The Cunning of Geist Greg Novak
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- Society & Culture
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Gregory Novak explores philosophy, psychology, and science with an emphasis on Hegel. For seekers and scholars alike.
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081 - The Fermi Paradox - Are We Alone in the Universe? Can Rationality Ever be Alone?
It is estimated that over 2 billion stars in our own Milky Way galaxy have planets orbiting them that could sustain life. Are we on planet Earth a lottery winner, a one in 2 billion chance for establishing life and intelligent beings? The odds suggest life exists elsewhere. However, although it took billions of years to life on Earth to evolve to where we are today, there are stars are much older that our own sun. Several billion years older in fact. Why no...
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080 - Is There a God? - Creation, Becoming, and the Fate of the Universe
"Creation ex nihlilo (creation out of nothing) or "Ex nihilo nihil fit" (from nothing comes from nothing)?The notion of a creator God is fundamental to Western religions. But is it true? The opening of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, studied so long and hard by the Kabbalists suggests so, and the Big Bang theory gave reason for many to believe the cosmological argument for God (everything that began to exist has a cause). But the newest scientific data suggests something preceded the...
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079 - Using Hegel's Triad as a Model for Success
Hegel's "triad" of Being, Nothing, and Becoming are central to his ontology. And it can also be used as a framework for personal achievement. This episode explains how. The Being/Nothing/Becoming dialectic comes first in Hegel's Science of Logic, but it also presents the pattern for his overall project of Mind (Idea), Nature, and Spirit (Geist). And it is just this framework that one must use in pushing to new heights of success in life. The basic approach i...
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078 - Jung's Synchronicity: Demonstrating the Mental/Physical Unity of the Cosmos
Hegel famously said in his Phenomenology of Spirit, "Everything turns on grasping and expressing the True, not as Substance, but equally as Subject." (Miiler trans., ¶17). That the true - truth - is equally substance and subject. He makes this explicitly clear in the following statement, “What seems to take place outside it, to be an activity directed against it, is its own doing, its own activity; and substance shows that it is in reality subject” (Ibid, ¶37).Meaningful coi...
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077 - The Journey Not the Destination: The Case for Universal Purposeful Evolution
Does Spirit evolve? How about God?And what exactly does the term panentheism mean?This episode takes a deep dive into process philosophy, process theology, and the evolutionary nature of "becoming." The pioneer work of Charles Hartshorne, Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Sanders Peirce, and of course Hegel, all in a way process philosophers, is addressed. Support the Show.
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076 - Language Games: Wittgenstein, Hegel, and the Split in Philosophy
Wittgenstein is often mention as the most influential philosopher of the 20th century. His focus on the meaning of words became an integral part of the so-called "Analytic" branch of the discipline. The later Wittgenstein contended that words are but tools, defined by their use within the context of the “language game” of the arena they are used, which is societally based and can evolve. One of these sandboxes is philosophy, as well as science and religion. And t...
Customer Reviews
Review
Gregory has a gift for bringing abstract philosophical ideas alive, giving them relevance..
I know nothing
I am here because of a plug on poog and because of my curiosity when it comes to philosophy despite my utter blind spot on the topic. The host makes it really easy to understand and explore.
10 stars
A wonderful podcast
Mr. Novak’s concise and comprehensive discussions of Hegel & related philosophical questions are excellent. I’m learning so much. Thank you!