The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning

by Iain McGilchrist

From the right hemisphere came careful observation of the natural world (the pre-Socratic philosopher Thales correctly predicted an eclipse of the sun); a sense of the uniqueness of the individual, with interests that needed to be harmonised with those of the community, which itself was seen as a living, changing entity that was more than the sum of its parts; and there arose, for the first time, wonderful, expressive depictions of the human face, narratives of human lives, and poetry rich in metaphor. It gave rise to the phenomenon of drama, whereby we see ourselves more clearly at a distance, but not in some detached and lifeless way – able more than ever to empathise. There was a keen sense of what needed to remain implicit, an understanding of the all-important conjunction of opposites, and, perhaps most strikingly, a sense of proportion and a sense of humour. From the left hemisphere came the working out of the fruits of natural observation into useful predictions of behaviour of natural bodies, the codification of laws, the creation of maps, the development of some aspects of mathematics, the introduction of monetary currency, the further evolution of written language (at this point starting for the first time to be written, as now in the West only, from left to right), and in general the systematisation of knowledge.