Ultimate Interdisciplinary Inductions

Nobel prize winner E.O. Wilson set off a firestorm of controversy in the 1970's with his Sociobiological theory- the idea that genes determine our behaviors much more than the environment does. He concluded that we have very little free will, that there is no such thing as a tabula rasa; 'culture' was fixed according to inexorable genetic influences designed to enhance mental development.

Lately E.O. Wilson has made a serious attempt to unify all the fields of knowledge,including artistic and religions ideas- "Consilience." This attempt is based upon the conviction that the world is a unity, governed by a few discoverable laws.

For the last 200 years Reductionism has been the rule- i.e., everything can be broken down into managable parts, to be studied by specialists. The 20th century is best characterized as being the primary century of acceleration and fragmentation. But many breakthroughs occur because an induction from one field is carried over into another discipline.. (example: government policies influenced by social and environmental scientists, cells (biology) explained in terms of their chemical properties, etc.).

Consilience attempts to end Reductionism, yet is similar in the sense that it feels that simplicity is the rule.