I just finished this book. It took me about a month to go through it and critique it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please do not be mistaken. The book has flaws and I disagree with much of what it claims, but it is simply brilliant. I do a lot of reading in philosophy and this is a truly remarkable book. IMO, only two thinkers in the last 200 years are comparable to Iain, I think Iain is superior to both.
The first is Hegel who wrote the early 1800's. Hegel wrote two major works (The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Science of Logic). While I detest Hegel, he is clearly the most influential thinker in our present culture. Marx is derived from Hegel as are the Post-Moderns and all forms of Critical Theory (Marcuse, Black Lives Matters, Critical Race Theory, et.al.). Iain, by the way, loves Hegel (it is one of the points I think he got wrong!). This book is divided into two Parts. Part 1 sets out the structure of Iain's thought, just as the Science of Logic sets out Hegel's. And, Iain's Part 1 is much easier to read than Hegel's Science of Logic. Iain's Part 2 applies his thought to history; he uses his thought to explain the development of human thought in the West from the ancient Greeks to Post-Modernism. Hegel did the same with his Phenomenology (of course, Hegel stopped his historical analysis much earlier). Once again Iain is much easier to read than Hegel. And, his work, IMO, is superior to Hegel both in content and in presentation. Not only is Iain much easier to read, he presents his thought in the proper order - structure first and then the application of the structure to history. Hegel did it backwards - he applied his structure to history first in the Phenomenology and then explained his structure in his Logic.
The second thinker is Charles Darwin. Darwin build an intellectual structure which introduced a new concept into Science. This concept is called "natural selection", which asserts that species are changed as they adapt to different environments. This makes logical sense (after all, as Darwin pointed out, mankind is modifying species all the time - inventing new breeds of dogs and new types of flowers). At this level, Darwin's theory applies only to intra-species adaption, is falsifiable (which Karl Popper correctly IMO established as the hallmark for scientific theories), and was a huge scientific advance. Darwin then conflated his innovative and brilliant scientific theory of intra-species adaption into the "mythos" we know as "Darwinian Creationism". Darwinian Creationism is totally distinct from his intra-species natural selection theory. In traditional philosophical terms, Darwinian intra-species adaption is a "logos" and Dawinian Creationism is a "mythos" Darwinian Creationism claims to explain how all carbon based life on this planet came into existence. It is not falsifiable in the scientific sense (though many (erroneously IMO) claim it is). And it has been severely criticized. A excellent example is Thomas Nagel, who both is an atheist and holds PhD in Philosophy and is the head of the NYU philosophy department who asserts (once again correctly IMO) that Darwinian Creationism (the mythos), not Darwinian intra-species natural selection (the logos) simply cannot be true. But, whatever one thinks of Darwin, he is one of the few thinkers outside of Aristotle, who actually created two distinct and complementary systems of thought that have both been extraordinarily influential.
Like Darwin, Iain has built a scientific theory (based on cognitive science) which explains how the operation of human cognition as a relationship between the two brain hemispheres. This is very much a "logos", just like Darwin created. Just like Darwin, Iain has taken his "logos" and created another far more extensive intellectual structure - one which explains and evaluates how this dual hemispheric structure has impacted human history starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with the post-moderns. This is not a "mythos". It is rather a comprehensive philosophical evaluation "model" - a way of evaluating certain historical periods and systems of thought. For example, Iain evaluates Descartes as compared to Heidegger. Comprehensive evaluation "models" are very rare in the history of human thought. For example, the last comprehensive philosophical evaluation "models" prior to Iain were proposed by David Hume in the early 1700's followed by Hegel in the early 1800's.
Finally, Iain is the first true successor to the great Scottish thinker Thomas Reid (1710 -1796). Reid work was incredibly influential in Great Britain (from about 1750 to about 1820) and in America (from about 1760 to about 1900). In fact, Reid was extremely influential in the founding of America. Robert Curry has recently written two books on the subject. For a variety of reasons, Thomas Reid simply disappeared from the world for thought for nearly a century, but is now being "rediscovered". For example, Nicholas Wolterstorff (a philosophy professor at Yale) has written and excellent book on Reid, comparing his work to that of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Part of the reason Reid "disappeared" is that he had no worthy successor, until Iain. In fact, Reid was one of the first post-Newtonian cognitive scientists. His contemporary cognitive scientist, who had a drastically different take on the subject, is the better know Scotsman David Hume. Iain does cognitive science in the style of Reid and provides the first positive advancement on that discipline in line with the approach of Thomas Reid and based on the same metaphysical point of view. It was quite exciting for me to encounter it. I can hardly wait to read Iain's second work released in 2021.
Finally, if you have read or been impressed by the New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et. al.), this book is a must read. Just as Thomas Reid wrote to counter David Hume (and did so with incredible success in Great Britain and the United States), Iain writes to counter the New Atheists (particularly Dawkins). In fact, the relationship between Iain's work that of Richard Dawkins bears a striking resemblance to the relationship between Thomas Reid's work and that of David Hume. Just as Thomas Reid was a theistic counter (based on science) to Hume atheism, Iain is a theistic counter (based on science) to Dawkins' atheism.
Although flawed, it is a remarkable accomplishment and I highly recommend it.
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Critical thinker-feeler!
I just purchased the kindle and have watched many of the author's videos on YT. First, I want to call out some of the reviewers that I see below. McGilchrist is an extraordinary humanitarian, philosopher, scientist and healer. Of course, he is a doctor, but here, by healer I mean in the more spiritual broad sense as in Jesus or Quan Yin. He can heal society by bringing forth critical discoveries that will prevent social epidemics brought about by ignorance and corruption. Second, his writing is very clear and so far easy to follow. I have no problem with constructive criticism, but to outright insult someone who has put this much time, energy, thought, emotion, empathy, patience, skill and soul into a brilliant body of work is, frankly, UTTER CRAP on the part of the reviewer. Dr. McGilchrist need not pay any heed to this crap. I'm enjoying this book on many levels: for research for my own book (a holistic approach to economy), as an intellectually curious sort, and as a regular human being who strives to heal herself, loved ones, community and world. The world is simply blessed to have been gifted such a powerful healer. Thank you Doc for this great great gift.***updated after further contemplation --adding ten more stars and a personal reflection!Regarding McGilchrist’s Master and his Emissary: While it indeed appears that McGilchrist is, overall, correct in his assessment of right brain left brain dynamics as they pertain to the psychology and behavior of both individuals and the collective, my intuition and experience caution me—as I believe McGilchrist would also advise and does point to throughout his brilliant work— to avoid overgeneralizing the idea that “the medium is (necessarily) the message.” Every action a person chooses to execute is motivated by a personal intention, or motivation, attended to in a particular fashion as learned or innovated, and retained in the memory as a potential “habitual” course of action for future similar circumstances. While the artist may be working in right brain spacial mediums such as sculpting or painting, the left brain may be in the drivers seat, motivated by a need for “certainty” to create a piece of artwork that reflects not what truly is, but what he instead wants to represent—his left brained reductionistic ideal world view of what should be. More tragically, a priest may entrance his practitioners with “right brain unifying rituals,” but himself be motivated by a left brain targeted quest for monetary donations and prestige building. It is, then, wise to recognize that each stage of the intention-attention-retention progression of “thinking and doing” can be left-, right-, or whole- brain driven and dominated. Here, we may have to travel below the brain down into the lower regions of the body and assess how—both right and left brain hemispheres—separately or in cahoots—use images, words, rituals, art, music, and other devices to harness the purely bodily sensations into a transfiguration, or mystification, of their ideas and sentiments to their own ends. Here, we arrive at Wilhelm Reich’s wisdom who illustrated just that. If the right brain hemisphere is the Master of its left brain emissary—perhaps it is the body below the brain that should resume its rightful position of the Master of the Master of the Emissary. Plato may have set into motion a left brained dominated world view, but even he encouraged his beloved gymnastics, as the modern Californian, his yoga!
Top reviews from other countries
Søren
Absolute Masterpiece. Arguably the most important literary work of the 21st Century.
Reviewed in Canada on May 22, 2021
Nithin
Dense, dry and tedious. but very clear
Reviewed in India on October 13, 2020