Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 574.092
EAN num: 9780140251784
Format: Import
ISBN number: 0140251782
Label: Penguin Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: August 29, 1996
Publishing house: Penguin Books Ltd
Studio: Penguin Books Ltd
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Rated by buyers 
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Wilson delivers a compelling and inspirational account of his scientific career from age 5 onward, and some touching personal details explaining what drew him to nature. But read critically! Sometimes the sentimental tone can cast doubt on the credibility of his recollections.
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Edward Wilson's works unravel of their own accord.
He tells us that human beings do not have free will.
Ergo, Edward Wilson did not choose to write this book, or any book. He did not choose what to believe, nor has anyone, and therefore he can make no objective claim to correct knowledge.
If what he says is true then nothing he says can be trusted since it is merely the product of an infinite myriad of uncontrollable externalities working in concert to produce whatever it is that happens to come out of his physical manifestation.
It is even debatable whether or not evolution had true belief or correct knowledge as one of its requirements for survival. Indeed it can be shown that false belief as much as true belief (and in fact no belief at all) can infer an increased level of fitness on the host organism.
If evolutionary psychology has any truth at all its truth is that we cannot trust our mental faculties to obtain the truth at all. Nihilism in the truest sense.
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To me, it looks as if Wilson turned to be a great scientist against all odds. He did not come from the academic royalty, but from a broken family in Alabama. With strong intuition, lot of hard work and endless enthusiasm, he became one of the great scientists of the 20th century. A well written book, that would probably change the course of my life have I read it at the right age...
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An engaging and well-written account of the famous biologist's intellectual development from his early to his mature years and most important achievements. Nice discussions of some of his most interesting and important ideas punctuate this history. For example, there's a good section on the origin and development of his ecological ideas and the theory of island biogeography. Wilson is always a cautious but careful writer and thinker, but in a couple of the sections, he gets at least a little bit speculative and is all the more entertaining for it. For example, his discusion of the innateness of our fear of spiders and snakes is entertaining (Wilson himself is very phobic about spiders). Equally entertaining is the section where he discusses people's preference for a particular type of environment or ecology (subalpine or montane foothills parkland or partially wooded savannah with some lakes). Wilson attributes this to it being the environment where we originally evolved. Overall it counts as one of the best scientific biographies I've ever read.
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This autobiography is more for the professional biological scientist, who should really enjoy the detailed description of the many field works of the author. Although his reflections on aggression, behaviourism (for him grossly overstated), and sociobiology are a worth-while reading.
He confesses that he became far too late an environmental activist.
I can only subscribe his fundamental truths: first, humanity is the product of biological evolution; second, the diversity of life is the craddle and greatest natural heritage of the human species; and third, philosophy and religion make little sense without taking into account these two very first conceptions.
Another silver lining in his professional life: his struggle with colleagues, jealousy, slander, undermining of his position, covert attacks (Harvard is not a monastery).
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