Iain McGilchrist, Marc Gafni & Zak Stein | Is Value Real? – Part 3

Parallax hosts this third dialogue: Zak Stein moderates the conversation between Dr. Iain McGilchrist and Dr. Marc Gafni

Part 3 of this dialogue between Iain McGilchrist, Marc Gafni, and Zak Stein.

Part 2 here: The Return of Value and the Sacred

The Topic of the third dialogue Part 3:
What if the deepest crisis of our time is a crisis of Value itself?

Iain McGilchrist, Marc Gafni, and Zak Stein explore whether truth, goodness, beauty, meaning, and the sacred are real—or merely human constructions. They discuss the loss of depth, value perception, AI, prophecy, and the possibility that Value can be both eternal and evolving.

Iain McGilchrist: https://channelmcgilchrist.com/home/
Marc Gafni: https://worldphilosophyandreligion.or…
Zak Stein: https://www.zakstein.org/

First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come
https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic/dp/B0DZP633BB/

The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World
https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Things-…

FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

Order Here

Metamodern Spirituality | Reconstructing Value (w/ Zak Stein)

Enjoy this podcast with Dr. Zak Stein featured on the Brendon Graham Dempsey Podcast

Join Brendan Graham Dempsey in conversation with Dr. Zak Stein.

Philosopher Zak Stein joins me to discuss the “the great post-postmodern project, the reconstruction of value itself,” and get into the nuances of what his framework looks like as presented in his new co-authored book First Principles & First Values.

What does it mean to say that value is both fundamental and relational?

How does a metaphysics of value avoid premodern pitfalls (e.g., the myth of the given, a God’s-eye view/view from nowhere, etc.)? What are the challenges posed by language when trying to track value across discontinuities in the complexity stack?

Here we compare notes on our respective projects and try to clarify key points.

0:00 Introduction

1:58 Summary Overview of First Principles & First Values

7:35 The Project: A Post-Postmodern Reconstruction of Value

12:44 Is Positing Value as Fundamental a Premodern Move?

32:24 “Value”: Avoiding Reification

39:11 Languaging the Reconstruction: Difficulties and Diversity

48:29 The Challenge and Importance of Modern Critique of Value

52:39 “Intimacy” or “Complexity”? Seeking Normative Terminology without Anthropomorphizing

1:03:07 Shifting the Paradigm: Translation or Equivocation?

1:06:25 Panpsychist vs. Emergentist Framings

1:10:26 Shifting Telos across Scales: E.g., Dissipative Structures

1:17:56 Value and Anti-Value

1:22:04 New God: Moving towards the Infinite Intimate

1:27:21 Building the Cathedral/Temple: Living with Sacred Purpose

Book available here: https://www.amazon.com/First-Principl…