With evolution of language in humans, one hemisphere—the left—became specialized for dealing with symbols of experience (abstract, theoretical processing) rather than the gathering of experience itself, and the left hemisphere is systematically worse at all the ways in which we grasp hold of the world because it has been deliberately kept away from direct engagement with reality in order to do theoretical processing

causalpending

Speaker

Ian McGilchrist

Evidence Quote

with the evolution of language we've decided to devote one part of the brain for dealing entirely in theory of the the symbols of experience rather than the gathering of experience itself

Source

The Divided Mind: A Conversation with Iain McGilchrist (Episode #234)Sam Harris
Created: 8/11/2026, 12:21:55 AM

My Notes

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