Category: imagination
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“Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy, and Other Last Chances” by Catherine Keller
Let us first recall why Keller has chosen to “dreamread” John of Patmos’ Book of Revelation. As a process theologian, it is no surprise that she would be interested in a Biblical text. But her purpose is not merely to read John’s missive back into its 1st century CE historical context. Nor is her intent to…
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“Another End of the World is Possible” by Servigne, Stevens, and Chapelle
“How could we call ‘rational’ an ideal of civilization guilty of a forecasting error so massive that it prevents parents from leaving a habitable world to their children?”—Bruno Latour “The system is collapsing all around us just at the time when most people have lost the ability to imagine that anything else could exist.” —David Graeber…
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Towards a Mycological Metaphysics
The mycologist Merlin Sheldrake recently published Entangled Life (2020). The book revels in the power of fungi to “make us question our categories,” thereby “[changing] the way we think and imagine” (14, 214). A few pages in, Merlin defines mycelium as a process, rather than a thing (6). I am inclined to agree. As a…
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Psychedelics Today podcast on Consciousness, Capitalism, and Philosophy
I had a great conversation with Joe Moore of Psychedelics Today a couple months back, and the podcast was just released today. Have a listen. In this episode, Joe interviews philosopher, author, and assistant professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco: Matthew D. Segall, Ph.D.…
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Whitehead: Purpose and Reason
Originally posted on conceptual prehension: Matthew Segall (who blogs over at footnotes2plato.com) has recently published a revised edition of his book Physics of the World Soul–an exploration of Alfred North Whitehead’s speculative philosophy, bringing it into dialogue with some recent science and discussing its relevance for our current era of ecological and intellectual turbulence. Reading…
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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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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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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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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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Election Coverage: Live-streaming on Growing Down
www.twitch.tv/videos/791279870 Unsurprisingly we steamed for 4 hours and still know nothing about the election results.
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Consciousness between Science and Philosophy (response to Philip Goff on panpsychism)
If you prefer to listen to me read this blog post: tl;dr Panpsychism = All is psyche, which is to say human consciousness and visible Nature take place within the World-Soul. Most moderns have accepted as a matter of course that the best people to speak on behalf of Nature are the scientists. Scientists are…
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Rune Soup Podcast with Gordon White: Talking Whitehead, Plato, & Panpsychism
Had a great time with Gordon on Rune Soup a few days ago:
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Towards a Marian Consciousness (Ep. 1 of the Great American Road Trip Diaries)
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Alchemical Consciousness After Descartes: Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism as Psychedelic Realism
The following is an essay originally submitted for publication in a book on philosophy and psychedelics. After some feedback from the editors, I realized it is too long and includes too many (I hope interesting!) digressions. I’ll be thoroughly revising my submission for the book, so I figured I’d share this earlier version here. Feedback…
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Rupert Sheldrake on Whitehead
I interviewed Rupert Sheldrake as part of a new series for the Cobb Institute. I’ll be speaking with a number of scientists who have been influenced by Whitehead.
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Naturphilosophie as Process Philosophy in Schelling and Whitehead
Christopher Satoor and I discussed Schelling, his German Idealist context, and Whitehead’s inheritance of Schellingian ideas about mind and nature.
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Cosmologies in Question: A Debate with David Long
Thanks to Bruce Alderman at The Integral Stage for moderating.
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Toward an Integral “God” – a dialogue with Layman Pascal
Thanks to Layman and Bruce Alderman at The Integral Stage for hosting these dialogues.
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Death Denial in a Panpsychist Cosmos: A Dialogue with Corey Anton
Partially edited Transcript (if you feel inspired please do feel free to finish the editing of this transcript and post it as a comment below!): Matt Segall: Well, good to see you. Corey Anton: Great to see you Matt Segall: So how’s it going Corey Anton: It’s going really great and thank you so much…

