On December 25, 2021, the famous conservation biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy (1941-2021) and the most storytelling sinologist Jonathan D. Spence (1936-2021) passed away. On the afternoon of the 27th, from the "Triassic" WeChat circle of friends to read the news, today's greatest naturalist Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) died on the 26th. Can't believe what these days are?
Wilson is the symbol and witness of the naturalism of our time. He's in, naturalism is! I immediately thought of a poem by Yang Shi: "The Qingjiang River is faint and green, and the natural objects are not followed by the former sages." "Western naturalism, from Aristotle, Theofrast, Pliny the Elder, Gesner, to Bacon, G. White, Buffon, Linnaeus, Kant, Darwin, Thoreau, Wallace, J. Huxley, Meyer, Laurenz, S. Gould, constitutes an endless chain of scholars, and the "naturalistic tradition" has always played an important role in human cognition, stubbornly balancing the strong tradition of reductionism at the moment. These great sages have long since passed away, and now Wilson is gone, in the face of a complex world and fragmented scholarship, who will bridge the division, who will guide the direction of naturalistic culture that has just shown signs of revival?
With a big mind, go deep into the "enemy camp"
Paul L. Farber, a historian of science and former president of the Society for the History of Science (also died in 2021), briefly described Wilson's contributions in the final chapter of "In Search of the Order of Nature: The Naturalistic Tradition from Linnaeus to Wilson," "Wilson the Naturalist as a Generalist," such as: examining biological populations across organizational levels, saving biodiversity, collaborating with MacArthur on island biogeography, communicating mathematical and reductionist traditions and naturalistic traditions, Pushing Darwin's theory of evolution to a new stage, proposing sociobiological ideas and facilitating the communication between science and the humanities. As a veteran naturalist, he is also often misunderstood, "ironically, Wilson, the great defender of the naturalistic tradition, helped develop studies that negate the value of naturalism" (Farber, p. 134).
In the mid-1970s, Wilson's "sociobiology" was widely misunderstood, with demonstrators shouting at loudspeakers demanding his resignation. In 1978, he was invited by the godmother cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) to speak at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Not only were there seven or eight people holding signs in protest, but a young woman jumped on the podium and threw water on Wilson's head, shouting "Wilson, you'reallwet!"). Wilson endured, maintained his due demeanor, did not ask the woman to leave the scene, and did not call the police. Wilson won long rounds of applause.
Two colleagues at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, leftist scholars Gould and Luwontin (1929-2021) even vehemently opposed Wilson. On a grander scale, perhaps Lu Wengting's opposition to "reductionism" is justified, but he is somewhat aggressive and critical. Lu Wengting is in a sense a "philosopher scientist" with a critical demeanor, while Wilson is a "naturalist scientist" who is more tolerant and pragmatic.
Decades have passed, time has dispelled doubts, and Wilson is extraordinary precisely in his broad vision and insight, and his efforts to absorb the new fruits of the reductionism of the opposing camp for his own use. He did not forget and eliminate his naturalistic stance, but instead pushed the extremely inclusive naturalism to a new stage along the path of Bufeng and Kant. Wilson was one of the few warriors who could "penetrate deep into the enemy camp," as the mathematician B.B. Mandelbrot (1924-2010) was able to admire Thompson (D'ArcyW. Thompson, 1860-1948), drawing nourishment from the naturalist camp to propose fractal concepts, and promoting complexity research.
In this era, it is not easy to insist on being a naturalist, to determine the title of the autobiographical book as "Naturalist", and to learn from the "enemy" to improve one's own discipline. Wilson is arguably the most committed scholar since Aristotle who has carried naturalism through to the end. Coincidentally, naturalist and naturalist are a word in English. Wilson did not betray naturalism, "In my heart, I have been an adventure naturalist all my life. (Inmyheart IwillbeanexplorernaturalistuntilIdie) (Naturalist, CITIC Publishing Group, 2021, p. 445)
In Genesis, Wilson says, "Sociobiological research blends naturalism and genetics" (Genesis, CITIC Publishing Group, 2019, p. 93), and that an explanation of the group selection process should be based on naturalistic observations and laboratory studies (p. 98). This summary is not much new, but it repeats F. Bacon's (1561-1626) early modern call for academic reform. Bacon used the Latin phrase hisstorianaturalisetexperimentalis, which translates into English as naturalandexperimentalhistory. Bacon called for a true academic "natural philosophy" through naturalism (corresponding to the inquiry of nature) and emerging experimental research.
More than four hundred years after Bacon, the way humans acquire basic knowledge has not changed. Bacon said two things, can you delete one or be represented by one entirely? No! Today, it is important to emphasize the important role of naturalism, because experimental research is highly valued and does not need to be emphasized. The former focuses on the complexity and diversity of the living world, providing a macroscopic vision and criteria for success, while the latter pursues depth, revealing the rules behind it and ensuring the reproducibility of phenomena under limited conditions. Induction and deduction, conjecture and rebuttal intersect in it, and there is no obstacle.
The Anthropocene trilogy
Most of Wilson's books, with the exception of more specialized ant monographs and papers, are friendly and readable. If you don't have time to peruse all of his works and are in a hurry to get the how-to guide, it is recommended to read the two recently published "pamphlets" of Half The World and Genesis.
The former is the last in Wilson's Anthropocene trilogy. The "Anthropocene" is a concept from a geological point of view that is not yet fully established, or controversial, in stratigraphy, but scholars in other fields cannot wait to adopt it to describe the problem. Wilson is no exception. The first part of the trilogy, Social Conquest of the Earth, is roughly to the effect that the human species completes its conquest of nature with the help of its rare form of social organization. The second part, The Meaning of Human Existence, describes that human beings are a natural species in the environment, but create new environments, and sadly, neither the human body nor the mind can adapt well to the new environment. In the Anthropocene, the human species is very poorly adapted. The third part, "Half the Earth", admits that human beings should return half of the planet's surface to nature, and only by doing so can there be hope for the future. Why half instead of a quarter or a third? On the one hand, there are ecological conservation considerations, and on the other hand, there are psychological considerations. The window of conservation is closing, and if you don't seize the opportunity, you may be in a doomed situation.
"Half the World" is a goal, a slogan, a science and a politics. This view reflects Wilson's unique wisdom: vague on the surface, but qualitatively accurate, easy for the public to understand. In practice, it implies that people should leave room for the development and utilization of nature; how much should be left? At least half left! This principle should be implemented at the reductionist strata to ensure that the entire Gaia ecosystem is safe.
At the end of Half The Earth, Wilson concludes: "A thousand words come together in one sentence: Don't continue to harm the biosphere." "Hurt the environment in which you live? How did a rational animal get to this point? Is there a species other than man who is so ignorant, wanton, and morally corrupt? No. For man, everything is carried out in the name of civilization, science, and rational progress, and the result is the opposite. This shows that there is something wrong with the values that have long been believed in in the past. Humanity needs to make a major adjustment to its own moral concepts, to make important promises to other life forms, and to protect the wilderness that gave birth to human civilization. When the wilderness is gone, human history is over. However, Wilson also cautioned against obsessing over unreliable religious creeds or getting bogged down in boring philosophical debates. Philosophy is not useless. It is necessary to summarize basic ethical beliefs through natural history practice and scientific research. If the "selfish gene" holds, altruism is also a human instinct. The idea of the "naturalist" (which existed in ancient China, which corresponds to naturalist) is not entirely new, Darwin had this idea, and the folk proverb echoes it. Darwin had clearly discussed the power of organization and morality in The Origin of Man, and Wilson believed in the foresight of his predecessors.
"Still the boy I used to be"
After Wilson became famous, he loved his readers and became more sophisticated and creative.
In On Fit: The Unity of Knowledge, he discusses the Enlightenment, the rise of science, from genes to culture, from social science to artistic interpretation, all the way to ethics and religion. Wilson explicitly rejected the transcendental components of the philosophies of Kant, Moore, and Rawls, who came up with such views because they were unaware of modern biology and experimental psychology. Wilson skilfully commented on skepticism, the "naturalistic fallacy", about the impossibility of "yes" and "should." He further pointed out that religion draws strength from its main ally, tribalism, and that even many religions have evolved through natural selection.
In The Future of Life, he fictitiously communicates with Thoreau, where he stands for one purpose: "To be a thorough Thoreau believer": "Isn't it strange that we communicate directly over 150 years?" I don't think so. If the subject is naturalism, this approach is not surprising. "Thoreau, a naturalist through and through, you should love this Biodiversity Day, which we recently held in honor of you." (The Future of Life, Shanghai Century Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 7-8) Commenting on genetic engineering, Wilson said: "The question we face is how to feed billions of new populations in the coming decades while being able to save other lives without falling into a trap similar to the 'Faust deal' that threatens their freedom and safety." (The Future of Life, p. 142)
Wilson's area of expertise was ants, a small class of insects, and over the course of his life he described more than four hundred new taxa. In "Letters to Young Scientists," Wilson says ants appeared more than 100 million years ago, and in 1966 90 million-year-old fossils of ants were found, and they were well preserved in amber. Ants are pitifully small and don't seem worth devoting a lifetime to, but the total weight of ants on Earth is about the same as the weight of all humans, because they are so many. Wilson not only described the new species and their ecology, but also studied insect pheromones, opening up entirely new areas of science.
How could he be interested in small animals other than humans? Everything can be traced back to that teenager on Florida Paradise Beach. Seven-year-old Wilson gazed at the Atlantic spiny jellyfish in the water and looked at it. From the focus of this teenager, it is conceivable how the naturalist was born. "Gaining a wealth of practical experience at critical moments, rather than systematic knowledge, is an important factor in making naturalists." Therefore, it is best to be a wild man first, what scientific name, anatomical knowledge, do not know it does not matter, it is best to spend a lot of time to explore and dream at will. (The Naturalist, CITIC Publishing Group, 2021, p. 11) This is certainly not Wilson's opinion alone, and Carson, a marine naturalist and author of Silent Spring, agrees very much, saying that childhood is a great time to cultivate feelings and feelings, and seeds will grow from the fertile soil.
Still at Paradise Beach, Wilson's punctured right eye by the dorsal fin of a fish he caught, which later affected his hearing, seemed doomed to become a naturalist, but in fact these only limited a few possibilities. In 1940, when Wilson was ten years old, his elementary school teacher wrote in a parent's letter: "Wilson was quite gifted with writing, and when he combined this talent with his extensive knowledge of insects, he was able to produce excellent results." (The Naturalist, p. 70) It was around this time that Wilson became obsessed with ants. Looking back and forward, this fifth grade teacher is simply predictable! Writing, ants, results! Winning the Pulitzer Prize twice in terms of writing is a testament to the fact that he is the number one player in the world for ant research.
Following this line, in 1943, at the age of 14, Wilson was invited to serve as a naturalist adviser at the Boy Scout summer camp, "when there was only naturalism in mind" (Naturalist, p. 97). In 1945, as he was about to enter college, Wilson felt he had to take seriously the future career plan. The love for insects is unquestionable, but what kind of insects are studied? "I don't think about butterflies, they're so famous." After much deliberation, he decided to study ants in Alabama. This choice was affirmed by Smith, an ant expert at the National Museum of Natural History. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Wilson and his friend Eisner spent the summer studying insects in 1952. They drove the old Chevrolet from Massachusetts north to Ontario, across several States on the North American Prairies, to Montana and Idaho, from there to California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and then back to school along the coast. The two of them were "like naturalistic vagrants" and lived on the edge of the world. On this expedition, they witnessed major ecosystems in North America, laying the foundation for their lifelong passion for field biology. In 1953, Wilson became one of the lucky ones and received a special scholarship for graduate students, through which he finally had the opportunity to study in Cuba. After that, the road to success is unstoppable. Wilson graduated from Harvard University in 1955 as an assistant professor, and in 1958 he was hired by Stanford University for tenure (associate professor), but eventually his alma mater, Harvard, gave him a tenured teaching position and never left Harvard.
What made Wilson, the greatest naturalist of our time? It's curiosity, it's an endless interest in insects. Looking at his biography, every book he wrote, he would come to this conclusion. "Still the boy I used to be," the little kid on Paradise Beach staring at the jellyfish. "We are born naturalists, and the subsequent development depends on each person's opportunities, circumstances, and circumstances," Anderson said. "Naturalist? The words are too big to bear, "naturalist" may be more appropriate, everyone has natural potential. Think about it, who made us forget about naturalism and become indifferent to nature?
2021.12.28
Author: Liu Huajie
Editor: Xie Juan