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The Social Conquest Of Earth (2012)

by Edward O. Wilson(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0871404133 (ISBN13: 9780871404138)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Liveright

review 1: When Wilson, an entomologist, writes about ants, he's fascinating, but when he's making connections between the way we account for adaptive shifts between epochs in ant behavior and puzzlements of human evolutionary development, like the pre-adaptive conditions on the origin of language, he can make us wonder how, or whether, these "eusocial" tropisms are even alike; wouldn't we only be able to understand "pre-history" under the regime of history, an assumption that calls out for deconstruction? This project in argument through resemblance spreads itself thin, and will not satisfy the taste for assortivity. Wilson is arguing for a new form of "multi-level" adaptation and selection, which he refers to by the old nomenclature of "group selection" (as opposed to "kin" selec... moretion). When the subject is ants, we're baited for the discussion; when the subject is human, we're puzzled, bothered, and finally frustrated. On his way to popularizing his octogenarian second thoughts about how his own scholarship rides the Darwinistic wave, the intellectual contents himself in telling Just So stories.
review 2: Always wanted to read a book by Wilson, also known as the ant guy, because of his extensive research in the world of insects. I got curious because of his quote "Wonderful theory, wrong species" (On Marxism, which he considered more suited to ants than to humans.) I got some answers but was left with even more questions. The books covers quite a breadth of topics history of evolution, biology, ant life, evolution of human culture, language, creativity, social intelligence etc. I enjoyed reading some of his answers to why culture evolved. He writes "A group with members who can read intentions and cooperate among themselves while predicting the actions of competing groups, would have enormous advantage over others less gifted". The last section 7 chapters are my favorite and I will probably read them again. less

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