Ex nihilo - Podcast English

The fifth chapter deals with the paradox that the art of memory (ars memoria) is joined by the art of forgetting (ars oblivionis) - which may explain why the beginnings of Western culture are obscure or, as the case may be, declared as “the Greek miracle.”

The realization that the alphabetic sign isn’t only what it notates but also what it makes us forget.

From: The Philosophy of the Machine, translated by Hopkins Stanley and Martin Burckhardt. (to be published)

To listen to previous chapters:

Philosophy of the Machine 4

Philosophy of the Machine 3

Philosophy of the Machine 2

Philosophy of the Machine 1

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

The serial killer is a figure of pop culture. This may be one reason why one of the strangest cases in this field is little known to this day: the case of the French doctor Marcel Petiot, who spread the rumor in occupied Paris that he was helping people escape to South America, but then murdered his victims, most of them Jews, himself. The American author Thomas Maeder has written an excellent book that captures the figure of the psychopath in all its complexity while at the same time allowing the madness of the time to emerge. And this outlines the cosmos of the author himself. Maeder, the son of a psychoanalyst, has studied the connection between Crime and Madness and the Origins and Evolution of the Insanity Defense. And he recently just finished work on a book that tells the story of a great passion - and in which love and crime bizarrely mix.

The previous conversations

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

This chapter tells of the origin of the god Zeus, who was originally Zeus metallon, a metallurgical godhead reflecting the social practices of mining and metal extraction. Underpinning Jacques Lacan's beautiful remark: the gods are from the field of the real.

Vertigo of the Proteus. Swindle of Art. That behind every realization, a universe of discarded possibilities opens up: all the possible worlds that have not been realized.

From: The Philosophy of the Machine, translated by Hopkins Stanley and Martin Burckhardt. (to be published)

To listen to previous chapters:

Philosophy of the Machine 3

Philosophy of the Machine 2

Philosophy of the Machine 1

Here’s the link to the original German edition.

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

Sam Vaknin is an Israeli author who’s written extensively on the question of borderline and narcissism - and this with an unparalleled clarity. Above all, he, who has wonderfully declared himself a contemporary of Shakespeare, is someone whose gaze looks far beyond the narrow confines of the psychological discipline. This is due not least to the fact that he can look back on an eventful life in which he has held a wide variety of positions: startup founder, head of an investment fund, and advisor to various governments. In addition to a professorship in psychology, he also holds a professorship in finance. Besides that, he runs a YouTube channel with a quarter of a million followers. His book Malignant Self-Love, now in its 10th edition, has become a classic in the literature on narcissism.

The previous conversations

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

This chapter goes back to the beginning of the machine concept, or more precisely: it makes clear that the Greek deus ex machina is based on an even older understanding of the machine, deeply interwoven with magical ideas.

Could it be in the stage production of the godhead that the numinous passes over to the Machine? And the other way around: Is it possible that the godhead originates from the Machine? But then the godhead would be a product of the Machine. Basically, both are absurdities: the deified Machine, the reified god.

To listen to the previous chapters:

Philosophy of the Machine 1

Philosophy of the Machine 2

From: The Philosophy of the Machine (Translated by Hopkins Stanley & Martin Burckhardt - to be published)

Here’s the link to the German edition:

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

This chapter continues uncovering the obscurations of what a Machine is by examining the Phenomenology of what it is or isn’t. What lies behind and beyond the phenomena of its skeuomorphic medially of a technological system?

The closer you get to the Machine, the stranger it looks back. Speaking of a system of interacting elements functioning great than their sum is simply a tautology that leaves the question unanswered.

From: The Philosophy of the Machine, translated by Hopkins Stanley and Martin Burckhardt. (to be published)

To listen to the previous chapter:

Philosophy of the Machine 1

Here’s the link to the original German edition.

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe

Martin Burckhardts Philosophy of the Machine, Introdction. Translation & Music: Hopkins Stanley

Get full access to Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt at martinburckhardt.substack.com/subscribe