Includes index

1. The reason we exist: The meaning of meaning -- Solving the riddle of the human species -- Evolution and our inner conflict -- 2. The unity of knowledge: The new enlightenment -- The all-importance of the humanities -- The driving force of social evolution -- 3. Humanity lost in a pheromone world -- The superorganisms -- Why microbes rule the galaxy -- A portrait of E.T. -- The collapse of biodiversity -- 4. Idols of the mind: Instinct -- Religion -- Free will -- 5. A human future: Alone and free in the universe

In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson examines what makes human beings supremely different from all other species and posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way