This one’s going to rock your world. In episode 132 of Overthink, Ellie and David dig into the earth for the third part of their four-part series on the elements. They discuss everything from earthworms and carbon dating to the “solidity” of the earth. They look to Foucault, Freud, and Husserl for insights about how the earth can act as a metaphor for the mind and for the past. They also wonder: Is the earth inert matter or a living being? And why do so many creation myths present humans as “made” of earth/clay/mud? So, what is it that we actually mean when we talk about earth as an element? In the bonus, your hosts talk think through Heidegger’s notion of ground and horizon, and the Western association of land with earth.

Works Discussed:

Michel Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge
Martin Heidegger, “ The Origin of the Work of Art”
Edmund Husserl, Crisis of the European Sciences
David Macauley, Elemental Philosophy: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water as Environmental Ideas
Thomas Nail, Theory of the Earth
James Lovelock, Gaia hypothesis
Dorian Sagan and Lynn Margulis, “God, Gaia, and Biophilia”

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Website | overthinkpodcast.com
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Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
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Oceans, baths, ponds, and amniotic sacs? In episode 131 of Overthink, David and Ellie take a deep dive into the topic of water as part of their four-part series on the elements. They discuss how all life begins in water, and the conceptual features of water, such as its fluidity and shapelessness. What did Thales of Miletus mean by ‘all is water’? How is water used as a metaphor for the Dao? And at what point does being in water go from feeling like Moana to feeling like Jaws? In the Patreon bonus segment, they talk about water as a symbol of purification, the significance of plate tectonics, and the relationship between AI and water usage.

Works Discussed:

Aristotle, On the Heavens

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum

Jamie Linton, What Is Water? The History of a Modern Abstraction

David Macauley, Elemental Philosophy: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water as Environmental Ideas

Anna Secor, “Spacetimeunconscious”

Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish

Lao Tzu, Dao De Jing

Peter Godfrey Smith, Metazoa

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Patreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast

Are all fires inherently bad? In episode 130 of Overthink, David and Ellie launch a four-part series on the elements, starting off hot with fire. They look at the role of fire in Greek mythology (focusing on the myth of Prometheus), the evolution of humans’ relationship with fire, and fire’s role as the universal metaphor. Why did Prometheus steal fire from the Olympians and give it to humans? Why does Bachelard believe that fire is “the” philosophical element par excellence? How did Western culture turn fire from friend to foe? And what would a non-antagonistic relationship to fire look like? In the bonus, your hosts give their fiery takes on arson and pyromania.

Works Discussed:

Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire
Stephen J. Pyne, The Pyrocene
Stephen J. Pyne, “Fire in the mind: changing understandings of fire in Western civilization.”

Support the show

Patreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast
Website | overthinkpodcast.com
Instagram & Twitter | @overthink_pod
Email | dearoverthink@gmail.com
YouTube | Overthink podcast