divided brain

But there are still other paths to the abandonment of truth – darker than those we have discussed. In a world dominated by left hemisphere modes of being, two important developments could be predicted to proliferate: administrative control – evident in the decline of every civilisation – and machine learning. Both depend on algorithmic paths that a... See more

Further, the right hemisphere’s understanding of knowledge and belief is experiential, not a simple matter of information in the abstract or acquiescing in dogma. It helps us see that ‘belief’ – the root of the word is ‘love’ – is a matter of dis positions, not pro positions, and of unconcealing, not correctness. The word ‘truth’ is cognate with ‘t... See more

It sees that our understanding has to be participatory , and that the soul and body are not opposed but discernibly different aspects of one reality. It is better at holding together apparently conflicting positions – whereas according to the left hemisphere, nothing can be separate and connected, precisely measurable and intrinsically imprecise, i... See more

Where the left hemisphere sees things in isolation, the right hemisphere sees processes that are relational. Indeed its disposition towards the world helps us see that relations are, as I argue, prior to relata . It sees relations in which both parties are inevitably changed. It is alert to what I call ‘betweenness’, the importance of context, exem... See more

The left hemisphere world is characterised by what is familiar and fully expressible in language; the right hemisphere is more open to and attentive towards whatever is ‘other’, and can be only indirectly expressed. The left hemisphere is less capable of Keats’s ‘negative capability’ – ‘being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritab... See more

Because the left hemisphere is concerned with power, its narrative is always about power. You will notice this all around you nowadays.

Kirk Susong

1 year ago

Even on Unherd there is a herd and I am always concerned when I find myself outside of it... but unlike most of the comments here, I actually did not find this to be an enlightening or insightful interview.

On the contrary, Dr. McGilchrist’s comments seem to me to be too vague and abstracted to mean much, irrefutable in their ... See more