Author: Matthew David Segall
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Dia-logos with John Vervaeke: Emergence, Emanation, and Bernardo Kastrup’s Idealism
Dia-logos with John Vervaeke: Emergence, Emanation, and Bernardo Kastrup’s Idealism
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Intensity of Satisfaction and Free Energy (Thinking Abiogenesis with Bruce Damer)
See this link for context on Bruce Damer and David Deamer et al.’s abiogenesis hypothesis. … “To sum up: There are two species of process, macroscopic process, and microscopic process. The macroscopic process is the transition from attained actuality to actuality in attainment; while the microscopic process is the conversion of conditions which are merely…
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Physics of the World-Soul: Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology (2021)
A new revised and expanded edition of my book Physics of the World-Soul: Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology is now available in paperback and electronic versions.
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Emanation, Emergence, and Meaning: Thinking with Vervaeke and Kastrup
Here’s a link to an academic article laying out the significance of Whitehead’s panexperientialism for the hard problem of consciousness: https://footnotes2plato.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/segall_ptsc_7_1_105-131.pdf John Vervaeke and I recorded a dialogue a few days after I recorded the video above. View it here: Dia-logos with John Vervaeke: Emergence, Emanation, and Bernardo Kastrup’s Idealism
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Eins und Alles _ Goethe
My German is schrecklich, but since I couldn’t find any translations I liked, I spent the afternoon struggling with Goethe’s poem “Eins und Alles” (“One and All”), with a dictionary and several other translations in tow. What follows is my best attempt to render this Englishly. I am convinced that translation is impossible, but I…
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Science and the Modern World (dialogue with Sebastjan Vörös)
Seb and I discussed the history and contemporary status of the natural sciences and their relationship to philosophy and metaphysics.
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The Purpose and Profundity of Whitehead’s Metaphysics (a reply to Massimo Pigliucci)
The following is a response to Massimo Pigliucci’s recent blog post about process metaphysics and Whitehead. I keep a relatively close eye on Pigliucci’s philosophical work, as there is plenty of convergence in our views on several issues, including, as he says in his title, “the promise of process metaphysics.” Despite some convergences, I part…
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“Philosophy Chat” dialogue on Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Whitehead
Had a great chat with Marty yesterday on his podcast “Philosophy Chat.” We covered a lot of territory… those interested in German Idealism, Naturphilosophie, and Process-Relational Philosophy will have plenty to chew on.
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Goethe’s Study of Metamorphosis in Light, Leaf, and Bone
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Science and the Soul of the World: Participatory Knowing in Goethe and Whitehead
a talk delivered for the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS.edu on Friday, January 29th, 2021.
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Planetarity: On Human Futures
Had the pleasure of dialoguing with my good friends Adam Robbert and Jesse Estrin once again (prior session from May 2018). Inspired in part by this Palladium interview with Benjamin Bratton.
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Stream on Capitol Insurrection
Just finished this live stream with Jeremy Johnson and Ryan Nakade. We discussed what to call the events earlier this week (“sedition,” “domestic terrorism”?), and the ways that eco-social reality has now merged with the electronic media environment.
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“How does matter give rise to consciousness?” (response to Sam Harris)
Harris seems to presuppose the old Cartesian framework, with consciousness being that which is indubitable and which can in no way be reduced to matter. I wonder, though, what concept of matter Harris is working with here? That “matter” is a concept should go without saying, since on his Cartesian view of consciousness, we are…
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A review of Michael Hogue’s “American Immanence: Democracy for an Uncertain World” (2018)
MICHAEL S. HOGUE, American Immanence: Democracy for An Uncertain World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018: 238 pages. [Reviewed by: MATTHEW D. SEGALL, Philosophy and Religion Department, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, USA. <msegall@ciis.edu>.] Michael Hogue has written a timely theopolitical intervention drawing from (and contributing to) the American…
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Voices of VR podcast: A Primer on Whitehead’s Process Philosophy
Kent Bye interviewed me about Whitehead a few weeks ago for his podcast Voices of VR. Here’s the recording on Kent’s website. Enjoy!
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Who are we? (thinking w/ Berry and Swimme)
‘Who are we’? Always a good question to ask. Ecologically speaking, this might be the most important question humanity can ask: ‘How wide does the we reach?’ Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme point to the stars, but their point is not that scientific abstractions explain human life down here on earth. Their point, as I understand it,…
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Science and the Soul of the World: Participatory Knowing in Goethe and Whitehead
I’m teaching for Schumacher College again, this time online. This course focuses on two towering exemplars of the organic approach to science, the German poet and naturalist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and the British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). The course will run via live video conference on Saturday mornings (PST) for…
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Dialoguing with Philip Goff about Consciousness, Panpsychism, and Process Philosophy
YouTube summary: In this dialogue, Philip Goff, a philosopher from Durham University and author of Galileo’s Error, discusses various philosophical topics with the host (0:00). Key discussion points include:


