Ebook: The Social Conquest of Earth

Based on a lifetime of pioneering research, preeminent naturalist Edward O. Wilson gives us a new history of human evolution, presented in an elegant and provocative narrative that promises to have reverberations in fields as diverse as anthropology and social psychology, neuroscience and 21st-century intellectual and religious history. Wilson begins by addressing three "fundamental questions" of religion and philosophy that have fascinated thinkers for centuries: Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Writing that "the origin of modern humanity was a stroke of luck, good for our species for a while, bad for most of the rest of life forever," Wilson traces the rise of Homo sapiens from its infancy, drawing on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to present us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition. Wilson also reveals how "group selection" can be the only model for explaining man's origins and domination, and warns that it has now accelerated--through unregulated and untrammeled growth--to such a point that the planet as we know it is being threatened.--From publisher description.;[pt.] 1. Why does advanced social life exist? The human condition -- [pt.] 2. Where do we come from? The two paths to conquest ; The approach ; The arrival ; Threading the evolutionary maze ; The creative forces ; Tribalism is a fundamental human trait ; War as humanity's hereditary curse ; The breakout ; The creative explosion ; The sprint to civilization -- [pt.] 3. How social insects conquered the invertebrate world. The invention of eusociality ; Inventions that advanced the social insects -- [pt.] 4. The forces of social evolution. The scientific dilemma of rarity ; Insect altruism and eusociality explained ; Insects take the giant leap ; How natural selection creates social instincts ; The forces of social evolution ; The emergence of a new theory of eusociality -- [pt.] 5. What are we? What is human nature? ; How culture evolved ; The origins of language ; The evolution of cultural variation ; The origins of morality and honor ; The origins of religion ; The origins of the creative arts -- [pt.] 6. Where are we going? A new enlightenment.;From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson's legendary career.