Borders of Perception
by
Robin Bradbury
A book of inter-connected essays offering a view of human existence as rooted beyond the dominance of materialism.
Firmly based on the best scholarship Borders of Perception explores a vision shared by art, philosophy, science, theology as expressed by some of the greatest thinkers of western history.
Borders of Perception is in stock at our Book Shop
ISBN 978-0-9555716-0-2
Leaven Publications
World of ideas: Metaphysics
'To be in our various homelands, tracing the footsteps of those who walk the world of ideas'
From the Publisher:
'We are from generations that have closed borders around existence, leaving us to find what contentment we can in our material, physical experience whilst trying to deny even the possibility of venturing to other lands. Robin Bradbury has listened to explorers who tell of those borders being crossed and finds extraordinary sympathies between their respective stories. In Borders of Perception he recounts some of what he learns from thinkers who continue to challenge the presumption that human experience extends no further than any exclusively physical environment. The book begins with news from Leonardo da Vinci, it is news that encourages us to visit first Plato and then Samuel Taylor Coleridge. From there we call in on the worlds of General Relativity, of Quantum Mechanics, of String Theory, of Consciousness before visiting a first century Christian writer. As ideas and insights unfold we are increasingly struck by the close affinity between apparently diverse disciplines.
In these days of increasing specialization it is rare to be in the company of a thinker turning his attention to such an overview of human experience in the world of ideas. Borders of Perception takes us into such company, and here we find the border between the physical and the metaphysical to be as open and as inviting as it has ever been' Ed.
Contents
Leonardo da Vinci and 'The Virgin of the Rocks'
Plato and 'The Simile of the Cave'
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and 'Imagination and Fancy'
Material Reality ?
Consciousness and the Cosmos
Transfiguration
The author of Borders of Perception
Robin Bradbury and the Philosophy of Borders
"Amongst the achievements of this book is its demand to be taken seriously in today's world. On the battlefields of everyday ideas and thoughts the idealist, meta-physicist lobby continues to be driven into exile by the materialist, empiricist lobby. Choosing to fly in the face of these dominant philosophies of contemporary western society, Borders of Perception unashamedly aligns itself with the exiles.
Irrespective of the undoubted erudition of its author and the delightful way its ideas are presented, this is an unexpected book in today's market.
Simply put, Borders of Perception makes the case that human beings exist as a border between the material universe and its non-material environment. The reader is presented with ideas that are largely excluded from contemporary, popular views, but such is the ease with which they are presented that there is no immediate discomfort in coming to accept that they make sense. Some limited, and limiting, worldviews may be unsettled when it becomes clear that these ideas make compelling sense. Openness to the ideas, however, leads the reader to contemplate the possibility that, through these descriptions of physical reality, universal consciousness, the prospect of interaction with the non-universe, there is freedom from many of the tensions between populist scientific, philosophical and theological thinking. The moral implications of these ideas are put more bluntly: - human beings have unique responsibilities in the cosmos and it is time we took them seriously."
Borders of Perception is available from Sanctuary Gallery and from our Book Shop
£14 including post and package.
Copies bought from Sanctuary Gallery are numbered and signed by the author. If you would like a personal dedication written in your copy please e-mail your request.
The e-mail address is on the Contact page of the website.