Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'

Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'

Author: SpectreVision Radio November 22, 2023 Duration: 1:36:52
In this episode of Weird Studies, we delve into the mysterious depths of Plato's Timaeus, one of the foundational texts of our civilization. In his characteristic brilliance, Plato blends cosmology and metaphysics, anatomy and politics to tell a creation story that rivals the most fantastical mythologies, yet he does it while remaining grounded in a philosophical rigor that announces a radically new way of thinking the world. Here, Phil and JF try unravel the layers of the dialogue, revealing how Plato's vision of a divinely ordered cosmos echoes through the corridors of esoteric thought from antiquity to modern times. Support us on Patreon. Buy the Weird Studies sountrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Plato, [Timaeus](https://hackettpublishing.com/history/history-of-science/timaeus](Donald Zeyl Edition) Earl Fontenelle, The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast The Book of Thoth Graham Hancock, British journalist Hesiod, Theogony Hermes Trismegistus, {Emerald Tablet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet) Pierre Hadot,, scholar of classical philosophy Eugene Wigner, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences” Jean-Pierre Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought Lionel Snell, SSOTBME Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:42
JF and Phil discuss Graham Harman's "The Third Table," a short and accessible introduction to "object-oriented ontology." Phil takes us on a tour of his closet, we discover that JF's kids are better at this weird studies…
Episode 7: The Unspeakable Mystery at the Heart of Boxing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:17
For as long as they've been pounding the crap out of each other for good reasons, humans have also been pounding the crap out of each other for fun. Everywhere, in ever age, elaborate systems, rituals, and traditions hav…
Episode 6: Dungeons & Dragons, or the Reality of Illusions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:02
The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga was one of the first thinkers to define games as exercises in world-making. Every game, he wrote, occurs within a magic circle where the rules of ordinary life are suspended and new law…
Episode 5: Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:21
Phil and JF discuss Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool," an essay on the postmodern humanities and its allergy to essences -- especially that personal essence we call soul. Maybe the soul is a heap of miscellaneous not…
Episode 4: Exploring the Weird with Erik Davis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:38
Scholar, journalist and author Erik Davis joins Phil and JF for a freewheeling conversation on the permutations of the weird, Burning Man, speculative realism, the uncanny, the H. P. Lovecraft/Philip K. Dick syzygy, and…
Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:25
JF and Phil delve deep into Arthur Machen's fin-de-siècle masterpiece, "The White People," for insight into the nature of ecstasy, the psychology of fairies, the meaning of sin, and the challenge of living without a mora…
Weird Stories: Arthur Machen's "The White People" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:37:03
Weird Stories is a series of readings for Weird Studies listeners who want to dig deeper into the themes and ideas discussed on the Weird Studies podcast. In his seminal essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," H. P. L…
Episode 2: Garmonbozia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:26:32
Phil and JF use a word from the Twin Peaks mythos, "garmonbozia," to try to understand what it was that the detonation of atomic bomb brought into the world. We use the fictional world of Twin Peaks as a map to the (so-c…
Episode 1: Introduction to Weird Studies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:48
Phil and J.F. share stories of sleep paralysis and talk about Charles Fort's sympathy for the damned, Jeff Kripal's phenomenological approach to Fortean weirdness, Dave Hickey's notion of beauty as democracy, and Timothy…