Footnotes2Plato

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

Author: Matthew David Segall

  • Summary Reflections on Rudolf Steiner’s “Interdisciplinary Astronomy” (GA 323)

    Our Urphänomen reading group is back in action, this time reading Steiner’s lecture cycle titled Interdisciplinary Astronomy (1921, GA 323). Frederick Amrine recently published a wonderful new translation. Earlier this week I summarized lecture 5 (video above). Below is a rough transcript of my reflections: The key issue here for Steiner is that we need…

  • Taming the Technological Dragon, with Michael Levin

    Selections from the transcript of this conversation (complied by AI): Matt Segall: I just finished your paper “Technological Approaches to Mind Everywhere” that came out last year and really enjoyed it. The more I read your stuff, the more I am shaken free of some philosophical commitments that I think I had arrived at because…

  • Metaphysics and the Matter With Things: Thinking With Iain McGilchrist

    I’m very excited to announce that my graduate program (Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at CIIS) and the Center for Process Studies are cohosting a conference March 29-31, 2024 focused on the work of Iain McGilchrist. The temporary conference landing page is HERE. You can provide an email address for updates on conference registration in the…

  • Music, Memory, and the Song of Life (dialogue with Karen Wong)

    Karen Wong invited me on The Meaning Code again to discuss ideas we both find enriching. Below I’ll share a near transcript of some interesting tidbits, including discussion of Michael Levin’s work. Mike Levin frequently quotes William James, who defines intelligence as the ability to accomplish the same goal by different means. This definition emphasizes…

  • Digital Poiesis: Rhyme of Life and Death

    I pasted one of my recent stream of consciousness notebook entries about the role of death denial in the potentiation of trauma into Chat-GPT4 and prompted it to write a poem in the style of Novalis out of the material. Below is what it spit out. Many of its words and phrases are identical to…

  • Audio of my International Whitehead Conference presentation at Munich School of Philosophy

    This talk was delivered on July 29th, 2023 at 4:30pm at the Munich School of Philosophy. Thanks to Godehard Brüntrup for chairing the session. You can find the paper I am summarizing here: “Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism: Turning Idealism Inside Out“

  • From Transformational Festival to Whitehead Conference and Back Again

    On Wednesday I’ll board a jet-powered steel tube and sky-sail to Europe for a few weeks. I land in Madrid, Spain where I’ll immediately catch a shuttle to drive along the southern side of the Sierra de Gredos mountains across the boarder to the small town of Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal, just north of which is the…

  • Love and Death in the Gaianthropocene (prologue to my talk at Boom Festival)

    Sharing some thoughts I’ll expand upon during my talk at Boom Festival next week. A transcript of this video: Next week, I’ll be in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal to attend the Boom Festival. This festival is known for its psytrance, cultural offerings, and art. I’ve often heard it described as the European version of Burning Man, though I’m…

  • Energy is Information, Information is Communication: Thinking with Vervaeke and Henriques

    Have a listen to Greg Henriques and John Vervaeke exploring the limits of reductive naturalism and the dangerous of decadent romanticism: John and Greg got some thoughts stirring, which I shared in the video below: For more on the communicative ontology I am proposing here, see this article of mine in Process Studies on Whitehead…

  • Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism: Turning Idealism Inside Out [draft article]

    Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism: Turning Idealism Inside Out [draft article]

    Below is a draft of a chapter I was asked to write for a book on Cambridge Idealism. It is still a bit rough in places and I’ll be continuing to update it in the coming weeks and months. I’ll be presenting some of the ideas explored in it at the International Whitehead Conference in…

  • NYTimes profile on mycologist Merlin Sheldrake mentions Whitehead (and me)

    Today’s New York Times featured a profile on my friend, mycologist Merlin Sheldrake. In addition to discussing the philosophical implications of his scientific research, the article shares a bit about his magical childhood and fascinating family. Do give it a read. Merlin was kind enough to mention a collaboration with me to sort out the…

  • Crossing the Threshold on the War Machine Podcast

    Yet another podcast discussing my book, this time with Matt from the War Machine podcast. We talk theurgy, the role of feeling and willing in our thinking, and how to experience the soul, God, and the cosmos after Kant’s critiques.

  • “Whitehead’s Transcendental Cosmology” By James Bradley

    I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Collected Essays in Speculative Philosophy: James Bradley (2021; edited by Sean J. McGrath). Bradley is criminally under-appreciated, but this collection is sure to change that. While reading McGrath’s wonderful introduction, I noted his footnote (p. 7) about an as yet untranslated article Bradley published in the French journal Archives de philosophie,…

  • Whitehead’s Ontology of Pure Feeling: Living in a Time of Dying Podcast

    I had a lovely time dialoguing with Meghan on her Living in a Time of Dying podcast. Listen here.

  • From German Idealism to Anthroposophy: The Spiritual Scientist Podcast

    Mick Young invited me on his Spiritual Scientist podcast to discuss the importance of German Idealism in Rudolf Steiner’s development. I introduce the concept of ‘etheric imagination’ as a form of cognition by which we can consciously participate in the formative forces responsible for generating living organisms, including our own bodies. Participating in these etheric…

  • Michael Levin’s Latent Space of Biological Form

    Michael Levin’s Latent Space of Biological Form

    Iain McGilchrist mentions my dialogue with Michael Levin a few weeks ago at the start of this video, before proceeding into an inquiry concerning the whereabouts of ideal form: Where are the forms in the ‘latent space’ of biological possibility? I think everyone in the conversation, including Iain, senses that asking “where”–while essential for noting…

  • The End of “Philosophy of Freedom”

    Our study of Steiner’s book isn’t merely an intellectual exercise; it represents a form of fellowship that has been palpable throughout our journey. Even though it’s saddening to conclude today, remember that we are merely finishing this book, with much more lying ahead of us. My lecture focuses on the final chapter, “The Consequences of…

  • Topological Inversions in the Life, Death, and Rebirth of Human Beings (lecture by Rudolf Steiner during WW1)

    Topological Inversions in the Life, Death, and Rebirth of Human Beings (lecture by Rudolf Steiner during WW1)

    Rudolf Steiner  Nachlass-VerwaltungTranslated by ChatGPT4 GA 174b – Lecture Eight Stuttgart, March 15, 1916 CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF THIS LECTURE TRANSCRIPT The last time we spoke here, during my previous presence, we examined some spiritual facts that relate to the life of the human soul after the human has passed through the gateway…

  • Rudolf Steiner and Racism

    Update Jan 31, 2024: The conversation continues on our Urphänomen Substack page. As a teacher, I do my best to actively encourage deep and sustained dialogue about the racism, implicit or explicit, that shows up in the statements or actions of any figure studied with my students. Many modern European and American thinkers, including all…

  • Platonizing Biology: a dialogue with Michael Levin

    Thanks to Karen for hosting this conversation on The Meaning Code. We started with a high level issue: the relationship between metaphysics and/or (philosophical) cosmology and the special sciences. I wanted to be sure he understood that I as a philosopher am in no way trying to tell scientists how to define or understand their…

  • Mind and Life in the Cosmos

    I’m sharing a version of a lecture I delivered for the Pari Center earlier this morning.