Yes, that is indeed quite a large question, what is the material
world. The description on the back cover of a book has no choice but
to be extremely telegraphic. There is literally a certain number of
characters of text that is the maximum. Everything must be ruthlessly
squashed into that length, no matter what.
When I started writing the book, it was not my intention to roam at
length into what is this that we call the material world. (To state
this more carefully, what are some of the issues around this phrase
that plays such a large role in our thought and lives, "the material
world".) But the topic became developed anyway in the "all is logic"
chapters, roughly pages 240-280.
What is "logic" or "meaning", also mentioned on the back cover, are
other deep issues.
This is my first book. It has its strengths and weaknesses. A year
after I wrote it, I went back and read it, and, to me, it had huge
segments of tremendous interest. Of course I am going to be
prejudiced. That's why I wrote about these areas of interests. That's
why I worked out the ideas in them. But as I read through the sections
of the book, I thought, if I find them interesting, there will be
other people who find them interesting.
That is where the new back cover and preview come in. This time I put
them together in such a way that people can read along, and as soon as
they see that this is not for them, why, then, it really isn't a book
for their interests. There are so many different areas of interest in
philosophy and foundations of science and sentience. But if you get to
the end of the preview and say, "this is pretty interesting," then I
believe you will find large segments of the book pretty interesting.
As my website
www.theuniverseandbeing.com indicates, I am sketching
out a number of shorter books (never ever will I write such a long
book again!). The shorter books will dig deeper and I hope even more
interestingly into the issues in this book.
