Consilience

The Unity of Knowledge

By: Edward O. Wilson

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

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

One of our greatest 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.

Critic reviews

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

"An original work of synthesis . . . a program of unrivalled ambition: to unify all the major branches of knowledge—sociology, economics, the arts and religion—under the banner of science." —The New York Times

"As elegant in its prose as it is rich in its ideas . . . a book of immense importance." —Atlanta Journal & Constitution

"Edward O. Wilson is a hero. . . he has made landmark scientific discoveries and has a writing style to die for. . . . A complex and nuanced argument." —Boston Globe

"One of the clearest and most dedicated popularizers of science since T. H. Huxley. . . . Mr. Wilson can do the science and the prose." —Time

"An excellent book. Wilson provides superb overviews of Western intellectual history and the current state of understanding in many academic disciplines." — Slate

"The Renaissance scholar still lives. . . . A sensitive, wide-ranging mind discoursing beautifully. . . . Wilson's buoyant intellectual courage is bracing." —Seattle Weekly

Eye-opening wake up call for a moderate conservative!

Wilson appears to make every attempt to be balanced in his argument. The union of the natural sciences and humanities is a difficult thesis but he is up to the task. You need to brace yourself for a genuinely academic presentation, hard to follow at times, but a rewarding experience in the end.

The philosophy of science, and why we should view culture and behavior with its method

Wilson’s ambitious mission is to argue for an overall understanding of the fundamental unity of the natural physical universe and the behavioral, ethical, and social human experience. In part he argues that the lessons of physical science are superior in reliability, progression, and especially in method. Furthermore, he argues that the rules of the biological and physical cores of the development of human life are the foundation of all of the thousands and millions of details within human culture and civilizations. There should be a recognition of the unity of sciences and of human cultural structures, and where they are oppositional, the hypotheses of science must be given greater authority and deference. Only by understanding government, culture, and art as fundamentally steered by our physical existence and history can humanity have the necessary basis to develop an ethically defensible and actually sustainable existence.

It’s such a big and comprehensive synthesis of all the areas of academic and civilizational areas of knowledge, I even doubt my ability to be really correct in summarizing the author’s positions. So I’m listening twice. But it is interesting, insightful, and well developed.

absolutley lovely

Edward o Wilson is one of my favorite authors and this is one of his centerpieces of writing.

everyone should read this

A fantastical and expressively deep dive into the connective tissues of the sciences. Informative and poetically prosed explanations, that pose a question we must all internalize, "is the way that categorically organize and interprete all the culminated scientific observations and data wrong at it's most fundamental core?" The answer suggested by this reading is a resounding "yes!"

Very Informative!

I enjoyed this great book about connecting knowledge. Great book and enjoyable listen. Highly recommended!! #Inspiring #SelfDiscovery #Provocative #tagsgiving #sweepstakes