From Plant Press, Vol. 1, No. 5, September 1998.
Consilience: the “jumping together” of concepts, attitudes, philosophies, and disciplines to formulate exceptional explanations. E. O. Wilson, Professor at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, has written a new book introducing his approach to the conceptual integration of knowledge that has received considerable attention not only from the biological community, but from the global intellectual populace as well. When Speaker of the House Gingrich joined us for lunch the other day in the Chairman’s Office in Botany, he was quick to point out that Wilson had impressed even him with his manuscript on consilience. Not only has Wilson stimulated discussions among ecologists and evolutionary biologists, his normal population of readers, but he has somehow challenged the mode of operation of politicians, philosophers, economists, and humanists as well.
Over the last few months several of us in the Museum tackled a reading and critique of the ideas Wilson presents in Consilience-The Unity of Knowledge published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. It is clear that Wilson, who is now more active than ever as Emeritus Professor at Harvard, has expanded his ken beyond ants, the evolution of social behavior, and even the worldwide biodiversity crisis, to tackle a more encompassing approach to the development of knowledge and humanity. His essay attempts to galvanize a new concept of knowledge based on a mega-interdisciplinary approach to understanding the earth and society. We are not simply challenged with the integration of various branches of the biological sciences, such as systematics, ecology, genetics and physiology, nor even the synthesis of the major branches of science including biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Wilson advocates in a persuasive way the “jumping together” of science, economics, the arts and religion to provide a new perspective on the evolution of our world, our biotic environment, our social fabric, and ourselves. This is no small challenge.
“Consilience” has generated both positive and some negative acclaim from the intellectual community at large. I suggest that anyone interested in the ideas presented in his book concentrate on the first few chapters where he reviews the development of intellectual thought through the ages and presents his basic ideas on integration. I am still pondering the more speculative interpretations he presents in the later chapters on explanations for the evolution of the mind, human culture, and the arts. As a biologist, I believe he is on the right track. However, Wilson is still at only the early stage of developing this approach to understanding the intrinsic unity of knowledge.
Does consilience translate to monographic research, or investigations of plant molecular systematics, or even the new compactorization of our collections? At the risk of misinterpreting Wilson’s higher level concepts of the integration of knowledge, I think it does. We can approach all that we do as natural historians in understanding the diversity of the earth, documenting the biological world, and deciphering the evolutionary process by accepting a broader perspective on how all universal information and knowledge fit together. We can broaden our perspective on the uses and importance of our collections, taxonomic data, and botanical results to understand not only the biological world, but the disciplines of economics, humanities, and the arts. Consilience does not have to be only a reconciliation of the more esoteric concepts of multidiscipline, but in the long run is better served by the jumping together at all levels of integration. We can indeed better understand the nature of our botanical collections by considering their evolutionary history, their physiological basis, their economic value, and their aesthetic appeal. In turn, an understanding of the natural world can lead us to a deeper understanding of our current communities, the history of our societies, and the future of the planet. And perhaps most immediate, consilience challenges us as a natural history museum to bring together for the public a clear explanation of the natural world based on good science linked with a thoughtful understanding of its cultural context and presented in an artistically exhilarating atmosphere.