Announcing Essentia Books, an imprint dedicated to idealism
Reading | Philosophy
The editors | 2023-07-16
Today we are proud to announce the launch of Essentia Books, a new imprint. Through it, we will be publishing scholarly works relevant to metaphysical idealism, the notion that nature is essentially experiential. Among many other leading authors, we will publish the latest book by Federico Faggin, inventor of the microprocessor and MOS silicon gate technology, recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from U.S. President Barack Obama, and probably the most well-rounded idealist alive.
Essentia Books is a collaboration between Essentia Foundation and Collective Ink, a subsidiary of Watkins Publishing. Watkins handles production, distribution, marketing and sales, while Essentia Books does the editorial work and contributes to marketing. Essentia has full editorial control of the material to be published by the new imprint, and will use it to highlight important, though often overlooked, work in areas relevant to idealism.
Because Watkins is a for-profit company—and there is nothing wrong with that—the books will have commercial prices. The percentage of the proceeds that comes to Essentia Foundation will, however, be fully reinvested in the foundation’s activities, particularly in further marketing of the publications of the imprint.
If you are an academic or qualified scholar in areas relevant to our work, and you believe your material is sufficiently related to metaphysical idealism, consider submitting your manuscript to us via this link.
Our flagship book for the launch of the new imprint is Federico Faggin’s Irreducible. Federico is one of the greatest luminaries of high technology alive today. A physicist by education, he is the inventor of the microprocessor and the MOS silicon gate technology, both of which underlie the modern world’s entire information technology. With the knowledge and experience of a lifetime in cutting-edge fields, Federico now turns his attention to consciousness and the nature of reality, sharing with us his profound insights on the classical and quantum worlds, artificial intelligence, life and the human mind. In this book, he elaborates on an idealist model of reality, produced after years of careful thought and direct experience, according to which nature’s most fundamental level is that of consciousness as a quantum phenomenon, while the classical physical world consists merely of evocative symbols of a deeper reality. Irreducible will be officially launched on May 31st, 2024.
But already in a few days, on July 28, 2023, we will be launching our first book: Donna Maria Thomas’s Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World: What children can teach us about the mystery of being human. Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences—from telepathy and conversing with deceased relatives to out-of-body or near-death experiences—have been theorized through a traditional scientific lens, which may not have the explanatory power to account for such experiences. In the book, Thomas shares research that she and other scholars, past and present, have conducted with children and young people across the world. By placing children’s unexplained experiences and views about reality in the contexts of culture, consciousness and the nature of self, the book offers a middle-way for explaining these childhood experiences within post-materialist science and philosophy. Thomas suggests that children’s experiences could greatly contribute to a new paradigm for understanding the mystery of being human and the nature of reality.
Here are three more books currently in production.
How Life Arose from Mind: The mind-matter problem within the Neo-Darwinian materialist conception of nature
By Daniela Panighetti and Massimiliano Sorrentino
The purpose of this book is to show that the mind-body problem not only concerns the relationship between mind and brain, but rather our current conception of the very phenomenon of life. In fact, it concerns our conception of the whole of nature in materialist terms. The book addresses the Neo-Darwinian claim that, since a naturalistic explanation for the emergence and development of living organisms exists, or is in principle viable, living organisms are not what they appear to be: that is, they are not the product of a mind. We argue that such is not the case.
The Sapient Cosmos: What a modern-day synthesis of science and philosophy teaches us about the emergence of information, complexity, consciousness, and meaning
By James B. Glattfelder
Ever since the human mind awoke to its own existence, it wondered about its cosmic significance. By dispelling myths and religious convictions, science entered the arena of explanatory templates. A tectonic shift in understanding began when the mind started decoding the mathematical language of the universe. To this day, the technological prowess unleashed by scientific knowledge remains awe-inspiring. However, science excluded two crucial domains from its field of inquiry. Firstly, the formation of complex systems—especially metabolic structures—appears to defy the physics of cosmic disorder and decay. Then, the nature of consciousness itself was deemed unworthy of academic discourse until not too long ago. Furthermore, the adoption of physicalism as a metaphysical foundation for science was an enormously consequential choice, which today is erroneously seen as an integral part of the edifice of science. This book chronicles an ongoing paradigm shift affecting physics and philosophy. Consciousness is rediscovered at the core of existence, expressing an intrinsic yearning for cosmic complexity, while the fabric of reality is woven from threads of information.
A General Theory of Composition: Sound, synergy and meaning
By Aliona Yurtsevich
In exploring the nature of consciousness, one wonders whether it is an intrinsically vibratory phenomenon. For indeed, both ancient knowledge and recent discoveries in science indicate that all aspects of the world are vibratory, wave-like phenomena. There is thus a sense in which we are sound, waves born and inhabiting an inherently resonant field, a vibratory nursery that generously hosts and nurtures a broad spectrum of mingling frequencies. Borrowing an idea from ancient teachings—“Life is Music”—Yurtsevich argues that musicality is an essential quality and condition of life. This notion can be empirically developed through musical practice, and then expand its influence further into other fields of creative activity. Yurtsevich further argues that, to understand the nature of living consciousness, one must engage in a sensory-embodied practice, such as sound and music. From the insights gained through her personal practice and life-long work with sound, it is her strong belief that sound brings all aspects of reality together into one irreducible existence—the ‘Unity of One Sense’—which is our composed world.
Essentia Foundation communicates, in an accessible but rigorous manner, the latest results in science and philosophy that point to the mental nature of reality. We are committed to strict, academic-level curation of the material we publish.
Recently published
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What if the humanities would open their horizon to more metaphysical possibilities? Prof. Kripal has written a book about a future in which the humanities study the full human. In these superhumanities, the weird, the psi—in short, the impossible—is taken seriously metaphysically: anomalous phenomena are not only regarded as subjective truths, but also as objective claims about reality.
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Idealism is often regarded as a philosophy entailing that the world exists just in our heads, which is obviously false. Rising philosophical star Dr. Jeremy Dunham argues that this view of idealism is a misconception. Idealism is a much more realist worldview than we think, and more realist than its alternatives, as it does not deny the existence of the most real things there are: thoughts.
From the archives
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Naturalism, the idea that there are no gods, is the leading theory of our time. However, in this instalment of our The Return of Idealism series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI), Bruce Gordon argues that quantum mechanics not only beckons the end of naturalism, but also points towards the existence of a transcendent mind. Essentia Foundation’s position is, nonetheless, that idealism is entirely compatible with naturalism.
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Physical realists and idealists argue about whether physical objects exist, whether they have standalone reality, or are just part of a world of ideas. But can they, at root, help us solve some other important philosophical questions? In this instalment of our ‘The Return of Idealism’ series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI), Prof. David R. Cerbone argues that Wittgenstein can help us return to more practical questions. Wittgenstein’s position is, indeed, that the metaphysical debate between physical realists and idealists is of little practical significance. We at Essentia Foundation strongly disagree with this: we believe that different metaphysical views have profound significance for how we experience the meaning of life, our relationship with the world, expectations about death, and have direct bearing on even very practical considerations such as how to further develop medicine and exploit phenomena such as neuroplasticity and the placebo effect. Nonetheless, we believe Wittgentein’s thoughts are worth considering, if only to make clear the degree to which they miss the point. This essay was first published by the IAI on 29 February 2024.
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Non-reductionism, the idea that mental states are not reducible to physical states, is the new orthodoxy in analytic philosophy of mind. However, in this instalment of our idealism series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas, Dr. Giuseppina D’Oro argues that analytic philosophy’s conception of psychology as a natural science is beholden to the dubious ideology of scientism, therefore not acknowledging the autonomy of the mental.
Reading
Essays
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Here is day 2 of Essentia’s Time and Mind conference, our scientific discussion of the profound mystery of the passage of time and how it relates to consciousness. Many physicists maintain that the passage of time is purely a feature of mind, beyond physics itself, while others argue that it points to some new physical paradigm, perhaps associated with the marriage of relativity theory and quantum theory. Certainly, the status of time in any final theory of physics remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that a theory that encompasses time and mind will have to go beyond Einstein’s Block Universe.
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Through a careful series of thought-experiments, and starting from mainstream assumptions regarding the relationship between mind and brain, Ola Nilsson shows that the notion of multiple, individual, local subjects of experience is incoherent. Consciousness, therefore, cannot fundamentally be a localized, countable process.
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Naturalism, the idea that there are no gods, is the leading theory of our time. However, in this instalment of our The Return of Idealism series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI), Bruce Gordon argues that quantum mechanics not only beckons the end of naturalism, but also points towards the existence of a transcendent mind. Essentia Foundation’s position is, nonetheless, that idealism is entirely compatible with naturalism.
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Physical realists and idealists argue about whether physical objects exist, whether they have standalone reality, or are just part of a world of ideas. But can they, at root, help us solve some other important philosophical questions? In this instalment of our ‘The Return of Idealism’ series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI), Prof. David R. Cerbone argues that Wittgenstein can help us return to more practical questions. Wittgenstein’s position is, indeed, that the metaphysical debate between physical realists and idealists is of little practical significance. We at Essentia Foundation strongly disagree with this: we believe that different metaphysical views have profound significance for how we experience the meaning of life, our relationship with the world, expectations about death, and have direct bearing on even very practical considerations such as how to further develop medicine and exploit phenomena such as neuroplasticity and the placebo effect. Nonetheless, we believe Wittgentein’s thoughts are worth considering, if only to make clear the degree to which they miss the point. This essay was first published by the IAI on 29 February 2024.
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Non-reductionism, the idea that mental states are not reducible to physical states, is the new orthodoxy in analytic philosophy of mind. However, in this instalment of our idealism series, in partnership with the Institute of Art and Ideas, Dr. Giuseppina D’Oro argues that analytic philosophy’s conception of psychology as a natural science is beholden to the dubious ideology of scientism, therefore not acknowledging the autonomy of the mental.
Seeing
Videos
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Taking a clue from Christian theologian and philosopher Origen of Alexandria, Androu Arsanious argues that the biblical Fall is the story of humanity’s mistaking of the Kantian phenomena (the world as represented in perception) for the Kantian noumena (the world as it is in itself); that is, the story of our mistaking appearances for reality. Understanding this allows us to complete the Augustinian project of reconciling the stories of religion, which describe what is beyond the world in terms of the world, with the stories of science, which describe the world in terms of what is beyond the world, such as mathematical abstractions. This is a fascinating essay.
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This video contains all the presentations and debates originally broadcast live during Essentia Foundation’s 2023 work conference, on the topic of time and mind. Speakers include Prof. Bernard Carr, Prof. Lee Smolin, Prof. George Ellis, and Prof. Jonathan Schooler.
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Dr. Sachs discusses the dynamics of our deepest, seemingly ‘unconscious’ mental processes, and shows remarkable correspondences between them and metabolic processes such as protein synthesis and folding. He suggests, along firm idealist lines, that our body’s metabolism is simply a metaphor, the extrinsic appearance of our inner, ‘unconscious’ mental processes. In other words, metabolism may be what the deepest layers of our own mind look like, when displayed on the screen of perception. This is an involved essay and not the easiest of reads, but it is well worth the effort.
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