On Human Nature: Revised Edition

By: Edward O. Wilson

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

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)

A Heralding Voice...

of the neo-Darwinean movement. If you know the work of Pinker, Dawkins, Dennett, Wright and other writers who have expounded on the evidence that an innate, biological human nature is a real and tangible thing (as opposed to the concept of the "blank slate" put forth most famously by Skinner, Watkins and the behaviorists during the early part of the century), you should know the work of Edward O. Wilson, a man who was so far ahead of the now accepted modern decriers of the "tabula rasa" that his early work was deemed scientific heresy. Wilson does not deny the influence of the environment on the genetic basis of human nature, but wipes away the absurd notion that a human being is shaped soley and absolutely by culture and surroundings. On Human Nature is a fine summation of his main ideas and comes highly recommended from these quarters.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Brilliant, vital scientific treatise for our times

Initially published 40 years ago EO Wilson's On Nature sustains an argument whose resolution weighs so much more heavily on us today. Wilson argues that human cultures are all expressions of (that is, are animated and constrained by) human nature, and that human nature is the product of human biology and of Darwinian evolution. He concludes that we would all be better off unifying or at least combining the humanities (social sciences) and biology to understand our cultures, and decide our collective future.

Marvelous book.

Timeless in its relevance to human nature.

An utterly fascinating book! Do not for a second let the age of this text inhibit you from reading it.

epic validation for smart people like you

You're smart so you think about this already, that's why you're here. This confirms all the ways in which you're right.

5 of 10 people found this review helpful

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

1 of 3 people found this review helpful