All Things Are Full Of Gods by David Bentley Hart. A summary and discussion
Oct 6, 2024
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Explore David Bentley Hart's thought-provoking critique of materialism and its impact on consciousness. Discover the connection between beauty and intentionality, and how they shape our perceptions of existence. Delve into the role of higher intelligence in the emergence of mind and language. Uncover the transformative dialogue between nature and humanity, urging a shift towards recognizing our spiritual essence. This discussion invites listeners to rethink their understanding of reality and the divine interplay that surrounds us.
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Quick takeaways
The podcast emphasizes the intertwined nature of consciousness, language, and life, challenging materialist views that dismiss their intrinsic significance.
A paradigm shift may reclaim the value of consciousness, revealing its spiritual dimensions and encouraging deeper engagement with reality beyond nihilism.
Deep dives
The Interconnectedness of Mind, Life, and Language
The argument presented in the book emphasizes the deep connection between consciousness, language, and life itself, suggesting they are all intertwined and a result of a downward causation that guides their evolution. The idea is that consciousness cannot emerge from mere matter, as materialism proposes, because there is nothing inherently mind-like within matter itself. Through philosophical reflection, it is illustrated that consciousness is essential for creating coherent representations of reality, distinguishing genuine consciousness from mere data collection, as seen in the example of a camera that cannot see. The exploration suggests that acknowledging this relationship may shift the contemporary understanding of consciousness away from mere functionalism toward recognizing its intrinsic value and purpose in the world.
Critique of Materialist Explanations
The book thoroughly critiques materialist and naturalist explanations of consciousness, arguing that they ultimately diminish the value of consciousness by attempting to explain it away. For instance, David Bentley Hart highlights how the concept of strong emergence fails to adequately account for the complexities of mind, as it suggests that mind emerges from matter without acknowledging the intentionality and design behind its existence. The examination extends to functionalism, pointing out that it cannot bridge the gap between mere behavior and the richness of conscious experience. This extensive critique raises fundamental questions about why such materialist ideas have become default theories, urging a reconsideration of the true nature of consciousness.
Toward a Paradigm Shift in Understanding Consciousness
The discussion posits that humanity stands on the brink of a paradigm shift that may reclaim the significance of consciousness, moving away from nihilistic interpretations of life. As societal structures increasingly mirror mechanistic philosophies, there is a growing realization of the spiritual dimensions of being and the inherent meanings found within consciousness. Hart's philosophical approach suggests that consciousness, rather than being a product of deterministic forces, is a participatory engagement with the divine, offering a sense of freedom, meaning, and creativity. This perspective invites readers to reflect on their everyday experiences and recognize the profound richness of being that transcends material considerations.
All Things Are Full Of Gods is David Bentley Hart’s philosophical case for an idealist and theist understanding of consciousness, understood as an intertwining of mind, language and life. As he puts it: “Mind and life, and language too, are possibly only by way of a kind of “downward causation” that informs their “upward” evolution in particular beings.”
The book is also a careful debunking of materialist alternative explanations such as that mind emerges from matter, that consciousness is an illusion, or that consciousness doesn’t really exist at all; it is a careful examination of everything from eliminativism to integrated information theory, from the ideas of Daniel Dennett to those of Philip Goff.
Personally, I also hugely valued the book because it is, in a way, therapeutic. A nihilist cosmos has become default and it is not only intolerable to live in, it is gaslighting. A thought or experience is only possible because we have capacities for attention and intention, desire and perception, communication and participation - and following those qualities through, leads to the realisation that consciousness is not born in us, but that we are born in consciousness.
As on of his characters, Psyche, puts it: the mind’s “transcendental preoccupation with an infinite horizon of intelligibility that, for want of a better word, we should call God; and that the existence of all things is possible only as the result of an infinite act of intelligence that, once again, we should call God.”
David Bentley Hart’s repeated point, as his interlocutors propose and take apart the materialist explanations, is that everything we might experience explodes with meanings. That is what mind does, in response to the life within which it is immersed.
That said, the book ends on a downbeat note. Psyche hopes the we humans “might yet learn to know themselves in a new way as spiritual beings immersed in a world of spirit, rather than machines of consumption inhabiting a machine of production, and remember that which lies deepest within themselves: living mind, the divine ground of consciousness and life, participating in an infinite act of thought and communication, dwelling in a universe full of gods and full of God.” The book is, of course, an invitation and nudge to do so.
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