Consilience

Harvard Professor Wilson is a multi-award-winning author, teacher, and a naturalist who specializes in ants. For several decades, he taught biology courses as part of Harvard’s core curriculum. Author of more than 30 books, Wilson’s writings have twice been honored with the Pulitzer Prize, and he has won nearly three dozen other awards. Wilson is one of the founders of sociobiology and a preeminent environmentalist with a special interest in biodiversity. He believes that science is the greatest thought system yet invented, one that can benefit any field of study and whose discoveries may yet save humanity from warfare and environmental disaster. 

Condorcet (1743-1794), a principal figure of the Enlightenment, believed in the perfectibility of humanity through applied reason. Though an ardent supporter and early leader of the French Revolution, Condorcet was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror because his views on suppressing dissidents were considered insufficiently strident. While incarcerated, Condorcet wrote his magnum opus, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, which outlines his optimistic beliefs for the future of society. He died in prison. For author Wilson, Condorcet’s death represents the end of the