The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis, by Jeremy Rifkin, 2009. Examines the “radical new view” of human nature that is emerging in biological and cognitive sciences, and creating controversy in intellectual circles. Recent discoveries in brain science and child development are forcing us to rethink the long-held belief that human beings are, by nature, aggressive, materialistic, utilitarian and self-interested. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” homo sapiens is evolving into homo empathicus, who will survive and flourish because it has empathic skills of compassion and collaboration that are more effective than the competitive skills of past generations.
The dawning realization is that we are a fundamentally empathic species. Continue reading
This British journalist has produced another highly readable treatise on a vital aspect of spirituality. Her book is The Bond: Connecting through the space between us. The book is all about humankind’s natural tendency toward cooperation, not competition.