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: reason

“The Great American Trip,” dialogue on “Growing Down”

I’m winding down a cross-country road trip and had the pleasure of talking about it in the context of America’s larger political predicament with Jeremy and Ryan on their “Growing Down” podcast.

October 10, 2020
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.

September 26, 2020
Reason, Reality, & Religion in the Making (dialoguing with John Vervaeke)

Thanks to John Vervaeke for hosting me on his channel. It was a wonderful conversation. As you’ll hear, we are planning to do a few trilogues soon with Jorge Ferrer and Evan Thompson.

September 13, 2020
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.

August 30, 2020
Meta-Linguistics (dialoguing with Layman Pascal)

Thanks to Bruce Alderman, Layman Pascal, and The Integral Stage for another great conversation! Here’s Bruce’s description: How does our understanding of the relationship between language and reality evolve as we develop, individually and culturally? What does it mean for language to be the house of being? Is there any sense in seeking a universal…

August 29, 2020
Metamodernism, the Integral Left, and Postmodern Traditionalism (dialoguing with Brent Cooper)

August 27, 2020
Parsimonious Panpsychism? (response to Julian Walker)

This following is copied from a Facebook post Julian Walker made in response to Bruce Alderman’s defense of panpsychism (in the “Integral 2.0” group). I wanted to weigh in (my comments are below): “PANPSYCHISM is not more PARSIMONIOUS than EMERGENTISM (Reply to Bruce on his thoughts about the David/Matthew debate) In a way I hear…

August 25, 2020
Setting the Akashic Record Straight (final response to David Long about emergence and panpsychism)

August 21, 2020
What is at stake in cosmological inquiry?

Some reflections after my debate with David Long. Also riffing on what I wanted to speak with John Vervaeke about (our dialogue should be posted on John’s channel in a few weeks).

August 20, 2020
Cosmologies in Question: A Debate with David Long

Thanks to Bruce Alderman at The Integral Stage for moderating.

August 19, 2020
Toward an Integral “God” – a dialogue with Layman Pascal

Thanks to Layman and Bruce Alderman at The Integral Stage for hosting these dialogues.

August 14, 2020
Growing Down Podcast on “the Integral Left”

Thanks to Jeremy, Matt, and Ryan for hosting this dialogue!

July 4, 2020
Dialoguing with Brent Cooper about ecosocialist politics and integral spirituality

June 9, 2020
Process and Difference in the Pluriverse: Plato, William James, & W.E.B. Du Bois

I’m sharing the lecture from the first module of my course this semester at CIIS.edu, PARP 6135: Process and Difference in the Pluriverse. The lecture discusses Plato’s Republic, William James’ pluralism, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ critical inheritance of James’ philosophy. Here’s a PDF transcript of the lecture

May 13, 2020
Reading and Riffing on Murray Bookchin’s “The Ecology of Freedom”

Zooming out from the horror show of the upcoming presidential election, I decided to do some thinking with Bookchin about social contracts, participatory vs representative forms of democracy, and direct action as permanent revolution.

April 15, 2020
Ecological Civilization, or Anarcho-Primitivism?

Here’s my original blog post: Imagining a Gaian Reality After the Virus

March 30, 2020
Imagining a Gaian Reality After the Virus

Imagining a Gaian Reality After the Virus by Matthew Segall What follows is a brief paper outlining a path forward for post-pandemic humanity. It attempts to integrate Marxist critiques of capitalism with the efforts of contemporary Whiteheadian philosophers to compose an alternative ecological civilization. … A specter is haunting modern civilization—the specter of Gaia. All the powers…

March 23, 2020
Musing on “Consciousness” with William James & Alfred North Whitehead

William James (from “A World of Pure Experience,” Part 2, p. 568): “With this we have the outlines of a philosophy of pure experience before us. At the outset of my essay, I called it a mosaic philosophy. In actual mosaics the pieces are held together by their bedding, for which bedding the Substances, transcendental Egos, or Absolutes of…

January 31, 2020
The Anthropocene: End Times/New Age

Sean Kelly and I delivered this a few weeks ago at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA at our philosophy program’s annual retreat.

November 25, 2019
Introduction to German Idealism

My lecture in two parts introducing German Idealism (focusing on Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Goethe, Hegel)

November 8, 2019
Robert McDermott & Matt Segall on Rudolf Steiner’s 12 Ways of seeing the world

see also: Foreword to an upcoming anthroposophical book on twelve ways of seeing the world

November 8, 2019