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Gregory Novak explores philosophy, psychology, and science with an emphasis on Hegel. For seekers and scholars alike.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Hegelian philosophy and dialectics (being–nothing–becoming, sublation) • consciousness, mind/body, Jungian psychology • meaning, synchronicity, memory • God, spirit, creation, cosmology • science debates, AI, evolution, free will • society, politics, freedom, war, tribalismThis podcast uses Hegel’s philosophy of Spirit (Geist) and dialectical thinking as a hub for wide-ranging conversations that move between metaphysics, psychology, religion, science, and social life. Across the episodes, familiar Hegelian themes—Being, Nothing, Becoming; freedom and recognition; reason versus understanding; and the logic of sublation—are treated both as technical philosophical ideas and as lenses for interpreting contemporary questions about mind, meaning, and culture.
A recurring focus is the nature of consciousness and the mind–body relationship, often in dialogue with depth psychology and philosophy of mind. Jung’s concepts (the shadow, archetypes, synchronicity, personality types) are explored alongside figures such as Bergson and Wittgenstein to probe how memory, perception, language, and symbolism shape experience and worldviews. The show also revisits debates between materialism and various forms of idealism or process thought, testing whether meaning, purpose, or “Spirit” can be treated as fundamental features of reality rather than byproducts of matter.
Religious and theological questions appear frequently, including the coherence of a creator God, interpretations of Christianity, the problem of evil, and views on soul, death, and reincarnation, often connected to cosmology and the fate or cyclicality of the universe. Scientific topics—paradigms in science, evolution, randomness, AI and machine consciousness, and the Fermi paradox—are brought into conversation with philosophical arguments about rationality, agency, and what counts as explanation.
The podcast also ties philosophy to civic and ethical life, addressing how concepts of freedom, speech, identity, tribalism, politics, law, and war relate to deeper assumptions about reason and human nature, and occasionally translating these frameworks into guidance for personal development and achievement.
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081 - The Fermi Paradox - Are We Alone in the Universe? Can Rationality Ever be Alone? 2024-Apr-14 29 minutes |
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080 - Is There a God? - Creation, Becoming, and the Fate of the Universe 2024-Feb-25 22 minutes |
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079 - Using Hegel's Triad as a Model for Success 2024-Jan-28 21 minutes |
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078 - Jung's Synchronicity: Demonstrating the Mental/Physical Unity of the Cosmos 2023-Dec-28 24 minutes |
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077 - The Journey Not the Destination: The Case for Universal Purposeful Evolution 2023-Nov-19 20 minutes |
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076 - Language Games: Wittgenstein, Hegel, and the Split in Philosophy 2023-Oct-22 21 minutes |
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075 - A Matter of Life & Death: How Philosophy Underpins Politics, Law, Science, and Morality. 2023-Sep-23 32 minutes |
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074 - Is the Unconscious Mind Real or Fantasy? - B.F. Skinner, Freud, & Hegel 2023-Aug-27 22 minutes |
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073 - Who Needs Philosophy? - You Do! 2023-Jul-30 31 minutes |
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072 - Pillars of the Collective Unconscious: How Jung's Feminine & Masculine Archetypes Manifest in the Psyche and Brain 2023-Jun-27 33 minutes |
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071 - Perception & Memory - the Mind/Body Link: A Look to Bergson, Jung, & Hegel 2023-Jun-02 30 minutes |
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070 - The "I" in Me & You: Identity, Freedom, and Oneness 2023-May-07 25 minutes |
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069 - Artificial Intelligence (AI): Oxymoron or the Next Level of Consciousness? 2023-Apr-19 33 minutes |
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068 - Jung's Personality Types & Hegel: Operating Manual for the Mind 2023-Mar-27 23 minutes |
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067 - Dawkins' Selfish Gene vs. Hegel's Geist: No Contest! 2023-Feb-26 32 minutes |
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066 - Kierkegaard vs. Hegel: The Existentialism/Absolute Idealism Debate 2023-Feb-08 28 minutes |
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065 - America's New Thought Movement and Hegel 2023-Jan-15 25 minutes |
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064 - Free Speech & Society: the Internet Age & Hegel 2022-Dec-17 27 minutes |
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063 - Spirit: Hegel's God? An Exploration. 2022-Nov-22 28 minutes |
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062 - What's Your Paradigm? Comparing Kuhn's Philosophy of Science with Hegel 2022-Oct-31 26 minutes |
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061 - Is the Universe Cyclical? - The Big Bang, Penrose, & Hegel 2022-Oct-11 25 minutes |
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060 - Bergson, Duration, Time, and Hegel 2022-Sep-18 28 minutes |
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059 - Meditation, Nothingness, Buddhism, and Hegel 2022-Aug-30 22 minutes |
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058 - Hegel's Becoming: What it Means, Why it's Unique, and Why it Matters 2022-Aug-16 22 minutes |
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057 - Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People, & Vice-Versa? - Hegel's Theodicy 2022-Jul-24 20 minutes |
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056 - Is There a Storehouse of Memory? Exploring Plato, Hegel, and Jung 2022-Jul-06 22 minutes |
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055 - Will Computers Ever be Alive? - Hegel, Self-Reference, and A.I. 2022-Jun-18 24 minutes |
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054 - Can Hegel Save Us from a Brutal Return to Tribalism? 2022-May-31 35 minutes |
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053 - Do We Have Free Will? Reason and Evolution Suggest "Yes" (with Qualifications) 2022-May-15 26 minutes |
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052 - Is Meaning Fundamental to the Universe? Synchronicity, Semiotics, Logotherapy, & Hegel 2022-May-01 24 minutes |
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051 - Realizing Reason in History - Not by Proclamation but by Action 2022-Apr-14 24 minutes |
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050 - Say Goodbye to the End of History: Clausewitz, Hegel, and War 2022-Mar-29 25 minutes |
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049 - Conscious & Unconscious Mind: the Shadow, Jung, and Hegel 2022-Mar-13 22 minutes |
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048 - Recognition: E-Tribalism vs. the Nation-state 2022-Mar-02 20 minutes |
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047 - Is There a Method to Hegel's Philosophy? No. And Yes. 2022-Feb-14 24 minutes |
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046 - One Love: Freedom, Randomness, Peirce, and Hegel 2022-Jan-30 28 minutes |
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045 - Zombies, Bats, & Chinese Rooms: The Hard Problem of Consciousness and Hegel 2022-Jan-09 24 minutes |
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044 - St. Paul, Hegel, and the Symbolism of Christmas 2021-Dec-26 17 minutes |
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043 - Evolution is Everything: Charles S. Peirce and Hegel 2021-Dec-13 23 minutes |
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042 - True Infinity: The Ought, Society, Innovation, & Gratitude 2021-Nov-28 22 minutes |
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041 - Betterment: How Hegel's True Infinity Provides a Rational Basis for Achievement 2021-Nov-14 32 minutes |
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040 - Is There a Soul Personality that Survives Death? - A look at Jung, Sheldrake, Smolin, and Hegel 2021-Oct-31 24 minutes |
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039 - Was There an Actual Creation Event? - God, the Big Bang, the Ouroboros, and Hegel 2021-Oct-18 28 minutes |
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038 - Why Philosophy? Why Reason? Why Hegel? - Some Practical Answers 2021-Oct-03 25 minutes |
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037 - It's Not Only Rock but the Roll as Well: Exploring Hegel's Vernunft & Verstand 2021-Sep-22 22 minutes |
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036 - Sublation: The Driving Wheel of Hegelian Dialectics 2021-Sep-06 22 minutes |
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035 - Is Belief in Spirit Warranted? A Look at Alvin Plantinga's Work vis-à-vis Hegel. 2021-Aug-22 27 minutes |
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034 - The Quaternity Symbol & the Horse-Drawn Carriage Metaphor: Jung, Gurdjieff, and Hegel 2021-Aug-09 28 minutes |
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033 - What is Reality? The Real, the Actual, and the Rational According to Hegel 2021-Jul-26 20 minutes |
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032 - Race & Racism: The Dark Side of the Enlightenment vs. Hegel's Notion of Freedom 2021-Jul-11 30 minutes |
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031 - Scientism vs. Hegelianism: Which World-View is Correct? 2021-Jun-27 24 minutes |
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030 - Synchronicity, the I-Ching, and Hegel 2021-Jun-13 26 minutes |
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029 - "Why is There Something Rather than Nothing?"- A False Dilemma? 2021-Jun-01 24 minutes |
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028 - The Quandary of Quantum Physics: Materialism vs. Mysticism 2021-May-16 24 minutes |
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027 - The Truth of Nature: The Historical Movement of Spirit 2021-May-02 23 minutes |
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026 - Teleology, Evolution, Aristotle, and Hegel 2021-Apr-18 23 minutes |
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025 - The Resurrection According to Hegel: Physical Fact or Spiritual Story? 2021-Apr-05 26 minutes |
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024 - Substance is Subject: Hegel's Rose in the Cross 2021-Mar-21 26 minutes |
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023 - Nonduality: A Look at Advaita Vedanta, A Course in Miracles, and Hegel 2021-Mar-07 29 minutes |
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022 - Group Ethics vs. Individual Morality: Hegel and MacIntyre 2021-Feb-21 21 minutes |
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021 - The Rise/(Return) of Tribalism: Technology, McLuhan, and Hegel 2021-Feb-07 27 minutes |
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020 - Hegel: Realizing the Purpose of History 2021-Jan-25 29 minutes |
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019 - In Search of the Miraculous: Finitude and True Infinity 2021-Jan-10 22 minutes |
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018 - Hegel, the Law of Three, and the Christian Trinity 2020-Dec-27 25 minutes |
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017 - The Hegelian Dialectic and Reality 2020-Dec-13 23 minutes |
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016 - Three Levels of Time 2020-Nov-30 19 minutes |
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015 - Was the Natural World Freely Created? 2020-Nov-15 32 minutes |
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014 - Freedom: The Core Concept of Hegel's Project 2020-Nov-01 26 minutes |
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013 - Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic and its Meaning in History 2020-Oct-18 21 minutes |
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012 - Panpsychism versus Naturalistic Materialism 2020-Oct-03 29 minutes |
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011 - The Hegelian Dialectic 2020-Sep-20 26 minutes |
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010 - The Divided Brain and the Unhappy Consciousness 2020-Sep-08 23 minutes |
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009 - Hegel and the Problem of Evil 2020-Aug-22 30 minutes |
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008 - Time, God, and Hegel 2020-Aug-02 28 minutes |
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007 - Hegel and Mysticism 2020-Jul-20 27 minutes |
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006 - Hegel and Dr. Martin Luther King 2020-Jul-06 19 minutes |
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005 - Hegel and Christianity 2020-Jun-25 15 minutes |
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004 - The Road to True Infinity 2020-Jun-21 19 minutes |
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003 - Being and Nothing - the Beginning of Hegel's Logic 2020-Jun-21 21 minutes |
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002 - Hegel's Philosophical System in Light of Modern Science 2020-Jun-21 19 minutes |
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001 - Introduction 2020-Jun-21 24 minutes |