Did DBHJust Solve the Problem of Consciousness?? A Review of 'All Things Are Full of Gods'

What is the mystery (or the 'hard problem') of consciousness? Can it be resolved on purely naturalistic/materialistic grounds? What are the best arguments & rejoinders for the various theories that exist? And does naturalism (despite all appearances) actually contain significant logical leaps when accounting for the existence of "mind"? All this, and much, much, much more is addressed in David Bentley Hart's magisterial new work of philosophy.

00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - Main Idea
05:45 - Research
07:59 - Readability
10:38 - Reaction

[SibleySteve]

Dialogical wisdom is such a preferable medium to straight prose. DBH is a treasure to our age. I found this book at Barnes and Noble. I walked up to a young employee in her hijab and asked where I could find the DBH titles and she took me straight to this book! She said she had studied philosophy in France and loves this book, and I am grateful for young people whose minds and hearts are alive.

[johnandrews]

Good arguments should make your opponent’s best case, not their worst. DBH does this so well. Great respect for him in this.

[klnrklnr]

at some point folks need to acknowledge the mystery of things and be ok with it.

[jefftemplin]

Early on, sounded like he said, “scientists and flossers.” The book is clearly about dental health. Now I’ll listen to the rest. Consciousness fascinates me. Just joshin’ yah. (smile)

[dazraf]

As an agnostic atheist, I find this fascinating. Will find the book and read it. I will have to suspend my frame-of-reference.

[rigelthurston]

Excellent review! I’m totally with you on this book standing the test of time. Honestly, it is relieving to have this level of firepower behind the non-reductionst view of consciousness.

[jodown]

For the next 5 days or so, this book is on sale on Audible for like 3 bucks. Can't pass that up!

[Corteum]

The yogis and shamans solved consciousness, but without words.

[robertstan]

and yet the naturalists can make predictions about the world around us that actually deliver. this isn't an unqualified endorsement but it must be acknowledged that, whatever we've lost, it isn't the sacred world view that makes bouncing signals off of satellites into this network so you can see what i've written here possible- that was all the work of materialism

[Tregrense]

Sounds like a book I can enjoy. I've read a lot of behavioral biology and currently I'm studying Julian Jaynes. My own personal insights lead naturally to Jaynes work. Thank you for your review.

[tobyhdr]

Thank you. I've been interested and impressed by DBH since I bumped into his thinking a few years back. I've listened to some of his lectures and conversations, so far I've read nothing. Disclosure: I'm an "There is nothing but God" guy, and was already before finding DBH.

Just wanted to make a comment: When you accept how impossible it is to account for consciousness from the mechanistic/naturalistic perspective, when you allow yourself to really admit how impossibly large the logical leaps that perspective makes are, you can at least then take the idealistic/theistic perspective seriously. But, what this does not mean is that everything is then suddenly explicable. It's really just that dualistic and strict physicalist accounts fail when it comes to consciousness – which is self-evidently real – and thus they fail fundamentally. Accepting this failure in fact frees us to be more scientific, more open, more awestruck by reality, to be excited about how much we still have to learn, how much wonder there is around us, within us, and ahead of us.

I look forward to reading this book!

[drawnmyattention]

Theists usually project their own style of philosophical commitment on to philosophical naturalists. (12:25 to 15:00) Naturalists need make no leaps of faith; they can hold their beliefs and conclusions lightly, unafraid to follow reason wherever it leads; nothing is beyond critique. Contrast this with the theistic thinker who practically always has some prior religious commitment, some god or creed he dare not doubt, some lingering and distracting fear of hell.

[Reienroute]

I always marvel at peoples' inability to imagine a subjective undercurrent to all things without attributing the characteristics of a "mind" to it. It seems like a failure to understand what the "hard problem" actually entails.

[michaelleslie]

I love your style and insights. Please keep up the good work. I’m going to order this book immediately. Thank you so much!

[gregory_bloomfield]

I still need to purchase and read DBH’s new book.

[hugo]

This sounds like one of those books like The God Delusion. It's full of ideas that one can come up with on one's own and it's 1, 000 pages of folksy diatribes that don't add to understanding as a whole. I'll try to check it out. The beginning of it is on google and I'll scope the local library to see if they have it.

[jazzfan]

People who dismiss the hard problem as nonsense or as a non-issue don’t understand the problem. It’s sad to see so much of that here in the comment section. Try and understand the problem before dismissing it. There is a reason every serious philosopher takes it seriously, even if they come to silly conclusions, like Daniel Dennett.

[AquariusGate]

Life is participatory, a person relates to something and can't not relate for an instant. Consciousness is a response to this, a sense of connection that bridges the gulf of mystery. Materialists call it incwrtsinty because that term holds their unspoken hope. Followers of mystery do not pursue a need for answers, we ask how much more mysterious things can possibly grow!?

[saulgoo]

My brain is too smooth to process DBH’s vocabulary. It is suffocatingly cluttered on the page. I appreciate his voice in our faith tradition though. Yours too Joel. I just finished your interview on the Grace Saves All podcast. It was really good. Have you read “Discovering an Evangelical Heritage” by Donald Dayton yet? It’s a great prequel to “Jesus and John Wayne” with completely different feelings it elicits.

[timlangford]

Great talk, you hooked me into deciding to read this book.