Iain McGilchrist - The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how the 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

Watch the RSA Animate of this talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO...

• Category

  Education

[Marko Kraguljac]

We could skip a few royal economists and politicians and allow Mr McGilchrist a few sessions to elaborate further on this very interesting topic?

[Clif Brown]

Perhaps it's germane to the topic that I cannot grasp this lecture when it is presented in the RSA Animate way...too dense, too distracting, too tightly edited and rapid. When Machiavelli is mentioned, I know the connotation intended, to have a tiny picture of Machiavelli drawn for me at the same time is irrelevant. This pertains to the lecture point about the utility of a map when one doesn't need/want to know all information about the area. To come watch the original lecture was a relief.

[jammatoonarmy]

fascinating topic - on a similar vain, Tony Wrights book, 'Left In The Dark' is truly enlightening. :)

[Χρήστος Καρσανίδης]

"We have to protect it...",so the blind man needs a guide,Tiresias said to Kreon,only the blind man.You don't have to protect anything,otherwise,Carlin would have said.What are we then,have we decided yet?Critical thinking...freedom of choice...what is real and what's an illusion?“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.”

[Kiki Perry]

I was having the mind/ machine discussion with a researcher neuroscientist recently and I needed this turn of phrase, in the absence of a model for comparison we go into to default mode and not knowing what model the mind best compares to we go to the default model: machine i.e. computer. J Searle held a fine discussion on how the computer could never 'be' exactly like our minds.

[Kiki Perry]

clif9710: NB: there is the pause button for your empowerment! Pause and reflect and then continue; this is especially useful for the condensed versions of the lectures. I get attracted and hooked by the RSA videos and then go look for the longer version.

[Kiki Perry]

Notes: 'CONTEXT' is everything in understanding. Neglect of context is the single great disaster in philosophy. The 'real' mountain is the one in which we play the least part (its material reality).In context we need to protect and maintain the implicit nature of things, by making them explicit we change them and they become something else. Genomes code according to context they find themselves in... understanding does not come out of sidling many out of context items together. very powerful

[Utrilus]

rhanks



[givebirthathome]

There's a 89 minute lecture by McGilchrist at the Schumacher College.

[christopher phillip skeates]

it all at womans expense ..skeatesy

[PktMma]

That was too intense, need to go watch some of The Amazing Atheist now.