The Weirdness of the World
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- $32.99
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- $32.99
Publisher Description
How all philosophical explanations of human consciousness and the fundamental structure of the cosmos are bizarre—and why that’s a good thing
Do we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing? Is consciousness a purely physical matter, or might it require something extra, something nonphysical? According to the philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, it’s hard to say. In The Weirdness of the World, Schwitzgebel argues that the answers to these fundamental questions lie beyond our powers of comprehension. We can be certain only that the truth—whatever it is—is weird. Philosophy, he proposes, can aim to open—to reveal possibilities we had not previously appreciated—or to close, to narrow down to the one correct theory of the phenomenon in question. Schwitzgebel argues for a philosophy that opens.
According to Schwitzgebel’s “Universal Bizarreness” thesis, every possible theory of the relation of mind and cosmos defies common sense. According to his complementary “Universal Dubiety” thesis, no general theory of the relationship between mind and cosmos compels rational belief. Might the United States be a conscious organism—a conscious group mind with approximately the intelligence of a rabbit? Might virtually every action we perform cause virtually every possible type of future event, echoing down through the infinite future of an infinite universe? What, if anything, is it like to be a garden snail? Schwitzgebel makes a persuasive case for the thrill of considering the most bizarre philosophical possibilities.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
UC Riverside philosophy professor Schwitzgebel (A Theory of Jerks and Other Philosophical Misadventures) explores a question at least as old as Descartes ("Cogito ergo sum") in this stimulating treatise. As the author sees it, the world is "deeply... weird to its core," not least because humans are unable to grasp the nature of perception itself. Because humans are ill-equipped to solve this—and other—fundamental questions, it's vital to explore all "bizarre possibilities," such as panpsychism, which holds that "experience is ubiquitous in the universe, even in microparticles." Schwitzgebel also investigates the fundamental structure of the cosmos, which "might be infinite," or include a "simulated reality or pocket universe, embedded in a much larger structure about which we know virtually nothing." In the process, he leads readers down a fascinating rabbit hole of metaphysics, ontology, theories of causation, and the science of cognition. While the prose can be dense at times, it never strays too far from Schwitzgebel's notion that "In each of our heads there are about as many neurons as stars in our galaxy, and each neuron is arguably more structurally complex than any star system that does not contain life. There is as much complexity and mystery inside as out." It's an exuberant look at some of life's biggest questions.
