The Future Of Life Edward O Wilson Summary

Edward O. Wilson, an American biologist, discusses in his book, The Future of Life, the current state if the Earth and a carefully devised plan to save the Earth while there is still a chance. Through the book he recalls certain events that he witnessed and learned about and how it shows the destruction of the natural world. Specifically, in chapter six of The Future of Life, titled, “For the Love of Life,” Wilson discusses biophilia, which is described as “the innate tendency to focus upon life and lifelike forms and in some instances, to affiliate with them emotionally” (Wilson, pp. 158), human habitat selection through ancestral instinct, and the “Savanna Hypothesis.” The argument that Wilson makes is that human beings will always have, instinctually, the love for

Wilson articulates a well standing argument that was able to convince me, the reader, into believing that the decisions I make are based on my ancestral instincts when it comes to my environment, especially through my discipline of psychology, because of his well-formed explanation of biophilia and the savanna hypothesis, in relation to life and nature. As a reader, who comes from the discipline of psychology through social science, I understand that everything I read will not directly correlate my education when taken at face value. Wilson, however, does a miraculous job of entertaining the field of psychology through the idea of instinct and choice, through the love of life and nature. He is clear in his reasoning of explaining his argument of biophilia being instinctual by stating that “[I]t is not so difficult to love nonhuman life, if gifted with knowledge about it. The capacity, even the proneness to do so, may well be one of the human instincts” (Wilson, pp. 158). As the reader, I understand this clearly and that it means that these