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E. O. Wilson Quotes

E. O. Wilson quotes about humanity

American Scientist June 10, 1929

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Quotes

Overall, it seems now possible to draw a reasonably good explanation of why the human condition is a singularity, why the likes of it has occurred only once and took so long in coming. The reason is simply the extreme improbability of the preadaptations necessary for it to occur at all. Each of the evolutionary steps has been a full-blown adaptation in its own right. Each has required a particular sequence of one or more preadaptations that occurred previously. Homo sapiens is the only... E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson quote: "The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not..."
The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. E. O. Wilson
Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the "environmentalist" view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view. E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson quote: "The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about..."
The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans. E. O. Wilson
Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition. E. O. Wilson
The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views? E. O. Wilson
Science, its imperfections notwithstanding, is the sword in the stone that humanity finally pulled. The question it poses, of universal and orderly materialism, is the most important that can be asked in philosophy and religion. E. O. Wilson
Human beings appear to be sufficiently selfish and calculating to be capable of indefinitely greater harmony and social homeostasis. This statement is not self-contradictory. True selfishness, if obedient to the other constraints of mammalian biology, is the key to a more nearly perfect social contract. - pg. 157 E. O. Wilson
We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. E. O. Wilson
Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals. E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson quote: "Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth..."
Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans. E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson quote: "The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient..."
The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere. E. O. Wilson
I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves. E. O. Wilson

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