The Meaning of Human Existence

By: Edward O. Wilson

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called “the rainbow colors” around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Edward O. Wilson bridges science and philosophy to create a 21st century treatise on human existence. Once criticized for his over-reliance on genetics, Wilson unfurls here his most expansive and advanced theories on human behavior, recognizing that, even though the human and spider evolved similarly, the poet’s sonnet is wholly different than the spider’s web. Whether attempting to explicate "the Riddle of the Human Species", warning of "the Collapse of Biodiversity", or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.", Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. Alarmed, however, that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham. Edward O. Wilson is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading scientists. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the best-selling The Social Conquest of Earth and Letters to a Young Scientist.

©2014 Edward O. Wilson (P)2014 Recorded Books

Wonderful Book

I've not read Edward Wilson until now and am kicking myself for it. This book was a wonderful journey that provides a much appreciated objectivity and perspective of our biological roots from the (astonishingly rare) eloquent scientist. I put this book down once while reading and that was to sleep. Highly recommended for ANYONE.

Stunning

Because of the grandiose title I expected a certain level of hyperbole. I was wrong. This book is a brilliant summary of what makes humans unique. It's well worth the few hours that it takes to read (or listen to) it.

Compelling book. Good “performer”

Thoroughly enjoyed this book as I have others by EOWilson. Still the Eagle Scout being so thorough in his arguments. And he has opinions most of which resonated. Being just a humble lay person myself he was engaging. Good writer.

scattered.. too many big topics

While few can refute Wilson's contribution to science, this book was dissapointing. Seemed to take on too many BIG topics and treat them tersely. Highly recommend Wilson's past books nonetheless.

good content/needs new narration

headline says it all. research and writing seem legit, narrator needs to spit out those marbles and have a sip of Apple juice before slaughtering next manuscript.

Brave and Petty all at the Same Time

When you tackle an enormous topic like this you get four stars from me without even blinking. I listened to this book on recommendation from Ray Dalio's "Principles" audiobook. You can see where the author has had an impact on Ray's thinking. I might have given this four or five stars on the story aspect, but I found the author's strong anti religious stance to be off-putting and more importantly unnecessary. It did nothing but clutter an otherwise well put together and well stated point of view. To be clear, it wasn't that the author stated their objection to religion, it was more the silly piling-on.

Excellent book, a must read

Edward O. Wilson is among the few scientists that can communicate deep scientific ideas to the general public. I think of Stephen Hawking, Carlo Rovelli among others in this regard. The author’s two Pulitzer Prize winning credentials testified his masterful skills, and he is also a specialist in the study of ants behaviors. The ideas and theories he outlined in this little book is not trivial and have broad and profound implications to the studies of humanity. I view this book as an introduction to his work. This book is not an easy listen if you are not familiar with Wilson’s work and Biology and Evolution theories in general. I almost gave up and move on to other books. I think getting a print copy in combination and also check out the author’s other books should be a great help. If you google the author, you will see he is a very productive author. The title of this book is both attractive and a little bit scary. But the author soon defined what he means by the “meaning of human existence”. He now supports the more straightforward natural selection explanation of human social behavior which represents a change from his earlier work when he in favors the “inclusive selection” theory. As an “ants man” he can quote ants behavior at ease, which is interesting in itself. I am looking forward to reading and listening to more of his books. Very glad I found this book by accident.

Pleasant Humble Simple Rationalism

This book has a really pleasant humble tone of simple, non-confrontational, rationalism. He simply treats religion as silly stories that should no longer be believed. He points out humans as having amazingly poorly equipped senses compared with animals. Some religious folks might find Wilson’s unassuming dismissal of religion more annoying than Dawkin’s bellicose tirades.

Largely the purpose of this book seems to be to make a pointed attack on the theory of “inclusive fitness” and, less so, suggest arguments in favor of “multi-level selection” theory. About half the book and an appendix focuses on this debate, while the other half is somewhat wide ranging ideas very loosely tied to the title. Notice this is not your fathers “Meaning of Human Existence”! This is not “meaning” like that endowed by a creator, but instead straightforward meaning like; the meaning of a spider’s web is to catch food. For Wilson our meaning is associated with our culture and our humanities and arts.

I enjoyed the “inclusive fitness” debate, and was mildly interested in the other stories. I really appreciated the unpretentious rationalism. I quite agree with the criticisms of “inclusive fitness” which has always seemed to me a bit more fantasy than science, but I did not find the book quite lived up to the lofty title.

I had just finished “The Human Age” recently, and it was interesting to see the difference in interpretation of that concept between Wilson and Ackerman. Ackerman feels humans need to take full responsibility for the planet now, simply because we must. Wilson seems quite unsettled by this idea, and quite unready for that responsibility.

The narration was very clear and enjoyable.

Still don’t know the meaning of my existence

When I saw the title of this book: “The meaning of human existence,” I thought, ok now Wilson has taken water over his head. Still, I thought, Wilson is an excellent writer and even if he cannot tell me the meaning of human existence I will not go away empty handed. Both presumptions turned out to be correct. The book was entertaining, and I learned some new interesting things about ants (Wilson is the world’s foremost expert when it comes to ants). However, I did not become wiser regarding “The meaning of human existence”.

Wilson does tell the reader where we the meaning can’t be found. There is the mandatory religion bashing; Sure, if it were the case that the Bible is true then maybe the meaning of our existence may simply be to serve God. Yet, more and more people begin to see the Bible as well as other religious texts for what they are: Made up stories full of errors and inconsistencies. Religious proponents typically exploit the gaps in our knowledge. When we didn’t know where lightning came from, a God (Thor) was proposed. Now that we do know where lightning comes from, other gaps are exploited. For example, we still don’t know how the first cell arose. It must, therefore, be God… As science advances, it explains more and more of the realm that used to be considered within the expertise of the church. Consequently, the church is on a never-ending endeavour to find smaller and smaller gaps in our knowledge that they can stick their God into

Can science tell us the meaning of human existence? My answer to this question is that while science can tell us how we evolved it does not tell us what the meaning of this evolution is. Indeed, the most honest conclusion may be that there is no meaning to evolution and hence no meaning to our existence. It is like asking what the meaning of a stone falling towards the ground is. The cause is gravity, but what is the meaning? To me, it is a nonsensical question, and I found nothing that made me alter this view in Wilson’s book.

So if you want a well-written book that discussed some old philosophical issues, a little bit of religion and some fascinating animal behavior, then this book is a good pick. But be prepared not to be enlightened.

Great book

Great book...very thought provoking. .I found myself going back and reading it for a second time.