Consilience : the unity of knowledge / Edward O. Wilson.

By:

Wilson, Edward O

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1998.Edition: 1st edDescription: 332 p. : ill. ; 25 cmISBN:

0679450777 (hbk.)
9780679450771 (hbk.)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

117 WIL 23 001224

Online resources:

Table of contents

Contents:

Ch. 1. The Ionian Enchantment Ch. 2. The Great Branches of Learning Ch. 3. The Enlightenment Ch. 4. The Natural Sciences Ch. 5. Ariadne's Thread Ch. 6. The Mind Ch. 7. From Genes to Culture Ch. 8. The Fitness of Human Nature Ch. 9. The Social Sciences Ch. 10. The Arts and Their Interpretation Ch. 11. Ethics and Religion Ch. 12. To What End?

Summary: In this new book, the American biologist Edward O. Wilson argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience - the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of fundamental natural laws that comprise the principles underlying every branch of learning. Professor Wilson shows how and why 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 and the human species - a vision that 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. Drawing on the physical sciences and biology, anthropology, psychology, religion, philosophy, and the arts, 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 humanistic scholarship, and how they are beginning to sketch themselves as the blueprint of our world as it most profoundly, elegantly, and excitingly is.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore	Xerxes S. Desai Collection	117 WIL 001224 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		001224

Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-319) and index.

Ch. 1. The Ionian Enchantment
Ch. 2. The Great Branches of Learning
Ch. 3. The Enlightenment
Ch. 4. The Natural Sciences
Ch. 5. Ariadne's Thread
Ch. 6. The Mind
Ch. 7. From Genes to Culture
Ch. 8. The Fitness of Human Nature
Ch. 9. The Social Sciences
Ch. 10. The Arts and Their Interpretation
Ch. 11. Ethics and Religion
Ch. 12. To What End?

In this new book, the American biologist Edward O. Wilson argues for the fundamental unity of all knowledge and the need to search for consilience - the proof that everything in our world is organized in terms of a small number of fundamental natural laws that comprise the principles underlying every branch of learning.
Professor Wilson shows how and why 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 and the human species - a vision that 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. Drawing on the physical sciences and biology, anthropology, psychology, religion, philosophy, and the arts, 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 humanistic scholarship, and how they are beginning to sketch themselves as the blueprint of our world as it most profoundly, elegantly, and excitingly is.

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