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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. 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. -- William McPherson Washington Post Book World A work of high intellectual daring...Here is an accomplished biologist explaining, in notably clear and unprevaricating language, what he thinks his subject now has to offer to the understanding of man and society...The implications of Wilson's thesis are rather considerable, for if true, no system of political, social, religious or ethical thought can afford to ignore it. -- Nicholas Wade New Republic Twenty-five years after its first publication, Harvard University Press has re-released Edward O. Wilson's classic work, On Human Nature. A double Pulitzer Prize winner, Wilson is a writer of effortless grace and stylish succinctness and this is one of his finest, most important books...[A] highly influential, elegantly written book. -- Robin McKie The Observer 20041219 A seminal, groundbreaking, informative, thought-provoking, enduringly valuable, and highly recommended read. Bookwatch 20050301
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View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"
In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies" led him to write "Sociobiology," and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this book Wilson considers how various aspects of human nature can be explained by evolution. The book changed my world view more than any other I've read. Unfortunately it's written in a rather inaccessible style - Wilson seems to prefer to use an obscure word when there's a perfectly good alternative that won't require you to reach for the dictionary. He also allows himself to vier off the subject he was discussing at times. But don't let this put you off - the content is worth it.
If someone is strongly critical of this book I would suspect them of being a religious fundamentalist (one topic discussed is religious belief) and/or having a poor ability to understand science.
If someone is strongly critical of this book I would suspect them of being a religious fundamentalist (one topic discussed is religious belief) and/or having a poor ability to understand science.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alan Michael Forrester seems to completely misunderstand the genetic basis for behaviour in his review. The mechanisms that cause XYY men to end up in prison more often than normal men are completely irrelevant - the simple fact that they do is enough to show that variation between people at the genetic level contributes to variation in their behaviour.
Edward Wilson was one of the key scientists and most important intellectuals in the development of the "new sciences of Human Nature" (as Steven Plinker calls the social and biological sciences that relate to human nature), and this is an important book in that development.
Edward Wilson was one of the key scientists and most important intellectuals in the development of the "new sciences of Human Nature" (as Steven Plinker calls the social and biological sciences that relate to human nature), and this is an important book in that development.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The ability of science to explain phenomena previously only accounted for philosophically is well established and unstoppable. Wilson's field - the biology of social species - is one of the areas where this tendency has proved particularly dramatic.
In this book he makes a compelling case to accept that the scientific paradigm of evolutionary biology has now invaded sociology and philosophy so profoundly that these disciplines can now be regarded as contiguous, indeed fused.
Notwithstanding the inevitable limits to science, beyond which the speculative and the intuitive must prevail, Wilson's case is irresistable : `The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have'.
The implication is that its importance will continue to grow; and, as it does so, more of the arts' territory will become science's.
Written over thirty years ago, the work remains an absolute classic
In this book he makes a compelling case to accept that the scientific paradigm of evolutionary biology has now invaded sociology and philosophy so profoundly that these disciplines can now be regarded as contiguous, indeed fused.
Notwithstanding the inevitable limits to science, beyond which the speculative and the intuitive must prevail, Wilson's case is irresistable : `The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have'.
The implication is that its importance will continue to grow; and, as it does so, more of the arts' territory will become science's.
Written over thirty years ago, the work remains an absolute classic
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An essay by a true humanist
This hard-hitting, thought provoking book should be read by everyone.
The author sides with S.J. Read more
The author sides with S.J. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Luc REYNAERT
A classic from a legend
When I was reading this I had to keep checking to remind myself that it was written in 1978. Now 30 years old, it's beautifully written, still thought provoking and still... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Magnus Johnson
Sociobiology: Wonderful idea, wrong species
Sociobiology is a sub-branch of biology studying social behaviour among animals from an extreme Neo-Darwinist perspective. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ashtar Command
Superficial Nonsense
This book is superficial uncritical pseudoscience. I find it difficult to summarise all the non-sequiturs in this book in a single capsule review. So let me use just one example. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2005 by Alan Michael Forrester
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