Consilience

Condorcet (1743-1794), a principal figure of the Enlightenment, believed in the perfectibility of humanity through applied reason. Though an ardent supporter and early leader of the French Revolution, Condorcet was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror because his views on suppressing dissidents were considered insufficiently strident. While incarcerated, Condorcet wrote his magnum opus, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, which outlines his optimistic beliefs for the future of society. He died in prison. For author Wilson, Condorcet’s death represents the end of the Enlightenment era, as nations descend into ideological rigidity instead of using reason to solve social problems. 

Englishman Bacon (1561-1626) was a lawyer who rose to the rank of Chancellor under King James I, but his real love was science, whose basic principles he developed. Bacon believed the world can be understood through painstaking gathering of facts and the use of inductive reasoning to extract the patterns of nature. After a scandal ruined his public career, Bacon returned to his beloved scientific pursuits and spent his final years doing experiments. Bacon was a true Renaissance man, and his book The Advancement of Learning is so compellingly written that some scholars suspect he was the real Shakespeare. He believed science is the future of civilization. 

Rousseau (1712-1778) developed the theory of the General Will, by which the public at large decides the direction of society. Significantly, he also insisted that, because the General Will is naturally virtuous, dissent is to be discouraged. Robespierre, for a time the leader of the French Revolution’s new government, took Rousseau’s idea and ran with it, crushing all dissent and replacing the Enlightenment era of evolving political reasoning with ideological intolerance and enforced conformity. These traits become prominent in major revolutionary movements of later centuries, including Communism and Nazism. 

Robespierre (1758-1794) and the Jacobin party lead the French Revolution into a Reign of Terror in which those who are against the new order—or who merely question its direction—are imprisoned or executed. About 300,000 are detained, and 17,000 die. Robespierre’s actions arguably bring an end to the age of Enlightenment. Robespierre himself is adjudged unworthy and is executed in 1794.

A leader in the development of complexity theory, Kauffman promotes his NK model that states that organisms must exist “on the edge of chaos" (97), unstable enough in design to adapt easily to changing environments but not so unstable as to descend into disorder themselves.