The Cunning of Geist

Is it easier to do Sunday's crossword puzzle on Monday morning?  If so, the Collective Memory may be the reason.   Many believe minds are joined at a very deep level.  Hegel taught that "Substance is Subject."  Not only minds but matter as well.  But Hegel's project is more:  subject is also Spirit, and Spirit is an historical process.  Enter Memory. This episode explores memor...

In the film "2001: A Space Odyssey," H.A.L., an artificial intelligence character, loses its mind and begins killing people.  Did H.A.L. act on his own accord?  Interesting question. Everyday we hear more and more how artificial intelligence programs will soon be the equivalent of human beings and perhaps even smarter.  Is this true? Some theorists believe Hegel's dialectical approa...

The Electronic Revolution has dramatically changed how the world receives and processes information.  The previous print revolution helped usher in the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, nation-states, and individual rights through its emphasis on visual, linear thinking, i.e. left-brain thinking. However, the Electronic Age reintroduced the audio factor to mass communications beginning wit...

A question for the ages -  are we free? A recent survey of over 1,700 philosophers worldwide found that over 50% hold a compatibilist view, that both determinism and free will co-exist.  Hegel was a champion of freedom and made it the cornerstone of his philosophy.  He also recognized that much of our lives are also pre-determined.   In this episode I will argue that free-will  occurs in the prese...

We all have experienced synchronicity, where causally unconnected events have a unique meaning to us.  Psychologist Carl Jung proposed that there was indeed an acausal connecting principle behind such occurrences.  In fact, "meaning" may indeed be fundamental to the cosmos.  American philosopher C.S. Peirce believed it was so.  And Hegel did as well, epitomized by his famous dictum, &quo...

Hegel was clear: history is a slaughter-bench.  Depressing?  Of course.  But does history also allow the increase of rationality and freedom?  Indeed it does.  This is often accomplished by world historical figures who inspired great battle victories such as Alexander, Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill.  And it was often unknown to themselves just what great forward progress they enabled. This ep...

The tragic events in Ukraine have brought to the surface many old quandaries of war.  The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused some to believe that a new world order had arrived.  A few scholars even claimed it to be the "end of history."  Francis Fukuyama published his book "The End of History and the Last Man," in 1992, where he presents the thesis that humanity had re...

"Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men? . . . The Shadow knows" began a famous U.S. radio show from the 1930s and 40s.  The Shadow is also a psychological term used by Carl Jung to describe those parts of us  that we do not want to recognize in ourselves and in effect, bury.  While it is most associated with our baser instincts and unattractive parts of our personality, we can re...

Hegel foresaw a problem with the advanced liberal democracies of his day.  It is when the self interests of groups within the nation become more important than the principles that uphold the state itself.  He called it a "knot" that will need to worked out in the future. Well the future has arrived and the problem remains. In fact it is much worse than in Hegel's day.  The Internet...

Does Hegel have in mind a systematic procedure, technique, process, or plan underlying his philosophy?  Some say yes, others say no. It is my belief that there is in fact a method; and it is the movement, the life, the evolution of thought itself.  Hegel referred to this as dialectics.  And his important notion of sublation plays a crucial role in dialectical thinking.   Some say Hegel's meth...

This episode explores three elements of Charles Peirce's philosophy and how it relates to Hegelianism. Peirce held that Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness are core functions of the Cosmos itself, three "worlds" if you will.  This has obvious parallels to Hegel's triadic approach of Logic, Nature, and Spirit. Peirce's notion of Tychism is also examined, that the universe...

Philosophers and scientists speak of the "hard problem of consciousness." But what exactly is the problem?  The issue seems to be more with the narrow view of naturalistic materialism, that excludes "everything mental - consciousness, meaning, intent or purpose" (Nagel).  At the center of the disagreement is what is now termed "qualia" (a variation of this term was fi...

As author Og Mandino states, Paul the Apostle was perhaps the "Greatest Salesmen in the World" in bringing the "good news" to Jew and Gentile alike.  And what is very interesting is that Paul's views correspond in several respects to Hegel's unique take on Christianity. This episode discusses one of the "New Perspective of Paul" interpretations by Pauline sc...

Hedge fund head Ray Dalio, in his book "Principles" states, "To be 'good,' something must operate consistently with the laws of reality and contribute to the evolution of the whole; that is what is most rewarded. Evolution is the single greatest force in the universe; it is the only thing that is permanent and it drives everything." Dalio is not a trained philosopher...

Once again Hegel's "true infinity" is the focus an episode.  This time, there is new attention paid to several areas, including: - a better definition of "bad infinity," - how true infinity corresponds to right-brain reasoning,  - how bad infinity corresponds to left-brain understanding,  - how true infinity relates to societal issues at large, - how business innovation de...

One of the original self-improvement books, "The Science of Getting Rich," (Wattles, 1910), was based on Hegelian principles.  And no, it is not about money, but about achieving what one needs so one can accomplish what one is capable of in contributing to the goal of life itself.    Wattles states, "The object of life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable rig...

Reincarnation is one of the most widely held beliefs in the world today.  It is quite logical, and it explains much about why some suffer.  It offers a reasoning and reward for moral and ethical behavior.  But is it true?  Does one have a separate soul that moves from body to body over time? This episode will explore this question from the standpoint of Hegelian philosophy regarding the finite and...

The Creation of the Cosmos by God is fundamental to Western religions.  And the scientific Big Bang event has been pointed to by some as evidence that this did in fact occur. But did it?  New scientific evidence shows that something did precede the Big Bang.  And In the East, a different notion holds, that of the cyclical nature of reality.  And there are different interpretations of whether Hegel...

For many people, philosophy is of little interest.  Some see it only as thinking about thinking, and who needs that?  Others compare it to contemplating one’s navel.  And few people understand how philosophy can actually have any meaning in one’s day-to-day activities. This episode takes the other side.  It first shows why philosophy is needed for a rigorous, articulate, systematic, logical, and c...

This episode looks again at the left brain/right brain dichotomy, and how so much is missed when the left brain view dominates, which it does in today’s world almost exclusively (polarization, either/or, us versus them type thinking).    With left brain thinking alone, one misses the big holistic picture.  The right brain sees relations, movement, processes, and life.  While the left brain creates...

Hegel called sublation one of the most important concepts in all of philosophy.  Hegel scholar Stephen Houlgate calls it "the absolute immanent 'method' of speculative philosophy." The English word "sublation" is a translation of the German work "aufhebung."  But the English term is more or less a placeholder for the Hegel's German word, as there is no...

Is there a difference between a belief having been proven correct versus a belief that while not proven, is still warranted, and not irrational?  Contemporary philosopher Alvin Plantinga believes there is.  And his method of establishing this speaks directly to Hegel's Spirit (Geist). Plantinga is also known for his controversial theory the "Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism"...

Psychologist Carl Jung identified the quaternity (union of four) as a symbol of wholeness.  He used it in portraying his four primary cognitive functions: intuition, sensation, thinking, and feeling (emotions). Similar to this is Russian esotericist George Gurdjieff’s system of harmonious development, called “The Fourth Way,”  His “Work” centered on simultaneously developing the body, the emotions...

Hegel famously stated that "What is real (actual) is rational, and what is rational is real (actual).  What does this statement mean?    The question of just what constitutes "reality" will be examined from four different standpoints - from a scientific viewpoint, from the perspective of one strand of Eastern philosophy, from a particular New Age tome, and, of course, from an Hegeli...

The great enlightenment document, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, pronounced that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,  that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Yet the United States also kept portions of its population enslaved at that time.  How were these ideals and the facts at hand kept co...