General Science
Consilience - The Unity of Knowledge
Publisher: Vintage, 1999, 384pp, 1st ed.
Historically, all of the sciences were once united under the rubric of "natural science." Over time, they became fragmented and specialized. Nevertheless, Wilson argues that there is a genetic and neurological basis for knowledge and that all subjects of human inquiry can be reunited under the umbrella of "consilience."
The result of his lifelong, wide-ranging investigations is Consilience, a wonderfully broad study that encourages scholars to bridge the many gaps that yawn between and within the cultures of science and the arts. No such gaps should exist, Wilson maintains, for the sciences, humanities, and arts have a common goal: to give understanding a purpose, to lend to us all "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws."
The result of his lifelong, wide-ranging investigations is Consilience, a wonderfully broad study that encourages scholars to bridge the many gaps that yawn between and within the cultures of science and the arts. No such gaps should exist, Wilson maintains, for the sciences, humanities, and arts have a common goal: to give understanding a purpose, to lend to us all "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws."
Table of contents
| Ch. 1 | The Ionian Enchantment | 3 |
| Ch. 2 | The Great Branches of Learning | 8 |
| Ch. 3 | The Enlightenment | 14 |
| Ch. 4 | The Natural Sciences | 45 |
| Ch. 5 | Ariadne's Thread | 66 |
| Ch. 6 | The Mind | 96 |
| Ch. 7 | From Genes to Culture | 125 |
| Ch. 8 | The Fitness of Human Nature | 164 |
| Ch. 9 | The Social Sciences | 181 |
| Ch. 10 | The Arts and Their Interpretation | 210 |
| Ch. 11 | Ethics and Religion | 238 |
| Ch. 12 | To What End? | 266 |
| Notes | 299 | |
| Acknowledgments | 321 | |
| Index | 323 |