Planet: Critical

chevron_right

Beyond Paradox | Iain McGilchrist

whatshot 47 snips

Sep 11, 2025

Guest

Iain McGilchrist

Iain McGilchrist, a neuro-philosopher and psychiatrist known for his works on brain hemispheres, dives into the cultural capture by the left hemisphere. He explores how this dominance clouds our intuition and creativity, leading to troubling societal conclusions. The conversation traverses the importance of language in shaping reality, the nuances of morality, and our disconnection from nature and spirituality. Iain advocates for integrating both hemispheric perspectives to reclaim a path toward human fulfillment and tackle existential crises.

01:21:46

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

insights

INSIGHT

Culture Skewed Toward Left-Hemisphere Values

Western culture is dominated by a left-hemisphere mode that values acquisition, technical certainty, and atomization.
This skew disconnects us from relational, imaginative, and sacred aspects that sustain human flourishing.

insights

INSIGHT

Language As Schemas Versus Embodied Meaning

Language functions differently across hemispheres: left treats words as schemata, right links language to embodied experience.
Poetry and metaphor reveal meaning via implicit relations the left hemisphere often strips away.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

How Analysis Can Kill A Poem

McGilchrist recalls teaching poetry and seeing analysis destroy the embodied power of the poem.
He noticed prose translation makes poems banal by stripping their implicit, bodily meaning.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Bridging the Divide: Nature, Community, and the Quest for Spirituality

04:25 • 8min

chevron_right

The Duality of Language and Morality

11:59 • 28min

chevron_right

Exploring Anarchy and Morality

40:26 • 9min

chevron_right

The Cosmic Nature of Beauty

49:17 • 5min

chevron_right

Interconnectedness: Unraveling Relationships and Identity

54:35 • 25min

chevron_right

Exploring the Depths of Understanding through Diverse Perspectives

01:19:14 • 2min

chevron_right

#121

• Mentioned in 107 episodes

Tao te ching

Laozi

The Tao Te Ching is a central text in Taoist philosophy and religion. It consists of 81 brief chapters or sections that discuss the nature of the Tao, which is described as the source and ideal of all existence. The text emphasizes living in harmony with nature, the importance of simplicity, humility, and the interconnectedness of all things. It critiques unnatural actions and social activism based on abstract moralism, advocating for a life of 'nonaction' (wu wei) and spontaneity. The text has been highly influential in Chinese philosophy and has been translated numerous times, making it one of the most translated texts in world literature.

#10229

• Mentioned in 3 episodes

Against Self-Criticism

Adam Phillips

In 'Against Self-Criticism', Adam Phillips delves into the concept of self-criticism, highlighting its origins in the superego and its role in shaping our self-perception. Phillips argues that self-criticism is a relentless and often cruel process that stems from ambivalence towards ourselves, involving opposing feelings that coexist simultaneously. He critiques the idea that self-criticism is essential for self-improvement, suggesting instead that it can be a form of self-hatred and a source of suffering. Phillips draws on the works of Freud, Lacan, and other psychoanalytic thinkers to illustrate how self-criticism obscures self-knowledge and perpetuates a cycle of guilt and self-reproach. He advocates for understanding and befriending our conscience rather than trying to eliminate it, promoting a more nuanced and multifaceted self-understanding.

#5152

• Mentioned in 6 episodes

I Ching

James Legge

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese divination text that dates back to the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC). It evolved over time to include philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings. The book is used for divination through the manipulation of yarrow stalks or coins to produce hexagrams, each with its own interpretation. James Legge's translation, part of the Sacred Books of the East series, provides a comprehensive and detailed interpretation of the text, including its historical and philosophical significance. The I Ching has been influential in East Asian philosophical thought and has been studied for centuries for its insights into moral decision-making and the processes of change.

#17599

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Being a Beast

Charles Foster

#375

• Mentioned in 50 episodes

The Matter with Things

Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World

Iain Mcgilchrist

In 'The Matter with Things', Iain McGilchrist delves into the neuroscience, epistemology, and metaphysics of the brain's hemispheres and their impact on human perception and understanding. The book is divided into two volumes: 'The Ways to Truth' and 'What Then is True? '. McGilchrist argues that the left hemisphere's dominance has led to a skewed perception of the world, neglecting the vital role of the right hemisphere in integrating science, reason, intuition, and imagination. He explores topics such as attention, perception, judgement, and the nature of reality, including concepts like time, space, consciousness, and the sacred. The book is a call to re-enchant the world and ourselves by recognizing the deeper, more holistic understanding provided by the right hemisphere.

#7943

• Mentioned in 4 episodes

The Singing Neanderthals

null

Stephen Meithan

#105

• Mentioned in 116 episodes

The master and his emissary

The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Iain McGilchrist

This book argues that the division of the brain into two hemispheres is essential to human existence, allowing for two incompatible versions of the world. The left hemisphere is detail-oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, while the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. McGilchrist takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from ancient to modern times. He argues that the increasing dominance of the left hemisphere in today’s world has potentially disastrous consequences.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

— Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2

The two hemispheres of our brain collaborate to produce a coherent understanding of the world—at least, that’s what they’re supposed to do. In his groundbreaking book, The Master and His Emissary, neuro-philosopher and psychiatrist, Iain McGilchrist, proposed that our culture has been captured by the left hemisphere, whose dogmatic, technical and irrational way of processing information leads it to manifestly dangerous conclusions about the way the world works. Importantly, the left hemisphere never changes its mind.

In one of the widest-ranging conversations on Planet: Critical to date, Iain explains how we came to lose sight of the bigger picture by forsaking the intuition, creativity and intelligence of the right hemisphere. We discuss how our relationship to language makes and unmakes the world, the search for meaning, human agency, relationality, morality, art and the divine, with Iain clearly spelling out a path to human fulfilment—which may very well be the only thing which can save Earth from the worst of us.

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. Join subscribers from 186 countries to support independent journalism.

Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

Home Top podcasts Popular guests Top books