"If you can't be a problem solver, be an explorer"
Edward Wilson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"A science of sociobiology, if coupled with neurophysiology, might transform the insights of ancient religions into a precise account of the evolutionary origin of ethics and hence explain the reasons why we make certain moral choices instead of others at particular times."
Edward Wilson

 

Edward O. Wilson is an internationally acclaimed scientist, entomologist, and biologist, who has won many national and international awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Medal of Science. His childhood began in Birmingham, Alabama where he was born in 1929. As a young boy he spent his summers in Paradise Beach, Florida where he gained his passion for nature while exploring the beach and its wildlife. According to Wilson this is how a naturalist is created, sowing the seeds of knowledge and wisdom. Reflecting back to those times, Wilson explains how he decided to be an entomologist. Due to a fishing accident he lost vision in one eye, and in his adolescent years he also lost some of his hearing due to a heredity defect. Hence, with these limitations Wilson focused his curiosity on animals that were small enough to be captured and inspected closely.

Su trabajo

When Edward O. Wilson has a new idea, people listen--and then start fighting. A distinguished professor emeritus of biology at Harvard University and recognized as perhaps the world's leading authority on ants, Wilson opened a new field of science in the 1970s with his book Sociobiology. It argued that social animals, including humans, behave largely according to rules written in their very genes. The theory sparked controversy because it not only appeared to contradict cherished beliefs about free will, but also, according to critics, harked back to racist ideologies charging that some human groups were biologically superior to others. Harvard students called for his ouster and protesters once soaked him with a pitcher of water at a symposium. Wilson and others have defended and refined sociobiology over the years to such a point that it is now a dictionary word, and a new generation of so-called evolutionary psychologists accept it as given.

Wilson preaches for the unity of science and humanities. He believes that through the disciplines of the natural sciences we can explain social sciences such as religion, ethics, politics and humanities. Wilson's theory is referred to by some as the "New World order" that is based on natural sciences. Wilson's latest views are again controversial since he challenges the validity of religion as the ultimate power. He suggests that there is no God that inflicted ethics and moralities on humans, but that these traits, which were beneficial for us as a species, evolved through our genetic selection (Wilson 1998). To some Wilson will always be a rebel of social conformities; to others he will be one of the greatest scientists of his day.

The biological  basis of morality

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/sociobiology.html (Sociobiology, a brief review)

http://itest.slu.edu/articles/90s/blackwell2.html (Sociobilogy: The new religion)

http://animals.about.com/cs/sociobiology/ (Colección de links relacionados con la sociobiología)