One must read Wilson with an open mind,not cluttered by political preconceptions as the previous reviewer. Wilson makes a point of not politicizing science, and to find a political context to "On Human Nature" one must create it as Wilson certainly does not.


Best book ever written on human nature   March 18, 2000
 60 out of 78 found this review helpful

Edward Wilson is probably the best writer on scientific subjects since Thomas Henry Huxley. He writes in a style that combines trenchant lucidity with mastery of exposition. Even the subtlest and most confusing intricacies of human nature are rendered easily accessible by Wilson's deft and engaging pen. He is especially good at providing apt metaphors to illustrate what might otherwise be difficult scientific conceptions. Behavioral tendencies in human nature are described, for example, as various channels, some of which are shallow (and can therefore more easily be overcome), while others are much deeper (and therefore much more resistant to efforts to counteract them). As befitting a man of science, Wilson supports his views, not with abstruse argumentation, but with facts collected and verified by practicing scientists.

Yet despite the solidity of Wilson's research, when "On Human Nature" first came out, it was viciously attacked by left-wing ideologues who violently disagreed with Wilson's conclusions regarding the limitations of man's nature. The Left, of course, wants to believe that human nature is largely fluid and malleable. Man, leftists argue, is the product, not of genetics or biology, but of social conditions, which can be changed. Under a "just" society, human nature would become transformed and evil would virtually disappear from the world. Wilson's "On Human Nature" thoroughly demolishes all these sterile hopes for man's secular salvation. Using scientific evidence, he demonstrates that most human behavior is genetic (or related to or influenced by genetics) and therefore unalterable. The sociologist Vilfredo Pareto has probably described this view of man most trenchantly when he wrote: "The centuries roll by, and human nature remains the same!" In "On Human Nature," Wilson shows us why Pareto is right.


Just read it   December 6, 1999
 17 out of 23 found this review helpful

I read this book in a weekend a few months ago. I simply couldn't put it down. Wilson's style is clear and elegant, and he displays true concern about people and society. Reading _On Human Nature_ probably made me more tolerant of others because it helped me understand people. I wish everybody would read chapter 6 (read it and find out what it's about)!


A remarkable view of Human Nature   March 20, 1999
 4 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book is a remarkable and highly objective view of Human Nature and the problems and delemmas that confront us. Very highly recommended. Very enlightening. A joy to read.


excellent   January 18, 1999
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

if you are looking at a scientific look on human nature this is the book for you.

wilson debunks the myth that all behaviour is determined by culture, and shows that natural selection has created us above anythign else

a must read for anyone who wants to understand human nature