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.
關於作者:
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.