Integrating Ancient Wisdom & Modern Science to Create a Meaningful Life -Jeremy Lent
As our civilization careens toward a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality, people are losing their existential moorings. Our dominant worldview tells us we’re split between mind and body, separate from each other, and at odds with the natural world. This worldview has passed its expiration date: it’s based on a series of flawed assumptions that have been superseded by modern scientific findings.
In this talk, author Jeremy Lent will discuss themes from his new book, The Web of Meaning, revealing how another worldview is possible—based on our deep interconnectedness with all of life. Showing how modern scientific knowledge echoes the ancient wisdom of earlier cultures, the presentation weaves together findings from modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous wisdom.
Reading Recommendations:
- The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place In the Universe – Jeremy Lent
- The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning – Jeremy Lent
- The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision – Fritjof Capra, and Pier Luigi Luisi
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World – Tyson Yunkaporta
- The Sacred Depths of Nature – Ursula Goodenough
- Humankind: A Hopeful History – Rutger Bregman
- Team Human – Douglas Rushkoff
About the Speaker:
Jeremy Lent
Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age.” He is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, examines the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. His new book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, offers a solid foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a sustainable, and flourishing future. He is the founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute and writes topical articles exploring the deeper patterns of political and cultural developments at Patterns of Meaning. You can learn more about his work at www.jeremylent.com
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Next Event:
- University of Greenwich, London
- 18/12/2022
