FROM THE FOOTNOTES2PLATO ARCHIVE
Tag: metaphysics
Explore the evolving conversation, or begin with a guide to its central questions.
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Contemporary Natural Philosophy Needs a New Theory of Forms
In this disputation with Jacob Given and Adam Robert, I was defending the thesis that contemporary natural philosophy needs a new process-relational theory of forms, and that Whitehead’s notion of…
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Metaphysics and Theology (a dialogue with Jacob Sherman)
This dialogue with my colleague Jake Sherman was recorded last week at our graduate program’s annual retreat. Below is a transcript: Matt: Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us this afternoon for a dialogue…
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Rhythms of the One: Bergson on Plotinus (Dialogue with Pedro Brea and Jack Bagby)
Our conversation felt like an improvised rhythm of tangents. But as I joked to Pedro, a perfect circle is made of infinitely many tangents. What might appear like digression is…
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Plotinus Without Emanation: Dialogue with Pedro Brea and Jack Bagby
Pedro Brea, Jack Bagby, and I decided to continue digging into Plotinus—specifically the Sixth Ennead—focusing on the relationship between the One and the Intellect, and between the World-Soul and individual souls. Why and…
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Is a Metaphysical Revolution Afoot in the Natural Sciences?
In this conversation, Mahon McCann invited me to reflect on what he referred to as a metaphysical revolution in natural science—gesturing toward the shift I and others have been tracking across…
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Metaphysics Today
Monday musings on the necessity of history and its overcoming. Mythos is an indispensable method in metaphysics. Metaphysics only comes to life in the midst of philosophical dialogues, and so…
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Theory of Every0ne (Tyler Goldstein) responds to My Theories of Everything Dialogue with Curt Jaimungal
I just finished listening (at x2 speed!) to Tyler Goldstein’s very long but also very insightful YouTube commentary (see above) responding to my recent dialogue with Curt Jaimungal (“What is the Human…
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Neoplatonic Henology and the Overcoming of Metaphysics (Dialogue with Tim Jackson)
The discussion of Reiner Schürmann’s article on neoplatonic henology in Plotinus, Eckhart, and Heidegger begins at 30:07. The first half hour is a discussion of Tim’s work on improving interactions between venomous…
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The Process of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Process
Jim Rutt has invited me onto his podcast to discuss the meaning and importance of metaphysics (a.k.a., speculative philosophy). That conversation won’t happen for a couple months, so for now…
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“Whitehead’s Transcendental Cosmology” By James Bradley
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Collected Essays in Speculative Philosophy: James Bradley (2021; edited by Sean J. McGrath). Bradley is criminally under-appreciated, but this collection is sure to change that. While…
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Owen Barfield in his own words
I was delighted to discover a recording of a lecture delivered by Owen Barfield in 1978 at the Vancouver Institute in British Columbia. You can listen to the entire lecture…
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A Drunk History of Time: The Einstein, Bergson, Whitehead Debates
Is the flow of time a “stubbornly persistent illusion,” a mere psychological mirage, as Albert Einstein held? Or is it the very essence of all psychical life and material things…
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Thinking with Carlo Rovelli: The Physics of Consciousness
Last summer, I traveled to the Gran Sasso Institute in L’Aquila, Italy to participate in a conference bringing physicists and philosophers together to rehash the famous debate in 1922 between…
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Metaphysics in Process (reflections on Whitehead’s system of philosophy)
As best I understand it, in Part IV of Process & Reality, Whitehead attempted to account for how geometrical measurement of the physical world is possible without any empirical presuppositions.…
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My presentation on Whitehead & Deleuze for the Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition conference at Seattle University
Here’s the audio: I’m particularly interested in what folks familiar with Deleuze think about the exchange between me and the woman in the audience during the discussion portion. Am I…
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Lecture and notes on Part I of Whitehead’s “Process & Reality”
This Fall at CIIS.edu, I’m teaching an online advanced seminar on Whitehead’s magnum opus, Process & Reality. Here are my reflections on Part I of Process & Reality, “The Speculative Scheme.”…
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The Side View podcast
Adam Robbert interviewed me over on The Side View Podcast. Check it out HERE. We discussed speculative philosophy, panpsychism, politics, and more.
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Why German Idealism Matters (The Side View)
My friend and colleague Adam Robbert has just launched The Side View. There is a ton of content on the site already, including articles and podcasts. Listen to Adam’s short…
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“Retrieving Realism: A Whiteheadian Wager” published in IJTS
Retrieving Realism: A Whiteheadian Wager (PDF) Published in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, Volume 36, Issue 1 (2017) Abstract: This essay argues that the organic realism of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)…
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Towards a new root image in natural science…
Here is anthropologist Anne Buchanan on the post-truth era in natural science. I was reminded of my post on the federally-funded Brain Initiative a few years ago. Buchanan includes geneticist…
