The Patterning Instinct

A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning

Bibliographic Data

ID20021346
AuthorsJeremy Lent (corresponding author), Jeremy R Lent
Year2017
Pages569
Publication date2017-05-23
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
Reviewed byThe Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning, Peter N Stearns, 2018
VenueThe patterning instinct (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrometheus Books (PUBLISHER • US)
OpenAlexW2955846754
Open LibraryOL26929255M
ISBN9781633882935
LanguageEN
Citations received21

"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"

Aesthetics · Biology · Cultural history · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Humanity · Instinct · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Theology · Anthropology · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy · Psychology · Cultural · Ethnophilosophy · Human Ecology · Meaning (Philosophy) · Social aspects · Social norms · Social Science · Sustainability · Ecology

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