Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Meaning of Human Existence
    The Meaning of Human Existence
    The Meaning of Human Existence
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Meaning of Human Existence

    Written by Edward O. Wilson

    Narrated by Jonathan Hogan

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Edward O. Wilson bridges science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence. Once criticized for his over-reliance on genetics, Wilson unfurls here his most expansive and advanced theories on human behavior, recognizing that, even though the human and spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different than the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "the Riddle of the Human Species," warning of "the Collapse of Biodiversity," or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.," Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. Alarmed, however, that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham. Edward O. Wilson is widely recognized as one of the world's leading scientists. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the best-selling THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH and LETTERS TO A YOUNG SCIENTIST.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 6, 2014
    ISBN9781490627915
    The Meaning of Human Existence

    More audiobooks from Edward O. Wilson

    Related to The Meaning of Human Existence

    Related audiobooks

    Science & Mathematics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Self Is Other People

      Apr 3, 2018

      The Self Is Other People
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Transcendent Brain

      Dec 5, 2022

      The Transcendent Brain
      15 min read

    • Article

      Life Beyond Human Has to Play by the Rules

      Mar 17, 2021

      There are many ways to think about alien, extraterrestrial life forms. Science-fiction writers do it all the time. Scientists, more interested in nonfiction, think about how to receive signals that real aliens might send, as well as what sort of sign

      11 min read

    • Article

      Nature

      Jun 19, 2023

      In an article published last year in the Scientific American, contemplating developments in our search for extraterrestrial life, Andrea Gawrylewski writes, “Given the math, it seems impossible that we humans would be the only living things in the co

      3 min read

    • Article

      How Psilocybin Can Save the Environment

      Sep 30, 2020

      Last week, biologist and writer Merlin Sheldrake introduced Nautilus readers to Paul Stamets, a mycologist who preaches that mushrooms can save the world. “Give him an insoluble problem and he’ll toss you a new way it can be decomposed, poisoned, or

      6 min read

    • Article

      Yes, Determinists, There Is Free Will

      May 16, 2019

      It’s not just in politics where otherwise smart people consistently talk past one another. People debating whether humans have free will also have this tendency. Neuroscientist and free-will skeptic Sam Harris has dueled philosopher and free-will def

      10 min read

    • Article

      Our Most Effective Weapon Is Imagination

      Apr 28, 2021

      In his Theaetetus, Plato remarks to Socrates: “This pathos is proper to the philosopher: It is the thaumazein. And philosophy has no other point of departure than this.” The word, which contains the root thauma, the same that appears in thaumaturgy,

      9 min read

    • Article

      Do Aliens Have Inalienable Rights?

      Apr 13, 2017

      Last January I was walking with my granddaughter along a beach near Melbourne when we noticed several people gathered around a rock pool, peering into the water. Wondering what had attracted their attention, we went over and saw that it was an octopu

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble with Counting Alien Civilizations

      Jun 24, 2020

      You might imagine that in the midst of a global pandemic and all of its social and economic fallout that our minds would be laser-focused on immediate, Earthly woes. But apparently not entirely. A case in point is the recent virus-like spread of news

      5 min read

    • Article

      1 All About Us

      Jan 29, 2019

      1 All About Us
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Bongard Problem

      Jun 4, 2018

      This text adopts the form of a Bongard problem, which is a kind of puzzle with two sides. In Bongard problems, the viewer is meant to decipher the singular difference between two sets of geometric forms. They have been used as a way to illustrate met

      6 min read

    • Article

      Is Earth Smart?

      Feb 19, 2022

      Is Earth Smart?
      8 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Nov 17, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      Edward O.wilson

      Jul 1, 2020

      Edward O.wilson
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Tricky Problem with Other Minds

      Aug 29, 2019

      Human “exceptionalism” is for many people an unquestioned assumption. For the religious, it is a God-given fact; for humanists, it is a celebration of our unique mental capacities. No other species has created music, art, literature, or built skyscra

      20 min read

    • Article

      Gaia Will Soon Belong to the Cyborgs

      Mar 5, 2020

      Our reign as sole understanders of the cosmos is rapidly coming to an end. We should not be afraid of this. The revolution that has just begun may be understood as a continuation of the process whereby the Earth nurtures the understanders, the beings

      7 min read

    • Article

      CONSCIOUSNESS v CATASTROPHE

      May 31, 2018

      CONSCIOUSNESS v CATASTROPHE
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Clash of Perspectives on Panpsychism

      Feb 27, 2020

      In recent years the concept of panpsychism, “which entertains the possibility that all matter is imbued with consciousness,” writes Annaka Harris, has been firing up cognitive scientists who plumb the nature of consciousness. Some entertain the possi

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Meaning of Human Existence

    4.5/5

    31 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with philosophical and anthropological questions, examining what makes human beings different from all other species and how we got to where we are today. He also discusses the dilemma of technology and abandoning natural selection. This is a brilliant piece of writing with some overlap with his prior book, The Social Conquest of Earth.
    • 3/5
      Interesting, but somewhat repetitive and disjointed. I really think you only need the first and last chapter to understand his themes.
    • 3/5
      In this series of essays, Edward O. Wilson sounds (at least to me) like an angry optimist. Humanity is impressive. We are the only species on Earth that can attempt to understand itself from anything resembling an objective perspective. We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. The forces that shaped us have left us prone to a wide range of traits that may not be conducive to our continued survival, and considering how many obstacles we have already overcome, how many times we have narrowly avoided extinction, that, I think, would be a shame and a terrible waste of potential. This is not exactly how he says it, but it is the message I'm getting from what he has said. I agree and I share his concerns.

      The reason I've subjectively rated this a 3 stars (I liked it) as opposed to four stars (I REALLY like it) is that it does carry an angry almost frustrated tone. I liked it because I agree with his observations and conclusions. It's not likely to convince anyone who does not.
    • 5/5
      Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with philosophical and anthropological questions, examining what makes human beings different from all other species and how we got to where we are today. He also discusses the dilemma of technology and abandoning natural selection. This is a brilliant piece of writing with some overlap with his prior book, The Social Conquest of Earth. SRH
    • 5/5
      An outstanding book that everyone should read, an absolute must!
    • 5/5
      This is a two hundred page book that is chock full of information and food for thought about how the human race came to be and what put our species into the dominant position that it is. Wilson ponders the possibility of life on other planets and has some interesting theories about what they would be like if extraterrestrials do exist. A principal theme is that humans are one of the few species that work together for the good of the group rather than solely for the self interest of the individual and sees this as very unique. He is an unabashed proponent of evolution. This book WILL make you think.
    • 5/5
      “The Meaning of Human Existence,” by Edward O. Wilson, is an extraordinary book: audacious, illuminating, and in the end, oddly comforting. How could it not be with a subject and title so outrageously brazen? Written by one of the most honored and preeminent living biologist, and at the pinnacle of his life, this is an exceptionally personal book. It is a synthesis and distillation of all the big who-are-we ideas he’s put together from a lifetime of scientific research and personal experience. You might call it a highly personal philosophical anthropology. But more accurately, it’s a scientific creation narrative about how we came to be what we are, what makes us special in the cosmos, and how we can use that specialness to improve our future.I downloaded this book the day it was published and devoured it over the course of the next two days. Now, a few days later, I am still basking in the satisfying glow and deep comfort of that extraordinary experience. The book pleased me not because it offered any major new scientific concepts or ideas. In fact, I found I was already quiet familiar with nearly all of the science presented in the book. If you’ve read Wilson’s other bestselling books and you’re reasonably well-read in the fields of prehistory, evolutionary biology, cultural anthropology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and comparative religions, then you, also, will find little new here. What was beautiful and remarkable was how the author was able to weave these many big concepts together to form a stunning tapestry of truth, a new science-based creation narrative. In this book, Wilson recounts his personal scientific take on the epic journey of human evolution. Wilson focuses that journey heavily on his recent groundbreaking thesis about the importance of human eusociality (see his “The Social Conquest of Earth”). The book also touches briefly on the latest scientific knowledge concerning instinct, the biology of religion, free will, and consciousness. As an important side note—yet given a whole chapter of its own—the author makes it clear that in the greater scheme of things, it is “microbes that rule the Galaxy.” For me, the most entertaining and enlightening chapter was the one entitled, “Portrait of E. T.” In that chapter, the author speculates—based on scientific theory—about the characteristics he would expect from any “human-grade aliens on Earth-like planets.” He gives us eight characteristics; taken together, they form a startling and eye-opening portrait, one significantly different from that we currently see in most science fiction.Finally, the book celebrates the dual importance of the humanities in addition to the sciences as the joint hallmarks of human achievement. He makes a point that if intelligent aliens were ever to contact earth, they would probably be far less interested in our science than our arts and humanities. After all, if they were to contact us, it is obvious that we would have little knowledge about science that they would not already know. It is our amazing accumulation of cultural heritage that would fascinate and thrill them. In closing, it would be an enormous oversight if I failed to note what a sublime pleasure it always is to read Wilson’s clear, thoughtful, eloquent and exquisite prose. I will be deeply saddened if this turns out to be his last book.
    • 4/5
      What is the place and status of humans in our world? Wilson thinks we are here only by an evolutionary accident and that we aren't as "special" as we would like think we are. We are governed by myths and the need to be accepted by others. There is a lot here to process and think about. This is an interesting read that will make you question your assumptions. Only the open-minded need apply!
    • 5/5
      Elegantly reasoned and eloquently articulated.
    • 5/5
      In this crossover of philosophy and science, Wilson says to humanity, Know thyself, and thou shalt survive. Know that some of your behaviours are inborn, your propensity for religion is hard-wired albeit irrational, know that the Earth is the only habitable planet for you. The behaviours that guide you come in part from the natural selection that worked on the individual and in part from group selection. Those that we came to see as vices come from an individual's fight for survival; those that we see as virtues: altruism and compassion, for example, from group selection. Selfish members win within groups, but groups of altruists best groups of selfish members. Otherwise, the future is bleak. There is an overwhelming chance we as a species will not survive.Overall, after a somewhat pompous and preachy beginning, we have an eloquent treatise dealing with our place in the universe and the meaning of our existence. The meaning, which Wilson defines in most humanistic and atheistic terms. He argues that we are a product of natural laws and evolution and there are no deities to take care of us, or second comings. This is it. Wilson condemns religion very strongly, yet, unlike Dawkins, he manages to do it without offending anyone. He makes religious leaders responsible for keeping humans in tribal mindset, which in turn keeps us locked in the type of mentality that prevents global peace and conservation efforts. We need the second enlightenment, he argues- we need to realize that not everybody thinks the same way, and that there may be subtle genetic causes for it. He also argues that we need both science and humanities to come together again to brace with the meaning of our existence.Nothing very new overall, a continuation of much disputed by some advocacy for the multilevel theory of natural selection that selects both for the individual and the group traits that Wilson discussed in detail in his The Social Conquest of the Earth. I would definitely recommend it even if only for its unsentimental humanistic message, but I also find it quite thought provoking on other levels.
    • 5/5
      I'll very happily read just about anything E.O. Wilson publishes, and this latest book is no exception. While there isn't all that much new or groundbreaking here if you're familiar with Wilson's previous works, The Meaning of Human Existence does compress some of his recent arguments (from The Social Conquest of Earth and several other pieces) into a short and very readable format. Wilson continues to stress some of his major contentions: that dogmatic religion is doing more harm than good to human society, that we need to accept and take steps to reverse the damage we as a species are doing to the planet, and that science and the humanities have a great deal to say to each other and that practitioners of both would be better served by a more profound understanding of the other.