Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered The Mystery Of Ourselves
by James Le Fanu /
2010 / English / EPUB
576 KB Download
The imperative to 'know thyself' is both fundamental and profoundly
elusive -- for how can we ever truly comprehend the drama and
complexity of the human experience? In 'Why Us?' James Le Fanu
offers a fascinating exploration of the power and limits of science
to penetrate the deep mysteries of our existence, challenging the
certainty that has persisted since Charles Darwin's 'Origin of
Species' that we are no more than the fortuitous consequence of a
materialist evolutionary process. That challenge arises,
unexpectedly, from the two major projects that promised to provide
definitive proof for this most influential of scientific theories.
The first is the astonishing achievement of the Human Genome
Project, which, it was anticipated, would identify the genetic
basis of those characteristics that distinguish humans from their
primate cousins. The second is the phenomenal advance in brain
imaging that now permits neuroscientists to observe the brain 'in
action' and thus account for the remarkable properties of the human
mind. But that is not how it has turned out. It is simply not
possible to get from the monotonous sequence of genes along the
double helix to the near infinite diversity of the living world,
nor to translate the electrical firing of the brain into the
creativity of the human mind. This is not a matter of not knowing
all the facts. Rather, science has inadvertently discovered that
its theories are insufficient to conjure the wonder of the human
experience from the bare bones of our genes and brains. We stand on
the brink of a tectonic shift in our understanding of ourselves
that will witness the rediscovery of the central premise of Western
philosophy that there is 'more than we can know'. Lucid, compelling
and utterly engaging, 'Why Us?' offers a convincing and provocative
vision of the new science of being human.
The imperative to 'know thyself' is both fundamental and profoundly
elusive -- for how can we ever truly comprehend the drama and
complexity of the human experience? In 'Why Us?' James Le Fanu
offers a fascinating exploration of the power and limits of science
to penetrate the deep mysteries of our existence, challenging the
certainty that has persisted since Charles Darwin's 'Origin of
Species' that we are no more than the fortuitous consequence of a
materialist evolutionary process. That challenge arises,
unexpectedly, from the two major projects that promised to provide
definitive proof for this most influential of scientific theories.
The first is the astonishing achievement of the Human Genome
Project, which, it was anticipated, would identify the genetic
basis of those characteristics that distinguish humans from their
primate cousins. The second is the phenomenal advance in brain
imaging that now permits neuroscientists to observe the brain 'in
action' and thus account for the remarkable properties of the human
mind. But that is not how it has turned out. It is simply not
possible to get from the monotonous sequence of genes along the
double helix to the near infinite diversity of the living world,
nor to translate the electrical firing of the brain into the
creativity of the human mind. This is not a matter of not knowing
all the facts. Rather, science has inadvertently discovered that
its theories are insufficient to conjure the wonder of the human
experience from the bare bones of our genes and brains. We stand on
the brink of a tectonic shift in our understanding of ourselves
that will witness the rediscovery of the central premise of Western
philosophy that there is 'more than we can know'. Lucid, compelling
and utterly engaging, 'Why Us?' offers a convincing and provocative
vision of the new science of being human.