Person
Iain McGilchrist's book recommendations
Iain McGilchrist is a British psychiatrist, philosopher and neuroscientist who wrote the 2009 book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Across multiple podcast discussions, Iain McGilchrist explored his own written works alongside other academic texts. On The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, he recommended Interdependence by Kriti Sharma, a book by a young microbiologist arguing that organisms actively co-create their environments rather than merely adapting to them. McGilchrist frequently reflected on his own publications, including The Master and His Emissary, using it to explain foundational concepts of how brain hemisphere attention creates distinct experiential worlds and to discuss the origin of shorter, more accessible follow-up projects. He also discussed the themes and meaning behind the title of his later book, The Matter with Things, describing it as a critique of modern thinking and society's obsession with viewing the world strictly as material objects. During the same podcast series, McGilchrist critically addressed Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, specifically examining a passage where Kahneman made claims regarding the consistency of physicians' diagnoses.
Books recommended by Iain McGilchrist
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The master and his emissary
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist is a work of neuropsychology and philosophy that explores how the brain's two hemispheres perceive the world differently and how those differences have shaped human history and culture.
Discussed“People say, 'This is a great book, The Master and His Emissary, but you need to write something about half the length that will be more accessible.' And so, I got a contract with Penguin Random House to do that.”
Where to get it
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The Matter With Things
The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist is a sweeping philosophical and neurological inquiry into how the two hemispheres of the brain shape human perception, culture, and our modern obsession with material reductionism.
Discussed“and indeed if i may say so the book that i hope will come out fairly soon called the matter with things which is a pun on several levels because i think it's a critique not only of the way we think now but of our obsession with thinking of the world as composed of things and that only matter”
Where to get it
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Interdependence
Interdependence is a book by Kriti Sharma that explores ecological and biological relationships through the lens of a young microbiologist.
Recommended“it's like i've read a very good book i keep mentioning it by a young microbiologist in america called kritishama called interdependence and she argues very importantly that it's not just that um certainly it's not just that an animal or an organism molds its environment”
Where to get it
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is a seminal exploration of behavioral psychology that examines the two systems of the human mind—intuitive thinking and deliberate reasoning—and how cognitive biases drive systematic errors in judgment.
Critiqued“because interestingly in uh thinking fast thinking slow there's a passage where dan kahneman says some things that struck me as very odd”
Where to get it
Books by Iain McGilchrist
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The master and his emissary
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Ways of Attending
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The Matter With Things
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Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning
Appearances
Other mentions (7: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And in the third part of The Matter With Things, can I talk about the structure of The Matter With Things? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So, this was the book that came out in November '21, my latest work, and I'm sure my last long book.”
“yes i i would like to be able to talk to you a bit about my new book uh the matter with things which i think you have had a chance to look at but it's quite long and i know you're a very busy man so it will be good for both of us to be able to just”
“So, it's it's it's on that sort of a scale, I'm afraid, which is why the second book that I've just published, The Matter With Things, is is, as you know, a rather long book.”
“Um, and in my earlier book, um, The Master and His Emissary, which came out in 2009, so um, 12 and 1/2 years ago now.”
“And what I do in in The Matter With Things is to discuss how we can use this information to help us decide what the reality is.”
“And um in the preface to the new edition of The Master and His Emissary, I point to about six ways.”
“And you mentioned the moral law and one of the things I I think is terribly important and towards the end of this latest latest book, The Matter With Things, emphasized is that one way of thinking about what we're getting wrong is that we've completely inverted the pyramid of values.”