What role does the mind play in building reality? Is there an absolute and verifiable truth, or, as Kant pointed out and quantum physics seems to note, truths depend on the perceptions, sensitivity and cognitive faculties of the human mind? The main thesis of Henryk Skolimowski, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and an expert in ecophylophy and evolutionary epistemology, is that the world is not only a sum of inert objects and objective subject matter, but a subtle network of complex and participatory relationships in which we, spectators and actors, play a crucial role. Our mind is not passive. Recognizing this creative condition, as well as the holistic and spiritual dimension of the cosmos, is the foundation of the evolutionary and transformative model posed by this book, and which thinkers such as Heráclito, Bateson, William James or Bergson had previously outlined.

From a lucid and eloquent historical analysis of our successive conceptions of reality, including that of modern science itself, Skolimowski postulates a new paradigm that seeks to respond to the crisis of values that plagues Western civilization in the 21st century. His idea of a participatory universe recovers essential aspects of knowledge such as empathy and acceptance of the mystery of the cosmos, inherent in the natural order of things, while offering a way out of contemporary nihilism and claiming hope as an indispensable element of the human condition, not only as part of our ontological structure but of the mental culture that sustains us every day.