web02.fireside.fm Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:40:02 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Pansychism” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/pansychism Wed, 13 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400 Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." en-us episodic Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." yes weird, art, philosophy Phil Ford and J. F. Martel admin@weirdstudies.com Episode 18: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part Two https://www.weirdstudies.com/18 14a805f2-5934-4951-a629-4af81f90f761 Wed, 13 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 18 Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part Two full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF continue (begin?) their discussion of William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist"? 1:01:01 yes JF and Phil finally get down to brass tacks with William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist?" At the heart of this essay is the concept of what James calls "pure experience," the basic stuff of everything, only it isn't a stuff, but an irreducible multiplicity of everything that exists -- thoughts as well as things. We're used to thinking that thoughts and things belong to fundamentally different orders of being, but what if thoughts are things, too? For one thing, psychical phenomena (a great interest of James's) suddenly become a good deal more plausible. And the imaginal realm, where art and magic make their home, becomes a sovereign domain. REFERENCES William James, "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?" (http://fair-use.org/william-james/essays-in-radical-empiricism/does-consciousness-exist) Steven Shaviro, The Universe of Things (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-universe-of-things) Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego (https://www.amazon.com/Transcendence-Ego-Existentialist-Theory-Consciousness/dp/0809015455) William James, Essays in Psychical Research (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674267084&content=toc) Weird Studies D&D episode (http://www.weirdstudies.com/6) Proust, À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-a-flawed-version-of-proust-became-a-classic-in-english) The Venera 13 probe's photos of the surface of Venus (https://www.space.com/18551-venera-13.html) Wallace Stevens, "A Postcard from the Volcano" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43432/a-postcard-from-the-volcano) JF and Phil finally get down to brass tacks with William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist?" At the heart of this essay is the concept of what James calls "pure experience," the basic stuff of everything, only it isn't a stuff, but an irreducible multiplicity of everything that exists -- thoughts as well as things. We're used to thinking that thoughts and things belong to fundamentally different orders of being, but what if thoughts are things, too? For one thing, psychical phenomena (a great interest of James's) suddenly become a good deal more plausible. And the imaginal realm, where art and magic make their home, becomes a sovereign domain.

REFERENCES

William James, "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?"
Steven Shaviro, The Universe of Things
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
William James, Essays in Psychical Research
Weird Studies D&D episode
Proust, À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
The Venera 13 probe's photos of the surface of Venus
Wallace Stevens, "A Postcard from the Volcano"

]]> JF and Phil finally get down to brass tacks with William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist?" At the heart of this essay is the concept of what James calls "pure experience," the basic stuff of everything, only it isn't a stuff, but an irreducible multiplicity of everything that exists -- thoughts as well as things. We're used to thinking that thoughts and things belong to fundamentally different orders of being, but what if thoughts are things, too? For one thing, psychical phenomena (a great interest of James's) suddenly become a good deal more plausible. And the imaginal realm, where art and magic make their home, becomes a sovereign domain.

REFERENCES

William James, "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?"
Steven Shaviro, The Universe of Things
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
William James, Essays in Psychical Research
Weird Studies D&D episode
Proust, À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
The Venera 13 probe's photos of the surface of Venus
Wallace Stevens, "A Postcard from the Volcano"

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