Jim’s book on the UFO phenomenon!
Unidentified Flying Hyperobject: UFOs, Philosophy, and the End of the World is an application of the tools of academic philosophy to the UFO phenomenon. James D. Madden’s central claim is that understanding the UFO will require a re-thinking of ourselves and our standing in what is revealed as a much wider cosmos. Along the way, he addresses issues in the philosophy of mind, technology, religion, and the possibility of a re-enchantment of the world.
"This is the book I wish I read before I had ever considered learning about UFOs, or the works of Plato, for that matter. "
—D.W. Pasulka author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology and Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences
"TTo study the UFO is to plumb the very depths of human thought and experience. It is philosophical through and through. James Madden shows this repeatedly, and with the figures of philosophy itself: Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Morton. "
—Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and
Everything Else
Jim’s Latest Book on the Philosophy of Mind
Thinking About Thinking: Mind and Meaning in the Era of Techno-Nihilism addresses our existential crisis by reminding us of the conditions for meaning that have been obscured by the modern technological mentality. Madden weaves together disparate insights from Wittgenstein, Hegel, Aristotle, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, Sophocles, and others in an attempt to account for our mindedness in terms of its inextricable connection to a world capable of inspiring our care. The mind is not a discrete entity locked behind the skull or withdrawn into a ghostly realm, but a participation in an inheritance (biological and cultural) held in common with other participants, and taking responsibility for that world is crucial for the meaning. The ever-increasing technological mediation of our lives undermines this worldliness. We are subsequently "losing our minds," and as our mindedness fades, so goes our sense of dignity and value. Madden makes this case deploying insights from phenomenology, analytic philosophy, Aristotelianism, neuroscience, and cognitive science, and along the way confronts the mind-body problem, freedom, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and nihilism. More importantly, he invites the reader into an accessible dialogue concerning issues of grave importance to the meaning of our lives.
Selected Academic Papers (published, in progress, and written lectures)
Realism, Nominalism, and Biological Naturalism
Self-Consciousness and Evolutionary Psychology
Aristotle, Induction, and First Principles
Artificial Intelligence and Giving a Damn
Can You Take a Picture of the Soul?
Freedom, Tragedy, and Friendship
Infinite Creator, Finite Creation