Why Us?
How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves
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Beschreibung des Verlags
In this daring treatise on the current state of scientific inquiry, James Le Fanu challenges the common assumption that further progress in genetic research and neuroscience must ultimately explain all there is to know about life and man’s place in the world. On the contrary, he argues, the most recent scientific findings point to an unbridgeable explanatory gap between the genes strung out along the Double Helix and the beauty and diversity of the living world—and between the electrical activity of the brain and the abundant creativity of the human mind. His exploration of these mysteries, and his analysis of where they might lead us in our thinking about the nature and purpose of human existence, form the impassioned and riveting heart of Why Us?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Le Fanu, a medical columnist for Britain's Telegraph and winner of an L.A. Times Book Prize for The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, is fond here of the words "unfathomable," "astonishment" and "mystery" in his assessment of the failures of evolutionary and genetic science to explain the nature of humankind. In this dyspeptic attack on scientific "materialism," Le Fanu aims the brunt of his ire at Darwin and evolution. The problem with many of Le Fanu's arguments is his selective use of sources, especially regarding evolution, and a habitual overlooking of the most recent research; thus, he's able to conclude that current research in evolution, genetics and brain studies are dead ends. Le Fanu's elegant writing is all that keeps his attack from becoming a rant against "the role of scientific progress in obscuring the dual nature of reality." In espousing the necessary existence of a nonmaterial reality, Le Fanu invokes the language of intelligent design. Many will be disturbed by Le Fanu's suggestion that "Big Science" turn away from its "degenerate research programmes" and focus instead on smaller questions like how birds navigate.
