A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them. -- The Wall Street Journal 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.
爱德华·威尔逊 Edward O. Wilson，生于1929年，当今国际生物学界翘楚，演化生物学先驱，蚂蚁研究权威，殿堂级科学大师。《自然》杂志评价他为“既是世界级的科学家，也是伟大的写作者”。《时代》杂志评选他为“全美最具影响力的 25人之一” “世纪人物”。目前任哈佛大学比较动物学博物馆昆虫馆的荣誉馆长。
他以杰出的科学成就，引发了20世纪生物学的数次革命：提出岛屿生物地理学理论，奠定现代物种保护的理论基础；创建“社会生物学”这一全新学科，引发整个知识阶层与社会大众的广泛讨论；倡导“生物多样性”概念，使其成为影响全球的环保理念。进入21世纪，他提出“知识大融通”，致力于搭建科学与人文之间的桥梁，并对人类的历史演化、当下处境和未来前景等终极问题做出深邃思考……获有100多项大奖，包括美国的国家科学奖、瑞典皇家科学院的克拉福德奖、泰勒环境成就奖、世...