Dec 8, 2017 12:39 AM
The Origins of Creativity review – stick to the ants, professor
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017...ightenment
EXCERPT: Entomologist EO Wilson’s meandering attempt to forge a new philosophy from arts and science is irritating rather than enlightening.
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Can evolutionary biology explain the human impulse to create?
https://theamericanscholar.org/why-we-ne...iW-V0qnE2x
EXCERPT: [...] We don’t know why our aesthetics are tuned this way, but Edward O. Wilson suggests that the “optimum complexity principle” reflects a kind of compromise between the brain’s greed and its limitations. We crave sensory input, but we can process only so much of it at any given moment. Hence, a novel image that can be grasped whole, with a single glance, feels oddly satisfying, a prize for sore eyes. The same reasoning may explain why the number seven is often considered lucky. A grouping of seven objects looks big enough to be worth our while but manageable enough to be quantified at first sight.
The optimum complexity principle is just one of many examples that Wilson rallies in The Origins of Creativity, his latest plea for the grand unification of the sciences and the humanities. The two camps are often viewed as enemy combatants, or at least paisley and plaid—best kept apart—but Wilson is deeply impatient with academic partitioning. Artists, he argues, should have a grasp of basic neuroscience and how the brain evolved. Scientists must appreciate the humanities for infusing human life with meaning. Only by joining cognitive forces, Wilson argues, can we hope to tackle the evergreen mysteries of existence and dodge the traps of our own making. Why are we so smart and so stupid, so violent and so generous, so besotted with nature yet seemingly intent on destroying it?
MORE: https://theamericanscholar.org/why-we-ne...iW-V0qnE2x
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E.O. Wilson’s New Book, “The Origins of Creativity,” Examines the Relationship Between the Humanities and the Sciences
https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilso...-sciences/
EXCERPT: An eloquent exploration of creativity, *The Origins of Creativity* grapples with the question of how this uniquely human expression—so central to our identity as individuals and, collectively, as a species—came about and how it has manifested itself throughout the history of our species. In this profound and lyrical book, one of our most celebrated biologists offers a sweeping examination of the relationship between the humanities and the sciences: what they offer to each other, how they can be united, and where they still fall short. Both endeavours, Edward O. Wilson reveals, have their roots in human creativity—the defining trait of our species...
MORE: https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilso...-sciences/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017...ightenment
EXCERPT: Entomologist EO Wilson’s meandering attempt to forge a new philosophy from arts and science is irritating rather than enlightening.
- - -
Can evolutionary biology explain the human impulse to create?
https://theamericanscholar.org/why-we-ne...iW-V0qnE2x
EXCERPT: [...] We don’t know why our aesthetics are tuned this way, but Edward O. Wilson suggests that the “optimum complexity principle” reflects a kind of compromise between the brain’s greed and its limitations. We crave sensory input, but we can process only so much of it at any given moment. Hence, a novel image that can be grasped whole, with a single glance, feels oddly satisfying, a prize for sore eyes. The same reasoning may explain why the number seven is often considered lucky. A grouping of seven objects looks big enough to be worth our while but manageable enough to be quantified at first sight.
The optimum complexity principle is just one of many examples that Wilson rallies in The Origins of Creativity, his latest plea for the grand unification of the sciences and the humanities. The two camps are often viewed as enemy combatants, or at least paisley and plaid—best kept apart—but Wilson is deeply impatient with academic partitioning. Artists, he argues, should have a grasp of basic neuroscience and how the brain evolved. Scientists must appreciate the humanities for infusing human life with meaning. Only by joining cognitive forces, Wilson argues, can we hope to tackle the evergreen mysteries of existence and dodge the traps of our own making. Why are we so smart and so stupid, so violent and so generous, so besotted with nature yet seemingly intent on destroying it?
MORE: https://theamericanscholar.org/why-we-ne...iW-V0qnE2x
- - -
E.O. Wilson’s New Book, “The Origins of Creativity,” Examines the Relationship Between the Humanities and the Sciences
https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilso...-sciences/
EXCERPT: An eloquent exploration of creativity, *The Origins of Creativity* grapples with the question of how this uniquely human expression—so central to our identity as individuals and, collectively, as a species—came about and how it has manifested itself throughout the history of our species. In this profound and lyrical book, one of our most celebrated biologists offers a sweeping examination of the relationship between the humanities and the sciences: what they offer to each other, how they can be united, and where they still fall short. Both endeavours, Edward O. Wilson reveals, have their roots in human creativity—the defining trait of our species...
MORE: https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilso...-sciences/