A Civilization at the Precipice: From Cognitive Imbalance to Homo Intuilytics-Spiritus

Abstract

The pursuit of discovery has always been viewed as a rigorous, step-by-step march—a process defined by analysis, precision, and relentless logic. This methodology, the essence of modern science and Western technological progress, is the quintessential product of the left cerebral hemisphere of the human brain. We tend to rely on its linear, verbal, and reductive power, and rightly so; it is the architect of our digital world and the administrator of our complex societies. Yet, a haunting suspicion lingers at the periphery of our collective awareness: in prioritizing this mode of thought, we may have inadvertently built a civilization that is brilliant but dangerously unbalanced. This hypothesis is given profound, scholarly weight by the work of psychiatrist and literary scholar, Iain McGilchrist, particularly in his seminal text [1], The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.