MEDIA  ADVISORY

EVENT:  

Pulitzer Prize-winning author E.O. Wilson to lecture tonight at the University of California, San Diego Edward O. Wilson, controversial champion of sociobiology and internationally regarded as one of the foremost biological and sociological theorists of the late 20th century, will lecture on The Coming Synergism Between Science and the Humanities. The event is free and open to the public.

DATE/TIME: 

7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 3, 2002

LOCATION:              

Mandeville Auditorium on the UCSD campus

BACKGROUND:     

Wilson is a proponent of sociobiology as the systematic study of the  biological basis of all social behavior and argues a coexisting and inclusive theory of biology and behavior – “that genetic predispositions exist upon which cultural forces operate and that the outcome entails the interplay of biology and culture, not the supremacy of one over the other.”

Wilson found himself at the heart of controversy declaring these views in his 1975 book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Opponents viewed him as a racist and sexist supporting Darwinian survival of the fittest.

Wilson’s UCSD lecture will be based on his 1998 book, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge and he will draw on a broad spectrum of disciplines to show “how various fields of inquiry, and especially the humanities and sciences, intersect with, rather than exclude, each other.” The Harvard University researcher and professor is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author – for On Human Nature in 1979 and The Ants in 1991. The 25th anniversary edition of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis was published in March of 2000, with Wilson strongly reaffirming his inclusive theories. His lecture is the inaugural public event for UCSD’s Center for the Humanities.               

CONTACT:                

Jan Jennings, (858) 822-1684