Beyond Materialism: Bruce Gordon on the Compelling Case for Idealism
Over the years, multiple explanations for the nature of reality have been proposed. Physicalists will claim that the only things that exist are physical matter. However, others in the dualist camp maintain that there are non-physical aspects of reality, such as immaterial concepts like numbers, logic, or a person’s mental state. Finally, we have idealists, who hold that the fundamental nature of reality is mental, rather than physical, and that our perception of physical reality is derived from those concepts. On today’s episode, host Michael Egnor talks with Dr. Bruce Gordon, who defends the idealist position and how he believes it best fits the evidence. Gordon has contributed a couple of chapters to the recent book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science. In this session, he discusses the insights in his chapter entitled “Mind over Matter: Idealism Ascendant.”
