“... the left hemisphere is dependent on denotative language and abstraction; yields clarity & power to manipulate things that are known, fixed, static, isolated, decontextualized, explicit, general in nature, but ultimately lifeless.
The right hemisphere by contrast, yields a world of individual, changing, evolving, interconnected, implicit, incarnate, living beings, within the context of the lived world, but in the nature of things never fully graspable, never perfectly known. And this world exists in a certain relationship.
The knowledge mediated by the left hemisphere is however within a closed system. It has the advantage of perfection, but the perfection is bought ultimately at the price of emptiness.
There’s a problem here about the nature of the two worlds. It offers two versions of the world and obviously we combine them in different ways all the time.
We need to rely on certain things to manipulate the world. But for a broad understanding of it, we need to use knowledge that comes from the right hemisphere."
Iain McGilchrist. “The Divided Brain.” TEDtalk RSA Animate: https://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain
“So for humans the need to have both ways of understanding the world, and yet keeping them apart, is paramount. And it turns out that in humans the corpus callosum, the band of tissue that connects the hemispheres, while it does both connect and inhibit, is more involved with the process of inhibition, with keeping things separate.
What is the left-hemisphere expansion in apes for, then? It has to do with their capacity to form concepts, in order to better manipulate the world. And so it is in humans, where it is also related to our capacity for language and, literally, to manipulation with the right hand.
And the bump at the front on the right in humans and in some apes, is associated with a whole array of 'functions' that distinguish us from other animals and relate to our capacity for empathy: in intimate connection with the right hemisphere as a whole, it plays a significant part in imagination, creativity, the capacity for religious awe, music, dance, poetry, art, love of nature, a moral sense, a sense of humour and the ability to change our minds. The ways in which hemisphere differences affect what each hemisphere ‘does’ are profound.
Unfortunately, though the hemispheres need to cooperate, they find themselves in competition, simply because the left hemisphere’s take on things is such that it thinks it knows it all, while it cannot be aware of what the right hemisphere knows. Each needs the other, but the left hemisphere is more dependent on the right than the right is on the left. [Obvious when comparing the effects of left- vs right-hemisphere-function loss from strokes etc] Yet the left hemisphere thinks exactly the opposite and believes it can ‘go it alone.’ I believe the battle between the hemispheres (which is only a battle from the left hemisphere’s point of view) explains the shape of the history of ideas in the West and explains the predicament we find ourselves in today.”
Iain McGilchrist. “Ways of Attending. How our Divided Brain Constructs the World.” Routledge, 2019. I highly recommend this 32 page summary for those who understandably find themselves reticent about tackling the full 588 page feast of facts.
“Albert Einstein called the intuitive or metaphoric mind (right hemisphere) a sacred gift. He added that the rational mind (left hemisphere) was a faithful servant. It is paradoxical that in the context of modern life we have begun to worship the servant and defile the divine.” Bob Samples
"In this culture, we have science and technology as religion. We no longer have a religious or philosophical basis for making choices regarding the evolution of technology. All those decisions are made in the corporate world. But there are other societies where taboos, the very concept of taboo, still exist. Taboo is probably the only concept that is taboo in this society. But in traditional societies they have had centuries-long discussions about whether to plant or whether to continue being nomads or whether a certain kind of agricultural relationship is a good idea or not. Taboo constitutes a philosophical framework...
... We seem to have it backward. In the absence of the sacred, anything goes, because we’re completely spun off, unrooted, with no sense of consequences, no family, no community, no nothing... These technologies do act as drugs. They are what society offers to make up for what has been lost. In return for family, community, a relationship to a larger, deeper vision, society offers television, drugs, food, noise, high speed, and unconsciousness. Not only are those the things that are available, but those are the things that keep you from knowing that there’s anything else available. It’s easy to see why people go for those things and why they become addicted to them, because each one offers some element of satisfaction. . . . Now if you’re asking how we might change that pattern, I can only say that you have to create alternative visions; you have to get people to experience what they’ve lost.
... I have to reject the idea that selfishness is instinctive. It’s come to be understood that selfishness is part of human nature, but I think that’s in the context of the lives that we have now. We are so isolated that we tend to act only in our own self interest.
... The fantasies of utopian existence promoted by proponents of the technological, industrial mode of life for the last one hundred years are now demonstrably false. That’s not what we got. What we got was alienation, disorientation, destruction of the planet, destruction of natural systems, destruction of diversity, homogenization of cultures and regions, crime, homelessness, disease, environmental breakdown, and tremendous inequality. We have a mess on our hands. This system has not lived up to its advertising; in developing a strategy for telling people what to do next, we first have to make that point. Life really is better when you get off the technological/industrial wheel and conceive of some other way. It makes people happier. It may not make them more money, but getting more money hasn’t worked out. Filling life with commodities doesn’t turn out to be satisfying, and most people know that."
Jerry Mander, author of: "In the Absence of the Sacred" interviewed by Catherine Ingram https://ratical.org/ratville/AoS/theSun.html
