. This is a big blow to big science. Apparently, the scientific method, with all its supposed statistical objectivity, is not as good at proving facts as you think. Is this just some sort of confirmation bias inherent to the process of publishing research findings, or is there…

  • Uncovering the Unconscious: Towards an Integral Psychology

    This paper was presented at the Jung Society of Monterey in 2019 (video below, unfortunately with poor audio):

  • Alchemical Distillation

    Alchemy is an ancient science, so primordial that its practice assumes a unification between art, technology, and religion. Prior to the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, these spheres were understood to be concerned with one and the same pursuit: the realization of the ends of spirit in earthly time. Distillation was never merely* a physiochemical process of…

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Archetypal Analysis

    The following is a short essay for a course on archetypal astrology that I took this semester with Richard Tarnas. For those unfamiliar with the general approach, this essay by Tarnas may be of service. Also see this introduction to planetary archetypes. Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Archetypal Analysis  Tonight I walked under the stars through…

  • Final Draft: Towards a Naturalistic Panentheism

    I finished the essay on the philosophy and anthropology of religion, called “Religion and the Modern World: Towards a Naturalistic Panentheism,” that I posted last week in rough draft form. Here is the conclusion: A naturalist panentheism builds its case for the existence and importance of God not upon logical or sensori-empirical proofs. Rather, the…

  • James Hillman on the folly of reducing mind to brain.

    From The Soul’s Code by James Hillman, p. 150-154: The upshot of genetic studies leads in two (!) directions: a narrow path and a broad one. The narrow road heads toward simplistic, monogenic causes. It wants to pinpoint bits of tissue and correlate them with the vast complexity of psychic meanings. The folly of reducing…

  • Religion and the Modern World: Towards a Naturalistic Panentheism

    Religion and the Modern World: Towards a Naturalistic Panentheism “Dear people, let the flower in the meadow show you how to please God and be beautiful at the same time. —The rose does not ask why. It blooms because it blooms. It pays no attention to itself nor does it wonder if anyone sees it.”…

  • Constructive v. Critical Philosophy – Responding to Isabelle Stengers at CGU

    Once it has begun to swallow the overwhelmingly wondrous fact of existence–that there is anything at all!–philosophy can perhaps catch its breath and ask the most fundamental question: what is there? From this comes the only slightly more specific questions: What is a thing? What is an idea? Isabelle Stengers and Donna Haraway spoke on Thursday night…

  • Religion: Tony Blair v. Christopher Hitchens

    my rough transcription of some of what Blair and Hitchens had to say (not necessarily in order): Tony Blair: “Fanaticism is not confined to the sphere of religious life… My belief in Jesus Christ is not about oppression and servitude, but about finding the best way to express the human spirit… Faith is not about…

  • The Whitehead Research Project to feature Isabelle Stengers

    I’m going to listen to Isabelle Stengers and Donna Haraway speak at Claremont Graduate University tomorrow! For more information, I’ve posted a link to a new collaborative blog called “The New Knowledge Ecology” that I’m contributing to: http://thenewknowledgecology.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/the-whitehead-research-project-features-isabelle-stengers-cgu/