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A course in interdisciplinarity by Mario Veen. In each episode I travel through Plato's Allegory of the Cave together with a guide. Together, we examine the question of what it means to learn, grow and develop in life on earth. We do so from a new perspective every time. You can use this course to study whatever interests you through the lens of philosophy, film, art, physics, spirituality and many more. All you need is the willingness to think things through and the openness to have your preconceived notions challenged. lifefromplatoscave.com
Episodes
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Trailer
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Trailer for Life From Plato's Cave.
lifefromplatoscave.com
Follow me on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Episode 1 - Welcome to Plato‘s Cave
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
lifefromplatoscave.com
Welcome to Life From Plato's Cave. This is a course in interdisciplinary philosophy in which we look at life - the part of life that interests you - from a new perspective in every episode. In each of the following episodes, I will interview a guest about their intepretation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave: philosophers, artists, literary scholars, phycisists, actors, psychologists, geologists and many more.
In this first episode, I introduce the podcast and Masha will read the allegory to you. If you want to skip to the allegory, go to 5:30.
What's YOUR interpretation of Plato's allegory? I would love to hear! Leave me a voicemail. It's really easy. You click the record button, speak, and hit send. I might play your message in a future episode and respond.
Masha Bronnikova, aka Mab'by writes, performs and instigates cultural events: https://www.facebook.com/SoundMatterPlatform/
The logo for this podcast was created by Julien of Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Follow me on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave
Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Mario Veen
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Episode 2 - Philosophy & Truth with Johannes Niederhauser
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Tuesday Jan 05, 2021
Ask not what you can do with philosophy, but what philosophy can do with you! In this episode, I discuss life from Plato's Cave from a philosophical perspective with Johannes Niederhauser. We discuss, among other things, Heidegger's Essay Plato's Doctrine of Truth.
A superficial reading of Plato's Cave might suggest that there are two worlds, and that the truth is something out there to be found like an island out in the ocean (or like a sun-drenched paradise outside the cave). But is that really the case? Heidegger puts forward a radically different interpretation than the two-world theory of Plato's Cave. Truth is not about whether something is correct, but rather about the degree to which it un-hides or reveals what is hidden. Truth happens because we participate in it, and this is not a one-time event but a path we travel over and over again. Also, we better not rush but take the time at each stage to let it reveal itself to us.
What's YOUR interpretation of Plato's allegory? I would love to hear! Leave me a voicemail. It's really easy. You click the record button, speak, and hit send. I might play your message in a future episode and respond.
Support me through patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lifefromplatoscave
Enjoy!
Mario
About Johannes Niederhauser
Johannes is the founder of the Halkyon Thinkers' Guild (https://www.halkyonguild.org/), created the youtube channel Classical Philosophy (https://www.youtube.com/c/ClassicalPhilosophy). Johannes' book "Heidegger on Death and Being" is available here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-51375-7.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohannesAchill
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/classical.philosophy/
Here are references to some of the sources that came up in our conversation:
- Heidegger (1953), The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics (https://stjuphilosophyreadinggroup.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/fundamental-question-of-metaphysics-the.pdf)
- Johannes reading Plato's Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn0OaSWLYpk
- E.M. Foster (1909),The Machine Stops (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops). Johannes reads and discusses it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uioIJK0INc
- Heidegger wrote a short essay on Plato's Cave called "Plato's Doctrine of Truth" which is recommended if you have never read anything by him (http://artsingames.free.fr/Heidegger,%20Martin%20-%20Plato's%20Doctrine%20of%20Truth.pdf). The longer version of this is the book The Essence of Truth (https://www.amazon.com/Essence-Truth-Theaetetus-Bloomsbury-Revelations/dp/147252571X)
- The other philosophers Johannes mentions are Georg Hegel, Immanuel Kant and Jean Beaudrillard
Here's how to contact me if you have any questions or comments:
Website: http://www.lifefromplatoscave.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Episode 3 - Art, Urgency & Inter-ship with Mieke Bal
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Here's how to contact me if you have any questions or comments:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Saturday Mar 13, 2021
Episode 4 - Life as Film with Masha Bronnikova
Saturday Mar 13, 2021
Saturday Mar 13, 2021
Here's how to contact me if you have any questions or comments:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifeplatoscave
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Episode 5 - Geology & Timefulness with Marcia Bjornerud
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sometimes a cave is just a cave. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud will give us a guided tour of Plato's Cave.
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Episode 6 - Trauma & the Holocaust with Ernst van Alphen
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
When the prisoner in Plato's cave is released and turns around, the light of the fire is painful and terrifying. Running back to their seat, it makes no sense at all and they have no language to even speak about it. When we experience something that does not fit in the framework within which we make sense of our reality, can we even call it "experience"?
Ernst van Alphen calls trauma "failed experience". In this episode, we discuss the Holocaust in relation to trauma, experience, memory, archives and affect. We focus particularly on his essay Testimonies and the Limits of Representation, a chapter in his book Caught By History: Holocaust Effects In Contemporary Art, Literature, and Theory (Stanford U.P 1997). Ernst was so kind to make an older version of this chapter (Symptoms of Discursivity) available here.
About Ernst van Alphen:
Ernst van Alphen is professor of Literary Studies at Universiteit Leiden. His publications include Shame! And Masculinity (ed., Valiz 2020), Failed Images:Photography and Its Counter-Practices (Valiz 2018), Staging the Archive: Art and Photography in the Age of New Media (Reaktion Books 2014), Art in Mind: How Contemporary Images Shape Thought (University of Chicago Press 2005), Armando: Shaping Memory (NAi Publishers 2000), Francis Bacon and The Loss of Self (Harvard U.P 1995).
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Episode 7 - Astrophysics & Exolife with Vincent Icke
Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Thursday Jun 24, 2021
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Monday Sep 06, 2021
Episode 8 - Neuroscience, Meditation & Dance with Marieke van Vugt
Monday Sep 06, 2021
Monday Sep 06, 2021
The prisoners in Plato's Cave live in a world of projections. They think they see a cat, but it is actually a shadow of a statue of a cat. Is it the same for us? Do we live in a kind of illusion? And if so, what are ways to see through this illusion and lift the fog at least a little?
We explore these questions with neuroscientist, Buddhist and ballet dancer Marieke van Vugt.
About Marieke:
Marieke is an assistant professor in the cognitive modeling group at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). She obtained her PhD with Michael Kahana in the neuroscience program of the University of Pennsylvania, after having spent one year at Brandeis University. After that I did a postdoc with Jonathan Cohen at Princeton University. The main question that guides her research is: how do we think? In what ways do we mind-wander? What effects does that have on decisions? And how can we make our thinking more adaptive by means of contemplative practices such as mindfulness and meditation. She likes to use mathematical models and techniques to better understand those very complicated data. This model-based neuroscience approach allows us to think about the mechanism by which someone thinks, and make more detailed predictions than verbal models.
Resources
Marieke's website, twitter and ballet-related pictures on her instagram.
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Episode 9 - The Biggest Question in Physics with Vincent Icke
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lifefromplatoscave/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifefromplatoscave
Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/