The Age of the Marvellous and Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Emotions of awe, wonder, surprise and astonishment.

What I felt discovering this post http://houseofbeautyandculture.blogspot.com/2009/10/curious-made-extraordinary.html about All Visual Arts and The Age of the Marvellous.

Time to reflect on Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge a book by Edward O. Wilson

In his 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Wilson discusses methods that have been used to unite the sciences, and might be able to unite the sciences with the humanities. Wilson prefers and uses the term "consilience" to describe the synthesis of knowledge from different specialized fields of human endeavor. He defines human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules, the genetic patterns of mental development. He argues that culture and rituals are products, not parts, of human nature. He says art is not part of human nature, but our appreciation of art is. He argues that concepts such as art appreciation, fear of snakes, or the incest taboo (Westermarck effect) can be studied using scientific methods. Previously, these phenomena were only part of psychological, sociological, or anthropological studies. Wilson proposes that they can be part of interdisciplinary research.