Search Results for: how the mind works

E.O. Wilson: THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH (2012)

Posted on Wednesday 19 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

E.O. Wilson’s THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH, from 2012, is in my estimation one of the four most significant books by this scientist and writer. (The others are ON HUMAN NATURE, 1978; CONSILIENCE, 1998; and THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson, GENESIS: THE DEEP ORIGIN OF SOCIETIES (2019)

Posted on Monday 17 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This was Wilson’s second to the last original book, and it’s quite short, perhaps simply a long essay; 125 pages divided into 7 chapters with illustrations and blank pages in between; many references, and an index. Key Points The gist … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson: THE ORIGINS OF CREATIVITY (2017)

Posted on Sunday 16 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

What is creativity? It is the innate quest for originality. The driving force is humanity’s instinctive love of novelty—the discovery of new entities and processes, the solving of old challenges and disclosure of new ones, the aesthetic surprise of unanticipated … Continue reading →

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2021 in Review

Posted on Friday 31 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s something I don’t usually do. But perhaps it’s worth doing, especially for this past year. What were the significant events of this past year, in my personal life and in the history I’m living through? I had a heart … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson, HALF-EARTH (2016)

Posted on Wednesday 29 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

E.O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, Liveright, 2016, 259p This is one of Wilson’s last four or five books, the first one following The Meaning of Human Existence in 2014. These books seem slighter that most earlier Wilson … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson

Posted on Monday 27 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The great evolutionary biologist and author E.O. Wilson died on Sunday. He was 92. He  had been publishing new books right up to the end, with Tales from the Ant World in 2020. Several of his earlier books, from On … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth (2009)

Posted on Thursday 16 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Free Press, Sept. 2009.

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Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True (2009)

Posted on Wednesday 15 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry A. Coyne, Why Evolution is True. Viking, Feb. 2009. This is another of a dozen or so most significant books that I’ve read over the past decade or more that I’ve put off writing up on this blog simply … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: RATIONALITY (2021)

Posted on Sunday 12 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Pinker, Steven. Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. Viking, 2021 I realize I’ve never written up a book by Steven Pinker on this blog, though I’ve read several and I think Pinker is one of … Continue reading →

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Novella et al: THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE

Posted on Wednesday 8 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Novella, Dr. Steven, et al. The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. Grand Central, 2018. *** I read this shortly after publication, nearly three years ago now, and … Continue reading →

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