“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
–Alfred North Whitehead
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Science and Religion in a Participatory Cosmos
Last night I was invited by the Center for Christogenesis at Villanova University to share some thoughts on how the science/religion dialogue may be transformed by a participatory approach to cosmology. The video will be made available in a few weeks to those who register with the Center. I began by playfully suggesting I’d be proceeding as Read more
Albert Einstein, Alfred North Whitehead, Ancient Philosophy, Daniel Dennett, Darwin, Descartes, Donna Haraway, imagination, Kant, Modern Philosophy, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Plato, reason, Religion, Robert N. Bellah, Romantic Philosophy, Rudolf Steiner, Schelling, William James
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Processing Plotinus: A Bergsonian Reading
I was joined again by Pedro Brea (we discussed Bergson and Whitehead a few weeks ago) and now also by Jack Bagby(a colleague of mine at CIIS). We discussed Jack’s translation of Bergson’s lectures on Plotinus (1898-99). We also discussed an essay by Wayne J. Hankey on Bergson and Plotinus. Although I had previously known Plotinus influenced Bergson, our discussion highlighted Read more
Alfred North Whitehead, Aristotle, Goethe, Henri Bergson, imagination, Modern Philosophy, Pierre Hadot, Plato, William James
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Culture as The Lifeblood of The Machine Economy (dialogue with Michael Garfield)
This was a really rich conversation. Michael just recently launched his new podcast Humans on the Loop. You can find more episodes and the show notes for this episode on his Substack: https://michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-12. Some brief reflections on the themes we explored: We began with the premise that money is a form of communication, a means Read more
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Whitehead’s Theory of Propositions
The title of the article Ben Snyder and I are discussing is “The Objectivity of Whitehead’s Propositions: An Explication of the Truth-Relation” in Process Studies53 (2):256-274 (2024). Ben begins with a summary of his paper’s main argument, which I’ll try to capture below. Propositions, for Whitehead, are more than statements in language: they are metaphysical “lures” Read more
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Schelling’s Reading of Plato’s “Timaeus”
In this dialogue, Tim Jackson and I return almost to the beginning of philosophy–“almost” in the sense that Plato himself was already responding to a few centuries of philosophizing by the physiologoi. His dialogue Timaeus represents a synthesis rather than a pure start in the evolution of philosophy. He attempted to reconcile different positions and Read more
Alfred North Whitehead, Ancient Philosophy, Aristotle, autopoiesis, Bruno Latour, Carl Jung, Copernican Revolution, Darwin, Gilles Deleuze, Iain Hamilton Grant, Kant, Plato, reason, Schelling, Socrates
“In one sense philosophy does nothing. It merely satisfies the entirely impractical craving to probe and adjust ideas which have been found adequate each in its special sphere of use. In the same way the ocean tides do nothing. Twice daily they beat upon the cliffs of continents and then retire. But have patience and look deeper; and you find that in the end whole continents of thought have been submerged by philosophic tides, and have been rebuilt in the depths awaiting emergence. The fate of humanity depends upon the ultimate continental faith by which it shapes its action, and this faith is in the end shaped by philosophy.”
—Alfred North Whitehead
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