Episode 76: Below the Abyss: On Bergson's Metaphysics

Episode 76: Below the Abyss: On Bergson's Metaphysics

Author: SpectreVision Radio June 24, 2020 Duration: 1:19:01
According to the French philosopher Henri Bergson, there are two ways of knowing the world: through analysis or through intuition. Analysis is our normal mode of apprehension. It involves knowing what's out there through the accumulation and comparison of concepts. Intuition is a direct engagement with the absolute, with the world as it exists before we starting tinkering with it conceptually. Bergson believed that Western metaphysics erred from the get-go when it gave in to the all-too-human urge to take the concepts by which we know things for the things themselves. His entire oeuvre was an attempt to snap us out of that spell and plug us directly into the flow of pure duration, that primordial time that is the real Real. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss the genius -- and possible limitations -- of his metaphysics. REFERENCES Henri Bergson, "Introduction to Metaphysics" Weird Studies episode 13 -- The Obscure: On the Philosophy of Heraclitus Weird Studies episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's 'Genjokoan' Bertrand Russel's critique of Bergson's philosophy Dōgen Zenji, Shōbōgenzō Wiliam James, Principles of Psychology Plato, Theaetetus Meillassoux, After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency Aleister Crowley, British occultist Graham Harman, "The Third Table" Weird Studies episode 8 - On Graham Harman's "The Third Table" Bergson, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 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
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William Gibson's Pattern Recognition was published in 2003, in the wake of 9/11. You would think that a novel about the early Internet's effects on the collective psyche would feel dated today. But Gibson's insight into…
Episode 52: On Beauty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Episode 51: Blind Seers: On Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:36:26
Through her fiction, Flannery O'Connor reenvisioned life as a supernatural war wherein each soul becomes the site of a clash of mysterious, almost incomprehensible forces. Her first novel, Wise Blood, tells the story of…
Episode 50: Demogorgon: On 'Stranger Things' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:36:31
The Duffer Brothers' hit series Stranger Things is many things: an exemplary piece of entertainment in the summer blockbuster mold, a fresh take on the "kids on bikes" subgenre of science fiction, a loving pastiche of 19…
Episode 49: Out of Time: Nietzsche on History [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:42
In his essay "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life," Nietzsche attacks the notion that humans are totally determined by the historical forces that shape their physical and mental environment. Where other phi…
Episode 48: Walking the Tightrope with Erik Davis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:09
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Duration: 1:08:24
Made in 2003, Lutz Dammbeck's documentary The Net: The Unabomber, LSD, and the Internet is a film about many things, but the gist of it is something like what William Burroughs called the doctrine of control. We live in…