Ionian Enchantment
From AcademicBlogs
Ionian Enchantment is a science blog by University of KwaZulu Natal graduate student Michael Meadon. The blog focuses on cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, but also covers biology, science generally, atheism and scientific skepticism.
The name "Ionian Enchantment" comes from E. O. Wilson's Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Wilson explains that the term ‘Ionian Enchantment’ (coined in 1995 by Gerald Holton) refers to the “belief in the unity of the sciences – a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws”. This belief is so called, Wilson goes on to explain, because it was in Ionia during the 5th and 6th centuries B.C.E. that the foundation of the Western intellectual tradition was laid and, with it, the dream of universal learning was born.
Quotes
Such, I believe, is the source of the Ionian Enchantment. Preferring a search for objective reality over revelation is another way of satisfying religious hunger. It is an endeavor almost as old as civilization and intertwined with traditional religion, but it follows a very different course – a stoic’s creed, an acquired taste, a guidebook to adventure plotted across rough terrain. It aims to save the spirit, not by surrender but by liberation of the human mind. Its central tenet, as Einstein knew, is the unification of knowledge. When we have unified enough certain knowledge, we will understand who we are and why we are here. - E.O. Wilson, Consilience
