Consilience: The Unity of KnowledgeAn enormous intellectual adventure. In this groundbreaking new book, the American biologist Edward O. Wilson, considered to be one of the world's greatest living scientists, 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. Professor Wilson, the pioneer of sociobiology and biodiversity, now once again breaks out of the conventions of current thinking. He shows how and why our explosive rise in intellectual mastery of the truths of our universe has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos and the human species--a vision that found its apogee in the Age of Enlightenment, then gradually was lost in the increasing fragmentation and specialization of knowledge in the last two centuries. Drawing on the physical sciences and biology, anthropology, psychology, religion, philosophy, and the arts, Professor Wilson shows why the goals of the original Enlightenment are surging back to life, why they are reappearing on the very frontiers of science and humanistic scholarship, and how they are beginning to sketch themselves as the blueprint of our world as it most profoundly, elegantly, and excitingly is. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Cheryl_in_CC_NV - LibraryThingOops. Started reading, found I was nodding my head... yup, not only do I already agree with the theme of the book, but I've heard enough of the argument before, and besides the book was written going on two decades ago. Oh well. There are other fish in the pond... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - brleach - LibraryThingA few promising moments, but most of the time it is either trite or based on a fundamentally misguided understanding of the topics he's addressing. Read full review
Contents
The Ionian Enchantment | 3 |
The Great Branches of Learning | 8 |
The Enlightenment | 15 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
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activity animals arts atoms believe biologists biology Biophilia body brain sciences Cambridge century cerebral cortex chromosomes color complex concept Condorcet consilience cortex create culture Descartes disciplines dream E. O. Wilson economic ecosystems Elizabeth Spires emotion ence Enlightenment environment epigenetic rules ethical evidence evolution evolutionary evolved example existence experience explanation follows gene-culture coevolution genes genetic heredity heritability Homo sapiens human behavior human nature hunter-gatherers images incest individual instinct intellectual John Tooby knowledge laws learning Leda Cosmides living mathematical means ment mental million mind models modern molecular molecules moral natural sciences natural selection nerve cells neuron norm of reaction organisms origin Pablo Amaringo patterns percent pheromones philosophers physical population predict principles psychology reason religion religious scientific scientists sense sensory social sciences societies species survival theory thought tion traits ture University Press Westermarck effect York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge Issue 31 of ISSR library Vintage Series |
| Author | Edward O. Wilson |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Vintage Books, 1999 |
| ISBN | 067976867X, 9780679768678 |
| Length | 367 pages |
| Subjects | › Philosophy / Epistemology Science / General Science / Reference |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |