Three systems: a mechanism for mental and social narrative
Alex Rosenberg says here that we are instinctively driven by stories, narrative and theory of mind - a very useful instinct on the small scale - although that instinct can be misleading on the larger scale of history and politics. His book on this claim is also out, though I haven't read it yet. It seems uncontroversial that the idea of narrative has a powerful hold on how we think. There are thousands of discussions of storytelling as a way for us to bond with other people, and the biases that come from our desire to see a natural story behind events. I don't think many would disagree that stories are compelling to most people, and that we naturally like to see the world through narrative. I've been exploring how the mind might implement this, and what the consequences might be. Readers may recall the System 3 theory from earlier posts . This is how I think narratives fit into that, and how the process works in the mind: People (and other animals) are very go