The duality of Mind and Body has been debated for millennia.  This has resulted in two polarized camps - Realists vs. Idealists.  Realists contend that there is a world existing out there whether we are here or not, whether we are observing it or not, whether we are thinking about it or not.  Idealists contend that ultimately only Mind exists, and the physical world around us is just an illusion, an unreal fantasy of the Mind.But there is a third camp.  Many mistakenly classify Hegel as an Idealist,  However, he actually proposed a tripartite system with Mind and Nature coming together and evolving in one process of Becoming.  He referred to this as the historical advance of Spirit.  Interestingly, Bergson postulated a way that Mind and Body are linked through perception and memory.  As did Jung, with his collective unconscious.  This episode explores this topic in depth.    Support the show

Can't we all just get along?  The world today is increasing fractious.  The Electronic Age has fueled a return to tribalism, as the individualistic linear emphasis of the print age gave way to finding identity though emotionally connected groups.  And these groups are often based more on hatred of the "other" than on what they stand for themselves. What can be done?  As Hegel and others have pointed out, it starts with a recognition of Spirit within us all.  A freedom that humans alone can call their own.  And without this recognition in others, we cannot know it is within us.  This episode reviews the issue from different standpoints, include a look at the Lordship/Bondage and Beautiful Soul portions of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, as well as Žižek's Hegelian take on forgiveness. Support the show

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, has said  that artificial intelligence (AI) could have a more profound effect on humanity than fire and electricity.   Quite a statement.New AI technologies are being produced, Including ChatGPT, that are conversational and can write better and communicate more clearly than most people.  And they provide fast, almost immediate, answers to any question.  While it is has not yet been perfected, and flaws have been noticed, the question has been raised as to whether such programs can self-learn on their own, and program themselves.  And importantly, when fully developed, whether they should be considered conscious entities.  Like a human being.   There seems to be two camps here. One group believes that it AI is just an algorithm at the end of day, and does not possess anything beyond the information and formulas put into it by the programmers.  The other group feels we are on the verge of a creating a digital super intelligence, a digital god. What has philosophy and psychology to say about this?  This episode explores. Support the show

The great psychologist Carl Jung was a leading pioneer in psychological type analysis.  In fact, he coined the terms "extrovert" and "introvert."  His work spawned a whole industry of personality analysis which is as strong today as ever.  And key to his psychological type system was his recognition of Intuition, or the "small still voice within."  This function has direct correspondence to Hegel's notion of Spirit.  In a 1933 lecture on proto-psychologists in philosophy, Jung thought that had a scientific study of psychology existed back in Hegel’s time, Hegel would probably have been a psychologist.   This episode reviews Jung's work, relates it to Hegel, and offer a new dimension based on Jung's work - the Creative/Receptive.  Support the show

Biologist Richard Dawkins is the poster child for the materialist doctrine and the new atheism.  His paradigm boils down to a mechanical replicator, that somehow appeared by chance, which no one can explain how (a miracle?), that goes by the name "gene."  He sees us all as mere robots, zombies, propagating the gene's replication.  The materialist doctrine stands on three assumptions - that all is matter, that the laws of nature are fixed, with us from the beginning, and that there is no inherent purpose in matter.  While this may be true for matter, what about Mind? Materialists use their doctrine as a sword against religion and philosophy.  Yet their paradigm is misguided.  There is a huge difference between being true and not being proven false.  Hegel showed how matter and mind are combined, both a part of Geist, Spirit, and are one fundamentally.  This episode explores the many problems with the pure materialist doctrine. Support the show

19th century Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was a towering figure not only in philosophy and religion, but in psychology as well.  He is commonly considered to be the father of Existentialism, with the importance he place on individual subjectivity in finding meaning and truth.  He was also a fierce critic of Hegel.  By examining the differences between the two, one can hopefully see the distinctiveness of each.  This podcast episode will examine two main themes of Kierkegaard, that of subjectivity and the "leap of faith," to show where some commonalities exist, where their difference was a matter of emphasis, and where there exists an unbridgeable gap between the two.  I hope to show how their differences cannot be reduced to the old "individual vs. society" or "head vs. the heart" debate; but what I believe to be a faulty/incomplete portrayal of Hegel's philosophy by Kierkegaard.  Support the show

America went through a profound spiritual awakening in the 19th century, most commonly referred to as "New Thought."  Many leaders at this time credited Hegel  for laying the groundwork.  This episode explores several of the early developments in America, but such movements have also occurred across the globe at different times in various cultures. And there are many themes of this movement that echo Hegel, including: - There exists Infinite Intelligence, or the Absolute Idea as Hegel calls it,  - There is divinity or Spirit within each person,  - Mind and Nature are linked in Spirit, - Aligning your thoughts with Spirit is beneficial to oneself and the world, - Progress of Spirit in the world is historical. This New Thought movement continues today in various forms and incarnations the world over, and it has never been stronger.  And Hegel was one of its earliest pioneers.  But there is still much work to do.  This episode explores. Support the show

Free speech is of course linked to freedom.  And freedom is the cornerstone of Hegel's philosophy.  Today free speech is an issue with respect to social media platforms, which are used by literally billions of people over the world.  Yes billions.  And who exactly controls what can be said on these platforms?  Up to now it has been a handful of executives.  And some claim that free speech has been curtailed to a degree favoring the views of these executives.  Most nation-states have laws that govern the limits of free speech, such as libel, fraud, incitement, and sedition.  Do these laws apply the Internet?  Hegel had things to say about free speech.  In his Elements of the Philosophy of Right he discusses it, and notes that it is the state that gives freedom to individuals, and if the state is destroyed, so is freedom, including free speech.  But he saw the problems inherent in democracies of competing factions.  And these problems are still being worked out some 200 years later.This episode explores the issues surrounding free speech from an historical, philosophical, and Hegelian point of view, in light of the new Internet environment. Support the show

The word "spirit" has so many connotations. Per the thesaurus: character, courage, energy, enthusiasm, essence, heart, humor, life, mood, morale, quality, resolve, temperament, vigor, vitality, warmth, and will. Hegel had a different interpretation: God.  And he said it as clear as day.  He defines God as the timeless Absolute Idea, the idea of ideas, self-thinking thought.  But it doesn't end there.  The Absolute Idea freely others itself in Nature, and enters this finite world as Spirit.  It does so to become actual, real, not just abstract truth.  This episode reviews the etymology of the word "spirit" across different cultures - Greek, Latin, Hebrew, even Proto-Indo-European, up to the present day.  And then explores how spirit relates to Hegel's tripartite system, and finds its fulfillment in what Hegel calls True Infinity.  Support the show

The term "paradigm "and "paradigm shift" were made famous by Thomas Kuhn in his landmark 1962 book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". Steven Covey describes a paradigm as "frames of reference, worldviews, . . through which we see everyone and everything, including ourselves.  . They affect the way we interpret what we see and experience, and how we interact and relate with others.”The current naturalistic materialism paradigm of science (and much of the educated world) is beginning to show anomalies, particular in physics where the micro does not jibe with the marco.  And quantum physics itself does not have a consistently accepted theory underlying it. Hegel's philosophy has been called "a total system of the world, which included not only physics and the sciences, religion, ethics, but even a history of the world; . .  It was truly a theory of everything— We could really say this was the last great system,” (T. Cahoone).  Does Hegel's framework represent the true paradigm we should be moving toward?  This episode explores. Support the show