Edward O. Wilson: Trending quotes

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Edward O. Wilson: 166 quotes9 likes

“Although the capacity to become schizophrenic may well be within all of us, there is no question that certain persons have distinctive genes predisposing them to the condition.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“The fraction of Americans working in occupations concerned primarily with information has increased from 20 to nearly 50 percent of the work force.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“Much of good science — and perhaps all of great science — has its roots in fantasy.”

Edward O. Wilson

Source: Letters to a Young Scientist (2013), chapter 5, "The Creative Process", page 69.

“I interpret contemporary human social behavior to comprise hypertrophic outgrowths of the simpler features of human nature joined together into an irregular mosaic.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“We seem to be able to be fully comfortable only when the remainder of humanity can be labeled as members versus nonmembers.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“The most peaceable tribes of today were often ravagers of yesteryear and will probably again produce soldiers and murderers in the future.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.5 Aggression

“My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence: ‘he or she has shown that…”

Edward O. Wilson

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-richard-dawkins-is-no-scientist-the-survival-of-the-least-selfish-and-what-ants-can-tell-us-about-humans-eo-wilson-on-his-new-book-the-meaning-of-human-existence-9849956.html

“Because of mathematical indeterminancy and the uncertainty principle, it may be a law of nature that no nervous system is capable of acquiring enough knowledge to significantly predict the future of any other intelligent system in detail. Nor can intelligent minds gain enough self-knowledge to know their own future, capture fate, and in this sense eliminate free will.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“The central idea of the philosophy of behaviorism, that behavior and the mind have an entirely materialist basis subject to experimental analysis, is fundamentally sound.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendents are least likely to forgive us.”

Edward O. Wilson

Gaia Atlas of Planet Management

“We can search among the unconscious, emotion-laden learning rules for the kind of behavior most directly influenced by genetic evolution.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“Nationalism and racism, to take two examples, are the culturally nurtured outgrowths of simple tribalism.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.”

Edward O. Wilson

Source: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998), p. 262.

“The borderline between normal and schizophrenic people is broad and nearly imperceptible.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“Most kinds of aggressive behavior among members of the same species are responsive to crowding in the environment.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.5 Aggression

“Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and very fast, whereas biological evolution is Darwinian and usually very slow.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“Genetic determinism… On its interpretation depends the entire relation between biology and the social sciences.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.3 Development

“The genius of human society is in fact the ease with which alliances are formed, broken, and reconstituted, always with strong emotional appeals to rules believed to be absolute.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978)