‘The cosmos is nothing other than an interacting collection of minds’. So writes the author of a new book which champions a radical metaphysical theory of mind. Deep thinker Peter Ells presents an alternative idealist solution, integrating quantum physics and affirming human free will and agency, to the perennial mind-body problem — how mental phenomena, consciousness and thought, can arise within complex physical systems such as the human being. Western philosophical idealism has nothing to do with having a particular attitude in life (that of being idealistic), but is a metaphysical theory about the nature of reality. It maintains that what is ‘real’ to us is somehow confined to, or related to, the contents of our minds. It has its roots in some of the great wisdom traditions of India and Ancient Greece, asserting that mind or consciousness is primordial, all-pervasive and the source from which everything arises. In various forms, it’s been a minority philosophical position for more than 300 years but, of course, that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed. Indeed, as reductionist-physicalist attempts to explain consciousness appear less and less credible, idealism must come to be taken more seriously. Hence Ells’ impressive book Mind, Quantum and Free Will: The birth of physics in the sensuous cosmos (Iff Books, December 2022), in which he states that physicalism is ‘untenable and beyond any credible hope of correction’, and that novel and under-explored metaphysical positions await investigation. I feel Ells is on the right side of philosophic and scientific history with his erudite and commanding contribution to the epochal consciousness debate. In the exhaustive case he makes for pan-idealism, he proposes that all fundamental constituents, or basic entities, of the universe are agents which perceive one another, and act freely according to their percepts, a percept being an impression of an object received through use of the senses. Indeed, as I see it, reality can be divided into two parts, that which perceives, or is conscious, and that which is perceived, what one is conscious of. But there is a third factor: the mode of perception, of consciousness. Perception, or experience, of the object is mode-dependent. What the modes of perception of basic entities might be remain to be seen, but as humans, we see not what’s apparently there, but, rather, what we are. Mentalistic terms Ells claims that today’s science can now be explained in entirely mentalistic terms — that, effectively, the universe is full of minds — compatible with interpretations of quantum mechanics......... https://geoffjward.medium.com/is-the-universe-made-of-minds-916a6e50b348 ~ Geoff Ward, Medium.com

In what is an extremely deeply generated, thoughtful and wholly encompassing new book, Mind, Quantum, and Free Will: The Birth of Physics in the Sensuous Cosmos by author Peter Ells may well be a deep, meaningful read, but at its core, the book should also expand your mind and generalized thinking on a, some might say, controversial subject matter. In conclusion, and with all that said, Ells’ new book is written in a way that, perhaps at times, is both challenging and yet refreshingly scholarly. Meaning that there will be many times, over many pages, during many chapters that you find yourself wholeheartedly agreeing one minute to a statement made and then profusely denying the existence of what then follows. Which is the way every book like this should be written. FULL REVIEW: https://annecarlini.com/ex_books.php?id=417 ~ Exclusive Magazine, Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Many thanks for the ARC of this excellent work! This is a challenging and complex book. Not for the casual reader. It is extremely thought provoking and if that is what you are looking for, you will not be disappointed. The topic is controversial, of course, and not everyone will like or agree with the author. But reading should expand your mind and your thinking processes, and this work will definitely accomplish that. The deep exploration of consciousness and free will will make your head explode a little but that is OK. ~ Thomas Lambe (Reviewer), NetGalley

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. There is a lot to chew on in "Mind, Quantum, and Free Will". Peter's book is intellectually challenging but worth pushing yourself to enter into the powerful truths that he is seeking to help us digest. If you are interested in the topic of consciousness and free will, this is a must read! ~ Mark Karris (Educator), NetGalley

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. If we think seriously about the problems of Consciousness and Free Will, then the author believes that the only rational conclusion is that each piece of matter must possess a primitive mind and a freedom to act as an agent. He is led to this conclusion because all traditional solutions to the problem of consciousness have failed. The author reverses the problem, and suggests that we should start with our most fundamental human realisation: that we are persons who are experiencing a world. Rather than trying to ‘explain away’ that reality, we should prioritise the mental (Idealist) reality as the ultimate reality. So, rather than explain how the physical stuff can acquire mental properties, we should view physical stuff as having a mental dimension and ponder why it should also appear physically. The author admits that this approach leads to ‘weird’ conclusions, but he thinks that it is better to reach a conclusion, rather than just say that it we have an insolvable problem. The author also did well to challenge the assumption that Science has disproved free will. Determinism is just one ‘interpretation’ of neuroscience, albeit a widely held opinion by Physicalists who believe in a causal closure, so that every physical event must be explained by another. The author is right to challenge (ideological) assumptions like that and to stress that there are alternative ways of looking at the data. His approach is unusual, in putting ‘free will’ so central to the problem of consciousness, but he explains and justifies his methodology. This is a refreshingly different way of thinking about issues which are otherwise well-trodden. I was less convinced that the author has solved the problem of ‘combination,’ which his approach leads to. This is the problem of explaining how bits of mental-ness can combine to give the unified experience of consciousness which humans have. (The author appeals to ‘entanglement.’) The book deserves a wide readership amongst philosophy and science students. ~ Rory Fox (Educator), NetGallery

Mind, Quantum, and Free Will is engagingly written, with an impressive breadth and depth of scholarship. I found it quite provocative in multiple respects, and believe that most readers with interests in these topics would be enriched by exploring it. ~ Andrew Westcombe, PhD in philosophy; specialising in metaphysics and the mind-body problem

The mind-body problem and the combination problem are seen as intractable by many. In Mind, Quantum, and Free Will, Peter Ells shows with clarity how insights from modern quantum physics and a synthesis of panpsychism and idealism, which he calls pan-idealism, provide a novel solution to these problems. ~ Monistic Idealism, YouTube Expert