Sympatheia

The Romance of Metaphysics with Emile Alexandrov

New Thinking AllowedAug 20, 2026

Philosopher Emil Alexandrov joins Jeffrey Mishlove to trace metaphysics from the pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle through the Neoplatonists, medieval thinkers, Kant and Schopenhauer. Alexandrov argues that every system of first principles responds to something fundamentally unknowable, which he calls the ineffable, and that ancient thinkers used ritual, poetry and theurgy to reach truths that reasoning alone cannot. He closes by suggesting that parapsychology could serve as an experimental branch of metaphysics, helping make sense of evidence that modern rationalism dismisses.