Wisdom in Paradox: The Seriousness of Play | Sophia Lectures 2023 Part 3/5
Release Date: 06/13/2024
Dr Iain McGilchrist on the Cultivation of Wisdom
The Ralston College Podcast
A conversation between Dr Iain McGilchrist, neuropsychiatrist, philosopher, and literary critic, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, on the occasion of Dr McGilchrist’s March 2024 visit to Savannah to deliver Ralston College’s annual Sophia Lectures. Dr McGilchrist discusses his experience spending time with Ralston College students, his reasons for accepting the College’s invitation to deliver the Sophia lectures, and the necessity of leisure for deep thought. Applications for Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities program are now open.
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The Education of Iain McGilchrist, Part II: Medical School and Beyond
The Ralston College Podcast
The second part of a conversation between the renowned literary scholar and psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist and Ralston College president Dr Stephen Blackwood about Dr McGilchrist’s remarkable educational trajectory. In this episode, Dr Iain McGilchrist explains how he left his successful career as a literary scholar to pursue training as a psychiatrist and how his combined study of literature, philosophy, and neuroscience informed his later academic work, including his books The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale University Press, 2009) and...
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The Education of Iain McGilchrist, Part I: From Winchester College to All Souls
The Ralston College Podcast
A conversation between Dr Iain McGilchrist, the renowned polymath, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, President of Ralston College, about Dr McGilchrist’s formative experiences at Winchester College, the prestigious British public school, and his subsequent training as a literary critic at Oxford University and his appointment as a Fellow at All Souls. Drs McGilchrist and Blackwood emphasize the vital role of freedom, friendship, and the expectation of excellence in providing students with an authentic education. This conversation was recorded during Dr McGilchrist’s visit to Ralston College in...
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We Live in the Flicker: T. S. Eliot and Dante on the Spaces Between
The Ralston College Podcast
Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on the influence of Dante’s Purgatorio on two of T.S. Eliot’s most important works: The Waste Land and Four Quartets. Mr Snook attends, in particular, to how Eliot’s treatment of fragments represents at once both a departure from and a return to medieval understandings of the whole. This medieval understanding is evidenced in the “manifold articulation” of particulars within the architecture of the Gothic cathedral, the literary shape of the Divine Comedy, and the...
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The Other Side of Despair: The Search for Meaning in T.S Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
The Ralston College Podcast
Ralston College presents a talk by Christopher Snook, Lecturer in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, on T.S. Eliot’s modernist masterpiece The Waste Land. The lecture explores the personal, historical, and literary contexts of Eliot’s poem. Through an engagement with the Western tradition that is simultaneously rich and fragmented, The Waste Land confronts cultural and personal crises that have atrophied both memory and desire. Snook finds in Eliot’s work a mournful modernism that serves as a serious and searching rejoinder to the more frivolous and enervated...
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Jay Parini on Why Poetry Matters
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A conversation between Dr Jay Parini, a prolific author and the D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, the founding president of Ralston College, recorded on the occasion of the release of a Ralston College short course, “Robert Frost: The American Voice,” taught by Dr Parini. Dr Parini discusses the film adaptation of his most recent book Borges and Me (2020), shares stories of his friendships with literary figures including Jorge Luis Borges, W. H. Auden, and Iris Murdoch, explains why poetry matters, and shares the fruits of...
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Polytheism and the Polis: The Drama of the Individual Before the Self with Paul Epstein | Ralston College
The Ralston College Podcast
Dr Paul Epstein is a distinguished classicist and Professor Emeritus of Classics at Oklahoma State University, renowned for his extensive knowledge of Greek and Latin literature. In this lecture and discussion—delivered in Savannah during the x term of the inaugural year of Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities program—classicist Dr Paul Epstein considers how Sophocles’s tragedy Women of Trachis and Aristophanes’s comedy Frogs arise from—and reflect upon—the polis-centered polytheism of ancient Greece as it appeared during the Athenian flourishing of the fifth...
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Levels of Intelligibility, Levels of the Self: Realizing the Dialectic with Dr John Vervaeke | Ralston College
The Ralston College Podcast
Dr John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist and philosopher who explores the intersections of Neoplatonism, cognitive science, and the meaning crisis, focusing on wisdom practices, relevance realization, and personal transformation. Ralston College presents a lecture titled “Levels of Intelligibility, Levels of the Self: Realizing the Dialectic,” delivered by Dr John Vervaeke, an award-winning associate professor of cognitive science at the University of Toronto and creator of the acclaimed 50-episode “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” series. In this lecture, Dr Vervaeke identifies...
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Knowing God in the Book of Job | Dr David Novak with Ralston College
The Ralston College Podcast
Dr David Novak is a distinguished professor at the University of Toronto, renowned theologian, and esteemed rabbi. He has authored numerous books, delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures, and bridges ancient philosophical traditions with modern ethical issues. Recorded live at Ralston College in Savannah, GA in November of 2022. Dr David Novak—Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto—offers a lecture on the Book of Job followed by an extended question and answer session with students enrolled in Ralston College’s Master’s in the...
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Unlocking Consciousness with Dr Stephen Wolfram: AI & Philosophy | Ralston College
The Ralston College Podcast
Dr Stephen Wolfram is a renowned computer scientist, physicist, and entrepreneur who earned his PhD in particle physics at 20 and became the youngest MacArthur Fellow at 21. As the founder of Wolfram Research, he has developed groundbreaking technologies widely used by university researchers in engineering, physics, mathematics, and computing. How can computational thinking and philosophy together unlock the mysteries of human consciousness and the universe? In this Q&A session, conducted in February 2024 with students enrolled in Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities...
info_outlineIn the third lecture of the Sophia Lecture series, Professor Douglas Hedley embarks on an intellectual journey that explores the enigmatic nature of play and its profound impact on human life, drawing from ancient philosophies and modern psychological theories. Delving into the works of Heraclitus and Plato, Hedley examines the paradoxical relationship between play and seriousness and how this dynamic shapes our understanding of life's deepest questions. He discusses the transformative power of poetic language, the importance of embracing the child's soul, and the role of play as a bridge between our inner realities and the external world. Furthermore, Hedley reflects on mental health, cultural shifts, and the significance of the humanities in providing a sense of purpose and meaning, ultimately arguing that engaging with foundational texts and embracing play can help us navigate the complexities of modern life and contribute to our overall well-being.
Douglas Hedley is a Professor in the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Clare College. His work spans the fields of philosophy, theology, and psychology, focusing on the intersection of ancient wisdom and modern thought.
Glossary of Terms
Ion: Time period, sometimes interpreted as "lifetime" or "eternity."
Sophrosyne: Excellence in character; moderation; self-control; leading to well-being.
Resources
Ralston College
Website: https://www.ralston.ac/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RalstonCollegeSavannah
X: https://twitter.com/RalstonCollege
Douglas Hedley
https://www.ralston.ac/people/douglas-hedley
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture - Johan Huizinga
https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Ludens-Study-Play-Element-Culture/dp/1621389995
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure - Greg Lukianoff Jonathan Haidt https://www.amazon.com/Coddling-American-Mind-Intentions-Generation/dp/0735224897
Playing and Reality - D. W. Winnicott https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Reality-Routledge-Classics-86/dp/0415345464
Civilization and Its Discontents - Sigmund Freud https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Its-Discontents-Sigmund-Freud/dp/0393304515
Modern Man in Search of a Soul - C. G. Jung https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Man-Search-Soul-Jung/dp/1684220904
The Red Book - C. G. Jung https://www.amazon.com/Red-Book-Philemon-C-Jung/dp/0393065677
Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning - Owen Barfield https://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Diction-Meaning-Wesleyan-Paperback/dp/081956026X
Plato. "Laws." Translated by Benjamin Jowett, The Internet Classics Archive. https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/laws.html
Homer. "The Iliad." Translated by Samuel Butler, The Internet Classics Archive. https://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
Quotes
"Does it mean a lifetime, time, or eternity is nothing but a child playing? Playing checkers or draughts. Kingship belonging to the child. Does this mean that living like a child is somehow to live like a king? Or is it a claim about the universe that all is chance?" - Douglas Hedley (on the enigmatic utterance of the ancient philosopher Heraclitus) [00:03:34]
“Meaning cannot be generated by human conventions… but only on the assumption that meaning is grounded in the logos and indeed the transformation of consciousness through poetic language." - Douglas Hedley [00:08:29]
Chapters
[00:00:00] - Introduction to the Sophia Lecture Series and Professor Hedley
[00:02:00] - The Enigma of Heraclitus' Riddles on Time and Play
[00:05:00] - Plato's Laws on Play and its Role in Life
[00:08:00] - The Transformation of Consciousness Through Language
[00:10:00] - The Significance of Mental Health and Play in Contemporary Society
[00:19:00] - Exploring Donald Winnicott's Theory of Play
[00:29:00] - Carl Jung and the Concept of the Daimon
[00:54:00] - The Legacy of Play in Philosophical and Psychological Thought
[00:58:00] - Q&A Session: Academia, Play, Suffering, and Self-Understanding
[01:12:00] - Concluding Reflections