Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Ex nihilo - Podcast English
Philosophy of the Machine 6
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Philosophy of the Machine 6

Metempsychosis of Signs
Photo: Caryn Morgan

The sixth chapter tells how the phallic sign of the bull deity turns into an alphabetic type. But where does this story begin? There, where the god in bull form abducts Europa to Crete? Or in the labyrinth of Daedalus, where the Alpha-beast and mythical figure awaits its extinction?

With the Alphabet, the twilight of the gods begins…we do not meet the riddle of creation here, but rather a nature that is spun into the type wheel of an already given understanding of the world.


Speaker: Hopkins Stanley

Sound-Design: Martin Burckhardt

Music: Hopkins Stanley & Martin Burckhardt


From: The Philosophy of the Machine, translated by Hopkins Stanley and Martin Burckhardt. (to be published)

To listen to previous chapters:

Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Philosophy of the Machine 5
Listen now (31 min) | The fifth chapter deals with the paradox that the art of memory (ars memoria) is joined by the art of forgetting (ars oblivionis) - which may explain why the beginnings of Western culture are obscure or, as the case may be, declared as “the Greek miracle…
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Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Philosophy of the Machine 4
Listen now (30 min) | This chapter tells of the origin of the god Zeus, who was originally Zeus metallon, a metallurgical godhead reflecting the social practices of mining and metal extraction. Underpinning Jacques Lacan's beautiful remark: the gods are from the field of the real…
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Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Philosophy of the Machine 3
Listen now (27 min) | This chapter goes back to the beginning of the machine concept, or more precisely: it makes clear that the Greek deus ex machina is based on an even older understanding of the machine, deeply interwoven with magical ideas. Could it be in the stage production of the godhead that the numinous passes over to the Machine? And the other way around: Is it poss…
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Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Philosophy of the Machine 2
Listen now (36 min) | …
Listen now
Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Philosophy of the Machine I
Listen now (30 min) | …
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Ex nihilo - Martin Burckhardt
Ex nihilo - Podcast English
Thoughts on time