Anagoge Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

This conversation explores the depths of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and its radical departure from both analytic and continental philosophy traditions. Graham Harman explains the limitations of "literalism" in science and how great philosophy relies on intuition and rhetoric rather than just rational justification. We discuss the influence of Martin Heidegger's tool analysis and the difference between "real" and "sensual" objects. We also cover the role of architecture in philosophy and why art may be the only way to touch the reality of things.

 

00:00 - Introduction to Object-Oriented Ontology 

05:00 - Heidegger, Husserl, and Tool Analysis

09:00 - The Critique of Literalism

15:00 - Aesthetics and Metaphor

17:50 - Defining "Objects" vs. Materialism

25:00 - Sacredness and Ethical Imperatives

37:50 - Object-Object Interaction

51:19 - Flat Ontology & Human Exceptionalism

55:00 - Animal Intelligence

1:07:50 - Intuition, Truth, and Justification

1:17:50 - Theology, Mysticism, and Essence

1:31:00 - Philosophy and Architecture

www.anagogepodast.com

 

Follow me to get updates on the podcast and my work: 
https://substack.com/@tiagovf

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The intro song is by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril, from the album 'Impossible Parade'.

Website: https://liefsjostrom.com/

Album: https://liefsjostrom.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-parade

This was the first real-life episode of the Anagoge Podcast, recorded in Portugal. The video of the conversation is available on YouTube. James Cooke is a neuroscientist, writer, and contemplative practitioner whose work bridges neuroscience, philosophy, and spirituality. In his recent book The Dawn of Mind, he proposes a bold reframing of consciousness—placing it not in the brain alone, but within the deeper relational dynamics of life itself.

 

In this episode, we explore James' formative mystical experience as a teenager and how it set him on a lifelong journey to understand consciousness through science rather than in opposition to it. We unpack his core thesis of non-dual naturalism, the idea that reality is fundamentally relational, not made up of separate objects, and that consciousness itself may be best understood as an embodied epistemic relation between organism and world.

 

We discuss the illusion of the self, the role of suffering in revealing the nature of reality, and how insights from contemplative practice intersect with recent developments in neuroscience and quantum physics. Along the way, we grapple with the philosophical implications of groundlessness, the nature of ethics in a world without selves, and the limits of scientific explanation.

0:00 Start

0:45 James Cooke's Background 

2:29 Why a Mystical Experience Led to a Scientific Path

5:53 A Broad Overview of the Book's Thesis: Non-Dual Naturalism

9:52 The Epistemic Weight of Mystical Experiences

17:02 The "No-Self" Claim and the Groundlessness of Reality

23:48 How the Infinite Nature of Reality is Relevant to Everyday Life

29:32 The Link Between "No-Self" and Ethics

39:03 The Nuances of Reducing Suffering: Utilitarianism vs. Values

45:57 Defining Life and Consciousness

50:49 How This Perspective Addresses the Hard Problem of Consciousness

1:06:15 Comparing Model-Building in Life vs. AI (LLMs)

1:09:19 The Influence of Kant and the Problem of Anti-Realism

1:15:52 The Power of Stories, Symbols, and Conventional Reality

1:23:35 The Role of Value Systems vs. Survival in Predictive Processing

1:33:41 The Problem of The One and the Many

1:45:13 Exploring Duality

1:48:56 James Future Work

Transcript article: https://tiagovf.medium.com/the-self-consciousness-relationality-54a037bb60a1

My new book, In Search of the Infinite – A Psychedelic Memoir, is a personal and philosophical account written over seven years, tracing my journey through over a dozen psychedelic experiences. It explores the depths of human experience: suffering, beauty, doubt, and wonder, through the lens of altered states and introspection, gradually moving from a strictly rational worldview toward a renewed engagement with religion. Blending memoir with philosophical reflection, it explores a sincere, evolving search for truth and meaning.

 

Paperback/Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/8MM0JhE

Free Digital Version: https://psychedelicmemoir.com/

 

If you would like to connect with me on Instagram, you can do so at @tiagobooks: https://www.instagram.com/tiagobooks/

 

The intro song is by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril, from the album 'Impossible Parade'.
Website: https://liefsjostrom.com/
Album: https://liefsjostrom.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-parade

 

Michael Strevens teaches philosophy of science at New York University. His work revolves around the nature of science, covering topics such as scientific explanation, complex systems, and probability.

In his book "The Knowledge Machine" he explains why science is so successful at creating knowledge and why it took so long for humans to come up with it.

In this episode, we talk about the origins of science, philosophy of science, the contributions and flaws of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, what makes science special and some odd contradictions at the core of scientific thinking.

Get Michael's book "The Knowledge Machine" here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324091088

0:00:00 Introduction

0:02:26 The origins of science

0:07:08 Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn

0:15:59 What Popper and Kuhn were missing

0:20:50 Sociology of science

0:24:56 Contributions of philosophy of science

0:31:49 Bayesian probability

0:34:15 What makes science special?

0:41:06 The irrationality of science

0:45:25 Aesthetic and theological motivations in science

0:47:50 Caloric fluid vs kinetic theory of heat

0:57:15 Creativity in science

0:59:21 The tediousness of extreme detail

1:03:56 Can science make truth claims?

1:10:39 Philosophy of quantum mechanics

1:14:56 The biggest challenge of science

If you would like to help the podcast grow so I can dedicate more time to it, a review on Apple Podcasts is super helpful. Thank you! https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/anagoge-podcast/id1512482918

If you would like to connect with me on Instagram, you can do so at @anagogepodcast and @tiagobooks

The intro song is by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril from the album 'Impossible Parade'. 

Nathan Dufour is a writer, musician, video artist and activist. He produces music videos on YouTube about philosophical ideas and teaches Latin language and Greek Civilization at City College of New York. He received a PhD in Classics from CUNY's Graduate Center.

In the first half, we talk about the relationship between music and philosophy, the performative aspect of art, philosophy's origins and how it connects to music, classics, and western civilization.

In the second half, we cover Plato and Whitehead, which was Nathan's PhD thesis. We discuss Whitehead's process philosophy, how it connects to Platonism, and some of the modern implications of Whitehead's thought.

Nathan is super talented. Make sure to follow his work: 

https://www.youtube.com/nathanology

https://nathanoglesby.bandcamp.com/

https://www.nateandhila.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nathan_ology/

 

Juensung Kim is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, focusing on the science of self-transformation related to the psychology of religion and the cognitive science of magic. He is the lab manager of the Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory.

In this episode, we discuss the meaning of magic and some of its scientific research. Other topics such as psychedelics, wisdom and transformation are also covered, especially in their connection to the meaning crisis and Juensung's work.

John Vervaeke is the author of the famous YouTube series "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis". He is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and he is the director of the Cognitive Science program in the Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory. He has a vast body of scientific work related to consciousness, mindfulness, flow, and wisdom.

In this episode, we cover some of John's life, the importance of dialogos and the relationship between science and spirituality.

My Instagram handle is @tiagobooks

Jonathan Pageau is a carver who specializes in Eastern Orthodox Icons and other traditional Christian images. He graduated with distinction from the Painting and Drawing program at Concordia University in Montreal and has recently gained popularity on YouTube by discussing symbolic thought from Christianity and modern culture. In this episode, we cover a bit of his personal history, early greek thought, what love means, how reality unfolds, and much more.

 

For those not familiar with his work, I recommend watching a couple of his videos first so you better understand his ideas, I have created a resource for it here: https://sites.google.com/view/jonathanpageau/

Dr. Azim Shariff is a social and moral psychologist whose research focuses on morality and religion. He also has some more recent work on the ethics of automation and how people deal with ethical dilemmas of self-driving cars. In this episode, we talk mostly about the psychology of religion through a lens of cultural evolution.

In the 4th episode of our podcast, we finally get into some psychology. I had a very insightful conversation with Dr. Steven Sloman. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University, and he is a cognitive scientist who studies how people think, particularly collective cognition.

He wrote a book with Phil Fernbach titled The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone. We cover a fair bit in this episode, ranging from computational and alternative models of cognitive science, consciousness, his book knowledge illusion, the current age of information, the problem and reliability of expertise, and more. I hope you find it enjoyable!

In this 3rd episode, I had a great conversation with Jean-Philippe Marceau. He holds a degree in computer science and has done a master's degree in philosophy about panpsychism as a response to the hard problem of consciousness. We talk about materialism, ontology, emergence, neo-platonism, Christianity, and more. In the video we often reference symbolism. For those not familiar with Pageau's work, this may be a bit confusing. I would recommend two (short-ish) resources to understand what we are talking about. And if you want to dive deeper, check the original videos of where these clips come from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSv1bjaORlA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIRWvRoBPF4

If you liked JP's ideas, subscribe to his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZzlvx0HHYiPOJTEOU399WA

He is also the chief editor of The Symbolic World blog. You can check it out his articles here: https://thesymbolicworld.com/author/jp_marceau16/