The Meaning of Human Existence

Wilson (Pelligrino University Professor Emeritus, Harvard Univ.; The Social Conquest of Earth), who is perhaps best recognized as the “father of sociobiology” as well as the world's leading expert on myrmecology, here asks the question that is the logical extension of his life’s work: What does it mean to be human? Humans have evolved to instinctively surrender some individuality to the survival of the group, placing them among the rare eusocial species. Wilson has spent considerable energy in past writings defending the theory of group selection over kin selection, and does so again here, emphasizing throughout the book that while individual selfishness in human evolution benefits individuals, altruistic groups have better benefited survival, giving rise to social virtues and cooperation. Wilson also promotes here, as he has in the past, a “new enlightenment” with the goal of progressing toward an intellectual continuum between the hard sciences and the humanities.