All things are full of gods : the mysteries of mind and life / David Bentley Hart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hart, David Bentley, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consciousness.

Mind and body.

Life.

Genre:

dialogues.

Dialogues (Literature)

Physical Description:

xii, 511 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2024]

Biography/History:

David Bentley Hart is a philosopher, scholar of religion, writer, and cultural commentator. His books include The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss and Roland in Moonlight. His current position is collaborative researcher at the University of Notre Dame.

Summary:

"In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, 'Do you see this flower, my love?' So begins David Bentley Hart’s unprecedented exploration of the mystery of consciousness. Writing in the form of a Platonic dialogue, he systematically subjects the mechanical view of nature that has prevailed in Western culture for four centuries to dialectical interrogation. Powerfully rehabilitating a classical view in which mental acts are irreducible to material causes, he argues through the gods’ exchanges that the foundation of all reality is spiritual or mental rather than material. The structures of mind, organic life, and even language together attest to an infinite act of intelligence in all things that we may as well call God. Engaging contemporary debates on the philosophy of mind, free will, revolutions in physics and biology, the history of science, computational models of mind, artificial intelligence, information theory, linguistics, cultural disenchantment, and the metaphysics of nature, Hart calls readers back to an enchanted world in which nature is the residence of mysterious and vital intelligences. He suggests that there is a very special wisdom to be gained when we, in Psyche’s words, 'devote more time to the contemplation of living things and less to the fabrication of machines.'" -- Publisher's description.

Contents:

Introduction: on a divine colloquy

Characters and setting of the dialogue

Day one: mind, life and pictures of reality. The irreducinle

Physicalism, dualism, form

Fallacies of method

Terms

The rise of mechanism

The organic, the mechanistic, and the erotic

Day two: mind and matter. Qualitative consciousness

Subjectivity and unity of apprehension

Intentionality and ecstasy

Language

Concepts and reasons

Free will and purpose

The irreducible

Day three: brain and mind. Emergence and form

Identity and eliminativism

Behaviorism and epiphenomenalism

Supervenience

Psychological plurality and mental unity

Function and knowledge

The turtle principle

Day four: machine and soul. Language, thought, and code

Functionalism, computationalism

Panpsychism

Integration and neutral monism

The witness

Day five: soul and nature. The semantics of life

Spirit in nature

Mind in nature

Information and form

Metabolism and mind

Homeostasis and intentionality

Creative evolution

Language, code, and life

Day six: nature and supernature. Love and knowledge

Desire for the absolute

Mind's transcendent horizon

Ātman is Brahman

Coda: the age of the machine. Common sense and mystery

Mechanism and nihilism

The voice of echo.

Day one: mind, life and pictures of reality. The irreducible

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0300254725

9780300254723

OCLC:

1428036092

Publisher Number:

90100341287