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Biophilia

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"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
- Eden Phillpotts

Wilson crafted this book about the "love of life" for a wide-ranging audience. Biophilia begins in journalistic style recounting Wilson's various expeditions to the Amazon river basin in search of elusive species of ants. He describes the scenes in the forest with appeal to all five senses, making it easy to mentally accompany with Wilson upon his tropical trips. The adventurous feel in the opening chapters allows Wilson to demonstrate biophilia instead of describing it. It becomes obvious that biophilia is a major force affecting the way humans react to living organisms. Wilson describes biophilia as the "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes."

In the middle of Biophilia, Wilson sorts out different time divisions, arguing that the way you organize time creates biases. Wilson holds that most humans divided time according to their own evolution. Humans are not the only species that matter. Bacteria, fungi, protoctists, and plants have been around far longer than Homo sapiens, and humans depend on these other kingdoms for survival. This argument allows Wilson to build a platform from which to apply his notion of biophilia.

Wilson alludes to a "conservation ethic" throughout the first half of the book of which he makes his readers aware in later chapters of Biophilia. Wilson's term "conservation ethic" describes what humans need to do because of biophilia. Clear evidence shows that humans depend on other living organisms for survival. Wilson argues that humans need to care for natural resources if we want to remain alive. He uses this book as strong evidence to form global awareness of biophilia and the conservation consequences it warrants.

Wilson closes this book by recapping his intense accounts of the explorations of untamed nature in the Amazon river basin. He mentally leads the reader through forests with clear descriptions of the thousands of organisms he encountered.

The interspersed chapters of his adventures through nature were welcome surprises to his technical arguments in favor of biophilia. Wilson's enthusiasm for other living organisms is contagious, and his enthusiasm makes this book both entertaining and applicable.

Edward Wilson is an entomologist. He studies insects. It's significant that he can write a book that can appeal to so many readers, given the obscure public perception of insects and arthropods.

I expected this book to be an onslaught of scientific explanations and studies, but this was clearly not the case. Wilson writes about his worldly field biology travels with such rich, sensory language. It's actually fun to read.

In no section of the book does he thoroughly or methodically explain the construct of biophilia in a textbook fashion. Instead, he writes his very personal memoirs and takes us through rain forests and other areas teeming with tropical life. For readers familiar with Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Wilson writes as if "Biophilia" were one of the Endless, who are anthropomorphic personifications of ideas and states of human consciousness. In biophilia, Wilson writes a story (his own) that is INTENSELY biophilia THEMED, while not necessarily about biophilia explicitly.

Edward Wilson is a two time pulitzer prize winner, and a great writer at that. You'll be surprised how readable yet informative and entertaining this book is.

Biophilia written by Edward O. Wilson is a book about the conserative ethic and moral reasoning, bringing a new perspective on mans place within the richness of species diversity. Biophilia as defined by the author as the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes. Arguing that the essence of our humanity... the expansive freedom the mind seeks... is inextricably linked with the green enclaves of this planet.

This book covers a wide expanse in both time and scope, from the microscopic and across time... exploring life's varying time scales. I found this book to be wriiten on a personal level bringing the reader into confidence and like a father or grandfather showing us the marvels of nature first hand. I'm sure that was his intent, to reawaken us, to show how man is intergrated and plays an intergral part in the natural affinity of life on the planet, explaining that biophilia is central to the evolution of the human mind.

We go from rain forests in Brazil, to handfulls of soil, explore the bird of paradise, and study the Huron Peninsula of New Guinea. Through all of this we acquire a greater appreciation for life and the intricate symbiosis that interplays on our human equilibrium.

The book has excellent illustrative text that brings a unique vividness to the author's excellent writing. This is a book that takes the reader on a rich educational look... a serious look... at nature and all of the intergral parts as interplayed in life. Man whether he likes it or not, is tied to this planet and its life force.

"Biophilia" is a rather thin book, and it isn't the scientific treatise on the biophilia hypothesis that I thought it was going to be. (The biophilia hypothesis being the idea that humans have an innate bond with other living beings, and that coexistence is necessary for the human psyche.) Instead, "Biophilia" is more of a mini-memoir by one of the world's leading naturalists.

Wilson is an entymologist - specifically a myrmecologist (an expert on ants). Though it sounds like a narrow, obscure field, studying the diversity of ant species and habitats has taken Wilson all over the globe and given him a broad perspective that has allowed him to make valuable contributions to science. In "Biophilia," we wander with Wilson from jungle to jungle, and back to Wilson's boyhood in the rural South - revelling in the beauty and wonder of the natural world all the while.

Ever the scientist (and a Harvard-educated one at that), Wilson does make a rational appeal for the protection of the environment - citing, for example, the potential for undiscovered sources of food and medicine in the planet's (as of now) rich botanical diversity. But it's through his excellent, almost poetic prose that Wilson's love of the biosphere, concern for the planet, and enthusiasm for the diversity of life are made contagious.

a brilliantly well-researched, enriching, and enlightening work that will transform the way you view and re-shape the world.

E.O. Wilson writes with great flair and passion; not to mention much authority.