Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

(Paperback)

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In this work, the author argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for what he calls "consilience", the composition of the principles governing every branch of learning. Edward O. Wilson, pioneer of sociobiology and biodiversity, breaks from the conventions of current thinking. He shows how 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 vision. This vision 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. 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 humanisitc scholarship, and how they are beginning to sketch themselves as the blueprint of our world.

Reviews

"The first great ecologist, a pioneer in sociobiology and biodiversity.a giant among popularisers of science" - Bryan Appleyard on Edward O Wilson, in THE INDEPENDENT * "There's a new Darwin. His name is Edward O Wilson." - Tom Wolfe

Author Bio

Edward O Wilson is Curator in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard with which he has been connected since 1953. He has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, for ON HUMAN NATURE and THE ANTS.