The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World

Description: The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist Iain McGilchrist addresses some of the hardest questions humanity faces – Who are we? What is the world? How can we understand consciousness, matter, space and time? Following neurology, philosophy and physics, McGilchrist leads us to a vision of the world that is profound and beautiful – in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom. FORMAT Hardcover CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description 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 brains 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 brains 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. Review Its very simple: this is one of the most important books ever published. And, yes, I do mean ever.It is a thrilling exposition of the nature of reality, and a devastating repudiation of the strident, banal orthodoxy that says it is childish and disreputable to believe that the world is alive with wonder and mystery. For McGilchrist the universe is a constantly evolving symphony; a gradual unfolding of an epic story.We urgently need to attune our ears to this music; to re-enchant the world and ourselves, and to confound those who say that there is only noise. No one else could have written this book. McGilchrists range is as vast as the subject; which is everything. He is impeccably rigorous, fearlessly honest, and compellingly readable. Put everything else aside. Read this now to know what sort of creature you are and what sort of place you inhabit. Professor Charles Foster, Oxford University, author of Being a Human and Being a Beast. The Matter with Things is a work of remarkable inspiration and erudition, written with the soul and subtlety of a poet, the precision of a philosopher, and the no nonsense grounding of a true scientist. In its pages, neuropsychology comes into conversation with philosophy, physics with poetry. Its author shows not just how our divided mind and brain makes us human, but how this gives us the potential both to understand and to misunderstand the world. Iain McGilchrists book considers both great sources of awe and admiration: the starry heavens above as well as the mental life within. The author first offers intertwined analyses of brain function, cognition, and the structure of knowledge.Then he climbs his three-fold cord to a place from which one can survey the ultimate mysteries-the relationship of mind to matter, the concept of life, the contested role of purpose in the universe, and the nature of the sacred. McGilchrist is the most generous and talented of writers: his fluid account, brilliantly and beautifully argued-and meticulously researched-brings us along with him, step by step, until we too can discern the horizons of a reconfigured world.McGilchrists appreciation of ambiguity and paradox only enhances the clarity and vitality of his thought. This is a book of surpassing, even world-historical ambition, and-still more rare-one that delivers on its promise.Louis Sass, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University; author of Madness and Modernism and of The Paradoxes of DelusionA magnificent achievement. The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrists earlier tour de force, ranks as a game-changer. It doesnt so much undermine common understandings of rationality as reframe them. The Matter with Things builds on that foundation, confirming the authors status as a leading contemporary polymath.With rarely matched clarity as well as deep learning, McGilchrist demonstrates not just that there is more to the world than matter, but also that there is more to matter itself than grasped by the shallow materialisms of our age.;Rupert Shortt, Von Hugel Institute, University of Cambridge; and author of Outgrowing Dawkins: God for Grown-Ups If we draw only on the left side of the brain, our culture paints a narrow picture composed via the hyper-specialism which bedevils contemporary intellectual life. In this sorry state, we badly need that now-almost-vanishingly rare personage, the true polymath. In Iain McGilchrist, in the nick of time, we have one.In this book, he draws quite magnificently on his post-disciplinary erudition precisely to explain how very much we lose when we draw only on the left hemisphere. If you want to understand why curiosity is in vogue but wonder is not; or why we aim directly at happiness and in doing so ineluctably become less happy; or why we like to talk about the environment while Nature, upon which we utterly depend, we quietly desecrate; if you yearn to comprehend and question the rise of a desperate clinging to identity within both the Left and the Right of politics; or if the way our civilisation tends to model human beings as machines disturbs or hurts you, then please read this book; for it sheds a profound light on these and so many other literally vital questions. If it were widely heeded, then perhaps, even at this late hour, our civilisations merry march to a slow and brutal suicide might be halted. For this book is that most valuable of possible books: The Matter With Things is nothing less than a work of genius, diagnosing our dire predicament in full, and offering a way, instead.Rupert Read, Professor of Philosophy, University of East Anglia; author of Wittgensteins Liberatory Philosophy, This Civilisation is Finished and Parents for a Future. Details ISBN1914568060 Pages 1500 Publisher Perspectiva Year 2021 ISBN-10 1914568060 ISBN-13 9781914568060 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2021-11-09 UK Release Date 2021-11-09 Imprint Perspectiva Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom AU Release Date 2021-11-09 NZ Release Date 2021-11-09 Subtitle Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World Author Iain McGilchrist DEWEY 111 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! 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