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Loading... In Search of Natureby Edward O. Wilson
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Amazon.com (ISBN 155963216X, Paperback)Biologist Edward O. Wilson has been observing humans and nature in a career in biology that spans more than four decades. For the last 10 years or so, he has labored to alert us to the dangers we face due to the decline in the "diversity of life, which we are so recklessly diminishing through species extinction." The essays in In Search of Nature range widely. He gives us tales of nature's boundless variety with creatures like the reservoir ant and the cookie cutter shark and with a discussion of the importance of taxonomy. In the final essay, "Is Humanity Suicidal?" he returns to the topic that seems to be most on his mind: mankind's assault on the world of nature.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
- human aggression (he does not agree with Konrad Lorenz - even aggression evolves rapidly - and Erich Fromm - humanity is not suicidal -)
- the fallacy of ethics (human nature is to a large extent the heritage of a Pleistocene hunter-gatherer existance)
- the place of mankind in Gaia (the totality of Life on Earth). He argues clearly that if human beings were to disappear, the world would go on little changed and would heal itself from the damage inflicted by mankind. The only necessary animals,for Gaia and also for the human species, are the invertebrates.
Perhaps the most controversial point of the book are his arguments in defence of racial differences in the human populations, based on genetic components. But as always with E. O. Wilson, his argumentation is based on solid research and clear thinking.