
THE PUBLIC NOTEBOOK OF MATTHEW DAVID SEGALL
Footnotes2Plato
“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” -A. N. Whitehead

Explore the constellation
Thinkers, questions, and recurring themes from twenty years of writing.
Albert Einstein Alfred North Whitehead Ancient Philosophy Aristotle autopoiesis Brian Swimme Bruno Latour Carl Jung Copernican Revolution Daniel Dennett Darwin Descartes Evan Thompson Fichte Francisco Varela Galileo Gilles Deleuze Goethe Graham Harman Hegel Heidegger Henri Bergson Hume imagination Isabelle Stengers Kant Levi Bryant Modern Philosophy Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Plato poetry politics reason Religion Richard Dawkins Romantic Philosophy Rudolf Steiner Schelling speculative realism William James
Browse every category
- Alan Watts (27)
- Albert Einstein (86)
- Alfred North Whitehead (563)
- Ancient Philosophy (198)
- Andreas Weber (1)
- Andy Clark (6)
- Aristotle (117)
- autopoiesis (100)
- Brian Swimme (69)
- Bruno Latour (82)
- Carl Jung (64)
- Catherine Keller (37)
- Coleridge (27)
- Copernican Revolution (83)
- Corey Anton (3)
- Daniel Dennett (48)
- Darwin (168)
- David Chalmers (29)
- Descartes (161)
- Donna Haraway (34)
- Edmund Husserl (32)
- Emmanuel Levinas (11)
- Eric Smith (7)
- Ernst Cassirer (3)
- Evan Thompson (67)
- Extended Mind (34)
- Fichte (47)
- Francisco Varela (62)
- Galileo (65)
- Gilles Deleuze (74)
- Goethe (75)
- Graham Harman (53)
- Hegel (133)
- Heidegger (52)
- Henri Bergson (77)
- Heraclitus (30)
- Herbert Marcuse (2)
- Hume (63)
- Iain Hamilton Grant (37)
- imagination (505)
- Isabelle Stengers (61)
- Jakob Böhme (27)
- James Hillman (17)
- Jean Gebser (25)
- Jessica Garfield-Kabbara (2)
- john Keats (12)
- Kant (235)
- Ken Wilber (17)
- Kepler (23)
- Leibniz (3)
- Leron Shults (1)
- Levi Bryant (48)
- Meister Eckhart (13)
- Modern Philosophy (391)
- Owen Barfield (33)
- Paul Churchland (5)
- Philip Clayton (3)
- Pierre Hadot (4)
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (67)
- Plato (235)
- Pluto (3)
- poetry (100)
- politics (125)
- Ptolemy (9)
- PZ Myers (16)
- quentin meillassoux (15)
- race (35)
- Raimon Panikkar (13)
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (16)
- Ray Brassier (17)
- reason (233)
- Religion (329)
- Richard Dawkins (48)
- Richard Doyle (4)
- Richard Tarnas (42)
- Robert N. Bellah (17)
- Romantic Philosophy (175)
- Rudolf Steiner (112)
- Schelling (225)
- Sean Kelly (24)
- Seth Segall (1)
- Simon Critchley (9)
- Simone Weil (2)
- Slavoj Žižek (12)
- Socrates (24)
- speculative realism (45)
- Spinoza (33)
- Steven Shaviro (15)
- Thomas Berry (16)
- Timothy Morton (16)
- Travel (10)
- Ursula King (2)
- William Blake (10)
- William Irwin Thompson (9)
- William James (109)
- Wittgenstein (25)
Prefer a guided introduction? Start with the reading guide →
THE LIVING NOTEBOOK
Recent writing
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Christ is Kin: Reflections on a Sunday in evangelical America
This past Sunday, my partner Rosie and I attended a service at a conservative evangelical congregation just outside Asheville. We went at the invitation of friends who had recently…
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Platonic Space, Organic Agency, and Creative Evolution
One of the important ideas that Tim and I discussed last night was his threefold differentiation of the inquired (natural science), the speculative (metaphysics), and the prosaic (everyday experience).…
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To See a World in a Grain of Sand: Whitehead’s Participatory Realism
Craig C. Shelton has written an interesting critique of correspondence theory (The Illusion of Correspondence Theory) that converges somewhat with what I’ve also been calling participatory realism. We share…
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Field Notes from a Mass Hallucination: A Process Philosopher Goes Phishing for the World-Soul
I went to my first Phish concert on Saturday night at Dick’s in Denver. I came in peace, was torn to pieces and made whole again once or twice,…
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A History of Life from Plato and Descartes to Darwin and Lovelock (My Frontiers of Knowledge talk in Aspen, CO)
I was back in Aspen, CO this past weekend for the second annual Frontiers of Knowledge event at Wheeler Opera House. I presented alongside David Peña-Guzman (who you’ll hear…
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360 Platonism
This seminar was hosted by Joe Lightfoot here in Chiang Mai. In the talk, I reprised some ideas I shared in a post a few years ago: Plato and Platonism: Dividing…
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