The Cunning of Geist – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

The Cunning of Geist

Greg Novak

Society & Culture

Religion & Spirituality

Frequency: 1 episode/17d. Total Eps: 81

Gregory Novak explores philosophy, psychology, and science with an emphasis on Hegel. For seekers and scholars alike.

Site

RSS

Apple

Data updated on 23/08/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=87170950&amp
81 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 38%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

081 - The Fermi Paradox - Are We Alone in the Universe? Can Rationality Ever be Alone?

Sunday, April 14, 2024 • Duration 29:59

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 evidence of extraterrestrial life? No radio signals, no unmanned probes, no hard evidence of visitations. Why not? Could we be alone?

Hegel teaches that rationality and Spirit is paramount, what is real. If so, it most be universal, across the cosmos. Are we the only place where it has actualized? This episode explores.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

080 - Is There a God? - Creation, Becoming, and the Fate of the Universe

Sunday, February 25, 2024 • Duration 22:37

"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 Big Bang. And in our secular age, many prefer to follow the science, rightly so.

Planet Earth, the sun, our galaxy, and the universe itself, like all of us, is headed for the graveyard. But cycles of nature appear everywhere. Could this also be true of the universe itself? Does the universe resurrect? This episode explores the question in detail.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

079 - Using Hegel's Triad as a Model for Success

Sunday, January 28, 2024 • Duration 21:58

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 is goal setting (Mind), assessing the path to take, including the obstacles to overcome (Nature), and boldly embarking on one's action plan in the world (Spirit).

The correspondence of Hegel's triad to real life achievement is the subject of this episode.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

078 - Jung's Synchronicity: Demonstrating the Mental/Physical Unity of the Cosmos

Thursday, December 28, 2023 • Duration 24:32

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 coincidences, Jung's synchronicity, are a demonstration of this truth. And the mediation of the mental and material takes place in the immediacy of the present moment. As Hegel said, "There is nothing, nothing in heaven, or in nature or in mind or anywhere else which does not equally contain both immediacy and mediation" (Science of Logic, Miller trans., pg. 68).

Episode 78 explores this important notion.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

077 - The Journey Not the Destination: The Case for Universal Purposeful Evolution

Sunday, November 19, 2023 • Duration 20:11

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

Read moreCollapse

076 - Language Games: Wittgenstein, Hegel, and the Split in Philosophy

Sunday, October 22, 2023 • Duration 21:46

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 the language of one space does not necessarily hold water in another. That there is not one underlying true meaning of the word beneath all of the different areas; only how a word or phrase is used in context of the realm of "game" in which it is being used.

But cannot words be used to point outside of the realm in which they are used to Spirit, a higher power and purpose, and to the truly infinite? And isn't this the purpose of art, religion and philosophy? This episode explores.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

075 - A Matter of Life & Death: How Philosophy Underpins Politics, Law, Science, and Morality.

Saturday, September 23, 2023 • Duration 32:58

Is philosophy just mental masturbation? Nothing but air?

Many today see no value in philosophy because there seems to be little agreement among philosophers on anything, and much of what they say seems to have little or no impact on one's life, or society in general. Is this the case?

An examination of the major pillars upon which society stands - political systems, the law, science, and its moral base - shows just the opposite. Holding each of these institutions up is a philosophical position. In most cases, these are stances that have been analyzed for over two thousand years by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Hegel.

As the 20th century demonstrated, the philosophy that nations choose to embrace can lead to the death of millions. And as citizens of the world, we do not have to blindly accept the doctrines that are handed us. We can, as Steve Job said, "change it, influence it, mold it."

This episode shows the major impact philosophy has had on all aspects of life.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

074 - Is the Unconscious Mind Real or Fantasy? - B.F. Skinner, Freud, & Hegel

Sunday, August 27, 2023 • Duration 22:36

The behaviorism of B.F. Skinner took the psychology world by storm. His 1971 book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" was hailed as the most important psychological publication of the 20th century. And this was from someone who denied mind and free will.

It was an attempt to dignify psychology as a hard science, based on experiments and what can be observed, rather than what people think or feel, a direct contradiction to the root meaning of word psychology - "a study of mind." He claimed that reason, values, concepts, judgment, and purpose simply do not exist. To him, all actions are based on conditioning.

Hegel laid the groundwork for the unconscious, calling it soul, and saying it is from what consciousness itself comes. Famed psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung built on this with their brilliant conceptions - the reality of the unconscious mind on Freud's part and the collective unconscious from Jung.

This episode discusses all this as well as Novak's personal interactions with Skinnerism in the university setting of the early 1970s.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

073 - Who Needs Philosophy? - You Do!

Sunday, July 30, 2023 • Duration 31:38

Developing one's own philosophy of life can be one of the most rewarding experiences. ll can serve as the basis for a productive and happy experience in this world.

What many don’t realize is that our beliefs, values, and actions are based on a grounding in a particular philosophy, whether we understand it or not. Examining the underpinnings of our concept of self and the world can be a fruitful exercise. It is better to actively choose one's philosophy of life rather than have it handed to us by others, or by unconsciously absorbing it from the environment of family and friends. The default position often produces conflicting and random direction, which can lead to doubt, frustration, a lack of fulfillment, and loss of meaning in one's life.

This podcast episode demonstrates how we are handed a philosophical outlook starting in childhood, continuing through our education, and examines the current paradigms upon which this pedagogy is based. It discusses key philosophical questions that should be actively pondered, and dives into current topics such as sexual orientation, political affiliation, identity groups, and individualism vs. collectivism. Lastly it is shown how many of the casual cliches we use in speaking are actually statements of profound philosophical positions.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

072 - Pillars of the Collective Unconscious: How Jung's Feminine & Masculine Archetypes Manifest in the Psyche and Brain

Tuesday, June 27, 2023 • Duration 33:15

This episode explores psychologist Carl Jung's conception of the psyche, from the ego and the persona it shows to the world, down through the personal and collective shadow, finally reaching the two core archetypes of the collective unconscious - the anima and the animus.

This fundamental polarity is seen in myths and narratives throughout the ages, including the yin/yang symbol, heaven and earth of the Bible, Hegel's being and nothing, and even the left and right brain hemispheres, with it two distinct approaches to thinking.

While this polarity is often expressed as masculine/feminine, it is not dependent on the body, but on a host of psychological attributes that differ in their application. The anima is more receptive, social, and connecting, whereas the animus is more divisive and abstract. The aspects we identify with and put forward mean their opposites are kept below in the unconscious. But both sides exist in all of us, whether implicit or explicit.

This episode explores the collective unconscious from several standpoints, including the mystical tree of life from the Kabbalah.

Support the show

Read moreCollapse

The Cunning of Geist – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

The Cunning of Geist – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Patreon1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Patreon1

Apple Podcasts

Spotify