Latest / The Observable Unknown
Interlude LXXIII: Continuity | Cultural Memory, Civilization, Jan Assmann, Joseph Henrich, Tradition, Collective Knowledge
In this interlude of The Observable Unknown, Dr. Juan Carlos Rey examines one of the most consequential questions a civilization can face:
What allows meaning to survive beyond the people who create it?
Human beings often focus on survival. Individuals strive to survive. Families strive to survive. Nations strive to survive. Yet survival alone does not guarantee continuity. A society may remain physically intact while losing the stories, values, knowledge, customs, and cultural memory that once gave it coherence.
This episode explores the hidden architecture of continuity.
Drawing on the work…
The skinny
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