Category: Analytic Idealism

Prof. Jeffrey Kripal On ‘Decolonizing’ Reality

Each week, the Essentia Foundation shares highlights from the most insightful moments of longer videos on this channel. In this video Prof. Jeffrey Kripal talks about the importance of metaphysical diversity in academia: instead of regarding other than Western ontologies as Foucauldian language games, we have to see them as valid claims on reality.

Watch the full interview: What If Science Took The Paranormal Seriously? | The Superhumanities | Prof. Jeffrey Kripal PhD

Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra interviews Prof. Jeffrey Kripal, PhD, who holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in Houston, on his new book: ‘The Superhumanities, Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities.’ What if the humanities would open their horizon to more metaphysical possibilities? Prof. Kripal has written a book about a future in which the humanities study the full human. In these superhumanities, the weird, the psi—in short, the impossible—is taken seriously metaphysically: anomalous phenomena are not only regarded as subjective truths, but also as objective claims about reality. In his book, Prof. Kripal clearly shows how the nineteenth century ontology of materialism reigns in almost all of the humanities, which limits our scientific understanding of who we are as humans: there is no transcendence, the individual is nothing but a social body in spacetime, shaped by society. As Prof. Kripal likes to quip: “if there is one dogma in the humanities, it is that the truth has to be depressing.” The humanities need to expand beyond this depressing view, not because it’s depressing, but because it’s simply a half truth. We are conditioned social animals and transcendent beings. We are human and superhuman, as he argues. Interestingly, the superhumanities can build on the same foundational thinkers as the humanities. When we read the full Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, or Jacques Derrida, for instance, we see that these thinkers very much acknowledged the super. It is only the postmodern reading of their texts in academia that filters out the ecstatic. When it comes to Nietzsche, Prof. Kripal convincingly argues that the ‘crazy’ Nietzsche was perhaps the real Nietzsche, at the pinnacle of his thought. But here’s the thing: did he think his way to the vision of the Übermensch—which later unjustly got contaminated by fascism—or did he somehow receive it as a vision? According to Prof. Kripal, Nietzsche’s vision should be taken much more literally than we now take it: he was talking about an actual superspecies, with superhuman capabilities. What if the humanities could scientifically investigate what happened when, for instance, Nikola Tesla had the visions that led to groundbreaking inventions? What happened when Einstein saw the principles of general relativity in a dream? Perhaps the key takeaway from Prof. Kripal’s book is that, if the humanities would only dare to turn into the superhumanities, they would again become relevant for the other disciplines in academia.

New Evidence for Out-of-Body Experiences & Perennial Wisdom | Neuroscientist Marjorie Woollacott PhD

In this wide-ranging interview with Natalia Vorontsova, Professor Marjorie Woollacott draws remarkable parallels between 9th-10th century Kashmiri Shaivism and modern idealism, pointing to the fundamental and irreducible nature of consciousness. Moreover, her study of near-death experiences empirically supports this very hypothesis of the existence of a fundamental consciousness without neurons and beyond our five senses. This is an open conversation about life, death, and who we really are as ‘points of consciousness.’

What Came Before the Big Bang? | Theory of Embedded Intelligence, Bill Mensch & Bernardo Kastrup

Could it be a coincidence that two founding fathers of modern day computing, independently from each other, are both coming with theories of consciousness that are idealist in nature? Or does a deep understanding of what computation is—and what it is not—inevitably lead away from physicalist ideas on consciousness? Previously Essentia Foundation presented the work of Federico Faggin, and now a legendary contemporary of his, computer engineer Bill Mensch, presents his Theory of Embedded Intelligence (TEI) to us. Mensch was a major contributor to the Motorola 6800 and became famous for his work on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, a chip that, because of it’s efficiency, completely revolutionized computing in the 80’s. From Arcade halls to the Apple II and Nintendo 8 bit consoles, 6502s could be found everywhere. Even to this day the chip is still used in children’s toys and even in pacemakers and satellites. Looking back at his career, Mensch realizes that building computer chips is in essence a form of ‘embedding’ intelligence in technology, just as nature has embedded intelligence in biological systems, like humans. In his TEI model intelligence is fundamental. This raises the philosophical question of how consciousness relates to intelligence, and for this reason Bernardo Kastrup joined in on the conversation Mensch and Hans Busstra had. The value of a theory like Mensch’s is perhaps exactly that it is not philosophically fine-tuned to the terminology commonly used in philosophy of mind. By not taking the human mind and phenomenal consciousness as its departure point, but intelligence instead, Mensch arrives at a position in which the distinction between living beings and abiotic systems is less distinct. Mensch’s slides can be downloaded here: https://www.essentiafoundation.o…

Find MORE Meaning WITHOUT Free Will! | Bernardo Kastrup Explains

We usually think that it is free will that gives meaning to life, but what if exactly the opposite is true, that the fact that we don’t have free will makes life meaningful? A couple of weeks ago Bernardo Kastrup, the executive director of the Essentia Foundation, wrote an essay (https://www.essentiafoundation.org/th…) arguing that, under objective idealism, the whole convulsiveness around free will is a meaningless red herring. In his opinion, the free will vs determinism debate misses the point, because fundamentally there is no distinction between nature’s will and what nature is necessitated to do. In other words: what we assume to be free will is, on a universal level, exactly the same as determinism. In this video ,Hans Busstra sits down with Bernardo Kastrup to discuss this line of reasoning while also trying to make it personal: why do we want free will so badly on a psychological level? Why, as a culture, do we usually associate determinism with nihilism and meaninglessness? The conversation covers Laplace’s Demon, computational irreducibility, and works towards Kastrup’s main point: if you can accept that, on a personal level, you don’t have free will, you realize that you are being ‘played’ by a universe that—due to computational irreducibility—cannot ‘see’ where it’s going before it goes. Instead of suffering as an effect of ‘bad’ free will decisions by human agents, suffering becomes part of the inevitable evolution of the universe

Imagination as the ground of reality, with Patrick Harpur

In this wide-ranging interview, one of our favorite scholars, Patrick Harpur, discusses the fundamental role of the imagination in human history, the human mind, and reality at large. He also discusses the daimons, those elusive, contradictory figures who inhabit minds and the world, but who appear only to those with the eyes to see. Harpur’s extensive, extraordinary, life-transforming body of work is one of the most criminally underrated in modern scholarship.

This video has human-created English subtitles, so don’t forget to click on the ‘CC’ button below the video to enable them.

Books by Patrick Harpur:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=patrick+harpur&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&crid=189YQ79HZX76L&sprefix=patrick+harpur%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C352&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Consciousness cannot be reduced to brain activity: Doctor Raymond Tallis on the mind-body problem

Professor Tallis—a philosopher, poet, novelist, cultural critic, retired medical physician and clinical neuroscientist—discusses the relationship between mind and brain, as well as the big questions about the nature of reality.

Is Everything Made of Matter or Consciousness? | Rupert Spira & Bernardo Kastrup in Conversation

Is everything in the world made of matter or consciousness? What exactly are matter and consciousness? Rupert Spira joins Bernardo Kastrup, scientist and author, in a deep exploration of science and spirituality and how they inevitably meet on the same path to truth. The conversation proves that anyone, from any background, can come to the same universal understanding that non-duality teaches; that peace and happiness is who we truly are. Rupert came to this understanding through 40 years of spiritual practice in the vedantic and tantric traditions, while Bernardo studied the professional fields of computer science and engineering. Moderated by Simon Mundie, the discussion covers various topics as Rupert and Bernardo dissect solipsism, idealism and materialism. Through it all, they both came to the same recognition which is that peace and love surpasses all understanding, and is the very nature of everyone and everything.

Reality Plus | David Chalmers & Swami Sarvapriyananda

Dr. David J. Chalmers is the Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at the New York University. He is the author of several books including his latest publication: Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. In this engaging conversation, Swami Sarvapriyananda and Dr. Chalmers discuss ancient and modern perspectives on consciousness.

This text about Analytic Idealism was generated by OpenAI’s chatGPT:

Analytic idealism is a philosophical perspective that combines elements of idealism, a traditional philosophical position that holds that reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual in nature, with the rigor and clarity of analytic philosophy, a modern movement that emphasizes logical and linguistic analysis.

Analytic idealism argues that the fundamental nature of reality is mental or spiritual, rather than material or physical. According to this perspective, the material world and the physical objects we perceive are ultimately reducible to mental or spiritual entities, and it is these mental or spiritual entities that are the fundamental building blocks of reality.

One of the key figures in the development of analytic idealism is the philosopher David Chalmers, who has written extensively on the subject. In his book “The Character of Consciousness,” Chalmers argues that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, and that it cannot be reduced to or explained by material or physical processes. He suggests that the most plausible explanation for consciousness is that it is a fundamental aspect of reality, akin to space, time, and mass.

Overall, analytic idealism is a philosophical perspective that offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the nature of reality and consciousness. It challenges traditional materialist assumptions about the nature of reality and suggests that consciousness and the mental may be more fundamental than the physical. By considering this perspective, we can gain a deeper understanding of the nature of reality and the place of consciousness within it.