"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." —Alfred North Whitehead
Below is a playlist featuring the recordings of our Urphänomen Reading Group, which is open to anyone interested (message us on Patreon or email archetypalphenomenon@gmail.com to join). New sessions will be added to this playlist as we go. We are reading the works of Rudolf Steiner, starting with Riddles of Philosophy. Next we'll be reading [...]
The following is a rough draft of an article I am preparing for a special issue of the journal Eidos (CfP here). I understand that the threefolding idea is likely to upset people on all sides of the political spectrum. I am sharing the article at this stage to invite criticism, as my aim is [...]
Had a great time chatting with Matthew Sherling yesterday about my own journey, how I got into Whitehead's work, and what his basic categories of concrescence and prehension mean. https://youtu.be/MTwScBjQ23w
I was asked earlier today by someone I assume is an anti-natalist what I thought the purpose of the cosmos is. I answered that I mostly just want to encourage people to wonder about it. But I also linked to an essay I wrote 12 years ago as a sort of mythospeculative narrative intending to [...]
https://youtu.be/s7I5j2cteFQ 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 [...]
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 [...]
Sharing an email response to a question I received about the possibility of explaining human consciousness computationally, and whether such explanations might be compatible with Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science. I do not think the computational paradigm has much to teach us about the sort of Sophianic consciousness Steiner attempted to unveil. I summarized my thoughts [...]
see also: Foreword to an upcoming anthroposophical book on twelve ways of seeing the world https://youtu.be/5KwJ5CC0xQo
Below is the draft of a foreword I've coauthored with Robert McDermott. The book, Twelve Ways of Seeing the World by Mario Betti, should be out later this year via Hawthorn Press. Betti's book builds fruitfully upon the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. You can read Steiner's original lectures on the topic of the 12 human worldviews [...]
“Our central idea is that concrete existence explains the abstract aspects of experience and not vice-versa.” -Auxier and Herstein “So long as necessity is taken to be the guarantor of rationality, the conception of rationality advocated will be as useless to science as it is to practical life.” -Auxier and Herstein Below I offer some [...]
I'll be teaching another short course at Schumacher College in the UK the week of April 22nd-26th, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNAO2-b1yuI Here's a link if you're interested in registering: https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/short-courses/re-enchanting-the-cosmos Here's what I'll be teaching on: “The Evolution of Consciousness and the Cosmological Imagination” This week-long course will trace the evolution of consciousness in the West from [...]
Here's my talk from the INTERSECT: Science & Spirituality conference in Telluride, CO earlier this summer. It's titled "Participatory Spirituality in an Evolving Cosmos" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E3DwZG7730
I'll be offering this course for the second time in Fall 2018 at CIIS.edu (the semester runs from late August through mid-December). Special students and auditors are welcome to enroll! Email me at msegall@ciis.edu for more information about registration.
My dissertation defense is on Monday morning. I've just finished the "pre-defense" draft. I have until April 11th to finalize the published version. Below are the abstract, table of contents, and acknowledgements. Jacob Sherman, PhD, Chair Associate Professor, Philosophy and Religion Department, California Institute of Integral Studies Sean Kelly, PhD Professor, Philosophy and Religion Department, [...]
Footnotes2Plato 