HISTORY. One way to represent the story of Western understanding over the last 3,000 years is to map the apparent balances and imbalances between analytic and synthetic drives against a time-scale, as shown.
A main feature of the map seems to be that for most of the three millennia the story has been dominated by synthetic drives. Arguably the only periods of balance between the drives occurred during the classical Greek Age (say the 6th to 4th centuries BC) and in recent times (say the 17th to the 21st centuries AD).
The reason for the historical synthetic dominance seems to lie in basic differences between the drives. There is strong clinical evidence that right-brain-biased processes meet our immediate needs more readily than left-brain-biased processes. They appear to be our first instinctive responses to the constant stream of new data that our brains receive every day. For these immediate imperatives, our automatic ordering seems to be synthesis first and analysis later --or building-up before breaking-down.
Before leaving mind forms in human communities, it should be noted that this introduction has provided only a few samples. For further examples in subjects such as philology, quantum physics, computer science and various typical mind debates the reader might wish to consult Chapter 9 of the main publication.
A main feature of the map seems to be that for most of the three millennia the story has been dominated by synthetic drives. Arguably the only periods of balance between the drives occurred during the classical Greek Age (say the 6th to 4th centuries BC) and in recent times (say the 17th to the 21st centuries AD).
The reason for the historical synthetic dominance seems to lie in basic differences between the drives. There is strong clinical evidence that right-brain-biased processes meet our immediate needs more readily than left-brain-biased processes. They appear to be our first instinctive responses to the constant stream of new data that our brains receive every day. For these immediate imperatives, our automatic ordering seems to be synthesis first and analysis later --or building-up before breaking-down.
Before leaving mind forms in human communities, it should be noted that this introduction has provided only a few samples. For further examples in subjects such as philology, quantum physics, computer science and various typical mind debates the reader might wish to consult Chapter 9 of the main publication.
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