course outline
The course comes with the following lectures, provided in both video and audio-only formats.
The Law of Contradiction
The Deadlock of Self-Help
The Deadlock of Progressivism
The Deadlock of Mysticism
The (Pyro)Theological Cure
In addition to these lectures, there is some supplemental material to compliment the course.
How to get the course
As with all my courses, everyone signed up to my Patreon at the Blaze level will have access to the material. You can also purchase the course directly by clicking the link below. If you purchase the course here you’ll receive an email that contains a PDF with all the information on how to download the course. You need to download this PDF within 24 hours of receiving it. But don’t worry, if you forget, you can always email me and I can send it to you again.
Course Reading
The core text for this course is Todd McGowan’s Emancipation after Hegel. I would recommend people read it in advance of, or during the course. Of particular interest are the Introduction along with chapters 1,2,7 and 10.
The Tyranny of Oneness
Whether it is in the realm of the personal, the political or the religious, we are saturated with promises that we can overcome the seeming contradictions that we face. That there is a way for us to overcome the obstacles that are preventing peace, prosperity and fulfillment.
Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the revival of non-dogmatic spirituality. In an age of anxiety, the promises of “Perennial Philosophy” are alive and well in the claims of various self-appointed gurus. Gurus who, with the air of humility and reticence, offer their help in penetrating the veils of illusion, so that we might (re)discover our oneness with the One.
However, the Perennial Philosophy is neither limited to the world of contemporary mysticism, nor is it at its strongest there. Beyond the territory of The Secret, Progressive Spirituality, the Enneagram, Psychedelic Enlightenment and the New Age, we find the same structures at work in the political economy and various self-help techniques.
In this course, I draw out how the supposed solutions to our contemporary situation offered by liberal politics and progressive spirituality are actually intertwined with the problem. Not only that, but the course will offer a way of understanding how we can instigate real change in the personal and political fields.
In order to do that, we take the strange route of reviving the thought of a 18th/19th century philosopher… Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. A philosopher who made the seemingly insane claim to offer his reader Absolute Knowledge.
While Hegel is one of the most difficult philosophers to read, you don’t need to worry, as this will be an accessible introduction to his thought.
The reason for turning to an old German intellectual to help us understand and critique the contemporary situation, is because it is quite possible that Hegel’s work is both the highpoint of philosophical reflection, and one that holds the keys to understanding how real transformation is possible.
This course will also be an important introduction to the work and world of Pyrotheology, which owes a great debt to Hegel’s incendiary reading of Christianity. A reading that we have still barely scratched the surface of.