Consilience

The Unity of Knowledge

By: Edward O. Wilson

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

One of our greatest living scientists - and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants - gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities.

Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

©1999 Edward O. Wilson (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." (The Wall Street Journal)

"An original work of synthesis... a program of unrivalled ambition: to unify all the major branches of knowledge—sociology, economics, the arts and religion—under the banner of science." (The New York Times)

"As elegant in its prose as it is rich in its ideas... a book of immense importance." (Atlanta Journal & Constitution)

The philosophy of science, and why we should view culture and behavior with its method

Wilson’s ambitious mission is to argue for an overall understanding of the fundamental unity of the natural physical universe and the behavioral, ethical, and social human experience. In part he argues that the lessons of physical science are superior in reliability, progression, and especially in method. Furthermore, he argues that the rules of the biological and physical cores of the development of human life are the foundation of all of the thousands and millions of details within human culture and civilizations. There should be a recognition of the unity of sciences and of human cultural structures, and where they are oppositional, the hypotheses of science must be given greater authority and deference. Only by understanding government, culture, and art as fundamentally steered by our physical existence and history can humanity have the necessary basis to develop an ethically defensible and actually sustainable existence.

It’s such a big and comprehensive synthesis of all the areas of academic and civilizational areas of knowledge, I even doubt my ability to be really correct in summarizing the author’s positions. So I’m listening twice. But it is interesting, insightful, and well developed.

absolutley lovely

Edward o Wilson is one of my favorite authors and this is one of his centerpieces of writing.

everyone should read this

A fantastical and expressively deep dive into the connective tissues of the sciences. Informative and poetically prosed explanations, that pose a question we must all internalize, "is the way that categorically organize and interprete all the culminated scientific observations and data wrong at it's most fundamental core?" The answer suggested by this reading is a resounding "yes!"

Very Informative!

I enjoyed this great book about connecting knowledge. Great book and enjoyable listen. Highly recommended!! #Inspiring #SelfDiscovery #Provocative #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

A Call For Unity

This book still has the potential to reconcile every area of human knowledge. A source for numerous strands of intellect conversations, it may still do the same for you.

A Singular Achievement!

Ed Wilson has tied four great arenas of study into a comprehensive whole ... physics, molecular biology, sociology and the humanities are glimpsed tracking towards a common science ... the science of life ... we're not there yet, and we must still pass existential bottlenecks, but parts of the way forward are now more illuminated ... a tour de force of rigorous scientific aspiration and realization!

This is a deep and insightful Book

In reading this book I become very impressed with the expansive and deep nature of knowledge of EO Wilson. This book is very relevant for today and It's predictions and insights are the same we are working with today. If you read only one chapter of this book read the last chapter which essentially puts together the theme of this book and of our society and species in general.

A legendary ecologist, via a commanding narrator

Excellent narrator; I don't believe I heard more than two mispronunciations, and these were Latin words. Great voice lends authority to well-developed ideas. Even better imo if listened to at ~1.3x.

Wilson is a polymath and a modern Renaissance man. I can't imagine how much time he spent acquiring his comprehensive knowledge, which spans a wide gamut of very relevant history, literature, arts, ethics, psychology, and the domains of anthropology, all from a grounded and rigorous devotion to science, within a reduction-reintegration framework of synthesis. I cannot imagine that this book didn't make a few waves in the humanities and social sciences. If I have a critique, it's that Wilson was catering to too many audiences simultaneously, and felt compelled to explain perspectives behind known bodies of scientific theory. He was at his best, however, when building freely off of such frameworks, arguing compellingly and eloquently in a tour de force that will be quoted by generations of scientists to come. The very end of the book leaves a lasting impact.

Surprisingly useful for 20 year old book

Many of the concepts mentioned are now advanced, but the book is a surprisingly useful view into the state of humanities 20 years ago and great indicator of the lack of progress in the 2 decades since. Definitely worth listening to for some interesting ideas, especially if you keep comparing what is said with the current state of affairs.

Great topic, diminished by final chapter

Fantastic treatise on the importance of combining the knowledge gained from multiple educational disciplines -- consilience -- in order to have the best possible understanding of the world. Much of the book provides a blueprint for maximizing individual knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and success, and how striving towards this state of interdisciplinary knowledge makes it possible for individuals to better serve society. Unfortunately, Wilson throws much of it out the window when he decides to end the book with the usual world-ending environmental scare tactics and a thinly veiled suggestion that a Marxist world order is humanity's best solution. I'm not sure how he can spend over 16 hours talking about the importance of bringing together knowledge from multiple disciplines and then go completely one-sided for the final hour. Consilience seemed to be completely lacking during the final hour since there was no mention of the growing number of dissenting voices and data. Wherever one falls on the climate change debate spectrum, one should be able to recognize the contradiction between the final chapter and the rest of the book.
Overall, I still recommend this title. It was well performed by the reader, and a majority of the information in the first 90% of the book should be very useful to most people.