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2017 Nautilus
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A new lens on historyIn 1405, Admiral Zheng set off from China with the greatest armada in history, leading three hundred magnificent ships on a thirty year odyssey to distant lands as far afield as Africa. Later that century, Columbus landed in the New World with three barely seaworthy boats. Zheng’s armada, for all its grandeur, left virtually no imprint on the world while Columbus changed the entire course of history. Why?
The Patterning Instinct provides a new answer to this question with a simple but compelling theme: Culture shapes values, and those values shape history. So even if Zheng had discovered America, the Chinese would never have conquered the New World because they were driven by a fundamentally different set of motivations from European explorers. Pioneering the new field of cognitive history, The Patterning Instinct provides a fresh perspective on other crucial questions of history:
These questions have never mattered more than now. As we peer into the headlights of climate change and ever-accelerating technology we ask ourselves: where are we headed? This book frames an answer by recognizing that our current crisis of unsustainability is not an inevitable result of human nature, but is culturally driven: a product of particular mental patterns that could conceivably be reshaped. |
Buy The Patterning Instinct now at any of these online stores:
"The most profound and far-reaching book I have ever read"
George Monbiot, The Guardian columnist | January 31, 2018
Stepping Back from the Brink
"We know we are in the midst of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Yet we seem constitutionally incapable of acting on this knowledge...
"So what stops us from responding? For years, I’ve suspected that the cause runs even deeper than the power of big business and the official obsession with economic growth, potent as these forces are. Now, thanks to the most profound and far-reaching book I have ever read, I feel I’m beginning to understand what it might be.
"Jeremy Lent’s The Patterning Instinct was published a few months ago, but it has taken me this long to process, as almost every page caused me to rethink what I held to be true. Bringing together cultural history with neuroscience, Lent develops a new discipline he calls cognitive history."
Read more...
"So what stops us from responding? For years, I’ve suspected that the cause runs even deeper than the power of big business and the official obsession with economic growth, potent as these forces are. Now, thanks to the most profound and far-reaching book I have ever read, I feel I’m beginning to understand what it might be.
"Jeremy Lent’s The Patterning Instinct was published a few months ago, but it has taken me this long to process, as almost every page caused me to rethink what I held to be true. Bringing together cultural history with neuroscience, Lent develops a new discipline he calls cognitive history."
Read more...
"Such an important, necessary, and wise book"
BBC Radio 4 | A Good Read, November 27, 2018 | John Higgs
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John Higgs, novelist, journalist, and cultural historian, chose The Patterning Instinct as his favorite book on the BBC Radio 4 talk show, A Good Read.
Here's what he had to say: “It was just such an important, necessary, and wise book that I wanted to tell people about it… It knocks you out of all the ruts of your thinking. "We suddenly get an answer to questions like why we’re not doing anything about climate change, how our way of thinking prevents us. And what’s inspiring and hopeful about the book is that it reiterates how quickly these things can change. In a generation or so, we can adopt completely different subconscious metaphors and act differently in the world. I want everybody to read it!” |
New Scientist Review
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From New Scientist, May 24, 2017
"AS THE daily turbulence of politics, economics, environmental change and religion rages around us, there is an understandable marketplace for books that look at the bigger picture. Jeremy Lent’s The Patterning Instinct does just that, joining the dots between points in history and culture, identifying echoes and consiliences across the natural and social sciences... "Similar to Yuval Noah Harari’s recent, and equally expansive, Homo Deus, Lent’s book seeks some perspective on our modern juggernaut of radical innovation and global polarisation... "But while Harari’s no-self Buddhism comes close to exulting in the way humankind will be overtaken by intelligent algorithms, Lent finds a place for connecting, meaning-seeking humans in this complex future." Read more... |
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Advance Praise for The Patterning Instinct
“A tour de force on the biological and psychological background of the human predicament. If you are concerned about our future you should know about our past. This amazing, well-documented book should be read by every college student, and every congressman." – Paul R. Ehrlich, author of Human Natures.
"A brilliant deep dive into the history of human cultures that brings us to today's cultural dysfunctions that threaten the planet. Insight, illumination, and potential ways out of the seeming dead-end that we've walked ourselves into. I would recommend it! – Thom Hartmann, author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.
"This fascinating, page-turning exploration of the human journey from the stone age to the space shuttle gives us powerful new ways to see ourselves. Deeply researched and written with great clarity and style, this book is also full of hope about humanity’s possibilities in the 21st century." – Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.
“In prose that is a joy to read, Lent takes us on a tour of human history, guided by systems theory and cognitive science, to argue for the prominence of culture and the habits of the mind in shaping our collective destiny. If you’ve been too busy for the last twenty years to pay attention to the big ideas about the nature of the human animal, the engines of history, our place in the biosphere, and the shape of things to come, Lent can bring you up to date painlessly.” – J.R. McNeill, , Professor, Georgetown University, and author of Something New Under the Sun.
"A brilliant deep dive into the history of human cultures that brings us to today's cultural dysfunctions that threaten the planet. Insight, illumination, and potential ways out of the seeming dead-end that we've walked ourselves into. I would recommend it! – Thom Hartmann, author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.
"This fascinating, page-turning exploration of the human journey from the stone age to the space shuttle gives us powerful new ways to see ourselves. Deeply researched and written with great clarity and style, this book is also full of hope about humanity’s possibilities in the 21st century." – Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.
“In prose that is a joy to read, Lent takes us on a tour of human history, guided by systems theory and cognitive science, to argue for the prominence of culture and the habits of the mind in shaping our collective destiny. If you’ve been too busy for the last twenty years to pay attention to the big ideas about the nature of the human animal, the engines of history, our place in the biosphere, and the shape of things to come, Lent can bring you up to date painlessly.” – J.R. McNeill, , Professor, Georgetown University, and author of Something New Under the Sun.
More advance praise for The Patterning Instinct.
An archaeological exploration of the mind
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Taking the reader on an archaeological exploration of the mind, The Patterning Instinct 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 the framers of modern consumer society The book identifies the root metaphors that cultures have used to construct meaning in their world––from hunter-gatherer times to today’s global civilization––and demonstrates how these have affected the course of history.
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Check out The Patterning Instinct Table of Contents
See how other readers have responded to
The Patterning Instinct
Explore themes
Culture, Values, and HistoryCulture shapes values.
Values shape history. How will our values shape the future? 
Power and ExploitationThe mindset of the Scientific Revolution also spawned genocides and environmental havoc.
What made it unique in history? |
Human NatureWhat is our true nature?
The answer may shape humanity’s destiny. 
Consumer SocietyOur rampant consumerism is
ransacking the earth. What are its root causes? |
Science and ReligionThe battle between science and religion is ultimately a false choice.
Here’s why. 
The FutureIs humanity headed for collapse?
For techno-utopia? Or something entirely different? |