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The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World
Is the world essentially inert and mechanical - nothing but a collection of things for us to use? Are we ourselves nothing but the playthings of chance, embroiled in a war of all against all? Why, indeed, are we engaged in destroying everything that is valuable to us?
In his international bestseller, The Master and his Emissary, McGilchrist demonstrated that each brain hemisphere provides us with a radically different 'take' on the world, and used this insight to deliver a fresh understanding of the main turning points in the history of Western civilisation.
Twice before, in ancient Greece and Rome, the perception that evolved in the left hemisphere, which empowered us to manipulate the world, had ultimately come to eclipse the much more sophisticated take of the right hemisphere, which enabled us to understand it.
On each occasion this heralded the collapse of a civilisation. And now it was happening for a third, and possibly last, time.
In this landmark new book, Iain McGilchrist addresses some of the oldest and hardest questions humanity faces - ones that, however, have a practical urgency for all of us today.
Who are we? What is the world?
How can we understand consciousness, matter, space and time?
Is the cosmos without purpose or value?
Can we really neglect the sacred and divine?
In doing so, he argues that we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by the brain's left hemisphere, one that blinds us to an awe-inspiring reality that is all around us, had we but eyes to see it.
He suggests that in order to understand ourselves and the world we need science and intuition, reason and imagination, not just one or two; that they are in any case far from being in conflict; and that the brain's right hemisphere plays the most important part in each.
And he shows us how to recognise the 'signature' of the left hemisphere in our thinking, so as to avoid making decisions that bring disaster in their wake. Following the paths of cutting-edge neurology, philosophy and physics, he reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the world, one that is both profound and beautiful - and happens to be in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom.
It is a vision that returns the world to life, and us to a better way of living in it: one we must embrace if we are to survive.
In his international bestseller, The Master and his Emissary, McGilchrist demonstrated that each brain hemisphere provides us with a radically different 'take' on the world, and used this insight to deliver a fresh understanding of the main turning points in the history of Western civilisation.
Twice before, in ancient Greece and Rome, the perception that evolved in the left hemisphere, which empowered us to manipulate the world, had ultimately come to eclipse the much more sophisticated take of the right hemisphere, which enabled us to understand it.
On each occasion this heralded the collapse of a civilisation. And now it was happening for a third, and possibly last, time.
In this landmark new book, Iain McGilchrist addresses some of the oldest and hardest questions humanity faces - ones that, however, have a practical urgency for all of us today.
Who are we? What is the world?
How can we understand consciousness, matter, space and time?
Is the cosmos without purpose or value?
Can we really neglect the sacred and divine?
In doing so, he argues that we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by the brain's left hemisphere, one that blinds us to an awe-inspiring reality that is all around us, had we but eyes to see it.
He suggests that in order to understand ourselves and the world we need science and intuition, reason and imagination, not just one or two; that they are in any case far from being in conflict; and that the brain's right hemisphere plays the most important part in each.
And he shows us how to recognise the 'signature' of the left hemisphere in our thinking, so as to avoid making decisions that bring disaster in their wake. Following the paths of cutting-edge neurology, philosophy and physics, he reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the world, one that is both profound and beautiful - and happens to be in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom.
It is a vision that returns the world to life, and us to a better way of living in it: one we must embrace if we are to survive.
1500 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
November 16, 2021
Revolutionary
~~~~~~~~~~
I've just finished reading the first two parts of The Matter with Things, and begun part 3 in the second volume.
Rather than attempt to summarise the voluminous, varied and rich content of the book (and fall far short of doing it justice), let me simply say that this work does not simply talk about science, reason, intuition and imagination (among so many others), but is masterfully crafted by an author who has much life experience and insight to offer and clearly embodies the best of such paths and qualities.
Sadly, I've already seen some comments in the social media from certain detractors who, in spite of not having read this book, believe that they can dismiss the work – which is 1,500 pages in print and 2,997 pages in the Kindle edition, and contains hundred of pages of closely-argued, liberally-referenced and deeply-nuanced text in Part I of the book alone – by posting single articles these “Google scholars” have found while carrying out their “research” (that is, searching the web for material with which to debunk the work).
In my opinion (for what little that is worth), it's not a matter of agreeing with the author 100% or, on the other hand, utterly dismissing his work (or even damning it with faint praise), in terms of either/or, black and white, or even shades of grey – which is surely the domain of left hemispheric thinking – but rather a matter of and-both, often in glorious Technicolor; an open-ended exploration and a varied and rich experience, more characteristic of the right hemisphere and with the holistic, transcendent experience of both (where the left is servant to the master, the right).
No matter: as the author quotes Friedrich Waismann: “No philosophic argument ends with a QED.” It's not a finite game but a wonderful infinite game, as James P. Carse proposed, in which playing the “game” rather than winning, the journey and the companionship rather than the final destination, is what it's all about.
Sooner or later, I trust that we will come to see this in a whole new light (a Gestalt, even) – see that what we are not only witnessing but in the throes of here, in these increasingly “interesting times” is nothing less than a “Copernican Revolution” and “Fall of the Roman Empire” of the psyche (and hence Being). And in this, Iain McGilchrist will have played a major pivotal role. His work could not be more timely and apposite.
Having said that: of course your mileage may well vary. Indeed, it would be strange if it did not.
~~~~~~~~~~
I've just finished reading the first two parts of The Matter with Things, and begun part 3 in the second volume.
Rather than attempt to summarise the voluminous, varied and rich content of the book (and fall far short of doing it justice), let me simply say that this work does not simply talk about science, reason, intuition and imagination (among so many others), but is masterfully crafted by an author who has much life experience and insight to offer and clearly embodies the best of such paths and qualities.
Sadly, I've already seen some comments in the social media from certain detractors who, in spite of not having read this book, believe that they can dismiss the work – which is 1,500 pages in print and 2,997 pages in the Kindle edition, and contains hundred of pages of closely-argued, liberally-referenced and deeply-nuanced text in Part I of the book alone – by posting single articles these “Google scholars” have found while carrying out their “research” (that is, searching the web for material with which to debunk the work).
In my opinion (for what little that is worth), it's not a matter of agreeing with the author 100% or, on the other hand, utterly dismissing his work (or even damning it with faint praise), in terms of either/or, black and white, or even shades of grey – which is surely the domain of left hemispheric thinking – but rather a matter of and-both, often in glorious Technicolor; an open-ended exploration and a varied and rich experience, more characteristic of the right hemisphere and with the holistic, transcendent experience of both (where the left is servant to the master, the right).
No matter: as the author quotes Friedrich Waismann: “No philosophic argument ends with a QED.” It's not a finite game but a wonderful infinite game, as James P. Carse proposed, in which playing the “game” rather than winning, the journey and the companionship rather than the final destination, is what it's all about.
Sooner or later, I trust that we will come to see this in a whole new light (a Gestalt, even) – see that what we are not only witnessing but in the throes of here, in these increasingly “interesting times” is nothing less than a “Copernican Revolution” and “Fall of the Roman Empire” of the psyche (and hence Being). And in this, Iain McGilchrist will have played a major pivotal role. His work could not be more timely and apposite.
Having said that: of course your mileage may well vary. Indeed, it would be strange if it did not.
July 17, 2023
I.
Finally.
Finished.
It.
McGilcrest is about as erudite and brilliant as they come.
Most of this book is revelatory.
But I had to ding it.
4/5 stars ⭐️.
It feels insane not to give it 5/5.
It’s kind of a MASTERPIECE.
But it’s 1700 pages long.
And as such.
I have to hold it to an extreme standard based on the enormous investment it takes to read this thing.
I count McGilcrest’s The Master and His Emissary (TMaHE) as one of my favorite books of all time.
This book equals (and often surpasses) TMaHE in many regards. But dances around certain issues at times. And frequently amounts to an impassioned (and quite effective) argument for (or at least in favor of entertaining the possibility of) panpsychism and the existence of god.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But it would have been nice to know that up front before investing that much time and effort. At page 900 I was feeling decidedly uneasy about the direction the book was taking. But once you’re in that deep, it’s sort of too late to simply set it down and call it a wash.
Ultimately, I’m glad I did stick it out. The book is absolutely packed with massively, eye-opening and mind expanding stuff. But (as previously mentioned), it smuggles in some woozy ideas, and actually commits the ULTIMATE sin (in my world) in that it utilizes quantum physics to drive a wedge into the materialist/mechanistic stance on the emergence of consciousness.
I’m all for driving a wedge into the materialist/mechanistic stance on the emergence of consciousness.
Wedge it bro!
All day.
But I have never been impressed with the use of quantum physics in that argument (e.g. Stuart Hameroff). It always feels like invoking one mystery to supplant another.
To be ABSOLUTELY sure.
Nobody (and I mean nobody) does it better than McGilcrest.
But still.
That’s a party foul.
Just saying.
Given all that.
A book this HUGE and this AMBITIOUS is bound to drop a dirty note or two.
Anyway.
FOR SURE Read it.
I double dare ya!
It’s brilliant.
Beyond brilliant.
An ABSOLUTE instant classic.
You won’t regret it (except for once or twice maybe).
Finally.
Finished.
It.
McGilcrest is about as erudite and brilliant as they come.
Most of this book is revelatory.
But I had to ding it.
4/5 stars ⭐️.
It feels insane not to give it 5/5.
It’s kind of a MASTERPIECE.
But it’s 1700 pages long.
And as such.
I have to hold it to an extreme standard based on the enormous investment it takes to read this thing.
I count McGilcrest’s The Master and His Emissary (TMaHE) as one of my favorite books of all time.
This book equals (and often surpasses) TMaHE in many regards. But dances around certain issues at times. And frequently amounts to an impassioned (and quite effective) argument for (or at least in favor of entertaining the possibility of) panpsychism and the existence of god.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But it would have been nice to know that up front before investing that much time and effort. At page 900 I was feeling decidedly uneasy about the direction the book was taking. But once you’re in that deep, it’s sort of too late to simply set it down and call it a wash.
Ultimately, I’m glad I did stick it out. The book is absolutely packed with massively, eye-opening and mind expanding stuff. But (as previously mentioned), it smuggles in some woozy ideas, and actually commits the ULTIMATE sin (in my world) in that it utilizes quantum physics to drive a wedge into the materialist/mechanistic stance on the emergence of consciousness.
I’m all for driving a wedge into the materialist/mechanistic stance on the emergence of consciousness.
Wedge it bro!
All day.
But I have never been impressed with the use of quantum physics in that argument (e.g. Stuart Hameroff). It always feels like invoking one mystery to supplant another.
To be ABSOLUTELY sure.
Nobody (and I mean nobody) does it better than McGilcrest.
But still.
That’s a party foul.
Just saying.
Given all that.
A book this HUGE and this AMBITIOUS is bound to drop a dirty note or two.
Anyway.
FOR SURE Read it.
I double dare ya!
It’s brilliant.
Beyond brilliant.
An ABSOLUTE instant classic.
You won’t regret it (except for once or twice maybe).
January 25, 2022
Nobody who understands Iain McGilchrist to be a Master, as I do, could commit the folly, fall into the trap, of trying to be his Emissary.
Iain McGilchrist has spent the 11 years since the publication of The Master and his Emissary' assembling, arranging, tuning the left hemisphere tools he has to use - words - to try to evoke in our minds the cloud of right hemisphere ideas that he wants, with burning urgency, to share with us.
He knows - as well, I submit, as anyone has ever known - that it is intrinsically impossible to transmit such ideas as any kind of finished 'thing', however long he might strive to perfect its intricacy. That's the point. That, in essence, is 'the matter with things'. He will explain if you let him.
And to do this, the master must do his best to choose the words - the things - accepting their limitations, to be sent into the world, and you, as his emissary. And to that extent his labour is now 'finished'. He has brought forth a book, or actually two books — two things indeed — and beautiful things they are, thanks to his personal curation.
That's a paradox of course, but that mystery is in his message as well.
I further submit that any person who reads The Matter with Things with a receptive mind (is that too much to ask?) or who listens to McGilchrist's recorded talks and conversations, and who becomes aware of the richness of his experience across disparate fields, expert and professional, and who witnesses his easy familiarity with such an astonishing range of sources (the Bibliography alone fills 182 pages of Volume II) and glimpses, with me, the almost superhuman achievement of organising this prodigious whole, conceived over such a long period of time, into one coherent, lucid, readable, indeed compelling, narrative thread, can doubt that he is uniquely equipped for this task.
A task which is nothing less than to challenge the basis of Western, reductionist thought since the time of Plato. He's not the first, but may well be the best. From my own rich experience of life, as a husband, a father, a family doctor as it happens, plus a lot else, his message rings profoundly true. I believe it is incredibly important.
I urge you to get the book and read it and respond to it in your particular way. We shall never see its like again.
The above was written to post on Waterstones bookshop website as I reached the end of Volume I. I don't want to lose its freshness by re-writing it now. But now, having reached the end of the whole work, I just want to add that the second volume brings the thesis to a magnificent and (as others have said) potentially life-changing culmination.
And the other thing I would say is: yes, by all means dip in and out if you like, as some have suggested here, but I strongly urge you to read the whole thing, and take your time, and let it gradually sink in. It is most beautifully readable, and the whole journey a slow crescendo of wonder.
Iain McGilchrist has spent the 11 years since the publication of The Master and his Emissary' assembling, arranging, tuning the left hemisphere tools he has to use - words - to try to evoke in our minds the cloud of right hemisphere ideas that he wants, with burning urgency, to share with us.
He knows - as well, I submit, as anyone has ever known - that it is intrinsically impossible to transmit such ideas as any kind of finished 'thing', however long he might strive to perfect its intricacy. That's the point. That, in essence, is 'the matter with things'. He will explain if you let him.
And to do this, the master must do his best to choose the words - the things - accepting their limitations, to be sent into the world, and you, as his emissary. And to that extent his labour is now 'finished'. He has brought forth a book, or actually two books — two things indeed — and beautiful things they are, thanks to his personal curation.
That's a paradox of course, but that mystery is in his message as well.
I further submit that any person who reads The Matter with Things with a receptive mind (is that too much to ask?) or who listens to McGilchrist's recorded talks and conversations, and who becomes aware of the richness of his experience across disparate fields, expert and professional, and who witnesses his easy familiarity with such an astonishing range of sources (the Bibliography alone fills 182 pages of Volume II) and glimpses, with me, the almost superhuman achievement of organising this prodigious whole, conceived over such a long period of time, into one coherent, lucid, readable, indeed compelling, narrative thread, can doubt that he is uniquely equipped for this task.
A task which is nothing less than to challenge the basis of Western, reductionist thought since the time of Plato. He's not the first, but may well be the best. From my own rich experience of life, as a husband, a father, a family doctor as it happens, plus a lot else, his message rings profoundly true. I believe it is incredibly important.
I urge you to get the book and read it and respond to it in your particular way. We shall never see its like again.
The above was written to post on Waterstones bookshop website as I reached the end of Volume I. I don't want to lose its freshness by re-writing it now. But now, having reached the end of the whole work, I just want to add that the second volume brings the thesis to a magnificent and (as others have said) potentially life-changing culmination.
And the other thing I would say is: yes, by all means dip in and out if you like, as some have suggested here, but I strongly urge you to read the whole thing, and take your time, and let it gradually sink in. It is most beautifully readable, and the whole journey a slow crescendo of wonder.
December 16, 2021
A magnificent work of epistemology. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
McGilchrist's synthesis of neuroscience, physics and philosophy is unparalleled in my estimation, and needs to be read by as wide an audience as possible.
I fear that the size of this book will put far too many off from reading it, but I believe that Jonathan Rowson is right in suggesting it will likely be viewed in time as the equal of the greatest modern works of philosophy.
McGilchrist's synthesis of neuroscience, physics and philosophy is unparalleled in my estimation, and needs to be read by as wide an audience as possible.
I fear that the size of this book will put far too many off from reading it, but I believe that Jonathan Rowson is right in suggesting it will likely be viewed in time as the equal of the greatest modern works of philosophy.
January 24, 2022
This Masterwork is potentially a depth charge for decades to come. Towards the end McGilchrist walks us to the very boundaries of science and rationality through rational language, and then gives us a bridge into the intuitive and Sacred world only apprehended by the right hemisphere. And then walks us back again.
A life-changing book.
A life-changing book.
October 8, 2023
One of the most important books of the last 50 years, for sure.
April 11, 2022
Where do I even start to review such an epic masterpiece. I preordered this book last summer, started the journey at the end of October when it arrived and spent many hours working my way through to completion in December, but I have since spent a considerable amount of time pondering on much of what has been written in the book, as well as many interviews Iain has given since the release. I am now ready to attempt to read the whole thing again so as to be able to really digest at least a portion of the wisdom that is contained within it's pages. I have considered holding off on leaving a review until after the second reading, but I feel compelled to attempt to serve some amount of justice to this great work now in the hope that it may at least spark the interest of one more reader to take up the journey with this book.
The experience gained from going on this journey - to borrow a phrase used by Iain - is simply ineffable. One has to make the journey to experience it fully. All I can hope to achieve in this review is to be able to at least partly provide am artists sketch of that wondrous view that has been partially gleaned in the heights of deep inspiration and profound insight.
There is practically no important domain that Iain does not cover on this journey. We are walked through the various fields of science, neurology, physics, theology and philosophy to take but a few. The level of Erudition that is on display throughout is simply astonishing. There are quotes taken from private letters from the likes of Darwin and Einstein that provide much clarity on some of their own personal beliefs, which are not well known to say the least, and which actually help to dispel some of the misconceptions, misinterpretations and even the twisting of their beliefs that are so deeply entrenched in modern academia and the wider commonplace scientific understanding, in particular of the neo-darwinians which Iain directly addresses on a few occasions.
The levels of corroboration between various fields, different methods and between the sciences and the great relgions of the world as well as philosophy and great world literature is striking and something that should be taken seriously. Getting to the end of the book is akin to watching a grand convergence play out, where all paths lead to the same place.
Iain presents many brilliant quotes from a wide range of titanic intellectual figures such as William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Wittgenstein, Darwin, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger and Goethe, to name but a few.
It would be absolutely futile for me (or anyone for that matter) to try to summarise in one page an unfolding experience which is laid out on over 1300 pages over the two volume book. Even in the epilogue Iain states himself how there can be no conclusion as such as it is not something which can be gleaned by reading a single chapter. You must take the whole journey in it's entirety.
For anyone who is already familiar with Iains previous book 'The Master and his Emissary' then you will be well prepared for the first volume of this great work. For those who haven't read Iains previous work then I strongly recommend you do so first. It is a master piece by itself, even though his latest project goes beyond what I thought was even possible by his already lofty standards.
Put simply, this is the single best book I have ever had the great fortune to read. It is an incredible attempt (and to my knowledge the best anyone has made thus far) at mapping out what we as humans have contended with for millenia at least, possibly a perennial problem, which is that of the world view of the left hemisphere if left unchecked. Everything is at stake and it is up to us all to take the necessary step in order to avoid an utter catastrophe. This is not hyperbole, when you read through this book you will come to understand the huge importance of this work.
One extra point I would add is that if anyone is familiar with the work of John Vervake, in particular his series on YouTube called 'Awakening from the Meaning Crisis', then I would emphasise the striking convergence there is between these two great polymaths of our time. These two are surely among the most important thinkers of this age and I think we will not know what we have until they are gone unfortunately.
If you are hesitating buying 'The Matter with Things' based on the price or based on the length of the book, consider that you may never experience anything as transformative in your life than you may gain through taking this journey. It is a small investment for the vast rewards you receive from it. Drop the excuses, stop the procrastination and make what I sternly believe will be among the most important decisions you will ever make in your life.
The experience gained from going on this journey - to borrow a phrase used by Iain - is simply ineffable. One has to make the journey to experience it fully. All I can hope to achieve in this review is to be able to at least partly provide am artists sketch of that wondrous view that has been partially gleaned in the heights of deep inspiration and profound insight.
There is practically no important domain that Iain does not cover on this journey. We are walked through the various fields of science, neurology, physics, theology and philosophy to take but a few. The level of Erudition that is on display throughout is simply astonishing. There are quotes taken from private letters from the likes of Darwin and Einstein that provide much clarity on some of their own personal beliefs, which are not well known to say the least, and which actually help to dispel some of the misconceptions, misinterpretations and even the twisting of their beliefs that are so deeply entrenched in modern academia and the wider commonplace scientific understanding, in particular of the neo-darwinians which Iain directly addresses on a few occasions.
The levels of corroboration between various fields, different methods and between the sciences and the great relgions of the world as well as philosophy and great world literature is striking and something that should be taken seriously. Getting to the end of the book is akin to watching a grand convergence play out, where all paths lead to the same place.
Iain presents many brilliant quotes from a wide range of titanic intellectual figures such as William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Wittgenstein, Darwin, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger and Goethe, to name but a few.
It would be absolutely futile for me (or anyone for that matter) to try to summarise in one page an unfolding experience which is laid out on over 1300 pages over the two volume book. Even in the epilogue Iain states himself how there can be no conclusion as such as it is not something which can be gleaned by reading a single chapter. You must take the whole journey in it's entirety.
For anyone who is already familiar with Iains previous book 'The Master and his Emissary' then you will be well prepared for the first volume of this great work. For those who haven't read Iains previous work then I strongly recommend you do so first. It is a master piece by itself, even though his latest project goes beyond what I thought was even possible by his already lofty standards.
Put simply, this is the single best book I have ever had the great fortune to read. It is an incredible attempt (and to my knowledge the best anyone has made thus far) at mapping out what we as humans have contended with for millenia at least, possibly a perennial problem, which is that of the world view of the left hemisphere if left unchecked. Everything is at stake and it is up to us all to take the necessary step in order to avoid an utter catastrophe. This is not hyperbole, when you read through this book you will come to understand the huge importance of this work.
One extra point I would add is that if anyone is familiar with the work of John Vervake, in particular his series on YouTube called 'Awakening from the Meaning Crisis', then I would emphasise the striking convergence there is between these two great polymaths of our time. These two are surely among the most important thinkers of this age and I think we will not know what we have until they are gone unfortunately.
If you are hesitating buying 'The Matter with Things' based on the price or based on the length of the book, consider that you may never experience anything as transformative in your life than you may gain through taking this journey. It is a small investment for the vast rewards you receive from it. Drop the excuses, stop the procrastination and make what I sternly believe will be among the most important decisions you will ever make in your life.
November 7, 2022
McGilchrist's The Matter With Things is a very ambitious book that tries to explain the human predicament from his theory that the two brain hemispheres have very contradictory perspectives. He argues that the left hemisphere is becoming more dominant, and this would explain growing reductionism, rationalism and abstractionism, a development that is undermining society. However, not all neuroscientists agree that such pronounced hemispheric asymmetries exist.
It disturbs me that he relies so heavily on strange and scary philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger and Hegel. I think he partly misinterprets Plato, whose Forms aren't abstractions but really eternal 'things.' McGilchrist promotes a metaphysics of flow against one of stasis and fixity. However, he misrepresents Heraclitus, who is more about the lawfulness of the logos. I worry that a metaphysics of flow could lead to relativism.
McGilchrist refers to Carl Jung many times and seems to take his fantastic theories seriously. He adopts the belief that the unconscious can carry out background tasks while the conscious mind is focusing on something else (ch. 17). This psychoanalytic idea is rejected by neuroscience (see Nick Chater, The Mind Is Flat, 2018).
Of course, there is much to learn from this huge book; but I am skeptical about a philosophy of flux and an ongoing battle of opposites. Nietzsche was wrong; not everything in reality builds on a conflict of opposites. After all, cooperation is even more important. I think the author misinterprets certain thinkers and takes inferior thinkers too seriously. It is cumbersome to read a book that investigates such a diverse field of issues. I give it 3 out of 5.
It disturbs me that he relies so heavily on strange and scary philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger and Hegel. I think he partly misinterprets Plato, whose Forms aren't abstractions but really eternal 'things.' McGilchrist promotes a metaphysics of flow against one of stasis and fixity. However, he misrepresents Heraclitus, who is more about the lawfulness of the logos. I worry that a metaphysics of flow could lead to relativism.
McGilchrist refers to Carl Jung many times and seems to take his fantastic theories seriously. He adopts the belief that the unconscious can carry out background tasks while the conscious mind is focusing on something else (ch. 17). This psychoanalytic idea is rejected by neuroscience (see Nick Chater, The Mind Is Flat, 2018).
Of course, there is much to learn from this huge book; but I am skeptical about a philosophy of flux and an ongoing battle of opposites. Nietzsche was wrong; not everything in reality builds on a conflict of opposites. After all, cooperation is even more important. I think the author misinterprets certain thinkers and takes inferior thinkers too seriously. It is cumbersome to read a book that investigates such a diverse field of issues. I give it 3 out of 5.
January 25, 2022
A joy to read this monumental piece of work, in terms of research input as well as the beautifully finished product. Ten years in the making since his earlier "The Master and His Emissary", TMWT succeeds in its quest to answer the question "What exactly is the matter with things?"
Contrary to received rationality, the plight of modern humanity - our obvious inability to get to grips with global issues that confront us - is encapsulated in the words of Einstein and Eddington:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
McGilchrist’s "Hemispheric Hypothesis" is that, as a result of a 20thC backlash against left-right-brain pop-psychology, the true relationships between our deeply divided brains and the views of the world they give us has been ignored in mainstream knowledge about the world and our relationship with it.
And, whilst the right view recognises and understands the power of the left, the left view fails to notice why it even needs the right. Because of this imbalance, the rational left-brain view and behaviour continues to further exaggerate and promote itself at the expense of the intuitive right. A vicious cycle. This is a mental-illness. We must, individually and as a society, recover the evolutionarily intended use of that intuitive gift.
Because of the intuitive nature of that gift, it needs to be understood by being embodied and enacted rather than being learned from an explicit list of components and features. To recognise a necessary distance between our model of the world, embodied & manipulated in the left-brain, and the immediate experience & understanding of the world, obtained with the attention of the right.
Contrary to received rationality, the plight of modern humanity - our obvious inability to get to grips with global issues that confront us - is encapsulated in the words of Einstein and Eddington:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
McGilchrist’s "Hemispheric Hypothesis" is that, as a result of a 20thC backlash against left-right-brain pop-psychology, the true relationships between our deeply divided brains and the views of the world they give us has been ignored in mainstream knowledge about the world and our relationship with it.
And, whilst the right view recognises and understands the power of the left, the left view fails to notice why it even needs the right. Because of this imbalance, the rational left-brain view and behaviour continues to further exaggerate and promote itself at the expense of the intuitive right. A vicious cycle. This is a mental-illness. We must, individually and as a society, recover the evolutionarily intended use of that intuitive gift.
Because of the intuitive nature of that gift, it needs to be understood by being embodied and enacted rather than being learned from an explicit list of components and features. To recognise a necessary distance between our model of the world, embodied & manipulated in the left-brain, and the immediate experience & understanding of the world, obtained with the attention of the right.
January 9, 2022
Genius, as you'd expect from this impressive man. This is the man's magnum opus. His brains are put to good use in describing everything from quantum mechanics, God (and he isn't afraid to say it), madness and everything, and I mean everything, well almost..
My only let down, and I only say this because of who
Iain McGilchrist is, and, remember, he tackles almost everything in these over 1000 pages, with brainy footnotes; well how do I put this, the subject, like the sun, it cannot be looked at directly, that is, DEATH.
We have evolved with this two brained contraction. What is beyond the self contraction?
A comparable achievement is Schopenhauer's two volumes of his main work. At the end, like life, Schopenhauer has a few chapters on death. Schopenhauer's transcendental idealism is his spring board for at least a guess.
I don't want to come across as morbid, but the epic nature of Matter with Things, and the genius of the author you expect him to take to the ultimate question.
The size of the book is not easily tackled but to dip in and out and the nuggets within is worth it.
My only let down, and I only say this because of who
Iain McGilchrist is, and, remember, he tackles almost everything in these over 1000 pages, with brainy footnotes; well how do I put this, the subject, like the sun, it cannot be looked at directly, that is, DEATH.
We have evolved with this two brained contraction. What is beyond the self contraction?
A comparable achievement is Schopenhauer's two volumes of his main work. At the end, like life, Schopenhauer has a few chapters on death. Schopenhauer's transcendental idealism is his spring board for at least a guess.
I don't want to come across as morbid, but the epic nature of Matter with Things, and the genius of the author you expect him to take to the ultimate question.
The size of the book is not easily tackled but to dip in and out and the nuggets within is worth it.
December 13, 2021
Simply Brilliant
October 20, 2022
This is quite possibly the greatest work of philosophy, neuroscience and epistemology in the 21st Century. Iain McGilchrist has figured the world out and, in writing this behemoth has completely changed the fundamental understandings of it.
May 17, 2023
I have finally finished this 1500 page behemoth. This is McGilchrist's follow up to his previous work "The Master and his Emissary". In "The Matter with Things", McGilchrist beefs up his evidence based analysis of the differences between the function of our left and right hemisphere, a division of the central nervous system that exists in some capacity throughout the animal kingdom. McGilchrist draws on the neurological, psychological and psychiatric literature to illustrate the function of each hemisphere and to draw his conclusions. Once again, as in his previous work, he concludes that the left hemisphere is an analytical processor that divides the world into functional bits so as to gain a survival advantage and manipulate the world, achieving a form of satisfying certainty and avoiding ambiguity. The left hemisphere likes the world "cut and dried". The right hemisphere is a parallel processor that holds onto the big picture, avoids pigeon holing reality and checks the work of the left hemisphere, as the actual world is not nearly as "cut and dried" as the left hemisphere would like it to be. The right hemisphere is more intuitive and able to feel into the rhythms of life. It appreciates art and poetry and revels in the wonder of the great mystery of life. Without the right hemispheres support, the left hemisphere is vulnerable to delusion, false certainty and hubris. McGilchrist once again, points out how our modern world has fallen into the grips of the left hemispheres worldview.
What McGilchrist adds in this latest book, beyond further substantiating the argument made in the last book, is a detailed review of the philosophical tenets of how we come to understand "reality" including the pathways of science, reason, intuition and imagination. He goes on to explore the stuff of which "reality": consists, including time, space, motion, matter and consciousness. McGilchrist reveals to us the perspective of each hemisphere and ultimately presents us with paradox after paradox, arguing for a view of reality that unites and resolves each paradox. Life and matter are not what they first appear to be. We are a process, facing resistance, a constant flow that only appears to be material. We can scale our perception from the tiny to the cosmic and perceive a part of a whole or a whole containing parts at any level of analysis, each level disappearing into the next. Here McGilchrist comes into perfect alignment with Ken Wilber, who he does not reference, and may never have read. McGilchrist draws on a vast number of references in the scientific and philosophical realm. He has produced a masterwork of philosophy. He comes to very satisfying but suitably non dual "conclusions" about the nature of reality, god, being, beauty, goodness, truth, religion and the nature of good and evil. This is a very challenging and extremely lengthy book, but I believe it is truly one of the masterworks of our age and perhaps of any age. Highly recommend to those prepared to take the time and effort. (For those less scientifically and medically minded perhaps skim the chapters in part one.)
What McGilchrist adds in this latest book, beyond further substantiating the argument made in the last book, is a detailed review of the philosophical tenets of how we come to understand "reality" including the pathways of science, reason, intuition and imagination. He goes on to explore the stuff of which "reality": consists, including time, space, motion, matter and consciousness. McGilchrist reveals to us the perspective of each hemisphere and ultimately presents us with paradox after paradox, arguing for a view of reality that unites and resolves each paradox. Life and matter are not what they first appear to be. We are a process, facing resistance, a constant flow that only appears to be material. We can scale our perception from the tiny to the cosmic and perceive a part of a whole or a whole containing parts at any level of analysis, each level disappearing into the next. Here McGilchrist comes into perfect alignment with Ken Wilber, who he does not reference, and may never have read. McGilchrist draws on a vast number of references in the scientific and philosophical realm. He has produced a masterwork of philosophy. He comes to very satisfying but suitably non dual "conclusions" about the nature of reality, god, being, beauty, goodness, truth, religion and the nature of good and evil. This is a very challenging and extremely lengthy book, but I believe it is truly one of the masterworks of our age and perhaps of any age. Highly recommend to those prepared to take the time and effort. (For those less scientifically and medically minded perhaps skim the chapters in part one.)
March 11, 2022
This very wide-ranging discussion of everything to do with mind and brain grew out of the author's decades-long neuroscience research on the split brain. How left and right hemispheres work and interact proves to be a lens for examining not only behavior but also reality, metaphysics and the irreducible role of consciousness. I'm sure I'll be dipping back into this for years to come. The only hesitation I have in recommending it is the vertiginous price being asked for even an e-book. I don't know why this author would have agreed to a marketing vehicle that will limit or deny access to so many.
August 3, 2023
I'm so glad I read this. What makes it such valuable work isn't just McGilchrist's paradigm-shattering thesis, but the treasure trove of thinkers he engages with throughout. True to his belief that context is everything, McG doesn't merely offer up snippets of a quote here and there that happen to suit what he's saying; he dishes out big, chunky blockquotes almost every time he cites someone, as if to say, "don't take my word for it—why don't YOU decide what they really meant." In fact, I'd guess nearly half the word count of this 1,300+ page book is comprised of other people's insights—artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, historians, theologians, Indigenous peoples, and others who've done Deep Work from all across time. As a result, this doesn't feel like a vanity project (as it so easily could've), but instead like a crash course in what the wisest among us have thought, felt, deduced and/or discerned about the nature of reality since human beings started caring about such things. It's so gratifying to see the same patterns emerge in places you'd never expect to see them. For challenging my biases, teaching my left brain who's boss, and introducing me to so many thinkers I've never encountered before (+ digging up passages from folks I AM familiar with that I never knew existed), God bless and keep you, sir!
January 2, 2024
Great works in philosophy and science have the effect of making the world look a bit different when you put the book down. This is one of those books. The magnitude of this project cannot be overstated. McGilchrist offers a vision of the mind, brain, and Being that as beautiful as it is thorough.
February 21, 2024
This book has a seductive premise, which makes the poison pill inside all the more insidious. In a strange mix of scientism and mysticism, McGilchrist appeals to neuroscience to argue that the problems of modernity can be explained by the bilateral division of the brain. He argues that the brain's two hemispheres each have a different perspective: the right hemisphere's perspective is holistic, open, embodied, flowing, creative; the left hemisphere, meanwhile, is dogmatic, rigid, controlling, disembodied, and calculating. The right hemisphere is used to perceive the world, while the left hemisphere is used to control it. McGilchrist argues that the world is in crisis because we have come to privilege the left-brain perspective over the right. We have constructed a worldview that is mechanistic, utilitarian, and disembodied, and have forgotten the holistic, the organic, the embodied, and the mysterious.
I am very sympathetic to this, and were he to make this case on social-historical grounds, I would applaud him. However, in marshalling neuroscience to his cause, he takes this argument in a disturbingly reactionary direction. To demonstrate what the "perspective" of each hemisphere is, he cites cases of patients with brain damage to each hemisphere, attempting to show that right-brain damage is far more pathological, leading to delusions and difficulty with reasoning or taking in new information. But his favorite target is something I am deeply familiar with: autism. He indulges us with a parade of autistic stereotypes: that we lack empathy, that we are literal-minded, that we are detached and disembodied, that we are rigid and inflexible - everything negative he wishes to associate with the left hemisphere.
In an infantilizing move, he suggests autistic people like myself suffer from a "pseudophilosophical thought disorder," living in abstractions rather than the concrete world. If McGilchrist has any familiarity with the neurodiversity paradigm, his attitude is one of contempt, as demonstrated when he parenthetically defines "neurotypical" as "normal." His attitude is one of a diagnostician viewing as objects to be studied from his neurotypical perspective, rather than subjects with their own inner world - ironically, a perspective that might be accused of being "left-brained," if his premise is to be believed. This is emblematic of what is called the "double empathy problem," in which communication barriers between autistic and neurotypical people are treated as an autistic pathology while the neurotypical's lack of understanding is normalized. It's as if English was considered a natural language and non-English speakers were treated as unempathetic for their inability to understand it.
Of course, if McGilchrist listened to autistic voices, we might not make such a convenient scapegoat for him. As I said, I share his concern for the mechanization of the modern world. Personally, I tend to attribute this shift to the commodification of society under capitalism, but McGilchrist might find that smells a bit too much of Marxism, which he sneers at dismissively. Instead, his approach smacks of neo-phrenology mixed with reactionary conservatism, an approach that finds a welcome home with the likes of Jordan Peterson, with whom his website features several interviews. For this reason, I find this to be a deeply sinister book, a bait-and-switch claiming to offer liberation from the malaise of modernity, but in fact reifying some of its ugliest prejudices.
I am very sympathetic to this, and were he to make this case on social-historical grounds, I would applaud him. However, in marshalling neuroscience to his cause, he takes this argument in a disturbingly reactionary direction. To demonstrate what the "perspective" of each hemisphere is, he cites cases of patients with brain damage to each hemisphere, attempting to show that right-brain damage is far more pathological, leading to delusions and difficulty with reasoning or taking in new information. But his favorite target is something I am deeply familiar with: autism. He indulges us with a parade of autistic stereotypes: that we lack empathy, that we are literal-minded, that we are detached and disembodied, that we are rigid and inflexible - everything negative he wishes to associate with the left hemisphere.
In an infantilizing move, he suggests autistic people like myself suffer from a "pseudophilosophical thought disorder," living in abstractions rather than the concrete world. If McGilchrist has any familiarity with the neurodiversity paradigm, his attitude is one of contempt, as demonstrated when he parenthetically defines "neurotypical" as "normal." His attitude is one of a diagnostician viewing as objects to be studied from his neurotypical perspective, rather than subjects with their own inner world - ironically, a perspective that might be accused of being "left-brained," if his premise is to be believed. This is emblematic of what is called the "double empathy problem," in which communication barriers between autistic and neurotypical people are treated as an autistic pathology while the neurotypical's lack of understanding is normalized. It's as if English was considered a natural language and non-English speakers were treated as unempathetic for their inability to understand it.
Of course, if McGilchrist listened to autistic voices, we might not make such a convenient scapegoat for him. As I said, I share his concern for the mechanization of the modern world. Personally, I tend to attribute this shift to the commodification of society under capitalism, but McGilchrist might find that smells a bit too much of Marxism, which he sneers at dismissively. Instead, his approach smacks of neo-phrenology mixed with reactionary conservatism, an approach that finds a welcome home with the likes of Jordan Peterson, with whom his website features several interviews. For this reason, I find this to be a deeply sinister book, a bait-and-switch claiming to offer liberation from the malaise of modernity, but in fact reifying some of its ugliest prejudices.
April 17, 2023
This was quite a marathon read. I'm not sure I agree with the author in all the things he advocates for, but there are some very valuable concepts here. First, the idea that everything in the universe is in motion, nothing is static. He describes the static images of things like cells, the solar system, population demographics as "the limiting case" of reality and not reality itself. I agree that we tend to cling to oversimplified static images of reality and fail to appreciate the awe-inspiring complexity of the true reality.
The author spends quite a bit of time arguing for his theory of "left-hemisphere" versus "right-hemisphere" thinking. I can't judge how valid that might be, but I find it very useful to contrast holistic, big-picture thinking with very detailed and specific thinking and to consider when I might be trapped in one or the other.
One concept left me a bit skeptical: the argument that we should think of living cells and perhaps even the whole Earth as "aware" and "goal-oriented" versus being "machine-like". He doesn't say "conscious". It's hard to know exactly what he means, but I would agree that machine analogies can lead us toward oversimplified perceptions of many things and fail to anticipate the myriad paths that a living organism may find to overcome a change in environment.
In summary, a very interesting set of ideas and worth a read.
The author spends quite a bit of time arguing for his theory of "left-hemisphere" versus "right-hemisphere" thinking. I can't judge how valid that might be, but I find it very useful to contrast holistic, big-picture thinking with very detailed and specific thinking and to consider when I might be trapped in one or the other.
One concept left me a bit skeptical: the argument that we should think of living cells and perhaps even the whole Earth as "aware" and "goal-oriented" versus being "machine-like". He doesn't say "conscious". It's hard to know exactly what he means, but I would agree that machine analogies can lead us toward oversimplified perceptions of many things and fail to anticipate the myriad paths that a living organism may find to overcome a change in environment.
In summary, a very interesting set of ideas and worth a read.
April 10, 2022
don't let the length of this brilliant and expansive work put you off....
it may be 1375 pages (hardcover) but indeed well worth the time and effort
A phenomenal masterpiece of covering so much ground and offering a framework
based on brain hemispheric differences to understand what is happening in our culture, politics and science today.
i wish everyone would read The Matter with Things and light the spark the kindles a revolution of right hemisphere resurgence : )
it may be 1375 pages (hardcover) but indeed well worth the time and effort
A phenomenal masterpiece of covering so much ground and offering a framework
based on brain hemispheric differences to understand what is happening in our culture, politics and science today.
i wish everyone would read The Matter with Things and light the spark the kindles a revolution of right hemisphere resurgence : )
August 7, 2022
A massive synthesis of neuroscience, science and philosophy: the divided brain explains so much and is a key to disentangling our current materialist world view. Ian is high up there with the great thinkers and writes in a clear accessible style that will encourage people to read him. Personally I felt I was “coming home”: all my subterranean thoughts and philosophical intuitions found a space within Ian’s book. Can’t recommend it enough. I read it on Kindle and will buy the “proper” version.
May 1, 2022
A wonderful book
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of reading thousands of books. Dr. McGilchrist's work is one of the best ever. It is deep and thoughtful, and although a few of his leanings puzzle me, he has done a masterful job of presenting what he believes and why, about the most important questions we face. Highly recommended!
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of reading thousands of books. Dr. McGilchrist's work is one of the best ever. It is deep and thoughtful, and although a few of his leanings puzzle me, he has done a masterful job of presenting what he believes and why, about the most important questions we face. Highly recommended!
May 27, 2022
A pure endeavor
The book was written without time pressure and must be read as such. It pulls strings from every major western intellectual endeavor while giving the well deserved room to the religious. I’m not a westerner and feel it attempted to do justice to life.
The book was written without time pressure and must be read as such. It pulls strings from every major western intellectual endeavor while giving the well deserved room to the religious. I’m not a westerner and feel it attempted to do justice to life.
August 13, 2022
This work by Iain McGilchrist took many months to read, the majority of those months understanding before pressing on. This changed my life, attention is a moral act. Imagination, and intuition, from this an ethical goal is born. I will read this again. Wonderful!
April 11, 2023
A very very serious treasure. 10/5
May 19, 2024
Implicitly reductive and materialist, no matter how hard he tries not to be. Never gets beyond the very axioms he sets out to destroy. It’s a failure of epic proportions. Is this not the product of exactly what he criticises - the left hemisphere in overdrive, incapacity of seeing the whole, only seeing parts? I can’t help but feel that this book is a replication of everything he argues that we ought not to be. A psychiatrist who set out to, presumably, understand all of existence - but what he actually did was describe himself.
I have thought a lot about this book and have decided to trust my intuition. Life is too short for such obnoxiousness and scholasticism. This is a case of great intellect falling prey to pride. How many great thinkers can I cite? How much can I prove that I am smart? That I know the whole field of psychology? The history of literature? How can the very-smart people I adore respect me in return?
None of it matters, sir. You have to be synthetic. To convey symbolically, or as your reductive materialist mind conceives of it: “from the right hemisphere”, you have to integrate and distill the complexity, striking the balance, writing explicitly in a way such that all the underlying complexity and breadth of referential material is implied and thus evoked. You have to abstract and reason constructively.
It doesn’t impress, the ethos doesn’t rub off on you nor your theories. 5000 sources doesn’t matter if you have no voice. What you say isn’t wrong, but it’s voiceless. You are like a stamp collector who asks us to look at all your stamps. We don’t care about your stamps, what’s the upshot?
There is a lot of factual information in this book. Congrats, you wrote a encyclopaedia. The arrogance to publish something like this, despite the advice of his publishers.
There is a lot of projection here, a lot of neuronormative judgement parading as scientific objectivism.
Few things are wrong in this book. Yet, as a pragmatist, this is useless. The author asks me to jerk him off for 1500 pages and I won’t do that. Instead of philosophising he talks about philosophers, instead of writing poetry he talks of poets. Instead of doing science he talks of scientists. Instead of teaching he talks of what could theoretically be taught. This guy must jerk off to the idea of himself jerking off. Respect your readers and their time, please.
Harsh, of course skimmed, due with it as you like. That’s how it seems to me.
I have thought a lot about this book and have decided to trust my intuition. Life is too short for such obnoxiousness and scholasticism. This is a case of great intellect falling prey to pride. How many great thinkers can I cite? How much can I prove that I am smart? That I know the whole field of psychology? The history of literature? How can the very-smart people I adore respect me in return?
None of it matters, sir. You have to be synthetic. To convey symbolically, or as your reductive materialist mind conceives of it: “from the right hemisphere”, you have to integrate and distill the complexity, striking the balance, writing explicitly in a way such that all the underlying complexity and breadth of referential material is implied and thus evoked. You have to abstract and reason constructively.
It doesn’t impress, the ethos doesn’t rub off on you nor your theories. 5000 sources doesn’t matter if you have no voice. What you say isn’t wrong, but it’s voiceless. You are like a stamp collector who asks us to look at all your stamps. We don’t care about your stamps, what’s the upshot?
There is a lot of factual information in this book. Congrats, you wrote a encyclopaedia. The arrogance to publish something like this, despite the advice of his publishers.
There is a lot of projection here, a lot of neuronormative judgement parading as scientific objectivism.
Few things are wrong in this book. Yet, as a pragmatist, this is useless. The author asks me to jerk him off for 1500 pages and I won’t do that. Instead of philosophising he talks about philosophers, instead of writing poetry he talks of poets. Instead of doing science he talks of scientists. Instead of teaching he talks of what could theoretically be taught. This guy must jerk off to the idea of himself jerking off. Respect your readers and their time, please.
Harsh, of course skimmed, due with it as you like. That’s how it seems to me.
March 19, 2023
Never read a book that had such a profound impact on my way of viewing the world. It showed me that the materialistic way of thinking that is instilled in our culture on effectively unpractised minds leads to dogmatic and rigid assumptions which close us off from a more broader, deeper understanding of the universe and our lives, which also forced me to examine many of my own implicit assumptions. It likens the thought of some prominent philosophers in the last centuries to symptoms of schizophrenia, which was interesting. I got this sense just how much the current zeitgeist alienates us from a deeper connection with reality. The book seems to advocate for a more embodied concept of truth, found in ancient Greek philosophy, but also in most ancient religions, putting us back in touch with the awe-inspiring mystery of Being. One of the central theses of the book, would be that the reductionist, materialistic, mechanistic view of the universe is an inconsistent philosophy that asks us to make magical leaps, from matter to mind, from parts to wholes, etc. This fractured way of seeing the world is characteristic of dominance of the left brain hemisphere and is contrasted by the other fundamental way: life and the universe as a permanently unique, dynamic, continuous, holistic whole. And of course the fact that we do not know anything.
And some more. It blew my mind bruh.
And some more. It blew my mind bruh.
September 11, 2022
I think that a proper review of this book would take twenty or thirty pages. Suffice it to say that this is an amazing and thorough follow up to The Master and his Emissary.
This book, most importantly to me, actually has fricken margins you can write in and take notes AND does not bury important citations in the back. These alone, for sure a huge and dense work, are huge improvements in readability.
This is a punishing book in some ways for a non initiate, but well worth it. It's a bit of a compendium on current state of knowledge in neuroscience and also a review of certain branches of philosophy. There is also an immense quantity of amazing little digressions into art and music and poetry which are fun to find and track down. Just yesterday I listened to a very early Bach piece that I had no idea existed.
In short, what a lovely book.
I personally suggest reading just a bit at a time and sitting with it, otherwise it's a bit like taking a drink from a firehose.
This book, most importantly to me, actually has fricken margins you can write in and take notes AND does not bury important citations in the back. These alone, for sure a huge and dense work, are huge improvements in readability.
This is a punishing book in some ways for a non initiate, but well worth it. It's a bit of a compendium on current state of knowledge in neuroscience and also a review of certain branches of philosophy. There is also an immense quantity of amazing little digressions into art and music and poetry which are fun to find and track down. Just yesterday I listened to a very early Bach piece that I had no idea existed.
In short, what a lovely book.
I personally suggest reading just a bit at a time and sitting with it, otherwise it's a bit like taking a drink from a firehose.
July 17, 2022
One of the most enlightening and revealing books we have ever read. This will change the way you perceive yourself, the pieces of world, the connections between them all and the whole.
January 28, 2024
What a thoroughly excellent read. This two-volume tome of Iain McGilchrist is quite unparalleled in scope and breadth of interdisciplinary enquiry. It seamlessly fuses disciplines within the author’s wheelhouse (neurology, philosophy, psychology) but also bridges the gap between more apparently disparate fields, from quantum mechanics to theology. This is truly the work of a polymath. Tackling this within one month was quite a mammoth task to undertake, but one which was highly rewarding.
The central thesis of this substantial book flows elegantly from his previous work, ‘The Master and His Emissary’ and is essentially as follows: the bilateral, hemispheric nature of the human brain is fundamental to the way in which we both attend to and contend with the perceived world. His main contention is that we, as a Western civilisation, have allowed ourselves to hand the reigns of cognition over to the left hemisphere, with disastrous, far-reaching consequences. It is by no means an optimistic book, but it serves a vital purpose. Namely, to draw our attention to the optimal functioning state of the brain (with the right as Master, the left as Emissary) and how we currently exist in an era when this productive, stable, 'becoming' state is flipped on its head. The left is driving with its eyes closed and fingers in its ears, whilst the right nervously twitches in the passenger seat, and we’re heading towards a particularly nasty-looking cliff. This may sound bleak, and it is. But we are offered a promising albeit challenging solution. Coincidently, there are no obvious parallels to be drawn between the usage of ‘left-right’ in the neurological context and that of the political. Or at least the author makes no reference to any parallels which may happen to exist.
Part I cogently delineates how the bipartite characterisations of the hemispheres are supported by almost all of the relevant scientific literature, and he cites a mountain of clinical data (so, so many studies) to corroborate this. His scientific rigour (a left hemisphere trait) is so expertly hewn as to allow the reader to entirely trust the many conclusions arrived at in later chapters which draw on the evidence of this neuropsychological research. Having a biomedical background, I enjoyed pouring over the quite fascinating case studies of patients who had suffered various cerebral insults and injuries, and how these correlated almost perfectly with the characteristics ascribed to the two often opposing hemispheres. References were often made to Oliver Sacks and his patients described in ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’. The evidence pertaining to autism and schizophrenia was also revelatory, with McGilchrist hinting at a view that the collective diagnosis of the Western mind is one of a schizoid over-analysis and dogmatic pursuit of absolute scientific truth. The appendix documenting the demise of the peer-review system is especially telling.
Part II sees a shift in focus from neurology to the actual meat and bones of what is meant by philosophical, biological, and physical truth, and how the pursuit of such concepts can manifest itself within the framework of modern science, for better or worse. McGilchrist describes, in quite desperate terms, our contemporary attempts to seek and implement what is ostensibly true. He speaks somewhat unfavourably about ‘reason’, or at least our modern conception of it and makes a convincing case that ‘intuition’ (a right hemisphere trait) has been largely and incorrectly relegated to the sidelines, whilst ‘intellect’ (a left hemisphere trait) is extolled above all else. The chapter on paradoxes was a personal favourite. It perfectly demonstrates how the contradicting views simultaneously held by the two hemispheres can result in quite illogical inferences. The two worldviews offered by the hemispheres are asymmetrical (the right takes its own and that of the left into account, the left is intolerant to the right) and indeed often incompatible.
Part III, which makes up the entirety of volume II (notwithstanding the giant bibliography) then attempts, somewhat successfully in my opinion, to reconcile the scientific with the sacred. Much of this volume is concerned with the physical reality of the universe and evaluates the assertions made by contemporary physicists and how these relate to the more numinous and spiritual understandings of the cosmos. The ‘institution of science’ has to a large degree become ossified in its approach to the nature of reality. Allusions are made to the great scientists of the Western tradition, with quotations from the likes of Schrödinger which pay lip service to the view that the intuitive character of scientific discovery and progress has been replaced by narrow-minded, overly mechanistic descriptions of the universe which leaves no time nor room for gaps in knowledge. All of which sounds very left hemisphere-like, does it not? It is worth noting that the author at no point in the book makes any disparaging remarks about the validity and utility of modern science per se (he is a scientist after all), but rather the way in which it is misapplied and misappropriated in aid of socio-political agendas and inflexible ideologies. Hegel’s synthesis and Nicholas de Cusa’s coincidentia oppositorum are just a few examples of the numerous theories employed by the author to support his proposal.
The latter half of this section strides unabashedly into theological territory and is a refreshing gearchange following the thousand pages or so of quite dense scientific philosophising. We find out that McGilchrist is a self-avowed panentheist, a theology which differs from pantheism in a subtle yet significant way. There is no notion of omnipotence nor omniscience, indeed the panentheistic god, much like the physical world, is neither static nor final. It is instead a god which not only exists throughout everything circumscribed within time and space but one which evolves contemporaneously alongside the blossoming universe. This has profound implications with regard to personal theism, as it postulates a reality which is beholden to our thoughts and actions. It endows us with a moral injunction to contribute to the continual becoming of god and the universe- however small such a contribution may be. He has some barbed criticisms of both new-age atheism and fundamentalist religion, the two extremes of the left hemisphere’s take on spirituality. If one were to encapsulate what McGilchrist sees as the deficiencies of the average Westerner it would be a lack of connection with and immersion in nature, an absence of community or social integration, and a rejection of the divine. I think we can all agree that this rings true for a large number of people living in the frenetic and disjointed modern world. I myself am deficient in at least two of these areas, perhaps all three.
There is much more to unpack in this superb piece, filled as it is with scholarly wisdom, but this review is far too long already. I realise as I write this that it has taken more the form of an uncritical summary of the work than an even-handed review. Whilst I do not view this book as inerrant (most of the issues I have with it are semantic), I feel any criticisms would seem trivial when compared to the overwhelming sophistication of argument exhibited throughout. I wouldn’t say that this book induced any religious epiphany, but it seems to have left a mark on both the outward and inward perceptions which inform my overarching philosophy. As a direct result of its reading, I have developed a tendency to view the world through the hemispheric lens, noting when an individual or collective is overrun by ‘left hemisphere biases’, an excessive need for meticulous, mechanical, and constricted interpretations of reality. Sadly, in our age one does not need look far to find many examples of this symptom. I come out of this with a more well-rounded and open understanding of the approach to truth. This work is truly edifying, provided we swallow our left hemisphere pride and allow it to be so. Thank you Iain McGilchrist for enlightening your readership and may the master reclaim its ascendancy. Five stars.
The central thesis of this substantial book flows elegantly from his previous work, ‘The Master and His Emissary’ and is essentially as follows: the bilateral, hemispheric nature of the human brain is fundamental to the way in which we both attend to and contend with the perceived world. His main contention is that we, as a Western civilisation, have allowed ourselves to hand the reigns of cognition over to the left hemisphere, with disastrous, far-reaching consequences. It is by no means an optimistic book, but it serves a vital purpose. Namely, to draw our attention to the optimal functioning state of the brain (with the right as Master, the left as Emissary) and how we currently exist in an era when this productive, stable, 'becoming' state is flipped on its head. The left is driving with its eyes closed and fingers in its ears, whilst the right nervously twitches in the passenger seat, and we’re heading towards a particularly nasty-looking cliff. This may sound bleak, and it is. But we are offered a promising albeit challenging solution. Coincidently, there are no obvious parallels to be drawn between the usage of ‘left-right’ in the neurological context and that of the political. Or at least the author makes no reference to any parallels which may happen to exist.
Part I cogently delineates how the bipartite characterisations of the hemispheres are supported by almost all of the relevant scientific literature, and he cites a mountain of clinical data (so, so many studies) to corroborate this. His scientific rigour (a left hemisphere trait) is so expertly hewn as to allow the reader to entirely trust the many conclusions arrived at in later chapters which draw on the evidence of this neuropsychological research. Having a biomedical background, I enjoyed pouring over the quite fascinating case studies of patients who had suffered various cerebral insults and injuries, and how these correlated almost perfectly with the characteristics ascribed to the two often opposing hemispheres. References were often made to Oliver Sacks and his patients described in ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’. The evidence pertaining to autism and schizophrenia was also revelatory, with McGilchrist hinting at a view that the collective diagnosis of the Western mind is one of a schizoid over-analysis and dogmatic pursuit of absolute scientific truth. The appendix documenting the demise of the peer-review system is especially telling.
Part II sees a shift in focus from neurology to the actual meat and bones of what is meant by philosophical, biological, and physical truth, and how the pursuit of such concepts can manifest itself within the framework of modern science, for better or worse. McGilchrist describes, in quite desperate terms, our contemporary attempts to seek and implement what is ostensibly true. He speaks somewhat unfavourably about ‘reason’, or at least our modern conception of it and makes a convincing case that ‘intuition’ (a right hemisphere trait) has been largely and incorrectly relegated to the sidelines, whilst ‘intellect’ (a left hemisphere trait) is extolled above all else. The chapter on paradoxes was a personal favourite. It perfectly demonstrates how the contradicting views simultaneously held by the two hemispheres can result in quite illogical inferences. The two worldviews offered by the hemispheres are asymmetrical (the right takes its own and that of the left into account, the left is intolerant to the right) and indeed often incompatible.
Part III, which makes up the entirety of volume II (notwithstanding the giant bibliography) then attempts, somewhat successfully in my opinion, to reconcile the scientific with the sacred. Much of this volume is concerned with the physical reality of the universe and evaluates the assertions made by contemporary physicists and how these relate to the more numinous and spiritual understandings of the cosmos. The ‘institution of science’ has to a large degree become ossified in its approach to the nature of reality. Allusions are made to the great scientists of the Western tradition, with quotations from the likes of Schrödinger which pay lip service to the view that the intuitive character of scientific discovery and progress has been replaced by narrow-minded, overly mechanistic descriptions of the universe which leaves no time nor room for gaps in knowledge. All of which sounds very left hemisphere-like, does it not? It is worth noting that the author at no point in the book makes any disparaging remarks about the validity and utility of modern science per se (he is a scientist after all), but rather the way in which it is misapplied and misappropriated in aid of socio-political agendas and inflexible ideologies. Hegel’s synthesis and Nicholas de Cusa’s coincidentia oppositorum are just a few examples of the numerous theories employed by the author to support his proposal.
The latter half of this section strides unabashedly into theological territory and is a refreshing gearchange following the thousand pages or so of quite dense scientific philosophising. We find out that McGilchrist is a self-avowed panentheist, a theology which differs from pantheism in a subtle yet significant way. There is no notion of omnipotence nor omniscience, indeed the panentheistic god, much like the physical world, is neither static nor final. It is instead a god which not only exists throughout everything circumscribed within time and space but one which evolves contemporaneously alongside the blossoming universe. This has profound implications with regard to personal theism, as it postulates a reality which is beholden to our thoughts and actions. It endows us with a moral injunction to contribute to the continual becoming of god and the universe- however small such a contribution may be. He has some barbed criticisms of both new-age atheism and fundamentalist religion, the two extremes of the left hemisphere’s take on spirituality. If one were to encapsulate what McGilchrist sees as the deficiencies of the average Westerner it would be a lack of connection with and immersion in nature, an absence of community or social integration, and a rejection of the divine. I think we can all agree that this rings true for a large number of people living in the frenetic and disjointed modern world. I myself am deficient in at least two of these areas, perhaps all three.
There is much more to unpack in this superb piece, filled as it is with scholarly wisdom, but this review is far too long already. I realise as I write this that it has taken more the form of an uncritical summary of the work than an even-handed review. Whilst I do not view this book as inerrant (most of the issues I have with it are semantic), I feel any criticisms would seem trivial when compared to the overwhelming sophistication of argument exhibited throughout. I wouldn’t say that this book induced any religious epiphany, but it seems to have left a mark on both the outward and inward perceptions which inform my overarching philosophy. As a direct result of its reading, I have developed a tendency to view the world through the hemispheric lens, noting when an individual or collective is overrun by ‘left hemisphere biases’, an excessive need for meticulous, mechanical, and constricted interpretations of reality. Sadly, in our age one does not need look far to find many examples of this symptom. I come out of this with a more well-rounded and open understanding of the approach to truth. This work is truly edifying, provided we swallow our left hemisphere pride and allow it to be so. Thank you Iain McGilchrist for enlightening your readership and may the master reclaim its ascendancy. Five stars.
March 20, 2024
It took me almost a year to read this book, but I'd say it was time mostly well spent. My absolute favorite chapter, probably since I'm a librarian working in the academic repository space, was "Institutional Science and Truth." The author made a lot of salient points there about how scientists today often base their research and publishing activity around institutional and disciplinary mores, incentives and communities of practice, oftentimes not resulting in scientific output that is useful, inspiring, or particularly reflective of reality. Additionally I appreciated his deconstruction of the machine-model of the human mind a great deal. Also, for a layperson reader, I learned so much about how the brain works, about the mind-body connection, theories of reality/perception/mind, gene expression, and more from reading this massive book.
My main criticism would be that the author has a somewhat orientalist tendency to present Eastern (and occasionally other non-Western) theories of mind as the only alternative to the "left hemispheric dominant" view, as though in the West, prior to the Enlightenment and industrial revolution, there was nothing but strident Scholasticism. Stylistically, the writing is also highly repetitive, almost as though McGilchrist doesn't expect anyone to read the tome cover-to-cover. For the intrepid souls who do so, this makes the experience a bit stultifying. In spite of the massive parallel notes on each page and the bibliography, the text itself is also littered throughout with incredible volumes of lengthy quotations. While I respect and to an extent appreciate the presentation of many supporting points from other writers, again this makes the reading experience extremely drawn out and tedious at times. The entire work would have benefited from some editorial intervention.
My main criticism would be that the author has a somewhat orientalist tendency to present Eastern (and occasionally other non-Western) theories of mind as the only alternative to the "left hemispheric dominant" view, as though in the West, prior to the Enlightenment and industrial revolution, there was nothing but strident Scholasticism. Stylistically, the writing is also highly repetitive, almost as though McGilchrist doesn't expect anyone to read the tome cover-to-cover. For the intrepid souls who do so, this makes the experience a bit stultifying. In spite of the massive parallel notes on each page and the bibliography, the text itself is also littered throughout with incredible volumes of lengthy quotations. While I respect and to an extent appreciate the presentation of many supporting points from other writers, again this makes the reading experience extremely drawn out and tedious at times. The entire work would have benefited from some editorial intervention.
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