The Cunning of Geist

07/11/2025

American pragmatic philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, a disciple of Hegel, contended that love is a primal evolutionary force of the universe. He saw it as driving basic biology as well as our thought patterns. He called it “agapism,” and believed it to be purposeful.

It is selfless and embraces rather than opposes. It is a higher, more powerful force than Darwinian evolution, which is driven solely by randomness and advantage.

For more on Charles Peirce, see podcast episodes 46, 52, and 77.

06/11/2025

“By Nature man is not what he ought to be; only through a transforming process does he arrive at truth.” - Hegel, Philosophy of History.

05/11/2025

The great debate today is not between science and religion, as many claim. Actually, It is between science and materialism.

Why? Because science makes no claims about God. It is agnostic. So there is no fight there. Different sandboxes. It can point out scientific inconsistencies in the Bible, but the Bible is not a science textbook. It is a spiritual narrative, invoking symbols, imagery, and analogies to impart its wisdom.

The actual conflict, strange as it may seem, is between science and materialism. This occurs when science becomes scientism and pretends to have all the answers. And if not now, it will have them at some time in the future.

The evolution of life here on earth, and the evolution of our minds, are two great examples. If life and mind are just the result of random trial and error of dead, unthinking atomic particles, then whatever is the result is also dead and unthinking.

A zombie has no right to establish theories on anything.

04/11/2025

What does it mean to become psychologically “whole?” This was the goal for psychologist Carl Jung. He called it the process of individuation. And how was this accomplished? By bringing elements of the unconscious to consciousness. And not only from our personal unconscious (things we try to hide from ourselves), but from humanity’s collective unconscious as well.

Jung believed that pursuing individuation can bring a greater sense of self-awareness, authenticity, and a more meaningful connection to oneself and the world.

Jung’s work is discussed frequently in the podcast. Check the subject index for specific episodes.

03/11/2025

Are our cognitive faculties reliable?

The answer depends on a deeper question. We have cognitive faculties, of course. But the underlying issue is how did they come to be?

There are many views on this question, but I propose examining just two. First is the materialist position. And the second is the Hegelian notion, which many other great thinkers have also held. that Mind is both real and true.

In pure materialism, there is no basis to believe our cognitive faculties would be inherently reliable. Yes, we may have evolved to know when to turn right or left, and things more complicated. But the mechanistic view does not lead to ultimate truth. Just what works. This may be okay for the materialist, but machines say nothing outside the specific task they are built for. While AI may mimic intelligence, it is not inherent in their computer models. It may exist in the programmer but not the program.

The other position is that Spirit/Mind exists, and our own physical evolution has allowed us to grasp portions of it for our own well-being and freedom. And this plays an essential role in driving us forward.

The problem here is when materialists step out of their sandbox and claim cognitive reliability when their paradigm denies it.

02/11/2025

No, the Matrix is not real. It has now been proven that the universe is not a computer simulation.

Gödel’s incompleteness theorem shows that no computational system can fully describe the universe as it is. That is because some truths, he showed, are based on a non algorithmic thought. Hegel would call these truths "Vernunft" (German for holistic reasoning as opposed to common understanding).

All simulations are algorithmic, and fundamental reality is not. Period. Full stop.

New study uses logic and physics to definitively answer one of science's biggest questions

31/10/2025

You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs personality test. You may have actually taken it where you work. I did. It was all the rage some time ago. Test takers were Identified as one of 16 personality types, with letters like INFJ (for introvert, intuitive, feeler, judger). Corporations used this test to help employees better understand themselves and their co-workers.

Many do not know that this test is based on the work of psychologist C.G.Jung. He identified two axis' running underneath personality: thinking/feeling (head vs. heart) and external/internal (materialism vs. intuition). And each could be expressed extrovertedly or introvertedly (extrovert vs. introvert).

Jung's map of the mind has broader implications as well, including a direct link to philosophy and Hegel's project.

More here in this episode:

Podcast Episode · The Cunning of Geist · 03/27/2023 · 24m

28/10/2025

"If you want to lose your faith, make friends with one of the clergy." - G. Gurdjieff.

I hope the same doesn't hold true for philosophers!

26/10/2025

"The mind only ages when curiosity dies." - attributed to many, including Albert Einstein.

25/10/2025

I have spoken about this several times in the Podcast.

Sir Roger Penrose, a renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, proposed that the Big Bang was not the true beginning of the universe. In his theory called Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC), he suggests that the universe goes through endless cycles, or “aeons,” where each universe ends in a vast, cold, and empty state that eventually gives rise to the next Big Bang. According to Penrose, traces of previous universes may still exist in the cosmic microwave background radiation. His idea challenges the traditional view of a singular beginning, suggesting instead that the cosmos is eternal, continually renewing itself through infinite cycles.

The Scientific Genius ✌️

23/10/2025

Think about this next time you hear about a $trillion dollars:

A million seconds ago was October 11th
A billion seconds ago was 1993
A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C.

22/10/2025

We often hear of the "buidling blocks of life" in scientific articles. But I believe this is a misnomer. This term assumes we know how these buidling blocks can be assembled to produce life. In fact, no one know this. It remains a complete mystery to science.

We know there were once simpler life forms. And they evolved to where we are today. But their original beginning, if in fact there was indeed a beginning, is unknown.

This should not be forgotten.

Large complex organic molecules have been spotted frozen in ice around a young star in our galaxy’s closest neighbour the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).