"The great paradox of determinism and free will,……" — E. O. Wilson
"The great paradox of determinism and free will, which has held the attention of the wisest of philosophers and psychologists for generations, can be phrased in more biological terms as follows: If our genes are inherited, and our environment is a train of physical events set in motion before we were born, how can there be a truly independent agent within the brain? The agent itself is created by the interaction of the genes and the environment. It would appear that our freedom is only a self delusion."
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E. O. Wilson
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194 Quotes by E. O. Wilson
E. O. Wilson has 194 quotes on this site.
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Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year.
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Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings. About the ambitious…
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Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living…
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Known as the biosphere to scientists and as the creation to theologians, all of life together consists of a membrane…
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No one knows the diversity in the world, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. ... We don't know…
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The cutting of primeval forest and other disasters, fueled by the demands of growing human populations, are the overriding threat…
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The worst thing that will probably happen-in fact is already well underway-is not energy depletion, economic collapse, conventional war, or…
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Overall, the human brain is the most complex object known in the universe - known, that is, to itself.
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The time has come to link ecology to economic and human development. When you have seen one ant, one bird,…
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