Category: Darwin
-
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…
-
Rudolf Steiner and Racism
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 the German idealists, Darwin, Nietzsche, Emerson, Whitehead, Jung, Teilhard, Heidegger, etc., have made…
-
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.
-
My presentation at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Center for Process Studies
This presentation was given on February 16, 2023 at the Claremont United Church of Christ. My paper was titled “Physics Within the Bounds of Feeling Alone.” The draft is available here. Visit the conference website here.
-
“Modes of Thought” (1938) by Alfred North Whitehead
I was re-reading Whitehead’s final book, Modes of Thought (1938), and decided I may as well record an audiobook version. Below is the YouTube playlist with all 9 lectures/chapters (click the menu button in the upper right corner to expand the playlist).
-
Platonic Physics: In Dialogue with Wolfgang Smith
Here is my conversation, recorded yesterday, with Dr. Wolfgang Smith. His new book PHYSICS: A Science in Quest of an Ontology is available from many online bookstores. We discussed a range of topics, including wholeness in physics and mathematics, Whitehead and Russell’s different interpretations of the failure of the Principia Mathematica project, the fallacy of…
-
In dialogue with Iain McGilchrist
See also my blog review of McGilchrist’s new book The Matter With Things.
-
Standing Firm in the Flux: On Whitehead’s Eternal Objects (draft article)
The article to follow is a draft posted here for your review. As usual, I invite your comments and criticisms (Note that I have been continually updating the draft below in light of helpful feedback and my own ongoing reflection: the doctrine of eternal objects is a deep ocean, but hopefully this study at least…
-
The Urgency of Social Threefolding in a World Still at War with Itself (draft article)
The following is a rough draft of an article I had originally prepared for a special issue of the journal Eidos (CfP here). Unfortunately, the editors requested that I soften my statements about the US & NATO. While Putin is responsible for the criminal invasion of Ukraine, I am unwilling to retract my statements pointing…
-
Revolutionary Left podcast introducing German Idealism
I was invited back on the Rev Left podcast to lay out the dialectical twists and turns of the German Idealist movement. Link here: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/german-idealism
-
Evolutionary Thinking with Timothy Jackson
Below are parts 1 and 2 of my dialogue with toxinologist and evolutionary philosopher Timothy Jackson. We discuss everything from the philosophy of science and evolutionary epistemology, to the social and cultural impact of evolution, to the full-blown evolutionary cosmologies of thinkers like Whitehead and Peirce.
-
Human Energy Project podcast interview by David Sloan Wilson
Bruce Damer and I joined David Sloan Wilson on the Human Energy Project podcast for a conversation about the Hot Spring Abiogenesis Hypothesis and its cosmological implications. This was recorded late last year. Transcript available.
-
Dialogue with Bernardo Kastrup: Translating between Analytic Idealism and Process-Relationalism
My long-overdue conversation with Bernardo Kastrup is above. I am pleased with how this turned out. We mostly attempted to translate between our respective orientations, finding many overlaps despite differences of emphasis. I think important differences remain, though we’ll have to iron those out together in the future. A few thoughts about what we discussed:…
-
Returning to Cassette Tapes to dialogue with Will July about abiogenesis, the afterlife, and everything in between
It was great to chat with Will again on his podcast Cassette Tapes. Check it out here: https://www.cassettespodcast.com/episodes/30-matt-segall
-
The Cosmological Context of the Origin of Life: Process Philosophy and the Hot Spring Hypothesis
I just sent a draft of this coauthored essay off to the editors. Astrobiologist Bruce Damer and I have been building toward this for a few years. I’m thrilled to have gotten it to this point, and looking forward to peer review! The essay will be featured in a book coming out of this conference…
-
Dialoging with John Torday about Cellular Evolution
Dr. Torday is Professor of Evolutionary Medicine at UCLA: https://www.evmed.ucla.edu/torday/ For more on the cellular theory of evolution: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447538/ More about the Cobb Institute Science Advisory Committee: https://cobb.institute/science-advisory-committee/
-
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…
-
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.
-
“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.
-
Goethe’s Study of Metamorphosis in Light, Leaf, and Bone
Footnotes2Plato 