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Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Name: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Author: Edward O. Wilson
ISBN: 9780679768678

by Edward O. Wilson, Edmund O. Wilson

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Overview

"A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." —The Wall Street Journal

One of our greatest living scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants—gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities.

Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

Synopsis

The unity of knowledge across the sciences and humanities. Bestseller by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author,one of our greatest living scientists.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As elegant in its prose as it is rich inits ideas...a book of immense importance.

About the Author, Edward O. Wilson

Edward O. Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1929. He received his B.S. and M.S. in biology from the University of Alabama and, in 1955, his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard, where he has since taught, and where he has received both of its college-wide teaching awards. He is currently Research Professor and Honorary Curator in Entomology of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He is the author of two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, OOn Human Nature (1978) and The Ants(1990, with Bert Hölldobler), as well as the recipient of many fellowships, honors, and awards, including the 1977 National Medal of Science, the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1990), the International Prize for Biology from Japan (1993), and, for his conservation efforts, the Gold Medal of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (1990) and the Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society (1995). He is on the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and the American Museum of Natural History, and gives many lectures throughout the world. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his wife, Irene.

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Editorials

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As elegant in its prose as it is rich inits ideas...a book of immense importance.

Library Journal

Historically, all of the sciences were once united under the rubric of "natural science." Over time, they became fragmented and specialized. Nevertheless, Wilson argues that there is a genetic and neurological basis for knowledge and that all subjects of human inquiry can be reunited under the umbrella of "consilience."

Library Journal

With steadfast optimism and enlightened erudition, Harvard naturalist and evolutionist Wilson (In Search of Nature) argues that scientific inquiry is progressing toward a comprehensive view of this universe in light of the essential unity of all reality. He envisions a future synthesis of the special sciences and humanities that will support a pervasive materialistic worldview. Reminiscent of Auguste Comte, Condorcet, and Francis Bacon, Wilson gives priority to physical laws and objective evidence over all those concepts and beliefs that question the power of science to unravel the unity of nature. In particular, linking genes and cultures, he claims that even mental activity (including creativity) will be understood and appreciated in terms of the evolved epigenetic rules, anatomy, and physiology of the human brain. Other topics treated include consciousness, complexity, reductionism, and the deep origins of human nature. As a bold blueprint for ongoing human inquiry, this provocative book is recommended for large academic and public science collections.-- H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY

Booknews

Edward O. Wilson, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize and pioneer of sociobiology and biodiversity, argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience<-->the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of fundamental natural laws that comprise the principles underlying every branch of learning.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As elegant in its prose as it is rich inits ideas...a book of immense importance.

Daniel J. Kevles

Wilson's book sweeps across vast areas of learning in lucid, unpretentious, often eloquent prose....In Consilience, he distills and integrates his ideas to argue that a unity of knowledge is possible -- and that it is sorely needed for more than purely intellectual reasons.
— The New York Times Book Review

NY Times Book Review

The eminent sociobiologist envisions a grand reconciliation of science and the humanities.

Wall Street Journal

A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them.

Kirkus Reviews

A tour de force from a scholar for whom such tours are par for the course. Wilson, who sowed the seeds of sociobiology decades ago, expands his agenda to the whole of human learning and behavior. All, in both the realms of art and science, can be reduced to a common set of unifying principles, or consilience. All can be subsumed under the basic laws of physics and their offspring in chemistry and biology. For instance, the reductionist new genetics and molecular biology have revolutionized our understanding of biology in terms of evolution, human development, and the brain as the vehicle of human behavior. Further, Wilson restates his notion of the co-evolution of genes and culture, but it is here that his argument is weakest, based on the premise that we are genetically programmed toward certain archetypal forms and themes which he finds in primitive and ancient art but which are dubiously applicable in the modern world. Wilsons arguments on achieving consilience in the h umanities will no doubt rile many of the faithful in these fields. For example, he rails against economists for their arid mathematical models that pay no heed to the irrational ways humans behave and he pretty well damns anyone who espouses cultural relativism; and he has very little good to say about philosophers in general. On the other hand, he writes knowledgeably about mind, making it clear that emotion is inextricably tied to reason, and his distinction between religion and ethics is well argued. In the end, Wilson invites scholars to explore the gaps in knowledge, as well as move toward synthesis: We are drowning in information, he says, while starving for wisdom. :He also pulls out all the stops onthe future of the biosphere, noting the potential for changing our genet ic make- up. No doubt many scholars will accuse Wilson of simplistic arguments, errors, and distortions. But how many have the guts to venture beyond the boundaries of their specialty to make a case for unity? For that reason alone, Wilsons proposal merits the attention and debate of the broad community of scholars.