The Empathic Civilization
The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

This major new work by bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin documents the emergence of a new form of human consciousness - empathy - that is, he argues, the only basis on which we can address the key challenges of the globalizing world of the 21st century.

He is the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.

Contents Introduction
1. The Hidden Paradox of Human History
I. Homo Empathicus
2. The New View of Human Nature
3. A Sentient Interpretation of Biological Evolution
4. Becoming Human
5. Rethinking the Meaning of the Human Journey
II. Empathy and Civilization
6. The Ancient Theological Brain and Patriarchal Economy
7. Cosmopolitan Rome and the Rise of Urban Christianity
8. The Soft Industrial Revolution of the Late Medieval Era
and the Birth of Humanism
9. Ideological Thinking in a Modern Market Economy
10. Psychological Consciousness in a Postmodern Existential
World
III. The Age of Empathy
11. The Climb to Global Peak Empathy
12. The Planetary Entropic Abyss
13. The Emerging Era of Distributed Capitalism
14. The Theatrical Self in an Improvisational Society
15. Biosphere Consciousness in a Climax Economy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author