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A Conquista Da Terra (2012)

by Edward O. Wilson(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

9897241043 (ISBN13: 9789897241048)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Clube do Autor

review 1: Boring! A study or more like a theory about humanity. Using a painting by Gauguin who raised the questions, he asks Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? He then tries to answer these questions. There were some good chapters which were more about biology and genetics. A few interesting facts about bees and ants. However I felt a lot of the time he just kept repeating himself. Maybe it was to drill his points home, or to explain things in different ways in case you didn't catch it the first time, but I just got annoyed by it. He believes group selection is how to explain our origin and rise through the ages. He shows why other theories are wrong.
review 2: July 13, 2014: I'm about 3/4 of the way through this one and I think I've finally gotte... moren through a tedious middle section in which the esteemed Dr. Wilson uses the book as a platform to play out a currently raging scientific controversy over whether eusociality is driven by kinship selection or group selection. I am not sure it is appropriate to take an esoteric scientific controversy of this nature, still very much in discussion among serious scientists, and attempt to gain ground by convincing a lay audience of casual science enthusiasts. I'm not sure what is gained by that approach other than to raise the ire of your scientific peers. I can see why one may want to describe the two models, explain the controversy, and perhaps even say which of the two sides the author prefers and why, while acknowledging that the matter is far from settled in the scientific community. I am not sure I see any value, however, in taking that approach as far as Dr. Wilson takes it, which comes awfully close to ridiculing the opinions of those scientists who fall on the other side of the divide. I am soldiering through this work still, because I appear to have gotten into more interesting material now. Otherwise I would put it down and return it to the library unfinished. less

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