We hope you are keeping well. Below you will find links to a review of The Matter with Things by Jonathan Gaisman in the Spectator you may have missed, an article by Tom Morgan recently added to Free Articles, and a short video of interest with Russell Brand. We are also in the process of making some changes to the website and look forward to sharing these with you soon.
Know your left from your right: the brain’s divided hemispheres
Article by Jonathan Gaisman for The Spectator
The dust jacket of The Matter With Things quotes a large statement from an Oxford professor: ‘This is one of the most important books ever published. And, yes, I do mean ever.’ Can any contemporary work withstand such praise? The ‘intelligent general reader’ (the book’s target audience) should, however, not be discouraged, for Iain McGilchrist has to be taken seriously: a Fellow of All Souls, eminent in neurology, psychiatry and literary criticism, a thinker and — it’s impossible to avoid the term —a sage. His previous book, The Master and His Emissary, was admired by public figures from Rowan Williams to Philip Pullman. Some consider McGilchrist the most important non-fiction writer of our time.
Such enthusiasm is unusual for the narrow subject of our divided brains. But the neglected science of hemisphere difference, returned to centre stage by McGilchrist, provides the key to larger issues. Moreover, the earlier work, substantial as it is, seems to have been a preparation for The Matter With Things, whose two handsomely produced volumes contain the entire corpus of McGilchrist’s thought. Initially unreviewed, and undeniably long and expensive, its first print run nonetheless sold out quickly, and readers reported becoming completely immersed. It is now once more available.
Western civilisation is in a predicament exemplified by alienation, environmental despoliation, the atrophy of value, the sterility of contemporary art, the increasing prevalence of rectilinear, bureaucratised thinking and the triumph of procedure over substance. The lesser aim of The Matter With Things is to identify the common basis of those conditions, and to understand and perhaps improve them. But its greater purpose is to enable us to know the world we inhabit.
New Article – Insights from The Matter with Things
By Tom Morgan
Why is this worth your time? Regular readers will be aware that I think Dr. Iain McGilchrist is one of the most consequential minds of our times. Last month he published a monster 1,400 page book, The Matter With Things. It’s his masterpiece, and an attempt to comprehensively expand on a thesis that has changed my life. I had the privilege of interviewing him last week.
As my notes alone are over sixty pages long, distilling this book down to any summary you’d have the patience to read is an exercise in futility. Instead I will explain what it means to me and why I think it’s so important. Reading it was like scaling a mountain; a worthy challenge rewarded with a stunning view from the top. I can’t show you the view, but I can tell you what I saw, and recommend you make the climb yourself.
This recent Rebel Wisdom interview is a great introduction to the book’s thesis and will probably be a good barometer of whether you’ll enjoy it. It has already tipped two people I love into finally understanding why I think his work is so revelatory.
The three parts of the book: The first part of the book discusses an imbalance between the hemispheres of our brain that he thinks has had a catastrophic impact on our lives and civilization. The second part discusses how we come to know anything at all about the world. It’s no exaggeration to say that it includes almost every idea about “thinking” that I’ve ever found meaningful, and several more. The third part is a much broader discussion about what we can know about anything. The book starts in the relatively dry foothills of neurology and ends in the cosmos. Hence this last part is virtually impossible to do any justice to in a space this small.
Next Live Q&A with Iain for Members scheduled for Thursday 5th May 6.00-7.30pm UK time.
If you missed the Pari Center event on The Brain and Our Encounter with the World, this has also recently been released in the member’s area. To find out about becoming a member click here.
Archived List for The Matter with Things
You can now find the archived list of links referred to in The Matter with Things here.
These are all the internet material referred to in the books.
Video of interest
Russell Brand on why do we all perceive reality differently?
‘When I had author, psychiatrist and former Oxford literary scholar, Iain McGilchrist, on Under The Skin, we discussed our perceptions of reality and how our approach to the world is what truly matters. Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
If you want to listen to the full conversation, you can here on Luminary: luminary.link/russell. Episode 198.’ Below is a clip:
Thank you for reading,
The Team at Channel McGilchrist
