All Things Are Full Of Gods by David Bentley Hart. A summary and discussion

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.

[@bavingeter423]

Been listening to this one, it’s probably the best philosophy book of the past 10 years

[@quixodian]

Splendid review and thank you for it ❤

[@troytice8354]

Look forward to watching this. The book is excellent!

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Agreed

[@oliviergoethals4137]

Thx Mark ... Very interesting

[@alisonkidd3989]

Really helpful introduction. Thanks Mark

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Helpful for me to attempt, too!

[@juanjuarez9581]

I think that Max Leyf and David Bentley are by far the best idealist philosophers of our time. This book, “All Things Full Of Gods”, is a jewel.

[@oliviergoethals4137]

... And B.Kastrup

[@nathanhassallpoetry]

I cannot wait to read this. Heard about it via John Vervaeke. I deeply appreciate your Dante videos, Mark. How much have you read of Kathleen Raine?

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Raine on Blake is fundamental, yes. Though my Blake is more Christian to her more directly Neoplatonist.

[@robinhard111]

I've really been looking forward to this book, he's been talking for some time about writing one on the nature of cosciousness.

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Doesn't disappoint

[@rickyfitness252]

whoa

[@superstrut8994]

"The mind is not reducible to the brain any more than the meaning of a book can be found by reducing the book to merely the print on the page" - The mind is not reducible to the brain alone, but rather to the interactions within its particular environment: the brain, light, temperature, sensations, ongoing feelings and perceptions, etc. In the same way, the meaning of a book is not fixed; it may change as one interprets it based on their experience at that moment. Nothing is fixed, and while an experience cannot be reduced to a single element, it can be understood as the sum of environmental factors, which are often overlooked.

[@PlatosPodcasts]

That's becoming part of the new biology, too, I believe.

[@samparkes2477]

Hi Mark, just to let you know, whenever I try to download or listen to these discussions via Apple Podcasts, they nearly always say ‘unable to download’ and ‘temporarily unavailable’.

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Hmm. I don't use that I fear and don't understand what's wrong. Will check buzzsprout that I use to host. Spotify seems to be fine - open.spotify.com/episode/1Sz0WEBpjr33WSlCIGNh1s?si=hF6q8NVbR3Oow-eZbNAfhg

[@MaryJones-d7e]

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