---
title: "Consilience (book)"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience_(book)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:31:26.966116+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Chapter 7 From genes to culture ===
The relationship between genes and culture. Wilson posits that the basic element of culture is the meme. When a meme exists in a brain it has the form of a neuronal network that allows the meme to function within semantic memory. The link from genes to culture is that our genes shape our brains (in cooperation with the environment) and our brains allow us to work with memes as the basic units of culture.

=== Chapter 8 - 12 ===
The remaining chapters are titled Chapter 8 The fitness of human nature, Chapter 9 The social sciences, Chapter 10 The arts and their interpretation, Chapter 11 Ethics and religion, Chapter 12 To what end?

== See also ==
Wendell Berry wrote a comprehensive critique of Consilience in his essay Life is a Miracle in his book with the same title.
Philosophy of science
The Two Cultures by C. P. Snow
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox by Stephen Jay Gould

== External links ==
Vogel Carey, Toni (2013). "Consilience. Toni Vogel Carey on discovering interconnections". philosophynow.org. Philosophy now. A magazine of ideas, issue 95. Retrieved 25 January 2022. Consilience' is an important term in philosophy of science, one with a distinguished history; yet you may never have heard of it. The late Stephen Jay Gould bemoaned the fact that this "lovely and deserving term… never caught on in the 'natural selection' of English vocabulary"...

== References ==

=== Reviews ===
Eldredge, Niles and Stephen Jay Gould, "Biology Rules. Review of E.0. Wilson's Consilience, with a supplemented introduction by Richard Morris.". Archive.org 2007 for Stephen Jay Gould Archive.
Fodor, Jerry (29 October 1998). "Look!". London Review of Books. 20 (21).
Gillispie, Charles C. (1998). "E. O. Wilson's Consilience: A Noble, Unifying Vision, Grandly Expressed". American Scientist. 86 (3): 280–283. JSTOR 27857028.
Henriques, Gregg R. (December 2008). "Special Section: The Problem of Psychology and the Integration of Human Knowledge: Contrasting Wilson's Consilience with the Tree of Knowledge System". Theory & Psychology. 18 (6): 731–755. doi:10.1177/0959354308097255. S2CID 144152672.
Jamieson, Dale (22 September 1998). "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge". Issues in Science and Technology. 15 (1): 90–92. Gale A53435955. Archived from the original on 17 December 2005.
McGuire, Ron (15 April 1998). "Consilience". CNN - Books: Review.
Orr, H. Allen (1998). "The Big Picture". Boston Review. Archived from the original on 1 October 2006.