Épisodes

  • #97 - JP Marceau - How Christianity Solves The Meaning Crisis

    #97 - JP Marceau - How Christianity Solves The Meaning Crisis
    Jul 3 2025

    Jean-Philippe Marceau is a writer and podcaster with an academic background in mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophy of mind. He is the author of "Post-reductionist Christianity: A Way Out of the Meaning Crisis" published with the Symbolic World Press. He is a regular contributor to the Symbolic World blog and acted as its editor-in-chief for many years since its conception.

    Get the Book: https://store.thesymbolicworld.com/products/post-reductionist-christianity-a-way-out-of-the-meaning-crisis

    In this conversation, Mahon McCann and JP explore the themes of reductive materialism, its critiques, and the implications for understanding consciousness, rationality, and the human condition. They discuss the emergence of higher-level properties in science, the role of classical metaphysics, and how these ideas relate to the meaning crisis in contemporary society. The discussion culminates in the assertion that Christianity, particularly through the lens of the Eucharist, provides a solution to the meaning crisis, offering a path back to community and meaning in a world increasingly dominated by materialism.

    Chapters:

    00:00 Introduction to Reductive Materialism

    04:48 Flaws of Reductive Materialism

    10:13 Arguments Against Reductionism

    20:35 Emergence in AI and Science

    23:11 Philosophical Challenges to Materialism

    28:08 Classical Metaphysics vs. Reductive Materialism

    39:54 Anthropology and the Human Condition

    43:32 Patterns of Existence and Higher Realities

    46:13 The Role of Higher Patterns in Overcoming Sin

    49:28 Classical Metaphysics and Its Relation to Christianity

    52:28 The Limits of Philosophical Arguments for Christianity

    56:21 Zombies as a Metaphor for Materialism

    01:02:04 The Eucharist: A Solution to the Meaning Crisis

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    1 h et 21 min
  • #96 - Jacob Kishere - The Strange Return of Christianity

    #96 - Jacob Kishere - The Strange Return of Christianity
    Jun 6 2025

    Howiyeee,

    Got to join Jacob Kishere of the Sensespace podcast and Resonant Man project on his Culture Pilgrim Substack. We discussed the continuing strange return of Christianity and my own conversion to Catholicism. We dive into some other topics including the Meta-Crisis and meaning crisis, psychedelics and transformative practises, the liminal web and performative Christianity!



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    1 h et 11 min
  • Plato's Republic, Book 3 | Education & The Noble Lie

    Plato's Republic, Book 3 | Education & The Noble Lie
    May 27 2025

    This is the third part of a series unpacking Plato's Republic. This episode dives into Book Three, focusing on the critique of Greek literature, the educational program divided into music and physical training, the introduction of the rulers from the warrior class, and the famous 'Noble Lie' that establishes the city's caste system. Discover how Plato criticises the Homeric myths, redefines moral standards, and proposes a structured society with an emphasis on ethical and harmonious living.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introduction to Plato's Republic Series

    00:17 Overview of Book Three

    04:06 The Role of Imitation in Education

    09:55 Selection and Role of the Rulers

    11:39 The Noble Lie and Caste System

    Introduction:

    Episode 1:

    Episode 2:

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    Best,

    Mahon.



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    16 min
  • #95 - Fr Conor McDonough - From Decline to Revival: The Untold Story of Catholicism in Ireland

    #95 - Fr Conor McDonough - From Decline to Revival: The Untold Story of Catholicism in Ireland
    May 15 2025

    Fr Conor McDonough (@thewhitestone) is a Dominican Friar and Phd Student in the national university of Galway on “The Letters of St Paul in Early Irish Christianity”. He is an educator and communicator of the Catholic faith and frequently features in videos from the Irish Dominicans youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@irishdominicans

    In this podcast we explore the current state of Irish Catholicism, highlighting its decline in practice and the alienation of many from the church. We discuss the lack of basic knowledge among self-identified Catholics, the impact of scandals on trust in the church, and the absence of beauty in liturgical practices. However, there is hope in the revival of the faith online and particularly among younger generations. We discuss the impact of modern thinkers like Jordan Peterson on the perception of religion, the spiritual awakening of Gen Z, and the search for truth, beauty, and goodness in a secular world.

    Check it out 👇

    Chapters:

    00:00 The Current State of Irish Catholicism

    02:53 Decline and Alienation from the Church

    05:53 Cultural Conformity and Choreography Catholicism

    08:52 The Intellectual Tradition and Lack of Curiosity

    11:57 The Shift in Attitudes Towards Catholicism

    14:49 Historical Context of Irish Catholicism

    18:10 The Impact of Secularization on Faith

    20:57 Personal Experiences and Conversations about Faith

    24:05 The Search for Meaning in a Secular Age

    27:54 The Crisis of Faith in Modern Society

    29:51 Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in Catholicism

    32:59 The Impact of Scandals on Faith

    36:00 Personal Faith Amidst Institutional Failures

    39:03 Spirituality Beyond Traditional Religion

    41:50 The Role of Online Communities in Faith

    44:54 Generational Shifts in Spirituality

    48:02 Rediscovering Faith in a Digital Age

    50:59 The Search for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

    53:54 The Importance of Community in Faith Practice

    58:37 The Role of Religious Practices in Modern Society

    01:00:41 Bridging Divides: The Importance of Community

    01:02:07 Engaging the Youth: The Church's Response to New Interest

    01:05:53 Navigating Challenges: The Journey Back to Faith

    01:08:27 Cultural Reflections: Literature and the Search for Meaning

    01:12:41 The Quest for Truth: Artistic Expressions of Faith

    01:16:43 Overcoming Prejudices: The Journey Towards Acceptance

    01:20:42 Building Community: Resources and Recommendations for Young Adults

    Best,

    Mahon.



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    1 h et 27 min
  • From Radical Atheist To Catholic (My Story)

    From Radical Atheist To Catholic (My Story)
    Apr 18 2025
    This easter Saturday I will be baptised as a Catholic in Dublin! This baptism is really the fruition of a spiritual journey which has taken my whole thirty years of life thus far, but in this talk I tried to condense that journey into a testimony to share some of the main points along the way. Essentially, all the work on this Substack and the Youtube has been leading up to this decision: Charting the failure of the mechanistic philosophy, the resulting meaning crisis, and the variety of jigs and reels which vie as a replacement worldview to re-home people in the liminal web and beyond. I did for awhile buy into the idea we were going to make ‘something new’, a “religion that is not a religion”. But when I finally understood Christianity and particularly it’s neoplatonic underpinnings, this project seemed entirely unnecessary and to be honest, foolish. Hopefully this talk might be of some use to you on your own spiritual quest, or offer hope for those who worry about the declining fortunes of Christianity and Catholicism (although these seem to be reversing). Unfortunately because the talk was only five minutes, I couldn’t really get into the philosophical nitty gritty of my decision and the rational behind the move. However, over the next few months, and throughout the Plato’s Republic course, I will share a few essays explaining the logic behind my conversion and the many, MANY, blocks which I had to overcome to become a Catholic (and coming from an extreme atheism since birth, I probably had a lot more blocks than most of you!)I’m not advocating a nostalgic return to a perceived christian empire, but rather a taking up of the cross, the profound transformation that is offered by christ, and that this transformation is the way of out of the meaning crisis (or the second fall as the Pageau brothers refer to it). Albeit like me, we all need a lot of explaining and practising and understanding to see how the ancients saw and get over the blocks of the modern mind to re-enter christendom, which I think is the main point of my online platform now - straddling the gap between modernity and christendom with some help from the Greeks. In entering the church and Catholicism, my personal motto is St Augustine’s Maxim of “faith seeking understanding”. I need enough faith in the tradition to offer the time, attention and sacrifices to learn and transform enough to get the understanding. It’s a bit like going to the gym, you don’t get results immediately but if you have faith in the plan and process then the results will follow. But in my limited experience so far, if you look honestly and humbly, the treasures are there to be found: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)Talk Transcript:“Good morning, my name is Mahon and today I’m going to give you my story. By all rights I shouldn’t be here. I was born as an atheist, was never baptised or made communion or anything. I was a particularly vicious atheist and delighted in telling my friends that “God isn’t real” and that religion is all made up nonsense. As a teenager I listened to the new atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and parroted their arguments to anyone who would listen. One time in particular I remember sitting very smugly in religion class in school when the Gideons came with bibles and I was the only one in the class who refused to take one, even though they were free. I was an evangelist for atheism and yet here I am, at the age of thirty, becoming a Catholic? What happened?I was pretty happy in my assumed atheism probably until college. Where I met Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher who famously proclaimed that “God is dead”. Nietzsche worried about the problem of nihilism after the death of God, that life would become meaningless and morality impossible because all would be permitted. Certainly in college my life took on that shape, drinking every weekend to escape the despair and alienation. Nietszche’s solution to the death of god was to become the “ubermensch”, the person who was capable of creating their own values and laws. And I tried that briefly, but quickly ended up totally destroyed from binge-drinking and some life-threatening hangovers. I learned you can proclaim to be a Moral relativist but you can’t ignore the consequences of your actions forever. So Nietszche’s solution didn’t work out for me.Modern philosophy had seemed to only make my problems worse so after college I turned to modern psychology in the hopes of something better, particularly the work of Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung. And Jung had a story about what happened in the west after the so-called death of God, that the scientific revolution had split the world in two, and that this split manifested in the minds of ...
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    6 min
  • #94 - Mathew David Segall - The Metaphysical Revolution that’s Redefining Science and Truth

    #94 - Mathew David Segall - The Metaphysical Revolution that’s Redefining Science and Truth
    Apr 10 2025

    In this conversation, Mahon McCann and Matthew David Segall (@footnotes2Plato) explore the ongoing metaphysical revolution in science, particularly in physics and biology. They discuss the evolving understanding of causality, the philosophical implications of Kant and Plato's ideas, and the significance of the good as a foundational principle for knowledge. The dialogue culminates in a discussion on truth as participation, emphasizing the interconnectedness of human understanding and the universe

    Full video 👇

    Chapters

    00:00 The Metaphysical Revolution in Science

    06:29 The Role of Causality in Biology

    12:23 Kant vs. Plato: Epistemology and Reality

    19:48 The Nature of Formal Causality

    26:03 The Good as the Foundation of Knowledge

    32:22 Truth as Participation in Reality

    36:12 The Nature of Truth as an Event

    39:06 Truth and Participation: A Transformative Journey

    40:30 The Virtue of the Knower in Truth Seeking

    44:06 Microcosm and Macrocosm: Understanding Our Place in the Universe

    50:44 Causality: Efficient vs. Final Causes in Philosophy

    01:06:34 Co-Creating Truth: Trust and Transformation

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    Best,

    Mahon.



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    1 h et 8 min
  • Plato's Republic, Book Two | Justice vs Injustice and the Ideal City

    Plato's Republic, Book Two | Justice vs Injustice and the Ideal City
    Apr 3 2025

    In this third instalment of the series on Plato's Republic, we will be diving into Book 2 of The Republic!

    The lecture explores the foundational questions posed by Glaucon and Adeimantus about the nature of justice and its value compared to injustice, Glaucon's myth of 'the ring of Gyges' and its implications on human behaviour are discussed, along with the comparison to Tolkien's narrative in 'The Lord of the Rings'. The video also examines the formation of the ideal city, Kallipolis, as an analogy for justice and the psyche. It concludes with insights into the educational program for the guardian class and Plato's critique of poets like Homer.

    Watch the video below for a deep dive into one of philosophy's most enduring texts 👇

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Introduction and Course Overview

    00:25 Main Themes of Book Two

    01:12 Glaucon's Challenge and the Nature of Goods

    03:10 The Ring of Gyges and Ethical Relativism

    10:34 The Ideal City and the Role of Guardians

    19:06 Education and the Role of Stories

    23:34 Conclusion and Next Steps

    Introduction episode:

    Book One:



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    24 min
  • #93 - DC Schindler - Did PLATO warn us about THE INTERNET in 375 BC?

    #93 - DC Schindler - Did PLATO warn us about THE INTERNET in 375 BC?
    Mar 20 2025

    This might be my favourite podcast of all time, no messing around!

    Dc Schindler has returned for the third time and we are discussing Plato’s critique of the images in the Republic and particularly how this applies to the internet and modern digital culture? Daring to ask the question, has the internet literally put us in Plato’s Cave?

    We discuss the nature of truth and manipulation in world ever increasingly dominated by images, being trapped inside a scientistic tyranny, and how we can escape the cave and return to standing on solid ground with the Platonic conception of reality as “the good”.

    A lot of the discussion is based on DC’s brilliant book “Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason” (which I highly recommend)

    Check out the full video conversation (ironically in moving images…) 👇

    Chapters

    00:00 Plato's Critique of Images

    11:21 The Digital Cave and Modern Society

    18:08 Manipulation and the Search for Truth

    27:30 Ego-Centrism to Good-Centrism

    33:18 The Nature of Transcendence and Imminence

    35:02 Navigating the Cave: Plato's Allegory and Virtue Ethics

    37:49 The Pursuit of Virtues: Grace and Ideal Excellences

    41:50 Understanding Forms: The Reality Beyond Physical Objects

    46:42 The Role of Images: Idols vs. Icons in Perception

    51:53 The Challenge of Digital Reality: Navigating the Internet's Influence

    01:01:30 Finding Footholds: The Search for Meaning in a Digital Age

    Want to support the mission of the Wisdom Dojo to provide free philosophical education at the end of the meaning crisis? Consider becoming a patron below 👇

    Best,

    Mahon.



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    1 h et 3 min