Nature and the Nation

In this episode I explore the Romantic response to the Enlightenment, in Isaiah Berlin's The Roots of Romanticism. I look at the German thinkers Hamann and Herder and their focus on the incapacity of the Enlightenment paradigm to account for the full richness of the individual and group identity.More at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode I take a deeper look at the philosophical concepts that undergird the Age of Enlightenment, through my examination of Peter Gay's 'The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism.' In this book, Gay examines the connections that the philosophes felt with the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, and the culture of criticism that they fostered in their conflict with Christianity.More at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode I track the conflict between realism and idealism all the way back to Plato and Aristotle in Arthur Herman's epic 'The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization.' We explore Aristotle's influence on John Locke and the Enlightenment, and seek to assemble a philosophy that embraces empiricism, pragmatism, and the constrained vision.More at www.neofusionist.com.

In this episode I will dive deeper into the philosophical divide that I explored last episode. This is well exemplified in the debate between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. I look closely at tradition as the inheritance that connects generations and man's nature as a social being in a given circumstance.More at www.neofusionist.com

In this important work, Thomas Sowell explains the difference between the constrained and unconstrained vision. I compare this dichotomy to those we've seen in previous eposides. I take a particular interest in the constrained vision, as this is the one which allows for a distinct human nature crafted by the processes of evolution.More at www.natureandthenation.com

In this classic of American philosophy, William James introduces us to the tender- and tough-minded temperaments and the flaws in rationalistic, idealistic philosophy. We also begin to look at the nature of truth, its instrumentality, and its dependence on approximation and shorthand.more at www.neofusionist.com

In Steven Pinker's classic 2002 masterpiece, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Pinker gives us a panoramic view of the landscape of human nature and the politically motivated rejection of the science of evolutionary psychology by the established leftist academia.More at neofusionist.com.

In this episode I begin to zero in on that aspect of nature that most impacts politics: human nature. On Human Nature by E. O. Wilson presents some of the language and metaphors I will using while I explore that intersection of biology, behavior, public policy and political philosophy.more at http://www.neofusionist.com/2019/03/7-review-on-human-nature-by-edward-o.html

In this episode, I explore the more religious side of naturalism, pantheism. Standing in the Light by Sharman Apt Russell takes us on a path through the history of pantheism, from the ancient Greeks to Spinoza and evolutionary theory.More at http://www.neofusionist.com/2019/03/06-review-standing-in-light-my-life-as.html

In this episode, I explore naturalism as a hard deterministic view of reality. Ahmad Safavy presents a stepwise explanation of the cause and effect nature of matter and energy, tracing the structure and function of particles, molecules, and life forms from the big bang to the present, with additional discussions of chaos theory and quantum mechanics.You can find me on social media at facebook.com/neofusionistor twitter.com/neofusionistor, if you want to help support the show, you can find me at patreon.com/neofusionistor you can just drop me a line at neofusionist@gmail.com