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: April 2025

  • An Anthropocosmic Approach to the Nature of Consciousness (My Talk at the UTOK Conference on Consciousness)

    “What man most passionately wants is his living wholeness and his living unison, not his own isolate salvation of his ‘soul.’ Man wants his physical fulfillment first and foremost, since now, once and once only, he is in the flesh and potent. For man, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man, as for…

  • “Psychedelic Realism”: My presentation at Breaking Convention

    Below is an audio version and edited transcript of my talk at Breaking Convention last week, hosted by the University of Exeter. Video should be available in the coming weeks.  Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes (Introduction) It is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, all the way from California: Dr. Matthew David Segall. Matt is an Associate…

  • Boundless Body Podcast with Brian Tierney

    My conversation with Dr. Brian Tierney traces a winding path through the imaginal dimensions of philosophy, beginning with the etheric imagination as the subtle medium through which connection between self and world is actualized. Imagination emerges not as fantasy or escape, but as an onto-epistemic link between our inner life and cosmogenesis. Our discussion touches on the…

  • Plotinus Without Emanation: Dialogue with Pedro Brea and Jack Bagby

    Pedro Brea, Jack Bagby, and I decided to continue digging into Plotinus—specifically the Sixth Ennead—focusing on the relationship between the One and the Intellect, and between the World-Soul and individual souls. Why and how does the One overflow into the Many? We also read a helpful chapter by Gina Zavota titled “Plotinus’ ‘Reverse’ Platonism: A Deleuzian Response to the Problem…

  • Is a Metaphysical Revolution Afoot in the Natural Sciences?

    In this conversation, Mahon McCann invited me to reflect on what he referred to as a metaphysical revolution in natural science—gesturing toward the shift I and others have been tracking across disciplines including physics, biology, and cognitive science, where the old mechanistic, substance-based ontology seems increasingly inadequate to account for what’s actually being discovered and needing…

  • Participating in the Liturgy at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco

    This morning my friend Edward and I attended the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, part of the Orthodox Church in America. We are cooking up another podcast to follow our discussion of “The Spiritual Mission of America” a few months ago. I imagine we’ll both have…

  • Sacred Hospitality and the Dynamics of Initiation: Dialogue with Orland Bishop

    This transcript is an abridged version of Orland and Matt’s conversation. For the full two hours, including dialogue with CIIS students, see the video at the bottom of this post. Abridged transcript:  Orland Bishop: Thank you so very much. Since the inspiration to have this forum and arriving here this evening, so much has unfolded in…