Part Two of my book Shadowing the Anthropocene (open access to all) outlines a system of “bodymindfulness” practice rooted in the mindfulness meditation system of Shinzen Young, but extended triadically to account for the active nature of living. Here are a couple of comments on and tweaks to that system, which I’ll refer to as […]
Search Results for 'process-relational'
Comments on process-relational meditation
Posted in Process-relational thought, Spirit matter, tagged Buddhism, experience, meditation, mindfulness, pre-G, Shadowing the Anthropocene, Shinzen Young, spiritual practice on April 17, 2020 | 4 Comments »
Process-relational readings
Posted in Philosophy, Process-relational thought, tagged new materialism, Ontology, epistemology, organization studies, process research, process-relational thought, relational theories, relationalism, speculative realism, sustainability science, sustainability studies, Whitehead on March 21, 2020 | 1 Comment »
A very helpful analytical review of the “relational paradigm in sustainability research, practice, and education” has just been published online by Ambio. While it’s limited to a certain selection of key publications, the article, by European sustainabililty researchers Zack Walsh, Jessica Bohme, and Christine Wamsler, covers the terrain of “relational approaches” to ontology, epistemology, and […]
Updated process-relational theory primer
Posted in Philosophy, Process-relational thought, tagged C. S. Peirce, process philosophy, process-relational thought, Whitehead on June 2, 2019 | Leave a Comment »
I originally presented a “primer” to process-relational philosophy on this blog back in 2010. A substantially updated version of it is part of my book, Shadowing the Anthropocene. Here it is as a stand-alone, 10-page PDF file.
Peirce-Whitehead-Hartshorne & process-relational ontology
Posted in Philosophy, Process-relational thought, tagged Deleuze, Hartshorne, Peirce, Whitehead on June 9, 2010 | 6 Comments »
The following are some working notes following up on my previous post on the relationship between Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead, specifically on Peirce’s logical/relational/phenomenological categories (firstness, secondness, thirdness) and Whitehead’s notion of prehension and the “actual occasion.” It’s become clear to me since writing that post that any rapprochement between the two requires going through Charles Hartshorne (which is something I had been resisting due to the theological cast of many of Hartshorne’s writings, but I’ve come to see that it’s unavoidable). [. . .]
This asymmetry is what gives process-relational ontology, at least the kind exemplified by these three thinkers, its evolutionary character and forward momentum. It is also what makes it different from relational philosophies for which all things are symmetrically related to all other things, resulting in the kind of formless, changeless “ontological stew” that Graham Harman (and sometimes Levi Bryant) has critiqued (to which I’ve responded in posts like these).
Race-shifting, gender transitioning, & other identity moves
Posted in Cultural politics, tagged cultural identity, gender politics, gender transitioning, identity, identity politics, indigenous, Indigenous sovereignty, Kim Tallbear, late capitalism, pretendianism, race-shifting, self-indigenization, transgender, Vermont on May 5, 2023 | Leave a Comment »
These thoughts, written in the aftermath of a half-day conference on race-shifting (first part viewable here) and influenced by Kim TallBear’s critique of identity, have me going out on a limb, for reasons that are likely pretty obvious. But I will persevere with them, and ask that you read them through to the end before reacting to isolated parts of the […]
R.i.p. Tom Verlaine (relationalism & earth jazz redux)
Posted in Music & soundscape, tagged Grateful Dead, improvisation, Marquee Moon, Miles Davis, musicology, object-oriented ontology, relationalism, television, Tom Verlaine on January 29, 2023 | Leave a Comment »
Television guitarist and songwriter Tom Verlaine has passed away. In his honor, I’m reposting something I wrote back in 2010, a version of which made it into Shadowing the Anthropocene. Much of it deals with the objects-versus-relations debate that was occupying the then very active “speculative realist” (“new materialist”) blogosphere. The first video captures Verlaine […]
Žižek’s belated reply
Posted in Spirit matter, tagged Buddhism, Lacan, Slavoj Žižek, Žižek on January 6, 2023 | 3 Comments »
Slavoj Žižek has “belatedly” replied, in The Philosophical Salon, to some things I wrote in 2009 about his Lacanianism and his understanding (some would say misunderstanding) of Buddhism, and to other critiques of the latter. In his reply, he later mistakes another author — of the blog And Now For Something Completely Different — for […]
Toward a non-fascist ecocultural activism
Posted in Manifestos & auguries, Politics, tagged activism, anti-fascism, ecocultural activism, ecocultural identity, ecoculture, fascism, nature, non-fascism, process-relational politics on August 16, 2022 | 3 Comments »
This post continues the ethical and political thinking I have shared in some of my eco-theoretical manifestos and asketological writings (including parts of Shadowing the Anthropocene). Its interest in ‘non-fascist life’ takes its lead from critical analysts of fascism including Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and more recent writers […]
Rewiring our capacity for ecocultural change
Posted in Climate change, Eco-culture, tagged climate archaeology, climate trauma, conversion, eco-anxiety, ecocultural change, ecocultural identity, Ecological Civilization, ecological grief, environmental melancholia, experience, Katimavik, magic mushrooms, neuroplasticity, peak experiences, process-relational theory, psychedelics, Robin Carhart-Harris, solastalgia, youth corps programs on August 10, 2022 | Leave a Comment »
Research on the usefulness of psychedelics for treating depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress has been growing steadily. (See here, here, here, and here for glimpses of it, and To the Best of Our Knowledge‘s recent exploration of it for a fascinating in-depth look at the topic.) I’d like to extrapolate from that research for […]
Readings on ecofascism and far-right ecologism
Posted in Eco-culture, Politics, tagged Anti-Creep Climate Initiative, bibliographies, climate justice, climate politics, climate systems breakdown, eco-fascism, ecofascism, environmental politics, far right, far-right ecologism, radical environmentalism, Sam Moore and Alex Roberts, Shane Burley, The Rise of Ecofascism on July 29, 2022 | Leave a Comment »
While it’s easy to overuse the term “ecofascism,” applying it to things that don’t necessarily deserve it (the debate might be a little like the one I’ve been following over whether Putinist Russia qualifies as fascist), it’s important for anyone involved in environmental issues to have a sense of where the term does apply and […]