On Human Nature: Revised Edition

By: Edward O. Wilson

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

This revised edition of Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?

With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate. He shows how evolution has left its traces on the most distinctively human activities, how patterns of generosity, self-sacrifice, and worship, as well as sexuality and aggression, reveal their deep roots in the life histories of primate bands that hunted big game in the last Ice Age. His goal is nothing less than the completion of the Darwinian revolution by bringing biological thought into the center of the social sciences and the humanities. Wilson presents a philosophy that cuts across the usual categories of conservative, liberal, or radical thought. In systematically applying the modern theory of natural selection to human society, he arrives at conclusions far removed from the social Darwinist legacy of the last century.

Sociobiological theory, he explains, is compatible with a broadly humane and egalitarian outlook. Human diversity is to be treasured, not merely tolerated, he argues. Discrimination against ethnic groups, homosexuals, and women is based on a complete misunderstanding of biological fact. But biological facts can never take the place of ethical choices. Once we understand our human nature, we must choose how "human" in the fullest, biological sense, we wish to remain. We cannot make this choice with the aid of external guides or absolute ethical principles, because our very concept of right and wrong is wholly rooted in our own biological past. This paradox is fundamental to the evolution of consciousness in any species; there is no formula for escaping it. The book is published by Harvard University Press.

©2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Wilson is a sophisticated and marvelously humane writer. His vision is a liberating one, and a reader of this splendid book comes away with a sense of the kinship that exists among the people, animals, and insects that share the planet." ( The New Yorker)

"Compellingly interesting and enormously important.... The most stimulating, the most provocative, and the most illuminating work of nonfiction I have read in some time." ( Washington Post Book World)

Fascinating, Eloquent

Although the book is fifty years old (give or take), the ideas and the data supporting them still seem (perhaps sadly) fresh and full of hope. And Wilson is in places capable of flights of eloquence.

Great knowledge

Good read to remind us we’re nature and there are some treats that aren’t social constructs but survival genes

Fundamental reading for any human (if out of date)

Perhaps this book can only be appreciated fully once you've gained enough vocabulary and education/ life experience to envision all it discusses, and perhaps there are those that will reject many elements out of hand. But as an ecologist and human being this work, which I hadn't even know existed, made connections that I had started to see beforehand and so many that that I had not. It better placed humanity among the animals and other life of this planet and did, as much as any work from 1975 could, describe how evolution and natural selection might play out differently for post-societal animals than it does for most others. This book introduced me to the kin selection hypothesis for explaining homosexuality and altruism and filled a void in my understanding of the world that I hadn't quite realized I was looking to fill. This book is by no means diffinative, as the author make clear, but it should, I think, be viewed as an introduction to being human. In a world full of societies that seem content to leave our own nature as a foggy unknown, so easily manipulated through convenient opportunistic definition, this work provides tentative explainations and a framework of theories that make clearing that fog away more possible than ever. I gave it only four stars to acknowledge that in is almost 50 years out of date and I can't know what effect that has on the "truth" or "plausibly" of it's content now.
I now wish to go back in the series and listen to the previous work: "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis" so I can more fully grasp the concept as they relate to things beyond humanity - if only it was in audio too.

Yet Another Intellectual

As a technology professional I find myself in a situation where I am continually in search of people in other domains upon whom I can rely for thoughtful and unbiased consideration. I was hoping this book would be more objective but it is unfortunately biased and as a result, its message weakened and diminished.

wish it we're longer

Left me wanting more so badly. This is the only reason I gave it 4 out of 5. It is masterfully written... ok changed my mind I'll give it 5 stars