The Origins of Creativity

undefined

Review ------ A meditation on how our genetic and cultural nature shapes our experience of the world, and how that in turn influences the form and content of our creative output ... A stimulating ride (Dan Jones Nature) From our senior statesman of Science comes this fascinating, eloquent, and important reflection on the vital kinship between the Humanities and the Sciences, the well of creativity fueling them both, and our need as a species to combine their truths to deal with today's demanding problems. It's a message that couldn't be more timely (Diane Ackerman, author of 'The Zookeeper's Wife') An intellectual hero ... A superb celebrator of science in all its manifestations (Ian McEwan) Darwin's great successor ... One of humanity's greatest and most intrepid explorers (Jeffrey Sachs) Wilson speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all (Oliver Sacks) As always, Wilson tosses off astonishing ins with charming ease (he's a master of the lyrically short sentence). These profoundly humane meditations on nature, creativity, and our primal yearnings will delight his longtime fans and provide newcomers with the perfect introduction to the career and ideas of one of our most distinguished living scientists--whose high-school nickname, I was enchanted to learn, was 'Snake Wilson (Jim Holt, author of 'Why Does the World Exist?') With his trademark boundless intellect and elegant writing, Wilson argues that we need both the sciences and the humanities in order to understand the deep origins of what makes us human (Alan Paige Lightman, physicist, novelist, and Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at MIT) From the Inside Flap -------------------- In this profound and lyrical book, one of our most celebrated biologists offers a sweeping examination of the relationship between the humanities and the sciences: what they offer to each other, where they still fall short and how they can be united. Both endeavours, Edward O. Wilson shows us, have their roots in human creativity - the defining trait of our species. Reflecting on the deepest origins of language, storytelling and art, Wilson demonstrates that creativity began not 10,000 years ago, as we have long assumed, but over 100,000 years ago in the Palaeolithic Age. He explores what we can learn about human nature from a surprising range of creative endeavours - the instinct to create gardens; the use of metaphors and irony in speech; and the power of music and song. Our achievements in science and the humanities make us uniquely advanced as a species, yet also give us the potential to be supremely dangerous, most worryingly in our abuse of the planet. The humanities in particular can suffer from a kind of anthropomorphism, believing that we are the only species that matter, and Wilson reveals how they can address this by pushing further into the realm of science, especially fields such as evolutionary biology, neuroscience and anthropology. With eloquence and humanity, Wilson calls for a transformational 'Third Enlightenment' in which the blending of these endeavours will give us a deeper understanding of the human condition, and our crucial relationship with the natural world.