History of Philosophy Audio Archive

Happy Equinox. The Beginning, is at last: beginning.
Music Credit: Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Gernot Schmalfuss / Music Director and Chief Conductor Gwhyneth Chen / Piano Evergreen Symphony Orchestra National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan 13 Nov. 2020 (Creative Commons).
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hymn to the Spirit of Nature (1820).from Prometheus Unbound (Act II, Scene V):
Life of Life! Thy lips enkindle
With their love the breath between them;
And thy smiles before they dwindle
Make the cold air fire; then screen them
In those locks, where whoso gazes
Faints, entangled in their mazes.
Child of Light! Thy limbs are burning
Through the veil which seems to hide them,
As the radiant lines of morning
Through thin clouds, ere they divide them;
And this atmosphere divinest
Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest.
Fair are others; none beholds Thee;
But thy voice sounds low and tender
Like the fairest, for it folds thee
From the sight, that liquid splendor;
And all feel, yet see thee never,—
As I feel now, lost for ever!
Lamp of Earth! Wheree'er thou movest
Its dim shapes are clad with brightness,
And the souls of whom thou lovest
Walk upon the winds with lightness
Till they fail, as I am failing,
Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!

You can find the full talk from March 2025, officially-titled "Normalizing Genocide and the New World Order" at the link below, via The Sanctuary for Independent Media, which Chris has lectured at for years. Chris also writes on Substack "The Chris Hedges Report" and has a podcast of the same name.
Hedges also wrote something like 12 books, which I've read about 9 of, personally. Each was life-changing. I would start with "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison" (2014) by Chris Hedges.
Rest of episode description available free on Patreon.

Full episode description on Patreon
I am joined (just in time for the all-important Vernal Equinox on March 21st) - with the brilliant and timely Dr. Maya Kornberg https://www.mayakornberg.com/.
Her new book STUCK: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress was released March 10th and can be purchased now. (Non-affiliate link). Personal Disclaimer: I was given a hardcover of this book to review by Page One Media. I have never paid anyone, nor has anyone ever paid me, nor will anyone ever pay, to come on my show.
Dr. Kornberg is a senior research fellow at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice and the author of Inside Congressional: Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process.
SOUND AND IMAGE CREDITS:
Intro: Schubert, Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major by Max John. Link's to Max's work in other episode descriptions or by searching YouTube.

Please watch as much Frank Capra as possible, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) from which I derive the cover image as well, apparently, as the absolutely bizarre trailer at the end, which you can watch here, courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment (don't DMCA me, you swine! - it is artistic commentary and I assert Fair Use!):

https://youtu.be/bXoF7w6IWAc

RIP Habermas. Rick Roderick and Michael Sugrue (both also gone, Sugrue earlier this year) remember the life and theory of Jürgen Habermas and the Frankfurt School.
"Don't think that this is some fancy-Dan academic exercise. A lot of people have died because they read a book the wrong way. "
-Rick Roderick on Habermas and the importance of the humanities.

If you enjoy this work, please support the show on Patreon!
Will (the host) writes a Substack page about various and sundry topics.
Plotinus (204-270 CE) was a mystical philosopher who transformed Plato's metaphysical ideas about the Forms and the divine intellect or nous into a spiritual path. In this lecture, Pierre Grimes (1924-2024 CE) introduces Plotinus and his work as recorded by his student Porphyry in The Enneads - a six-part treatise on the mystical ascent of the soul.
"That which gives pre-eminence to the members of any class...is the word 'Greatness... No one would have an interest in that experience, if it was not also Beautiful"
-this 03/24/1998 lecture, catalogue number NSPRS 092
You can find the original video, with chalkboard explanations here.
https://youtu.be/Cvs52cBjpgU?list=PLp6rnhCy8XkqKXmCtLRqC4hOFnEaVVWZx
The Internet home for the Noetic Society is available here, on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@NoeticSociety
Pierre Grimes had a remarkable life. He was an American boy who volunteered to fight Fascism at the age of 17, and earned a Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart, and a Bronze Arrowhead (for the amphibious landing at Dramont "Red Beach" in the south of France, part of Operation Dragoon). For WW2-heads he served in the 1st Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment (part of the 36th Infantry Division). He saw heavy combat in the European theater, and participated in the grotesque and shocking liberation of 'satellite' concentration camps outside of Dachau.
After the war, Grimes used philosophy to work with alcoholics on substance abuse. He thought the Socratic method of maieutics or 'midwifery' was a broadly-applicable dialectical procedure that could show false and disempowering beliefs for what they were, thus eliminating the root cause of a patient's substance-seeking and self-defeating behaviors. He wrote a pair of modern Socratic-style dialogues titled the Vinodorus and the Alcibiades in an attempt to promote philosophy as psychotherapy, and philosophy as a way of life.
In this way, he resembles another philosophical psychotherapist whose work was transformed by his experience of the Nazi Holocaust, Jewish survivor Viktor Frankl. Frankl, like Grimes, was horrified at how casually otherwise decent people could commit acts of total moral worthlessness. He saw their easily parallelized nature, a normalized schizophrenia: at once decent family men who put others first and strove for wisdom and faith, and at the other extreme: disciplined killers and torturers who accomplished their task with vigor, clarity, enthusiasm, and yes, even Joy (As in Joy Division). The shock of Grimes' experience liberating these camps, combined with the heavy fighting he saw near the Monte Artemisio ridge and elsewhere left a deep mark, and triggered a search for wisdom in Greek and Hellenistic philosophy as well as the classics of Indian, Hindu, and Buddhist spirituality.
In 1967 he started the Noetic Society to study Socrates, Plato, and the Neoplatonists along with Indian religion, tantra, and Zen. One of his most intriguing experiments was the software program "To Artemis: The Challenge to Know Thyself" which used "400 structured questions" to model a process users could follow to solve their own problems and explore their beliefs. This is no longer extant anywhere on the Internet - I have posted in various places trying to resurrect it, but to no avail. If you are willing to waste some time, contact whoever is left at this place, and see if we can revive Artemis, or at least read the questions.
https://www.noeticsociety.org/members
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Music by Max John, Schubert Impromptu No.3 in G-flat Major
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icowasnkEqw