Cover of Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

by Edward O. Wilson · 1998

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

One of our greatest living scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Natureand 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.

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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, Consilienceis science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

Subject
sciencescienceMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of thispsychologypsychologyMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of thissocial sciencesocial scienceMore like thisLess of this
Themes
environmentenvironmentMore like thisLess of thisnaturenatureMore like thisLess of thisreligionreligionMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 368 pages
Form
essaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

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