Ralston College presents a lecture by University of Cambridge Professor Douglas Hedley on the influential and mysterious pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras. Given in the very cave in Samos in which Pythagoras taught, this brief lecture touches on the philosopher’s influence on the Western tradition and the importance of the cave as an imaginative motif. Professor Hedley explores this recurring symbol as a place of birth and rebirth, of contemplation and illumination, and of tremendous inspiration to later figures such as Plato and many early Christian thinkers.
The lecture took place during the first term of Ralston College's inaugural MA in the Humanities in autumn of 2022.
Authors, Ideas, and Works Mentioned in this Episode
Eusebius
Werner Jaeger
Ralph Cudworth
Kabbalah
Pythagoras
The Lyceum
Lloyd P. Gerson
St Ambrose
Johannes Reuchlin
St Augustine
Metempsychosis
Orphism
Empedocles
Plato’s Cave
Socrates
Mithraism
Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos
Parmenides
Aristotle
Pindar
Immanuel Kant
Gottlob Frege
Links of Possible Interest
Douglas Hedley’s Cambridge Profile
https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/douglas-hedley
Living Forms of the Imagination
https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0567032957/breviaryinfo-21
Dr Stephen Blackwood
https://www.stephenjblackwood.com
Dr James Bryson
https://www.ralston.ac/people/james-bryson
Ralston College (including newsletter)
https://ralston.ac
Ralston College Short Courses
https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-short-courses
Ep. 10 - Independence in an Age of Conformity: Stephen Wolfram & Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 9 - Deep Thinking in a Distracted World: Cal Newport and Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 8 - On Freedom and Truth: Yeonmi Park & Stephen Blackwood
Ep. 7 - Douglas Hedley and Stephen Blackwood: Reason, Imagination, and Reality
Ep. 6 - Iain McGilchrist and Stephen Blackwood: The Unfolding of Life and Thought
Ep. 5 - Iain McGilchrist and Stephen Blackwood: On Finding Ourselves Within the Whole
Ep. 4 - Boethius and the Consolation of Philosophy
Ep. 3 - Jordan Peterson and Stephen Blackwood: Our Cultural Inflection Point and Higher Education
Ep. 2 - Jordan Peterson and Roger Scruton: On the Transcendent
Ep. 1 - Douglas Murray and Stephen Blackwood: On Ideological Madness and Its Antidote
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