Prospective : une approche cognitive. À propos de l'ouvrage de Philippe Gabilliet "Savoir anticiper. Les outils pour maîtriser son futur"

In the book by Philippe Gabilliet, which he reviews in this article, Michel Godet has found material to stimulate thinking about the future. He shares the main points here.
Stressing first that Philippe Gabilliet has been influenced by the cognitive sciences in adopting a novel approach to futures studies, Michel Godet identifies “four key ideas” in the book:
– The first relates to the existence of invariants of different kinds, the most obvious being associated with the human race.
– The second relates to the existence, despite these well-known invariants, of room for manoeuvre that allows determined individuals to build for themselves the future that they want. This fits in with the affirmation dear to experts in the field that the future is above all an area of freedom and power.
– The third relates to the existence of mental models of the future that, although often unconscious, strongly influence our perceptions of the future, and hence the scenarios that we develop.
– The fourth idea relates to what Philippe Gabilliet calls the “compass of destiny”, to the four key questions to which every individual (every community?) needs to be able to respond.