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The Idea of the World

A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality

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The Idea of the World

By: Bernardo Kastrup
Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
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About this listen

A rigorous case for the primacy of mind in nature, from philosophy to neuroscience, psychology, and physics.

The Idea of the World offers a grounded alternative to the frenzy of unrestrained abstractions and unexamined assumptions in philosophy and science today. This book examines what can be learned about the nature of reality based on conceptual parsimony, straightforward logic, and empirical evidence from fields as diverse as physics and neuroscience. It compiles an overarching case for idealism - the notion that reality is essentially mental - from 10 original articles the author has previously published in leading academic journals.

The case begins with an exposition of the logical fallacies and internal contradictions of the reigning physicalist ontology and its popular alternatives, such as bottom-up panpsychism. It then advances a compelling formulation of idealism that elegantly makes sense of - and reconciles - classical and quantum worlds. The main objections to idealism are systematically refuted and empirical evidence is reviewed that corroborates the formulation presented here. The book closes with an analysis of the hidden psychological motivations behind mainstream physicalism and the implications of idealism for the way we relate to the world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 Bernardo Kastrup; foreword copyright 2017 by Menas C. Kafatos; afterword copyright 2017 by Edward F. Kelly (P)2019 Tantor
Metaphysics Physics Psychology
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Brilliant content, difficult narration (Audible)

The content of the book is brilliant, but the narration on Audible feels very mechanical, almost as if it was read by AI.

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Irritating voice-over

The narrator clearly has little cue of what he is reading about. He is adopting a tone of voice which might be appropriate for some crime story. I doubt that Bernardo Kastrup had any say in the selection of this narrator. I wrote off the book as I could not concentrate on the meaning of the text.

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Stunning!

I am stunned by this book. I thought I’d see through it as an elaborate joke or just nonsense but as I stuck with it, everything made sense.

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness simply cannot be solved with the current scientific paradigm. Physical matter (brains) cannot give rise a conscious self. There’s no colour, sound, pain etc ‘out there’ beyond perception. The only reality is perception, the electrical and chemical messages sent to the brain to construct reality. And then there’s the quantum physicists who delve deeper and deeper into ‘physical reality’ and find that matter simply disappears into waves of probability that only become ‘real’ when observed, when a perceiving subject is aware of it.

I’ve never felt at home with atheism nor any kind of religion and yet there were niggling insights and experiences that I tried to dismiss. After finishing this book, I see that these insights were pointing towards Idealism. Reality is consciousness, not matter and we are that reality with all its profound implications.

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A rewarding struggle to read

Coming from a different field and language, reading this book with the intention of understanding everything leads to many interruptions looking up the meaning of words, that can escalate to a recursive dive into wikipedia articles and youtube videos. I find a better strategy is to just listen and pick up what you can understand, only looking up words that come up often (like parsimonious and ontological). In fact, I've come to think parsimonious is this author's favorite word.

If you really want to understand every word and metaphisics isn't your field, I recommend (also) reading the e-book. Unfortunately, whisper-sync doesn't seem available at this time. However, the point of an audiobook is often that one wants to combine reading with undemanding activities like driving or walking the dog. So for this purpose, and for keeping your sanity, I recommend listening more superficially the first time you listen.

The author chose to make this book as resistant to unfounded criticism as possible, at the cost of readability. This choice seems defendable, given the controversial status of idealism. It also conveys the feeling this author may have, that he is trying to show the world an obvious fact, that not many care to hear, and that is rebutted without proper argument.

The content of the book is convincing for me. I have been a physicalist and this book converted me into believing idealism is a better view than physicalism for all intents and purposes. Which isn't the same thing as believing idealism is the 'truth', although that statement could lead to semantic and philosophical discussions about truth. I believe adopting idealism, for those with the cognitive ability to grasp it, leads to better progress in my own field (psychiatry) than physicalism.

I find the narrator's voice somewhat haughty, but nothing too distracting.

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A fascinating subject ruined by narrator.

I love Bernardo; I appreciate his philosophy and perspective but the narrator here sucked the joy and interest out of this book with a monotonous and robotic reading.

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