The Author is basically arguing against a "Straw-man" of his own making. So the entire post/book premise is pointless. "Nihilism"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

The Author is basically arguing against a "Straw-man" of his own making. So the entire post/book premise is pointless. "Nihilism"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism) is the one backdrop "True Reality" against which we paint our chosen "Schools of Philosophy". This is quite independent of the problems of "Consciousness" and "Free Will".