The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind and the Self in Nature

This is not a religious book. Others have described it as an apologetics, but I don't agree: I think this is a work of philosophy, on the borders of personal identity, philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Its a logical and clearly thought argument for the intuition that the personal consciousness we all individually experience is not only *not* the only consciousness there is, but not even the only conversation-among-consciousnesses there is. If I were still teaching I'd use this alongside Thomas Nagel's "A View From Nowhere" for an undergrad course, because between Nagel's semi-phenomenological ability to get you to think critically about mind, and Restall Orr's explosion of some truly unintuitive and dogmatic assumptions underlying the dualism/monism distinctions in philosophy of mind, you'd have a good grounding in how to do philosophy and a good understanding of what the actual issues were in philosophy of mind.But I think Restall Orr doesn't just provide a solid criticism of the dualism/monism problems in philosophy of mind, she provides a solid analytical foundation for understanding why animism seems to some of us the more sensible and intuitive philosophy of mind. But more than that, she demonstrates that philosophical inquiry can be fun and can still dramatically expand the range of acceptable position.I should add: There's nothing wrong with apologetics or religion, and both can be as logically rigorous as you want. But there's a specific way of looking at the world if you're a philosopher, and this way of looking at the world is what Restall Orr accomplished for Animism.

This is a wonderful book. The first part of it might be a bit of a slog -- it is very academic and works through the process of defining every word that Restall-Orr is about to use to describe this religious philosophy -- but once you get through that the value of it becomes clear. I've been reading this book concurrently with How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond The Human by Eduardo Kohn, and these two books fit together perfectly. If I were teaching a course on Animism, these might well be the two main texts I would work through with my students.

Animism is widely considered to be a primitive perspective, long since superseded. Emma Restall Orr shows why that is not at all true. Dismissing simplistic definitions that she describes as having been "drawn in crayon," she unpacks the philosophical underpinnings of an animist worldview in painstaking detail. Don't expect a fast or easy read; she's working here with detailed philosophical argument and expects her readers to pay close attention. For the reader willing to do so, this is a rewarding read.

In this mostly quite readable book Emma Restall Orr has traced an important and neglected vein of intellectual history in the West, while at the same time establishing the basis for what a theologian would call an animist apologetics. You will understand only after you have read the first half of the book why the writing in the last few chapters is necessarily more poetical. What you think of the ending will depend upon your tolerance for iambs in alternating lines of three and four feet.

This book is a basic read for anyone who is concerned about our way of relating to the natural world. The Green movement needs to be anchored in animism.

I loved this book! Don't get me wrong, it was not an easy read. I really had to work at it and plan to read it again since I feel that I only absorbed a fraction of it. This book confirmed for me many things that I've felt and experienced that I've never seen in print anywhere. This book fed my soul.

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I learned about "Animism" while studying the Pagan Sacred Wheel book.....unfortunately Ms. Orr's style of writing is very difficult to follow.....she tends to ramble a bit....is a bit unfocused. At times it's difficult to see the point she's trying to make.

I bought this book hoping that it would be relevant to religious studies, but the content turned out to be philosophy, and amateur philosophy at that. It is not an easy read, meandering and indirect. It's full of quotations and allusions to various authors - hardly a page without either - that obscure rather than clarify: one longs to say "just tell us what you think in your own words."When she does state things plainly, we are often none the wiser. We are told that "nature is universally minded, but not everything is alive", but there is never an explanation how we can have mind without life. A statement that a molecule can "feel its own edges" surely requires some explanation and justification, but neither are forthcoming. The author clearly belongs to what has been called the "I'm telling you" school of philosophy: ideas are presented and we are left to see how obvious they are - or not, in my case.Her position is basically monism, a denial of the distinction between mind and body. But that distinction is found in all cultures, save with those individuals who have been "got at" by philosophical speculation. If you are going to reject a consensus belief, you may be right to do so, but you need very convincing evidence or arguments. Putting it down to "superstitions about the dead" simply isn't good enough. Having denied the soul, she naturally rejects the belief in its survival. But there is evidence of people receiving information from ancestors which have subsequently been verified by research, a situation impossible in Orr's philosophy.This book will not remain in my library, although it's just about good enough to give to the charity shop rather than the recycling bin.

For me, having discovered animism in Japan when I lived and worked there, I read this book looking fora western insight that would really explain what animism really is. I always thought that my understanding was too simplistic - that everything has it's own natural energy and everything deserves respect. The Japanese are the masters of beautiful still-life garden design, and their gardens always include inanimate elements, like rocks, and these rate as much love and respect as the sand, trees and shrubs. In essence, it says that everything is part of nature and nature is part of everything.I soon found myself in deep water, with words I could barely grasp, and passages that required reading more than once, and thought about. But I gradually got through to the last chapter when it is all revealed and the conclusion presented neatly, if still rather dense. One ends the book feeling that there is an entire universe of revelation out there and we ordinary folk spend our entire lives uncomprehendingly only vaguely aware of it. It is shockingly enlightening.The last chapter deserves elaborating in a more simple way, and published as a major essay in The New Yorker. The book is well worth buying just for the last chapter. Restall Orr is an expert and top authority on pagan religions, with an impressive list of well-received books to her credit, broadcasts on the BBC, and consultations to various governmental bodies. She was head of the British Druid Order. This book shows her incredible depth of scholarship, and extent of research.Strongly recommended.

This book is so powerful and beautiful. It takes a thoughtful and deep approach to the history of philosophy and our ways of understanding our place in the world before going into digging into the animist approach. The most elegant and helpful deep dive into complex subject matter, brought to life by a wonderful teacher.

The whole book felt like a long introduction that never actually got anywhere. No real guidance on the principles or practices of Animism.

Harder to read than other works by this author, very dry at times, but worth the effort if you enjoy scholarly philosophical works, and/or if you want an academic argument to underpin your animism.