Home Podcasts Empyreon Academy

Empyreon Academy

Ivan Shepelev 13 Episodes Dec 3, 2025

Have you ever asked yourself a question and felt like no one could really give you an answer? Well then there is a little philosopher in you and this podcast is the right place to explore it. Here you’ll find clear and simple explanations of philosophy and literature. I’m Ivan, a PhD in philosophy and the founder of Empyreon Academy. You can also find me on YouTube and Patreon, where I share more ideas and reflections.

Episodes

Ep. 13 - Can you Justify a Murder? – Schopenhauer, Kant and Dostoevsky Dec 3, 2025 00:15:37 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life.I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy.“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”With these words, Immanuel Kant reminds us that morality stands next to the infinite.But do we really have a moral law within us?Raskolnikov, in Dostoevsky’s C

Ep. 12 - Find your Own Voice – Dostoevsky and Miller Nov 26, 2025 00:19:06 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life.I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy.“I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man.” — Dostoevsky.“I was the rotten fruit of a rotten land.” — Miller.Two writers, two worlds — Russia and America — but the same wound: a spiritual disease.Both men begin their redemption with a confession.For Dostoevsky, the illness lives inside the soul

Ep. 11 - How to Defeat Idealism? – Kant vs Berkeley Nov 19, 2025 00:14:36 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life.I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy.„If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?“For Berkeley, to be is to be perceived — no perception, no world.But Kant turns this upside down: without an external world, we couldn’t even be aware of ourselves.Today:🌿 Berkeley’s idealism.⚔️ The crisis of matter.🪙 K

Ep. 10 - Stop Thinking abstract – Hegel Nov 12, 2025 00:09:49 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life.I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.Today we turn to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel — a philosopher famous for his complexity, yet here, he does something unexpected:he declares himself an enemy of abstract thinking.In his short essay “Who Thinks Abstractly?”, Hegel flips our assumptions upside

Ep. 9 - How to Interpretate the Bible? – Tolstoy Nov 5, 2025 00:21:20 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life.I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.Today, we turn to Leo Tolstoy and his Gospel in Brief — a radical return to the teachings of Christ, stripped of dogma and ritual. For Tolstoy, Christianity isn’t divine mystery or church tradition; it’s a way of life that gives meaning to existence.We’ll exp

Ep. 8 - Destroying 2000 years of Philosophy in 10 years – Kant Oct 29, 2025 00:21:23 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I'm Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.Over 2000 years of tradition, built slowly, step by step, through a deep exchange between the greatest minds of history. And then suddenly one day, he doesn't agree.That 'he' is Immanuel Kant, and the disagreement is a revolution. As Kant wro

Ep. 7 - What if your Way of Learning until Today was wrong? – Simone Weil Oct 22, 2025 00:17:00 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I'm Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In the eternal darkness, the crow, unable to find any food, longed for light, and the earth was illumined.This is an ancient Eskimo story that explains the origin of light, and one of the most underestimated philosophers of the past century, Simone Weil,

Ep. 6- Everything Comes from Nothing – Heidegger’s Revolution Oct 15, 2025 00:06:58 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I'm Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this episode, we're diving into the work of Martin Heidegger and his radical challenge to the modern world: the critical state of the relationship between Science and Philosophy. His proposed solution? A complete rethinking of the concept of Metap

Ep. 5: The way we perceive time can change us – Nietzsche's Eternal Return Oct 8, 2025 00:15:38 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I'm Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this episode, we'll dive into the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and his most profound challenge to our existence: The Eternal Return. This concept isn't just a thought experiment; it's a radical test of how much you truly love your life.Imagine a demon whis

Ep. 4: Truth is Subjectivity – Kierkegaard’s Existentialism Sep 28, 2025 00:08:00 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this episode, we'll dive into the work of Søren Kierkegaard, a revolutionary thinker who faced the profound crisis of the 19th century with a simple yet powerful response: "Truth is subjectivity."We'll explore how Kierkegaard’s ideas pro

Ep. 3: The Idea Behind Algorithms – Kant’s Copernican Revolution Sep 21, 2025 00:07:51 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this episode, I want to explore one of the most significant intellectual shifts in history: Immanuel Kant's Copernican Revolution in philosophy.We'll look at the key ideas that reshaped our understanding of knowledge, science, and even the world i

Ep. 2: Is Humanity Possible in Times of Violence? – Dostoevsky and Vittorini Sep 14, 2025 00:10:59 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this episode, I want to explore a question central to our existence: What does it mean to be a man?To help us find an answer, we’ll look to two profound authors and their timeless insights:Elio Vittorini's Men and Not Men — a reflection on how violenc

Ep. 1: Three Books to Begin Philosophy Sep 6, 2025 00:11:20 Welcome to Empyreon Academy, a podcast for lovers of wisdom and life. I’m Ivan, a PhD candidate in philosophy and founder of Empyreon Academy.In this first episode, I share the three essential books that I believe anyone should read when beginning their philosophical journey:Plato’s Symposium — a dialogue on love that reveals the very meaning of philosophy.Descartes’ Discourse on the Method — the

Empyreon Academy

Episodes

Recommended