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

Formatting conventions

Foreword [written by Fritjof Capra, physicist]

Preface : A cognitive history of humanity

Introduction : Shaping our history

Part 1. Everything is connected : How we became human

The magical weave of language

The rise of mythic consciousness

The giving environment : the world of hunter-gatherers

Part 2. Hierarchy of the Gods : Agriculture and anxiety

Going their own way : early civilizations

Part 3. The patterns diverge : Western pattern : split cosmos, split human ; Eastern patterm: harmonic web of life

The birth of Dualism in Ancient Greece

Dualism and divinity in Ancient India

The search for harmony in Ancient China

The cultural shaping of our minds

Pathways to Monotheism in Israel and Alexandria

Sinful nature : the dualistic cosmos of Christianity

The scourge of Monotheistic intolerance

Discovering the principles of nature in Song China

Part 4. Conquest of nature : "To command the world": metaphors of nature

Great rats : the story of power and exploitation

The enigma of scientific revolution

The language of God : the emergence of scientific cognition

"Something fare more deeply interfused" the systems worldview

Consuming the earth in the modern era

Part 5. The web of meaning? Trajectories to our future.