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, …
Essay in “Being Human”: “The Influence of R. Steiner on my Philosophical Development”
A biographical piece published in the last issue of Being Human. Special thanks to my friend Max DeArmon for making this possible. See also this essay Thinking With Steiner Beyond the Brain: Reflections on my Bildung and the Philosophy of Freedom.
Etheric Imagination in Process Philosophy from Schelling and Steiner to Whitehead
I've just submitted my dissertation proposal for review. Click on the title below for the PDF. Etheric Imagination in Process Philosophy From Schelling and Steiner to Whitehead I welcome suggestions, critiques, sources, and/or extensions. Basically, I'm doing a comparative study of the philosopher Friedrich Schelling, the esotericist Rudolf Steiner, and the mathematician and cosmologist Alfred North …
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Saul Bellow on Rudolf Steiner, Boredom, Sleep, and Death
Wanted to share this before going to bed. Here are a few words about "the famous but misunderstood Dr. Rudolf Steiner" from Bellow's Pulitzer Prize winning work of fiction Humboldt's Gift: It wasn't that I minded giving information to honest scholars, or even to young people on the make, but I just then was busy, fiercely, painfully busy--personally …
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Historical Background and Overview for “Etheric Imagination in Process Philosophy”
I realized I posted the same section twice last week, so here is the real historical and overview section of my dissertation proposal. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This dissertation examines the metaphysics of imagination in the process philosophies of Schelling and Whitehead through the hermeneutical lens of a certain stream of Western esotericism. In describing the process-philosophical imagination …
Theoretical Perspectives on Etheric Imagination
The following is the "theoretical perspectives" section of my dissertation. It introduces the ether concept I am attempting to imaginally construct with the help of Schelling, Steiner, and Whitehead. ............................................ This dissertation argues that philosophical thinking, to eclipse the dualistic dogmas of today’s commonsense, must ally itself with the creative power of the etheric imagination. …
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Deleuze’s Pedagogy of Problematic Ideas as an Example of Etheric Imagination
Below is another section of my dissertation proposal... ................... In What Is Philosophy?, Deleuze and Guattari distinguish between a singular pedagogy of the concept and a universal encyclopedia of the concept.155 What does it mean to say that Deleuze’s philosophical method is pedagogical, rather than encyclopedic? It means that philosophical concepts are not catalogued in …
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