On Human Nature. by Wilson, Edward O - 1978

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. First edition of this work, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Octavo, original brown cloth, pictorial endpapers. Signed by Edward O. Wilson on the title page, who has drawn an ant. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a closed tear to the front panel. A very bright example. "A work of high intellectual daring. Here is an accomplished biologist explaining, in notably clear and unprevaricating language, what he thinks his subject now has to offer to the understanding of man and society. The implications of Wilson's thesis are rather considerable, for if true, no system of political, social, religious or ethical thought can afford to ignore it (The New Republic). Bryan Walsh in 2011 named On Human Nature as one of the "100 best and most influential" books written in English since 1923 in Time. He considered Wilson's "real achievement" to be to "show how a sociobiological view of humanity could still have grandeur." The computer scientist Paul Brown in 2018 stated in Skeptical Inquirer that On Human Nature is "still brimful with ideas and insights about who we are, how we got here, and how to get wherever we want to go."