#74 | Patterns of Meaning: The Patterning Instinct & Overthrowing The Selfish Gene w/ Jeremy Lent

In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Lent. Jeremy is the author of "The Pattering Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning" and founder and president of the nonprofit Liology Institute. 

The premise of "The Patterning Instinct" is that culture shapes values, and that values shape history. Through this exploration, Jeremy has examined various cultures and societies and determined the underlying premises of their cultural stories, and how the underlying premises of these stories and metaphors informs how the collective patterns meaning onto the world and their place within it. 

We discuss the ways, through our understanding of humanity's pattering instinct, how our culture and society can begin to move away from the underlying premises that inform our patterns of meaning and begin to adopt more holistic understandings and relationships with our fellow human beings and life on this planet. 

We go over the response and underlying premise of Jeremy's widely shared, recently published article "The Dangerous Delusions of Richard Dawkins" published originally in AlterNet and picked up by Raw Story and Salon. We discuss the increasingly irrelevant theory of the "selfish gene" originally proposed by Richard Dawkins, and the reductionist worldview this meme supports, beyond its biological roots. Jeremy explains why he wrote this piece, and why the article has received the response it has.

Video Segments:

Episode Notes:

- You can find all you need to know about Jeremy's work on his website [http://www.jeremylent.com] and his blog [https://patternsofmeaning.com]

- To learn about Jeremy's nonprofit The Liology Institute, go to: http://www.liology.org

- Check out Jeremy's book "The Patterning Instinct": http://www.jeremylent.com/the-patterning-instinct.html

- Read Jeremy's article "The Dangerous Delusions of Richard Dawkins" originally published in AlterNet: alternet.org/belief/dangerous-delusions-richard-dawkins

- Read Jerry Coyne's (Dawkins' colleague and friend) response: whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/predictably-salon-publishes-a-new-dawkins-hit-piece-and-its-as-dreadful-as-youd-expect

- This episode features the instrumentals "Intro" "Take Notice" and "Let's Take It Back" by J Dilla from his album Ruff Draft.