Consilience

“Preferring a search for objective reality over revelation is another way of satisfying religious hunger. It is an endeavor almost as old as civilization and intertwined with traditional religion, but it follows a very different course—a stoic’s creed, an acquired taste, a guidebook to adventure plotted across rough terrain. It aims to save the spirit, not by surrender but by liberation of the human mind." 

Edward O. Wilson believes strongly in the power of science, not only to free the mind from ancient biases and sloppy thinking, but to inspire and elevate everyone who engages with it. 

“Philosophy, the contemplation of the unknown, is a shrinking dominion. We have the common goal of turning as much philosophy as possible into science." 

Science, a child of philosophy, has grown up to become so powerful a discoverer of truth that it can replace much of its parents’ rather feeble attempts to figure out reality. 

“Consilience of causal explanation is the means by which the single mind can travel most swiftly and surely from one part of the communal mind to the other." 

If the humanities can learn to speak science, they can benefit from the precision of the scientific method. Wherever art, literature, philosophy, and the social sciences search for the truths of their fields, they can more easily find them scientifically, and then use those discoveries to empower their own works.