The Unconscious Civilization
E49406
The Unconscious Civilization is a non-fiction book by Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul that critiques modern corporate and consumer culture for undermining democracy and civic responsibility.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Unconscious Civilization canonical | 7 |
| The Unconscious Civilization (book) | 2 |
| unconscious civilization | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T387490 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Unconscious Civilization Context triple: [John Ralston Saul, notableWork, The Unconscious Civilization]
-
A.
The Roving Mind
The Roving Mind is a collection of essays by Isaac Asimov that explores science, technology, humanism, and social issues with his characteristic clarity and wit.
-
B.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
-
C.
The Dragons of Eden
The Dragons of Eden is a Pulitzer Prize–winning 1977 book by Carl Sagan that explores the evolution of human intelligence and the brain through a blend of science, anthropology, and speculative thought.
-
D.
The Transcendental Temptation
The Transcendental Temptation is a seminal work of secular humanism and skepticism in which philosopher Paul Kurtz critically examines religious and paranormal claims, arguing for a naturalistic, evidence-based worldview.
-
E.
Enemies of the Permanent Things
Enemies of the Permanent Things is a collection of essays by conservative thinker Russell Kirk critiquing modern cultural, political, and moral trends in defense of enduring moral and social norms.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Unconscious Civilization Target entity description: The Unconscious Civilization is a non-fiction book by Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul that critiques modern corporate and consumer culture for undermining democracy and civic responsibility.
-
A.
The Roving Mind
The Roving Mind is a collection of essays by Isaac Asimov that explores science, technology, humanism, and social issues with his characteristic clarity and wit.
-
B.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
-
C.
The Dragons of Eden
The Dragons of Eden is a Pulitzer Prize–winning 1977 book by Carl Sagan that explores the evolution of human intelligence and the brain through a blend of science, anthropology, and speculative thought.
-
D.
The Transcendental Temptation
The Transcendental Temptation is a seminal work of secular humanism and skepticism in which philosopher Paul Kurtz critically examines religious and paranormal claims, arguing for a naturalistic, evidence-based worldview.
-
E.
Enemies of the Permanent Things
Enemies of the Permanent Things is a collection of essays by conservative thinker Russell Kirk critiquing modern cultural, political, and moral trends in defense of enduring moral and social norms.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| advocatesFor |
active citizenship
ⓘ
civic humanism ⓘ public debate ⓘ |
| argues |
citizens have become passive consumers
ⓘ
corporate and bureaucratic structures undermine democracy ⓘ democracy requires engaged, conscious citizens ⓘ |
| author | John Ralston Saul ⓘ |
| basedOn | 1995 Massey Lectures ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
The Unconscious Civilization
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
unconscious civilization
|
| countryOfOrigin | Canada ⓘ |
| criticizes |
consumerism
ⓘ
corporate culture ⓘ managerial elites ⓘ technocratic governance ⓘ |
| defines | unconscious civilization as a society unaware of its own ideology ⓘ |
| genre |
political philosophy
ⓘ
social criticism ⓘ |
| hasForm | essay collection ⓘ |
| hasReception | widely discussed in Canadian intellectual circles ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
conflict between individualism and common good
ⓘ
erosion of public good ⓘ role of institutions in democracy ⓘ unconscious acceptance of corporate ideology ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Enlightenment philosophy
ⓘ
classical republican thought ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
citizenship
ⓘ
civic responsibility ⓘ consumer culture ⓘ corporate power ⓘ democracy ⓘ individualism ⓘ public sphere ⓘ |
| medium | print ⓘ |
| notableWorkOf | John Ralston Saul ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
humanism
ⓘ
republicanism ⓘ |
| structure | series of lectures adapted into book form ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
policy makers ⓘ students of political philosophy ⓘ |
| warnsAgainst |
dominance of economic values over civic values
ⓘ
privatization of the public sphere ⓘ reduction of citizens to consumers ⓘ |
| workIn | Canadian political thought ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Unconscious Civilization Description of subject: The Unconscious Civilization is a non-fiction book by Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul that critiques modern corporate and consumer culture for undermining democracy and civic responsibility.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Unconscious Civilization
→
centralConcept
→
The Unconscious Civilization
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
unconscious civilization
The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World
→
relatedWorkByAuthor
→
The Unconscious Civilization
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
The Unconscious Civilization (book)
this entity surface form:
The Unconscious Civilization (book)