Editorial Review:

Scientists are rapidly mapping the chemical and physical pathways that constitute biological systems, making the complexity of processes such as inheritance, development, evolution, and even the origin of life increasingly tractable. Through genetics and neuroscience, biological understanding is now being extended deeply into the human sciences and has begun to transform our understanding of behavior, mind, culture, and values. The idea of a science-driven unity of knowledge has reemerged in several forms in both reductionist and nonreductionist frameworks. This volume examines some of the extraordinary empirical discoveries that have caused a revival of this idea and presents theories from thinkers in a variety of disciplines, including E. O. Wilson, Eric Kandel, and Elaine Scarry.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Varied and productive exchange of ideas:

This book follows the contents of a cross-disciplinary conference held at the NY Acadamy of sciences. It starts off with a keynote by E.O.Wilson, on his concept of consilience, which could have signalled sending the event straight in the direction of hardline sociobiology.

But the most interesting thing about this book is that it dares to reject both the hardline reductionist views AND the hardline social constructionists, and seriously discuss the are in between these extremes, with participants who... more info

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