The patterning instinct : a cultural history of humanity's search for meaning /

The patterning instinct : a cultural history of humanity's search for meaning /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Lent, Jeremy R., 1960- author.
Imprint:Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2017.
Description:569 pages ; 24 cm
Language:English
Subject:
Ethnophilosophy.
Meaning (Philosophy)
Social norms.
Sustainability -- Social aspects.
Human ecology.
Ethnophilosophy.
Human ecology.
Meaning (Philosophy)
Social norms.
Format: E-Resource Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11289475
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781633882935 (hardback)
1633882934 (hardback)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:"This fresh perspective on crucial questions of history identifies the root metaphors that cultures have used to construct meaning in their world. It offers a glimpse into the minds of a vast range of different peoples: early hunter-gatherers and farmers, ancient Egyptians, traditional Chinese sages, the founders of Christianity, trail-blazers of the Scientific Revolution, and those who constructed our modern consumer society. Taking the reader on an archaeological exploration of the mind, the author, an entrepreneur and sustainability leader, uses recent findings in cognitive science and systems theory to reveal the hidden layers of values that form today's cultural norms. Uprooting the tired cliches of the science-religion debate, he shows how medieval Christian rationalism acted as an incubator for scientific thought, which in turn shaped our modern vision of the conquest of nature. The author probes our current crisis of unsustainability and argues that it is not an inevitable result of human nature, but is culturally driven: a product of particular mental patterns that could conceivably be reshaped. By shining a light on our possible futures, the book foresees a coming struggle between two contrasting views of humanity: one driving to a technological endgame of artificially enhanced humans, the other enabling a sustainable future arising from our intrinsic connectedness with each other and the natural world. This struggle, it concludes, is one in which each of us will play a role through the meaning we choose to forge from the lives we lead"--
"Explores key patterns of meaning underlying various cultures, from ancient times to the present, showing how values emerge from the ways in which cultures find meaning and how those values shape the future"--
Other form:Online version: Lent, Jeremy R., 1960- author. Patterning instinct Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2017 9781633882942
Table of Contents:
  • List of Illustrations
  • Formatting Conventions
  • Foreword
  • Preface: A Cognitive History of Humanity
  • Introduction: Shaping Our History
  • Part 1. Everything Is Connected
  • Chapter 1. How We Became Human
  • Chapter 2. The Magical Weave of Language
  • Chapter 3. The Rise of Mythic Consciousness
  • Chapter 4. The Giving Environment: The World of the Hunter-Gatherers
  • Part 2. Hierarchy of the Gods
  • Chapter 5. Agriculture and Anxiety
  • Chapter 6. Going Their Own Ways: Early Civilizations
  • Part 3. The Patterns Diverge
  • Western Pattern: Split Cosmos, Split Human
  • Eastern Pattern: Harmonic Web of Life
  • Chapter 7. The Birth of Dualism in Ancient Greece
  • Chapter 8. Dualism and Divinity in Ancient India
  • Chapter 9. The Search for Harmony in Ancient China
  • Chapter 10. The Cultural Shaping of Our Minds
  • Chapter 11. Pathways to Monotheism in Israel and Alexandria
  • Chapter 12. Sinful Nature: The Dualistic Cosmos of Christianity
  • Chapter 13. The Scourge of Monotheistic Intolerance
  • Chapter 14. Discovering the Principles of Nature in Song China
  • Part 4. Conquest of Nature
  • Chapter 15. "To Command the World": Metaphors of Nature
  • Chapter 16. Great Rats: The Story of Power and Exploitation
  • Chapter 17. The Enigma of the Scientific Revolution
  • Chapter 18. The Language of God: The Emergence of Scientific Cognition
  • Chapter 19. "Something Far Move Deeply Interfused": The Systems Worldview
  • Chapter 20. Consuming the Earth in the Modern Era
  • Part 5. The Web of Meaning?
  • Chapter 21. Trajectories to Our Future
  • Further Reading
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
The Judge Leonard C. and Coralyn B. Reid and Mr. Roy C. and Lulu H. Ingersoll Book Fund bookplate

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