Author: Matthew David Segall
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Teilhard and Steiner: Cosmogenesis in Light of Anthroposophy
Teilhard and Steiner: Cosmogenesis in light of Anthroposophy Introduction: As Above, So Below The human is a spiritual being of universal significance. If my reader lacks the courage required for such an affirmation, they need read no further, because though one may have ears to hear and eyes to see, without an open heart…
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The Role of Imagination in Speculative Philosophy
The Role of Imagination in Speculative Philosophy “[Imagination] is but another name for absolute power And clearest insight, amplitude of mind, And Reason in her most exalted mood.” –William Wordsworth, ‘The Prelude’ Introduction It should go without saying that there is more to reality than what at first meets the eye. There is always a…
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Our Planetary Moment: A Journey Through Cosmic Time
Setting the Stage There were no eyes to see it happen, and even if there were, there was not yet any light for them to see, nor even any space in which to look. The universe was born out of an infinitely creative quantum womb poised somewhere (or is it nowhere?) between being and non-being.…
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Hearing the Earth
Eternity is easy. God is self-evidently so. You are God. Who else could you be? And so, as Krishna said,you were never born, and you are already dead. But then again, it seems like we are still alive… and still just human–but in our finitude, we rise morally above any completely transcendent God when we…
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Response to PZ Myers on Science and Philosophy
A link to PZ Myers‘ post that I’m responding to: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/criticism_deferred_but_buildin.php A link to my first comment (also pasted below): http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/criticism_deferred_but_buildin.php#comment-2256674 You’ll have to refer to the link above if you want to see the other comments I am responding to below, though I do repeat them in brief in my own responses. ——————————————————————————— #…
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The Whole of Life
For all we who still pass our days on earth left behind by those now beyond us. The world not only is, but is for we who care, and we care because we know it will not exist. We care because we die, and because we leave others behind. The self and the world, the…
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Before the Body Knows It’s Gone
The last breath of a once living time moves the whole of heaven to mourning, while the days of earth grow shorter to keep the Soul of the World turning. The past pursues the future faster than the sun can dawn; eternity eclipses death before the body knows it’s gone. Reminded of its destiny, the…
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Logos of the Lived Body: Remembering the Way Home
Logos of the Lived Body: Remembering the Way Home By Matthew Segall Fall 2009 Buddhist Philosophical Systems Prof. Steven Goodman Introduction “Embodiment is: emerging into this world of light and sound…confinement to a body as a constantly changing piece of luggage, always a surprise to look down and it has sprouted…
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On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics
On the Matter of Life: Towards an Integral Biology of Economics Table of Contents Preface Introduction: What is Life? I. The Irruption of Time II. Ancient Biology III. Modern Biology IV. Teleology as a Regulative Principle of Living Organization V. Autopoiesis: Teleology as Constitutive of Living Organization VI. Concrescence and Bodily Perception VII. Concrescence and Autopoiesis…
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Logos of a Living Earth: Towards a Gaian Praxecology
Logos of the Living Earth: Towards a Gaian Praxecology By Matthew Segall Introduction The word “praxeology” has been employed with various meanings in 20th century French and Austrian discourse.[1] Praxecology is a distinct, though not entirely unrelated neologism invented for the purposes of this essay. A new word is not without a history, nor…
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Correspondence on Earth and Economy
The following is a series of emails exchanged between Mat Wilson and I over the course of the last several months (my messages will be in bold, Mr. Wilson’s not): ——————————— Mat, First, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that just yesterday I watched a video where an objectivist read something Rand…
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“Out of Our Heads” by Alva Noë
It’s probably not news to most people that philosophers have a tendency to get stuck in their heads. This is especially true in the field of cognitive science, where for several decades the dominant paradigm has lead philosophers (and scientists) to look in the brain for evidence of thought and consciousness. The core metaphor guiding…
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Holons Network
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God is a Word
God is a word laughed at by many, worshiped in fear by others, and understood by just a few. You may find this a presumptive thing to say, but save your suspicions for what I next submit to you: it is not the human animal that is in need of God, but God who is…
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Gnostic Consciousness: Knowing with Spiritual Beings
Introduction Despite my resolute sense of the sacred nature of earthly existence, religious belief has yet to strike me as a particularly appropriate form of response to the presence of the holy. Belief is to be distinguished from Faith, in that believing implies conceiving of the existence of spiritual beings without the perceptual experience to…
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Response to PZ Myers on the Philosophy of Science
The following was posted on PZ’s blog, Pharyngula, in response to this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/nicholas_wade_flails_at_the_ph.php Evolution. Theory, fact, or both? I don’t think answering these questions is as simple as PZ or Wade make it seem. It involves more than science and philosophy, and forces us to deconstruct notions of a pure science uncontaminated by politics, culture,…
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Avoiding the Religion of Scientism
Several weeks ago, I posted a blog about my entry to Discover Magazine’s “Evolution in Two Minutes” contest. Developmental biologist and outspoken atheist PZ Myers is judging the entries (still no word on the winner), and out of curiousity, I decided to visit his blog Pharyngula. Though it is supposedly a science blog, Myers posts…
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The Science of Life
Daniel Dennett says biology is engineering. He argues that living organisms are machines, flattening the classical Aristotelian difference between natural and artificial. For Aristotle, natural things had their form and purpose internal to themselves, while artificial things were designed from without for a purpose other than themselves. Of course, the beauty of human art (film,…
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Timaeus, or the Universe as a Living Thing
Cosmology is an art that involves speaking about the whole: to do cosmology, I must share stories with others concerning what we all belong to. This can be done in many languages –some musical, others mathematical– and if I succeed, perhaps in English text. The universe is a body, according to Plato– a Living Thing.…
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Ongoing discussion on PZ Myers’ blog
Anyone interested in following the thread I’ve been participating in over on Myers’ blog, here’s the link: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/i_was_wondering_about_that.php A little taste of what’s been going on there (one of my posts): @ 201 John Morales writes: “those assumptions (of science) are that there is an external reality, and that it is consistent, and that only…
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Noospheric Evolution: Science and Religion
A few weeks ago, a contest put on by Discover Magazine was brought to my attention. The publication asked for short video submissions explaining evolution (by which they meant specifically Darwin’s theory) in a lucid enough way that even the most dim-witted of creationists would be able to grasp it. From Discovery’s submission page: “Think…
Footnotes2Plato 