{"id":4327,"date":"2014-11-17T15:21:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T20:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2014-11-17T15:24:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T20:24:55","slug":"the-meaning-of-human-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/2014\/11\/17\/the-meaning-of-human-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Meaning of Human Existence&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<a href=\"\/core\/files\/2014\/11\/51+h8l2OTYL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/core\/files\/2014\/11\/51+h8l2OTYL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg\" alt=\"51+h8l2OTYL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_\" width=\"160\" height=\"242\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-4328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/files\/2014\/11\/51+h8l2OTYL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg 229w, https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/files\/2014\/11\/51+h8l2OTYL._SY344_BO1204203200_-198x300.jpg 198w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Biologist Edward O. Wilson has spent his life studying evolutionary biology, writing books, and winning Pulitzer prizes, among other things. He is still going strong at 85 years old, and recently published &#8220;The Meaning of Human Existence,&#8221; a book intended to explain and convince the general public of the scientific theory of evolution. Drawing on analyses of evolutionary processes, \u00a0 \u00a0Wilson constructs a unique social commentary centering around what he calls the<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cPaleolithic Curse: genetic adaptations that worked very well for millions of years of hunter-gatherer existence but are increasingly a hindrance in a globally urban and technoscientific society.\u201d Among other ways in which our genetic adaptations ill suit us for contemporary conditions, he notes our penchant for racism, our refusal to curb population growth, our failure to cooperate with one another on a scale commensurate with the challenges we face and our devastation of the natural environment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In between comparing human altruism to ant behavior and speculating on the value of religion in society, Wilson &#8220;appeals to reason and imagination in hopes of enlightening us about our nature and inspiring us to change our destructive ways.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interested?Read more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/book-review-the-meaning-of-human-existence-by-edward-o-wilson\/2014\/11\/14\/deffe5bc-548f-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html\">here<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Biologist Edward O. Wilson has spent his life studying evolutionary biology, writing books, and winning Pulitzer prizes, among other things. He is still going strong at 85 years old, and recently published &#8220;The Meaning of Human Existence,&#8221; a book intended to explain and convince the general public of the scientific theory of evolution. Drawing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[898,48628,4854],"tags":[4753,428,2277,521,437,3481,2734],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4338,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/4338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}