The Priority of Mind [Paperback]

A thorough justification of the view that mind, not matter, is the fundamental reality.

Is the mind just a by-product of the brain? Or is mind the fundamental reality, which creates matter? In The Priority of Mind, Keith Ward mounts a definitive defence of mind as prior to matter. In an accessible style, he unpacks the sources and abilities of the mind, situates it in the wider world, or cosmos, and proposes a relation between mind and virtue, and the nature of mind after death.
Along the way, he explores the different philosophical approaches to the mind-matter question taken by thinkers over time, settling on idealism as the teaching of most classical philosophers, and as most consistent with modern science. Lay readers and scholars alike will relish Ward's clear, methodical exposition, and his counterarguments against the materialist narrative that dominates much of popular philosophical thinking today.GBWard distils a sparkling metaphysical vision of the primacy of mind over matter that he has developed over decades of dialogue with secular philosophy and the great religious traditions. It is a vision that might have seemed outlandish at the outset of his philosophical career, but is now beginning to command respect throughout the philosophical guild. Crisply argued, elegantly structured, and effortlessly wide-ranging, 'The Priority of Mind' is one of the most accessible and engaging presentations of the case for idealism that I have ever come across.Introduction 1
Part One: Mind 4
1. The Sources of Mind 4
2. The Brain and the Mind 7
3. Dreaming 9
4 Freedom and Creativity 12
5. The Self as Agent 15
6. The Sensory World 19
7. Value and Purpose 22
8. Thoughts 24
9. Mind and Objective Reality 28
10. Artificial Intelligence 30
11. The Irony of Materialism 31
Part Two: Cosmos 34
1. The Cosmic Mind 34
2. Creative Change 37
3. Mind and Purpose 40
4. Emergence 44
5. Value 46
6. The Self-RealizinlC+