Footnotes2Plato

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

Category: Ancient Philosophy

  • The Relevance of Whitehead’s Process Theology to Natural Science

    Below is a rough transcript of a Cobb Institute class lecture I gave earlier today. I’m going to speak a little bit about the relevance, as I see it, of process theology to natural science. Whitehead was kept in print, I would say, for the better part of the second half of the 20th century…

  • Metaphysics, Science, and Waking Up (dialogue with Roman Campolo)

    Roman and Matt delved into Whitehead’s metaphysics, exploring its intersections with modern science and spiritual experience. Roman began by asking Matt about the distinction between Whitehead’s eternal objects and Plato’s eternal forms. Matt explained that although Whitehead was influenced by Plato, the two concepts are different. Plato saw the physical world as an imperfect imitation…

  • Schelling and the Return of Organic Science

    Below is a video (talk, then Q&A) and transcript of my talk yesterday for the Scientific and Medical Network. I’m hoping to be able to share the video at a later date. … David Lorimer: This evening, we are looking forward to Matt Segall’s talk about Schelling and the return of organic science. There has been significant…

  • “In Defense of Truth as Participation,” my McGilchrist Conference Presentation

    “In Defense of Truth as Participation,” my McGilchrist Conference Presentation

    First, here’s a clip of Iain McGilchrist’s impromptu remarks on the opening night of our “Metaphysics and the Matter With Things” conference (which happened to be Good Friday). Next, my welcome and opening comments about the conference (partial transcript to follow):  Welcome to CIIS. I’m Matt Segall. I’m an associate professor here in the Philosophy,…

  • Transcendent Love and the Possibility of Revolutionary Political Change

    I’ll be joining Cadell Last on Philosophy Portal next week to discuss the relationship between politics and love. At least as I relate to the topic, this is fundamentally a question of political theology. I’ve explored this terrain frequently over the years (eg, this process theological response to Carl Schmitt).  In this post, I’ve dug up some old exchanges with Levi…

  • Plato and Platonism: Dividing the Line and Completing the Cirlce

    To listen to the live recording from which this transcript was produced, visit: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1OwxWYrEnznGQ?s=20 I’m driving home from a talk that AE Robbert just gave at The Alembic in Berkeley. Adam’s a good friend of mine, and he’s finishing up a dissertation on the role of askēsisor training/exercise/practice in philosophy. He’s reading a lot of Pierre Hadot, and thinking about…

  • Renewing Philosophy (Dialogue with Tim Adalin)

    Tim Adalin hosted me on his Voicecraft podcast to discuss process philosophy and its applications.  The conversation opened with an exploration of the relationship between philosophy, the elite, and democracy (particularly its susceptibility to tyranny and the importance of wise leadership over populism). I emphasized the role of education in a democratic society, proposing a culture…

  • Human Freedom and the Future of Spirituality (Dialoguing with Roman Campolo)

    Human Freedom and the Future of Spirituality (Dialoguing with Roman Campolo)

    Roman is a songwriter based out of Los Angeles with credits for K-Pop band BTS and legacy artists like Elton John and Stevie Wonder. The first 15 minutes of this didn’t record because of a technical glitch, but we felt the rest was worth sharing. We explore questions like: Where does spirituality fit into (post)modern…

  • Conference Update – Metaphysics and the Matter With Things: Thinking With Iain McGilchrist

    Andrew Davis and I sat down with Iain McGilchrist to discuss our upcoming conference at CIIS in San Francisco, March 29-31. In-person tickets have already sold out, but online registration is still open. Learn more and register to attend the conference online at the Center for Process Studies webpage. Among other topics, we discuss Iain’s…

  • The Process of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Process

    The Process of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Process

    Jim Rutt has invited me onto his podcast to discuss the meaning and importance of metaphysics (a.k.a., speculative philosophy). That conversation won’t happen for a couple months, so for now I’ll offer a few preliminary thoughts in response to his post above.I agree with him, of course, that metaphysics is unavoidable. But it needn’t be…

  • Transcendent Naturalism: Dialoguing with John Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques

    Here is the first of two conversations that I’ve recently recorded with John Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques as part of the “Transcendent Naturalism” series. Part two is available here. Transcendent Naturalism and Process Philosophy: The episode begins with some of my reflections on the “transcendent naturalism” that John and Gregg have been laying out in…

  • Toward a Goethean Astronomy: Reflections on Rudolf Steiner’s “Interdisciplinary Astronomy” (GA 323)

    The following are quickly edited transcripts of my introductory remarks at six of our Urphänomen reading group sessions that began back in August of this year. I’ve included some screenshots of the slides I refer to below, but most of them are animated. You’ll have to watch the embedded videos to see the full context…

  • Whitehead, God, and Eternal Objects (Dialoguing with Darren Iammarino)

    Darren and I had an intense geek out session exploring some of Whitehead’s categoreal scheme. Key points include: Here’s my paper on eternal objects (a shorter version was just published in Process Studies): “Standing Firm in the Flux: On Whitehead’s Eternal Objects”

  • Debating the Place of the Human in Cosmology with Brendan Graham Dempsey

    After some back and forth in his Facebook group, Brendan was gracious enough to invite me on his Metamodernism podcast to discuss several core ideas, including the nature of scientific inquiry, the role of human experience in understanding the cosmos, and the limitations of mechanistic models in science. We discussed the intersection of philosophy, science,…

  • In Dialogue with Seth Zuihō Segall about Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism

    I had a wonderful time dialoguing with my cousin Seth Zuihō Segall about his new book The House We Live In: Virtue, Wisdom, and Plurailsm (2023). We started with Frank Sinatra’s song “The House I Live In” recorded toward the end of WWII. The lyrics were written by Abel Meeropol, a blacklisted Jewish Communist who…

  • God and Cosmogenesis: Thinking With Catherine Keller

    A lecture on process theology for my graduate course on Whitehead’s cosmology.

  • Cosmic History in Steiner and Whitehead (dialogue with Formscapes)

    This was a really fun conversation with Formscapes (check out his content on YouTube). The dialogue begins with Whitehead’s ideas on hybrid prehension and how they might relate to Steiner’s cultivation of higher organs of spiritual perception. Whitehead appears to have been open to esoteric ideas, based on some evidence that he tried contacting his…

  • Register for McGilchrist Conference

    Registration is now open for in-person and online attendance at the Metaphysics and the Matter With Things conference. We expect the limited number of in-person tickets to sell out quickly. Student discounts are available (please email me from your .edu student email account for information about this: msegall@ciis.edu). I’m very excited about the line-up of…

  • Panpsychist Pluralism

    The following is based on a revised transcript of a recent lecture. Anyone paying attention to academic philosophy over the last decade or so will have noticed the new philosophical kid on the block. I’m talking about panpsychism. While a couple of decades ago the position would have been laughed out of court or met…

  • Process Theology and the Modern World: Science, Religion, and Christology After Teilhard and Whitehead

    Below is a draft of my chapter to be published as part of an anthology coming out of the Teilhard and Whitehead conference hosted by the Center for Christogenesis at Villanova University a few weeks ago.

  • Seminar Series next month on Process Approaches to the Philosophy of Biology

    The Cobb Institute Science Advisory Committee, which I chair, will be hosting a series of seminars next month featuring the contributors to a new book, Process-Philosophcal Perspectives on Biology: Intuiting Life (Cambridge, 2023). The book challenges the reductionist, materialistic metaphysics often adopted by biologists, arguing that this approach overlooks the intricate complexities and essential characteristics…