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by Edward O. Wilson, Published 1998 Summary of Review Article about
this Pulitzer Prize winning book.
What is the case Edward Wilson seeks to make? In contrast the post-modern outlook Wilson believes in universal truth. However the burden of this book is to take this conviction further than many would want. He believes that all truth can in principle be attained by the reductionist methods of natural science. That is to say that he believes that our conscious awareness of our surroundings, our apparent free-will, the personal knowledge we have of one another, our appreciation of beauty, our perception of right and wrong etc can all be reduced to the laws of physics. In other words he believes that all ways of knowing can in the end be reduced to reductionist science. He is then what some would call a `hard materialist’ or `hard naturalist’. He pleads guilty to `ontological reductionism’ and `scientism’. (page 9). Over and over again his main thesis boils down to the argument that since scientific reductionism has answered many of our questions about the natural world it will, one day, be able to answer all questions. However that simply does not follow! It could conceivably be argued that science's great success makes it possible that one day it will answer all questions. Even this argument for a possible outcome could only be valid if it could be shown that the advance of science is reducing the sense of mystery about the nature of reality. It can easily be argued that the reverse is the case. If we presuppose materialism before we begin to examine reality, ultimately there will be no alternative to Edward Wilson’s view. But why should we presuppose it? In the full article I go on to discuss his theories about beauty, our sense of goodness, and consciousness and how he believes they will all be explained by advances in reductionist science. My full article shows that in spite of Wilson's impressive knowledge of many areas of learning he is unaware of the ancient and modern philosophical discussions about the mysteries of our human experience - mysteries that are in principle beyond pure physical explanation. Scientists who get into this kind of discussion really should read some elementary philosophy to discover what the real issues are. Copyright © 2000 Howard Taylor Go back to list of Articles in Summary. |