Prentiss M. Brown Honors Spring Common Reading

This spring our Brown Honors Common Reading was "On Human Nature" by E. O. Wilson - 1988. Wilson was here on campus on April 21, 2005 for a lecture in Goodrich Chapel.

About the book itself he says: "To address human behavior systematically is to make a potential topic of every corridor in the labyrinth of the human mind, and hence to consider not just the social sciences but the humanities, including philosophy and the process of scientific discovery itself. Consequently, 'On Human Nature' is not a work of science; it is a work about science, and about how far natural sciences can penetrate into human behavior before they will be transformed into something new." "On Human Nature" covers aggression, sex, altruism and religion as well as heredity, development and emergent behavior brilliantly.

Dr. Wilson graciously gave an afternoon of his time to open discussion with a packed room of honors students in the Wendell Will room. This exchange between our students and an eminent guest still stands out as one of the best in recent years. We applaud professor Wilson's openness and candor and his ability to engage students in direct and deeply informative conversation. This event stands as a model of what an honors exchange of ideas should look like.