Why Materialism Is Baloney

How True Skeptics Know There Is No Death and Fathom Answers to Life, the Universe, and Everything

By: Bernardo Kastrup

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

The present framing of the cultural debate in terms of materialism versus religion has allowed materialism to go unchallenged as the only rationally viable metaphysics. This book seeks to change this. It uncovers the absurd implications of materialism and then, uniquely, presents a hard-nosed non-materialist metaphysics substantiated by skepticism, hard empirical evidence, and clear logical argumentation. It lays out a coherent framework upon which one can interpret and make sense of every natural phenomenon and physical law, as well as the modalities of human consciousness, without materialist assumptions.

According to this framework, the brain is merely the image of a self-localization process of mind, analogously to how a whirlpool is the image of a self-localization process of water. The brain doesn't generate mind in the same way that a whirlpool doesn't generate water. It is the brain that is in mind, not mind in the brain. Physical death is merely a de-clenching of awareness. The book closes with a series of educated speculations regarding the afterlife, psychic phenomena, and other related subjects.

©2013, 2017 Dr. Bernardo Kastrup (P)2021 Tantor

Kastrup Is Good Stuff

This is the second of Bernardo Kastrup's books I have read and I enjoyed it as much as the first. Each chapter is focused and clear, with a mix of specific examples and metaphors, but the book is also rich in speculation (a very good thing, IMO). I will continue to read more of Kastrup's work.

Wow!

'I Am.'

'Eventually everything connects.'

'Everything is One.'

Those words have served as breadcrumbs I've followed in the dark throughout my life - even when it seemed pointless. Now science and philosophy is starting to describe where those inklings originate . This book came at exactly the right time in my life and is profoundly meaningful.

A Convincing Muse

Kastrup's propositons bring forth a much needed, if not desperately needed, quenching of the parched metaphysical view that is materialism. Analytic idealism, which he argues for, is a convincing metaphysics that needs not the acceptance of only the spiritually-endowed. Rather, he provides a refreshing ontology that invites honest, rational, and open empirical investigation into what is.

The strength of this piece lies mainly in Kastrup's refutation of materialism, in which he concisely and cogently dispells its ontological absurdities. As such, the narrative of materialism, which remains the dominant metamethod of our world, appears much less significant in my minds eye (or should I say, in Mind at Large ;)) than its shadow once casted.

Brilliant

There are few truly original thinkers in the world - the author of this book is one such person. There are some deep biases and blind spots, but this is to be expected when dealing with such arcane and subtle topics. Let’s hope more people awaken to the limitations and destructiveness of philosophical materialism

Finally something "less wrong"!

A must-read for both materialists and idealists! Previously I had not considered myself an idealist though in my personal experience and cognitive science research I have struggled with materialism as an explanatory mode of the universe. I was relying on the magic of "emergence" (qualitatively new behavior coming about e.g. through the increase of complexity of a system and its components interactions) to bridge the explanatory gap of the hard problem of consciousness. Have finally found a metaphysical approach to account for the plethora of phenomena of consciousness that I have empirically observed, experienced or acquired a 1st person accounts of. While there is no expectation of the "we have found the enrire truth" kind, I have finally found a lucid, self-reflective and context-aware thinker to lead the way to more parsimonious metaphysics with a (in my experience) unprecedented explanatory power when it comes to both principles and phenomena of consciousness.
Certainly a step in a "less wrong" direction :)

A helpful way of understanding idealism

In the first part Kastrup deftly dismantles and fairly devastates materialism. He also spends a little time making interesting arguments against property dualism, panpsychism, and solipsism, but doesn't quite put the nails in the coffin on those. The rest of the book is devoted to elaborating metaphors for understanding the alternative he views as most probable - idealism. I am already inclined to an idealist view, but I have had nagging questions including some that troubled me. Kastrup's intuitive metaphors gave me a stronger framework for understanding and being at peace with my idealist view. I feel grateful for this book with its wonderfully clear thought and prose and its pitch perfect narration.

Utter Destruction of Materialism

A very interesting read and a high level, systematic destruction of the materialistic worldview that is dominating today's Academia. While I personally think his arguments actually result in the necessity of a pre-existing higher power, and ultimately support dualism as the more comprehensive conclusion, this is an excellent WORK, and I truly appreciate the detail and thought provoking arguments that are made.

The reader was also excellent. It felt like I was listening to the author himself with the passion and emphasis felt in his delivery.

Missing PDF

This book is eye opening, but illustrations he refers to are not available for viewing. I’ll need to check out the paper version.

Well worth reading

Through years of lucid dream practice and deep reflection on the evasive quality of the subject/object boundary, the nature of perception, and how a shared dream must necessarily differ from a solo one, I eventually became—almost accidentally—an intuitive idealist. However, I don't have much patience for woo-woo or fuzzy thinking (those are technical terms, right?) so I was pleased to find a book that articulated arguments for idealism in a very straightforward and down-to-earth way.

The book is at its best when it points out how idealism is actually a more parsimonious and rigorous explanation than materialism to explain the nature of our observations and experiences. There were certain lines of argument I wasn't sold on, especially when the word "real" sometimes came into play in what seemed like an uncritical way (though probably the point was to contrast what is understood to be "real" under idealism compared to materialism). For my part, I tend to find the term "real" a deeply problematic term in any system of thought. It also turns out that "whirlpool" is one of those words that starts to sound absurd when you hear it too many times in close succession! But these are very minor quibbles, and I completely understand the necessity for analogy and metaphor when discussing something that ordinary language is not well suited for.

On the whole, I think the book makes a lot of great points in support of an idealist outlook, and it does so with admirable concision. The narration was very sober, well-paced, and clear, which was ideal (no pun intended!) for this subject matter.

Huh?

“Mind” runs like a greased pig through this book; it’s hard to get a handle on just what the author means. The whole thing feels like an assault on Occam’s Razor.