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. |
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