Conversations with David J. Temple

What the &#%! Is Value?

About this episode:
We have established that our values are not just social constructs or personal preferences. They reflect a deeper sense of value itself, which is foundational to reality.
But what is this value we’re talking about?
In this dialogue, Dr. Marc Gafni and Dr. Zak Stein offer a startlingly simple and profound answer: Value is clarified desire.
They state that the universe isn’t a random collection of matter, but it contains “plotlines of desire”, an ongoing story of the Cosmos yearning for deeper intimacy and greater wholeness, which disclose value and make it as ontologically real as mathematics.
Then conversation then turns to a critical question: if value is so fundamental, why is it so often distorted?
By the end, you will have a powerful new understanding of what value truly is and why reclaiming clarified desire is the most essential task for navigating the modern world.
Note on Source Material and Citation:
Parts of the material covered in this podcast is drawn from a forthcoming volume published by the World Philosophy and Religion Press:
Reconstructing Value & Preserving Human Freedom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exit the Silicon Maze, Vol. 1
If you deploy any material from this episode, please cite directly using the following reference:
Temple, David J., Conversations with David J. Temple, World Philosophy and Religion Press, December 2025, Episode: “What the &#%! Is Value?”
About the Authorial Voice of David J. Temple:
David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship between Dr. Marc Gafni, Dr. Zak Stein and Ken Wilber at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, Cosmo-Erotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence.
Get the book: "First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come" - https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic-ebook/dp/B0CWYDGFZY
Join the Community: Who We Must Become - https://www.centerforworldphilosophyandreligion.com/ra
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Why the &#%! Is Value So Important?

So, why the &#%! is value so important, anyway? In a world that increasingly tells us our values are just personal opinions or made-up stories, what's the big deal?
In this dialogue, Dr. Marc Gafni and Dr. Zak Stein deliver a powerful and urgent answer. They argue that value is not a human invention but a fundamental part of Reality itself, directly challenging the popular idea that meaning is just a useful delusion.
They reveal what happens when a society loses its shared sense of value. The result isn't a neutral void, but the rise of what they call "anti-value"—a predatory, nihilistic force that drives existential crises and can be seen in rising suicide rates and the disintegration of social trust.
This conversation makes the urgent case that reclaiming a universal grammar of value is not an abstract philosophical game; it is the essential, foundational step for addressing the meta-crisis.
Note on Source Material and Citation
The material covered in this podcast is drawn from a forthcoming volume published by the World Philosophy and Religion Press:
Reconstructing Value & Preserving Human Freedom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exit the Silicon Maze, Vol. 1
If you deploy any material from this episode, please cite directly using the following reference:
Temple, David J., Conversations with David J. Temple, World Philosophy and Religion Press, November 2025, Episode: “Why the &#%! Is Value So Important?”
About the Authorial Voice of David J. Temple
David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship between Dr. Marc Gafni, Dr. Zak Stein and Ken Wilber at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, Cosmo-Erotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence.
Get the book: "First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come" - https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic-ebook/dp/B0CWYDGFZY
Join the Academy: World Philosophy and Religion Academy - https://www.centerforworldphilosophyandreligion.com/ra
Subscribe to the Center for World Philosophy and Religion newsletter - https://worldphilosophyreligion.substack.com/

The Nature of Desire

What if every right you possess—from free speech to privacy—is actually based on a form of desire? And what if our new socio-technological conditions necessitate the protection of new rights, such as the “right to attention?”
In this dialogue, Dr. Marc Gafni and Dr. Zak Stein explore the fundamental nature of desire, unveiling it not as something merely psychological, but as an ontological principle that underpins rights, needs and values.
They establish a central thesis of CosmoErotic Humanism: that clarified desire equals value, and that a clarified first principle or value is a right.
The conversation highlights the inseparable link between rights and responsibilities, bringing profound implications for creating a society that honors human dignity rather than one that manufactures and exploits desire.
Note on Source Material and Citation
The material covered in this podcast is drawn from two forthcoming volumes published by the World Philosophy and Religion Press:
Reconstructing Value & Preserving Human Freedom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exit the Silicon Maze, Vol. 1
Attention: First Principle, First Value, and Human Right
If you deploy any material from this episode, please cite directly using the following reference:
Temple, David J., Conversations with David J. Temple, World Philosophy and Religion Press, November 2025, Episode: “The Nature of Desire.”
About the Authorial Voice of David J. Temple
David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship between Dr. Marc Gafni, Dr. Zak Stein and Ken Wilber at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, Cosmo-Erotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence.
Get the book: "First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come" - https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic-ebook/dp/B0CWYDGFZY
Join the Academy: World Philosophy and Religion Academy - https://www.centerforworldphilosophyandreligion.com/ra
Subscribe to the Center for World Philosophy and Religion newsletter - https://worldphilosophyreligion.substack.com/

Attention as a First Principle and First Value – Part 2

In the first part of this dialogue, we heard the radical claim that attention is a First Principle and First Value of the universe. Now, we explore the devastating consequences of disowning that truth.
Dr. Marc Gafni and Dr. Zak Stein diagnose our current meta-crisis as a “Planetary Attention Disorder”—a global intimacy disorder where our inability to connect is rooted in the fundamental dysregulation of our attention.
How did we get here? The conversation traces a fascinating history of communication media and where humanity has placed its collective attention—from the pre-premodern, pre-modern, to modern, and in the postmodern era driven by our current technologies.
Note on Source Material and Citation
The material covered in this podcast is drawn from two forthcoming volumes published by the World Philosophy and Religion Press:
Attention: First Principle, First Value, and Human Right
Reconstructing Value & Preserving Human Freedom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exit the Silicon Maze, Vol. 1
If you deploy any material from this episode, please cite directly using the following reference:
Temple, David J., Conversations with David J. Temple, World Philosophy and Religion Press, October 2025, Episode: “Attention as a First Principle and First Value — Part 2.”
About the Authorial Voice of David J. Temple
David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship between Dr. Marc Gafni, Dr. Zak Stein and Ken Wilber at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, Cosmo-Erotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence.
Get the book: "First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come" - https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic-ebook/dp/B0CWYDGFZY
Join the Academy: World Philosophy and Religion Academy - https://www.centerforworldphilosophyandreligion.com/ra
Subscribe to the Center for World Philosophy and Religion newsletter - https://worldphilosophyreligion.substack.com/

Attention as a First Principle and First Value

We all feel our attention is under constant attack. But what if this digital war for our attention is a battle for something far more fundamental than our productivity? What if attention isn't just something we do, but something the universe is?
In this dialogue, Dr. Marc Gafni and Dr. Zak Stein introduce attention as a fundamental quality of the Cosmos, intrinsically linked to the First Values of Uniqueness, Eros, and Intimacy, noting that the universe itself evolves towards organisms with ever-greater capacities for attention.
They identify how “joint attention” is a uniquely human capacity that gives rise to language, story, and culture, and therefore, they argue that the problem with the modern "attention economy" is that its stealing and hijacking of human attention is a violation not merely of a cognitive faculty, but of a fundamental value that gives rise to an Intimate Universe.
Note on Source Material and Citation
The material covered in this podcast is drawn from two forthcoming volumes published by the World Philosophy and Religion Press:
Reconstructing Value & Preserving Human Freedom in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exit the Silicon Maze, Vol. 1
Attention: First Principle, First Value, and Human Right
If you deploy any material from this episode, please cite directly using the following reference:
Temple, David J., Conversations with David J. Temple, World Philosophy and Religion Press, October 2025, Episode: “Attention as a First Principle and First Value.”
Get the book: "First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come" - https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Values-Propositions-CosmoErotic-ebook/dp/B0CWYDGFZY
Join the Academy: World Philosophy and Religion Academy - https://www.centerforworldphilosophyandreligion.com/ra
Subscribe to the Center for World Philosophy and Religion newsletter - https://worldphilosophyreligion.substack.com/