Ancient Philosophy: Table of Contents

Philosophical Paganism is the text I used for my Ancient Philosophy course (PHIL 2150, Spring 2020). Its purpose was to link ancient thought with contemporary concerns. Much ancient philosophy is distorted by looking at it through a Christian lens. But the ancient thinkers were not proto-Christians - they were pagans. Philosophical Paganism works to make ancient thought consistent with modern science. It is not affiliated with any current religious or political ideology.

Concentrating

1. Philosophical Paganism
2. We Welcome Everybody
3. Concentrating Rituals
4. The Progression of Elements

Water: The Zero is Non-Being

1. Hesiod: The Theogony and its Theonyms
2. Peirce: The Self-Negation of Non-Being
3. The Abyss of Non-Being
4. The Naturalness of Non-Being
5. Fathomless Depths of Power

Earth: The Ground of Being

1. The One is Being-Itself
2. The Ontic and the Ontological
3. The Logical Analysis of Being-Itself
4. The Earth Emerges from the Sea

The Priority of the One

1. The One is not God
2. The Wiccan Ultimate Deity
3. The Simple Original One

Air: The Logic of Existence

1. The Two: Propositions
2. Identity and Difference
3. Some Theories of Existence
4. The Two Maximizes Consistency
5. All the Air in the Abstract Sky

From Simplicity to Sets

1. Plotinus: One Simple Thing
2. The Axiom of Foundation
3. The Axiom of Extensionality
4. The Empty Set Axiom

The Axis of the World

1. The Axis Mundi
2. The Incantation for Numbers
3. The Star of Numbers

The Sky of Sets

1. Every Many has its One
2. The Stack of Power Sets
3. The Incantation for Sets
4. The Axioms of Set Theory

Progression from the One

1. From the One to the Many
2. The Digital Forms of Things
3. The Thin Tree of Strings
4. The Cosmic Computers
5. How Programs Manifest Universes

The Library and the Treasury

1. The Incantation for Genotypes
2. The Complexities of Genotypes
3. From Complexity to Intrinsic Value
4. Seeds and Skulls
5. The Incantation for Seeds

The Incantation for Computers

1. Maximize Consistency!
2. Consistency and Dependency
3. The Initial Law for Computers
4. The Successor Law for Computers
5. The Limit Law for Computers
6. Evolution by Rational Selection

The World Tree

1. Plato: The Demiurge
2. Plato: The Cosmic Egg
3. Asexual Cosmic Reproduction

Fire: Concrete Existence

1. Seeds are Creative Recipes
2. The Incantation for Fires
3. The Incantation for Demiurges
4. This Tree Stands in Flames
5. Fire Fills the Abstract Sky

Spirit is Fire-Energy

1. Spirit Animates All Things
2. Spirit Animates the Cosmic Logos
3. Spirit: The Power of Self-Surpassing
4. The Opening and Closing Powers

Stoicism: Spirit Divides

1. The Hierogamy of Zeus and Hera
2. The Gynomic and Andromic Powers
3. The Wiccan God and Goddess
4. The Incantation for Universes
5. Evolutionary Principles

The Counterparts

1. The Great Chain of Being
2. An Ancient Lineage of Universes
3. A Modernized Lineage of Universes
4. Plotinus: The Lower and Higher Universes
5. Better Parts Make Better Wholes

Climbing this Tree

1. Little Trees of Things
2. The Incantation for Things
3. Overcoming Noisy Materiality
4. Cooperation and Competition
5. How Optimization Permits Conflicts
6. The Triumph of Goodness over Evil

Spirit in Our Universe

1. Arguments for Spirit
2. The Thermodynamics of Spirit
3. The Extropic Argument
4. Spirit is Purely Physical Power
5. Some Emergent Conflicts

Entanglement

1. Plotinus: Entanglement
2. Entanglement and Souls
3. Entropy and Agency
4. Titanic Agents

Titanic Computers

1. Stars are Titanic Atomic Computers
2. Planets are Titanic Molecular Computers
3. Some Planets are Titanic Biological Computers
4. Ancient Evolutionary Theories

Birth and Fate

1. Welcome to Our Universe
2. The Influences of the Stars
3. The Influences of Your Genes
4. The Influences of Your Season of Birth

Giving Thanks

1. Atheistic Gratitude
2. Exchanges of Food and Grooming
3. Reciprocate Food with Grooming Avatars
4. Giving Thanks to Evolution
5. Giving Thanks to our Sun
6. Atheistic Contemplative Prayer

The Wheel of the Year

1. The Wiccan Solar Holidays
2. The Wiccan Common Liturgy
3. Naturalizing the Wheel
4. Naturalizing the Common Liturgy
5. The Great Cycles of Nature

Mind-Craft: Stoicism

1. From Rational Order to Duty
2. The Stoic Workout
3. Sources of Adversity for Stoic Training
4. The Virtuous Person
5. The Stoic Moral Compass

Mind-Craft: Stoic Exercises

1. Stoicism Old and New
2. Stoic Mind-Craft Practices
3. How Atheists can Perform Stoic Prayers
4. Mindfulness Meditation
5. Wiccan Mind-Craft Practices

The Body and the Soul

1. The Soul is the Form of the Body
2. Your Soul is Your Body-Program
3. Matter is Functional Impairment
4. Self-Hacking: Purifying the Matter in your Soul

Sign-Craft: Magic

1. Defining Magic
2. Magic Does Not Work
3. The Hacker Methodology
4. Entangled Possibilities
5. Technology of the Self
6. Modal Defiance

Sign-Craft: Programming

1. Casting Effective Spells
2. Programmable Machines
3. Programmable Organisms
4. Programmable Nature

Sign-Craft: Self-Hacking

1. The Platonic Three-Shelled Self
2. Naturalizing Your Three-Shelled Self
3. Hacking Your Three-Shelled Self
4. Programming Your Way to the Deities

Shape-Craft: Naturalized Channeling

1. Theurgy: Channeling the Deities
2. Analogical Models of Alien Universes
3. Shifting into Alien Universes
4. Channeling through Simulation

Shape-Craft: Meturgical Practices

1. Ecstatic Dancing
2. Shifting by Ecstatic Dancing
3. Shifting by Burning the Man

Shape-Craft: Psychedelic Communions

1. Modernizing the Mysteries
2. The Spiritual Effects of Psychedelics
3. The Interpretation of Hallucination
4. The Interpretation of Ego Dissolution
5. Designing Safe and Legal Entheogenic Ceremonies

The Divine Animals

1. The Deities are Divine Animals
2. The Epicurean Divine Animals
3. The Platonic Grades of Divinity
4. Xenophanes: Criticizing the Myths
5. Many Future Divine Animals

Divine-Craft: Becoming Divine

1. Humans Becoming Divine Animals
2. Plato: Becoming Like the Divine Animals
3. The Way of Biotechnical Evolution
4. The Way of Cosmological Evolution
5. The Stars are Ideals

Divine-Craft: The Ranks of Bodies

1. Transhuman Bodies
2. Heroic Bodies
3. Daimonic Bodies
4. Olympian Bodies
5. Celestial Bodies
6. Holographic Bodies

Divine-Craft: Future Deities

1. Evolving Divine Animals
2. Past Below and Future Above
3. Evolving Future Divine Animals
4. Evolving Future Divine Universes
5. Underworld Midworld Overworld

Ancient Reincarnation

1. Ancient Arguments for Reincarnation
2. Retributive Karma
3. Problems with Retributive Karma
4. Wiccan Reincarnation
5. The Purpose of Your Life

Naturalizing Reincarnation

1. From Reincarnation to Rebirth
2. The Emergence of Karmic Laws
3. Karmic Laws for Humans
4. Some Arguments for Rebirth
5. Your Incantation for Lives

The Divine Minds

1. Ancient Divine Minds
2. Plotinus: The Infinite Holographic Mind
3. Progressions of Finite Omega Points
4. Progressions of Infinite Omega Points
5. The Many Divine Minds

Light: The Good

1. The Good is Not the One
2. The Holy Light of an Unsurpassable Fire
3. The Sun Illuminates the Earth
4. The Sky is Filled with Stars
5. Mystical Experience

Ancient Philosophy

Naturalizing Ancient Pagan Thought

Eric Steinhart

Books

Table of Contents