B
All booksBook details
Cover of The master and his emissary

The master and his emissary

Iain McGilchrist

PsychologyPhilosophyScience
Publish date
2009
Publisher
Yale University Press
Description
A new edition of the bestselling classic – published with a special introduction to mark its 10th anniversary This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the ‘rational’ side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right side which is the more reliable and insightful. Without it, our world would be mechanistic – stripped of depth, colour and value.
Explore CitationsAdd to Want to Read

Where to read & listen

Amazon / KindleRakuten KoboAudibleBookshop.orgLibro.fmGoogle Play

This page may contain affiliate links. We may earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

Book data & covers provided by Google Books and Open Library. Connections and summaries generated with Gemini AI.

Report incorrect data

Books cited in The master and his emissary

Suggested by AI, not verified against the full text. Check the original book before using them as a source.

  1. Philosophical Investigations

    Ludwig Wittgenstein

    Citation

    Provides the critique of decontextualized, purely analytical language that McGilchrist attributes to the left hemisphere.

    High relevanceExplore

  2. Phenomenology of Perception

    Maurice Merleau-Ponty

    Citation

    Foundational for understanding embodied cognition, contextual engagement, and holistic perception associated with the right hemisphere.

    High relevanceExplore

  3. The Principles of Psychology

    William James

    Citation

    Used to explore the fundamental nature of attention and its role in shaping experienced reality.

    High relevanceExplore

  4. Madness and Modernism

    Louis A. Sass

    Citation

    Extensively cited to connect schizophrenic cognition, hyper-rational hyper-reflexivity, and left-hemisphere dominance in modern art.

    High relevanceExplore

  5. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

    Julian Jaynes

    Citation

    Critiqued and evaluated regarding historical shifts in human self-awareness and lateralized brain functioning.

    High relevanceExplore

  6. Being and Time

    Martin Heidegger

    Citation

    Heidegger's concepts of Being and present-at-hand versus ready-to-hand illustrate differences between hemisphere perspectives.

    High relevanceExplore

  7. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

    John Locke

    Citation

    Critiqued for establishing an atomistic, mechanistic epistemological model dominant in Enlightenment thinking.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  8. The World as Will and Representation

    Arthur Schopenhauer

    Citation

    Informs the distinction between living, experienced reality and conceptual, represented reality.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  9. The Nature of Sympathy

    Max Scheler

    Citation

    Cited on the role of empathy and intersubjectivity rooted in right-hemisphere processing.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  10. The Birth of Tragedy

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Citation

    The Apollonian and Dionysian duality parallels the tension between left and right hemispheric worldviews.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  11. Meditations on First Philosophy

    René Descartes

    Citation

    Analyzed as a prime historical exemplar of the left hemisphere's mechanistic, dualistic separation.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  12. The Bisected Brain

    Michael S. Gazzaniga

    Citation

    Provides foundational split-brain empirical neuroscientific research on functional lateralization.

    Medium relevanceExplore

There may be more citations. We show up to 12 per book to keep the list manageable.

Recommendations

  • A Secular Age

    Charles Taylor

    AI Recommendation

    Examines the cultural and historical shift toward disenchantment and mechanistic worldviews in Western history.

    High relevanceExplore

  • The Matter with Things

    Iain McGilchrist

    AI Recommendation

    The author's massive philosophical and metaphysical sequel deepening the arguments on epistemology and truth.

    High relevanceExplore

  • Mind in Life

    Evan Thompson

    AI Recommendation

    Explores phenomenology, embodied biology, and enactive cognition closely aligned with McGilchrist's view of mind.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  • Philosophy in the Flesh

    George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

    AI Recommendation

    Examines how abstract human thought is fundamentally shaped by embodied experience and metaphor.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  • The Idea of the World

    Bernardo Kastrup

    AI Recommendation

    Offers an idealist ontology arguing against mechanistic physicalism and fragmented models of consciousness.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  • Mind and Cosmos

    Thomas Nagel

    AI Recommendation

    Challenges the reductionist materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature, echoing the critique of left-hemisphere reductionism.

    Medium relevanceExplore