December 28, 2012

Human Exploration: A Look At Our Genetic Capacity To Imagine And Explore

Photo:  Michael Nichols

Restless Genes by Daniel Dobbs, National Geographic, January 2013

Here’s a great article on why humans are exploratory. Note that the author and most of the scientists cited take a pluralistic, multiple level of analysis approach to the question. They, the journalist and most of the scientists, eschew a reductionistic, deterministic, single level approach such that the possession of a single gene or set of genes explains all. This is an example of good science and good science writing. It offers a template for evaluating the explanatory validity of other scientific inquiries and science reporting, especially in the currently popular and highly reductionistic fields of neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and genetics.

Crazy Far by Tim Folger, National Geographic, January 2013

Archive for "Being Human"