On the Shelf: Consilience
Edward O. Wilson is one of the most accomplished sociobiologists in the world. His revolutionary studies on ants opened the door for the field of sociobiology in contemporary academia. Consilience (1998) was written to explain Wilson’s belief in the eventual unity of knowledge. His explanation of the merging of biological and cultural evolution is fascinating and when I read this book, I was profoundly moved. Understanding itself has a purpose, Wilson writes, and that purpose is something that I am trying to comprehend in my own experience teaching at New Bedford High School. Wilson draws examples from the Enlightenment period, wheree pure reason was used to explore human experience. He also discusses experimental epistemology, rationalism vs. reductionism and the growing study of consciousness. When I think of Wilson’s patterns of thought, I am reminded of Frank Herbert’s Bene Gesserit order in his science-fiction classic, Dune (and the subsequent books in the series). They sought to maintain a higher order throughout the universe in human experience, not through the application of power, but rather in the authority of thought. Are archaeology and genetics linked? Is there a natural bridge between behavioral psychology and microeconomics? Are chemistry and poetry siblings?
