From the Soul, Out of the Ass/Arse: Recent Episodes
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Matthew and Athan have decided to pursue our own individual projects, but a lot of the same content discussed here will be discussed on their separate projects. You can find a link to Athan's new Podcast here: and Matthew's new Podcast here. We encourage you to subscribe to both
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Joining us in this episode is Jonathan Hearn, professor of political and historical sociology at the University of Edinburgh. We discuss his new book 'The Domestication of Competition: Cultural Evolution and Liberal Society' and how the emerging milieu of modern liberal societies took the edge off of raw competition and channelled it into what became the 'rise of the West'. Hear how Professor Hearn thoughtfully considers the benefits and downsides of competition with the aim of keeping what is good and dispensing with what is bad as a positive means of improving society.
Link to Book Here
Check Out our Website and Social Media Pages for more updates
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In this episode, we discuss Aristotle's famous Metaphysics with Filip Karaivanov and William Hamilton. Particularly, we focus on chapter 9 and 12.
Here is a pdf of the text: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.html
Check out our website and social media (@thenew_agora) pages for more updates and info.
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In this video, we discuss Salman campaign and his mission for making Edinburgh University a better place. We discussed his plan to introduce more 24/7 food options around campus, to provide faster and more eco-friendly transportation, to provide more affordable housing, and to bring the wider Edinburgh community together
Links to Vote for him are here: https://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/elections/list
Instagram Page is: vote4salman
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An Atheist, a Christian and a Theology student get together to read and discuss scripture.
In what will be a series of episodes reading and discussing the Gospels, we start by tackling the Gospel of Matthew verses 1-7.
As mentioned in the beginning, this episode is best enjoyed if you follow along with a Bible of your own. A link to an online one is below.
https://www.esv.org/Matthew+1/
This was a deeply honest and emotional discussion. We hope you enjoy.
A link to our website and social media pages are found here
Website: https://www.thenewagora.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenew_agora
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenew_agora/
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In this episode, we discuss Aristotle's Posterior Analytics as well as the differences between Aristotle's, Plato's and Descartes's view on how we gain knowledge of first principles.
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Afshin Dianak, an Iranian man who had to leave behind family, friends, and a dream job, fleeing death and the country he loved after speaking out against tyranny. However, no one was able to take away the thing that meant the most to him: the truth. Having staked his life on honesty he has found new life and new love in the country and city he now resides in. Here on The New Agora, he shares his truth with you.
To contact us, send us an email at: thenewagora1@gmail.com or message us directly at
Our Website
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On this episode of The New Agora Athan and Matthew sit down with two cognitive science students from the Cog Sci Society Sam Reid and Tommy Coppen. After Sam and Tommy introduce themselves and their interests in cognitive science, we discuss a range of topics from artificial intelligence (AI), computational vs embodied cognition, impacts of social media, whether we can replace ourselves with AI, different personalities in bilingual people, and loads more. We had a really fun time with this episode, and we hope you do too!
To join the discussion, you can simply click on the link below and then sign up easily with an email and password:
https://www.thenewagora.org/group/cog-sci-episode/discussion#preventScrollToTop
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In this episode, we evaluate Socrates' proof of the immortality of the soul and the implications it has on our own conceptions of life after death. While doing so, we also dive into a discussion of how we come to attain knowledge of things.
If you enjoyed the discussion and want to contribute, you can post your thoughts and comments by creating an account on our website with an email and password.
The link to do so can be found here: https://www.thenewagora.org/group/episode-on-phaedo-with-william-hamilton/about
PDF link to Phased can be found here: http://cscs.res.in/dataarchive/textfiles/textfile.2010-09-15.2713280635/file
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Here, we Introduce The New Agora and provide some logistics
Website: https://www.thenewagora.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenew_agora
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenew_agora/
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In this Episode, we read the Socratic Dialogue Euthyphro and discuss with Fergus Cleland the dilemma that arises from the conclusions or lack there of that Socrates makes. Specifically, we discuss it in the context of language and the limits they have on our ability to communicate and articulate concepts to each other. A PDF of the Readings can be found below:
Public PDF: https://users.manchester.edu/Facstaff/SSNaragon/Online/texts/201/Plato,%20Euthyphro.pdf
PDF that we used: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/detail.action?docID=740466
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This is the first of our series of episodes on Ancient Greek Philosophy. Today we began with Parmenides of Elea. Link Tree Below:
https://linktr.ee/fromthesouloutoftheassorarse
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In this episode, Athan interviews Mathew about his life story, thus far, in order to better understand why he is so passionate about Critical Theory, and what he is trying to achieve through his thinking and writing on the topic.
It’s far too easy to get caught up with what is wrong with the world these days. So, what is going right? In this episode, it is time for some good news. Choosing from a couple of sources (see below) Matthew and Athan highlight the good news stories that catch their eyes to shed a little light on some of the awesome things human beings are up to.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
https://www.humanprogress.org/
In this episode Athan and Matthew, with the new year just around the corner, they reflect over their regrets and successes, worries and hopes for 2023. Some of what Matthew discusses is left vague so as not to get side-tracked into a different conversation; if you have been following the podcast, the issue has been somewhat touched on in previous episodes and will be tackled in greater detail in episodes to come.
In this episode Athan and Matthew talk about ancient Greek tragedies, drawing largely from Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy which they both wrote about in their finals for aesthetics. They introduce the topic and then consider discuss the connection between ancient Greek tragedies and Christianity. A link to the paper can be found below.
Link to Spotify
Link to Paper:
In this episode, we welcome our first guest, Adam Julians. A radio host and former film and media student who found himself squeezed out of his university for giving his opinion during a media class. Listen in to hear us get into his story and discuss the implications
In this episode, in the spirit of Halloween, Mathew and Athan read Edgar Allan Poe's A Tell Tale Heart and then have a conversation about fear prompted by some notes Athan made of his thoughts on the topic a year ago.
A link to A Tell Tale Heart can be found here
A link to Fear PDF : ( need to copy and paste unfortunately) file:///Users/athanasiosyanos/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202022-03-25%20at%2021.28.56.pdf
Youtube Link
In this episode Athan and Matthew begin by discussing the difficulty of turning to books having decided to move away from social media and how this is a tougher transition than it may seem at first.
In this episode: Mathew and Athan discuss the origins of their podcast as well as outline their list of future discussion topics
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In this the fourth episode of the Critical Theory mini-series, Matthew turns to the second introduction to Isaac Gottesman’s The Critical Turn in Education. This introduction is written by the author and provides us with a description of what has been happening in The Academy over the last sixty years; as well as an overview of what to expect in the book. Again, make up your own mind about the ideas discussed.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306213923_The_critical_turn_in_education_From_Marxist_critique_to_poststructuralist_feminism_to_critical_theories_of_race
(This is not the full text, only the abstract. It can be found on amazon and is in the University of Edinburgh library though there is no online copy.)
In this episode, Matthew and Athan have each prepared twenty questions for the other to answer quickly to test both our honesty and our ability to answer quickly from the gut. Questions on the philosophical, the theological, the hypothetical, the kitchen...ological; what would you have asked us?
(apologies for the bad audio quality on Athan's part towards the end)
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In this the third episode of Critical Theory mini-series, Matthew begins to read the first of the introductions to Isaac Gottesman’s The Critical Turn in Education. Starting with the series editor’s introduction, written by Michael W. Apple. I am reading this so that it is accessible for people to listen to; I encourage listeners to come to their own conclusions. While I share my opinion and highlight portions of the text, this is primarily for the benefit of students to have access to the ideas that are increasingly underpinning the organisation and curation of their education.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306213923_The_critical_turn_in_education_From_Marxist_critique_to_poststructuralist_feminism_to_critical_theories_of_race
(This is not the full text, only the abstract. It can be found on amazon and is in the University of Edinburgh library though there is no online copy).
In this episode, Athan presses Matthew to be more specific about the concerns he expressed in the first Critical Theory episode. How had he arrived at his conclusions? What was motivating him to try to bring this to people’s attention? What exactly is the problem as he sees it?
*Conversation continues in the next episode
Up From Slavery - Booker T. Washington http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/slavery.pdf
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas – Frederick Douglas https://english.hku.hk/staff/kjohnson/PDF/DouglassFrederickNARRATIVE1845.pdf
The Race and Ethnic Disparity Report – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974507/20210331_-_CRED_Report_-_FINAL_-_Web_Accessible.pdf
Kemi Badenoch on Critical Race Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vf7yX9ESRc
Kemi Badenoch on the culture of low expectations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ulBcFCt-E
In episode four Matthew introduces a mini-series with a prepared speech on Critical Theory and its relationship with the current state of academia and the consequences he thinks this is having on our societies abilities to resolve complex problems and maintain social cohesion, with Athan asking clarifying questions and proposing potential points of push back. This is the first in a series of conversations that will consist of readings from the texts of Critical Theorists as well as course content that both Athan and Matthew have been exposed to during their courses in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.
A link to the speech is posted in the show notes if listeners wanted to read along or read independently what has been said.
Speech Link Here
Part 1: we discuss a reading of the "Emperor's New Clothes" 00:00
Part 2: we discuss the relationship between Good and Evil 31:30
Part 3: we discuss War and Empires 01:22:21
Listen to Episode two as we tackle the question of whether a Lazy life is preferable to a non-Lazy one.