The Ascent of Humanity

by Charles Eisenstein

The Ascent of Humanity is about the history and future of civilization from a unique perspective:


The Age of Separation, the Age of Reunion, and the convergence of crises that is birthing the transition


 Contents:

• Introduction
• Chapter I: The Triumph of Technology
  • Gee Whiz—The Future!
  • Utopia Postponed
  • The Addiction to Control
  • From Separation to Boredom
  • From Affluence to Anxiety
• Chapter II: The Origins of Separation
  • The Biological Origins of Self
  • Fire and Stone
  • Labeling the World
  • Mathematics and Measure
  • Keeping Time
  • Images of Images
  • The Marvelous Piraha
  • Cultivation and Culture
  • The Machine
  • Religion and Ritual
  • The Playful Universe
• Chapter III: The Way of the World
  • The Scientific Method
  • My Personal Age of Reason
  • Masters of the Universe
  • The Quest for Certainty
  • Reducing Reality
  • The Ghost in the Machine
  • The Origin of Life
  • Alone in the Universe
• Chapter IV: Money and Property
  • The Realm of Me and Mine
  • Alone in a Crowd
  • The Anonymous Power
  • Social Capital
  • Cultural Capital
  • Natural Capital
  • Spiritual Capital
  • Time, Money, and The Good
  • The Economics of Other
  • Interest and Self-Interest
  • The Crisis of Capital
• Chapter V: The World under Control
  • The Total Depravity of Man
  • The Winners and the Losers
  • Life and Death
  • Yes and No
  • The Pressure to Break Free
  • Molding Minds
  • The Great Indoors
  • Life under Contract
  • The War on Germs
  • The War on Suffering
  • Life in a Playpen
• Chapter VI: The Crumbling of Certainty
  • The End of Objectivity
  • Truth without Certainty
  • Order without Design
  • The Nature of Purpose
  • The Purpose of Nature
  • Life without a Replicator
  • The Community of Life
  • The Genetic Plenum
• Chapter VII: The Age of Reunion
  • The Convergence of Crises
  • The Currency of Cooperation
  • The Restorative Economy
  • The Age of Water
  • Technologies of Reunion
  • Work and Art United
  • Back to Play
  • The Medicine of Interbeingness
  • The Spirit of the Gift
  • Storyteller Consciousness
  • In Love with the World
• Chapter VIII: Self and Cosmos
  • Human Nature Restored
  • The Fall
  • The Perinatal Matrix
  • The Gaian Birthing
  • Eulogy and Redemption
  • At Play Beside The Tower