The Search for Truth

Humans are a very unique and distinct species. Although this statement is very obvious to everyone (or at least should be), not many of us have stopped to truly consider how we are different from other animals and the machines we create. Jacob Bronowski, however, has studied these differences. In his series of lectures entitled The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, Bronowski discusses exactly how we are different from animals and machine and how these differences affect us, as humans. This further leads Bronowski to the true purpose for this series of lectures, how humans use their current knowledge to create a better understanding of their knowledge and to discover the truth.

Humans have the ability to use the higher levels of thinking. We can connect two seemingly unrelated things to create something totally new. This ability allows us to communicate with others. We take in the information through hearing, process it in a part of our brain, decide how to answer and use our voices to communicate our feelings.

This may not seem that extraordinary to us, but Bronowski points out that only humans communicate in this way. Animals merely convey information from one to another, without the same thought process of humans.

Having an imagination also sets the human race apart from the animal world. Bronowski compares imagination to vision and comes to the conclusion that imagination is creative vision. It allows us to make connections between different things. But more importantly it allows us to create things in our minds. That leaves some of us wondering if those creations can become real. This is where inventions come in. Mankind’s thirst for knowledge and truth leads us to invent and create new thoughts, ideas and machines.

Now obviously we differ from machines because we have feelings and they do not. And since we created the machines for a specific purpose, they are not supposed to be able to do anything else. But the way in which we think is drastically different than a machine. First of all, a machine does not think, or at least not in the way we do. A machine takes in information, processes it and gives an answer. There is no emotion involved, so the answer given cannot be affected by it. Machines also do not use past knowledge of events to help in the current situation. The machine only has access to the knowledge the programmer has given it. Humans on the other hand are always being affected by emotions, physical wellness, and memory.

I believe that Bronowski started his series of lectures talking about animals and imagination in order to set the stage for the "meat and potatoes" of his beliefs. In the third and fourth chapters Bronowski starts to relate things to the world of science. He says that science (meaning everything that searches for more knowledge) seeks the truth. Back in the early 1930s a man named Gödel tried to assign numbers to statements and make equations out of those statements. After years of working on it, Gödel came to the conclusion that a system could not be both consistent and complete. That leads us to the conclusion that there are limitations on what we, as humans, can know. And that is the truth.

That does not imply that the quest for further knowledge is pointless, on the contrary. When scientists seek knowledge by questioning and challenging what is already known, they open the door to a previously closed system. Scientists realize that we know what we know because we have made errors. According to Bronowski, everything that we know for a fact was discovered because someone thought differently than what was normal at the time. So everything that we know has come from an error in thinking. Science is the process of trying to correct these errors. But as we do that, new errors arise, which must also be corrected. Thus the process continues indefinitely. As Bronowski says, "science is not a finished enterprise… science is essentially a self-correcting activity." This is the evolution of human knowledge.

Science works to improve knowledge, but it also works for the greater good of mankind. Scientists search for answers to questions because they think it will help change society for the better. "You do not invent a new world system by being satisfied with what other people have told you about how the world works." In this way scientists could be called peacemakers because what they do could possibly help everyone, even you and me. Scientists also work for peace by working together. All knowledge and new discoveries are shared without question. So if science succeeds, scientists succeed together. But if they happen to fail, they still support each other in failure and not think less of anyone for being wrong.

The last two chapters of The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination taught me a great deal. Bronowski dedicates these two chapters to science and the scientific personality. He says, "Scientists are maverick personalities. It is not possible constantly to face the world with the idea that the explanation which you have just been told is sure to be wrong unless you are a very questioning, a very challenging kind of person."

This applies to my life perfectly because one of my lifetime goals is to become a research scientist in the area of genetics. Now I realize that I have learn to question things more instead of just accepting them as the truth. Although the complete truth cannot be known because of certain limitations, I can discover what is the truth for me at a certain time in my life. I also know that what I believe to be true now, may not be true a year from now, or five years, or perhaps ten years. I must learn to become a creative personality and look "on the world as fit for change and on (myself) as an instrument for change."

I also have to become more creative in how I think. One of the most prominent qualities of a good scientist is his or her ability to take the known and create the unknown. I am not sure if that ability is born in people or if it must be developed. Surely, it comes natural to some people, such as Albert Einstein. But it must be able to be developed in others. So I know now that I have a lot to learn, even if I can’t learn everything.

I think that Bronowski’s main point is that everyone is a scientist, in a way. Every person has the ability to use his or her imagination. It just has to be trained to question what is thought of as common knowledge and the truth. Everyone uses their senses to perceive things. The brain is used to process information and to draw conclusions. Although we each have our own personal goals, we must work with each other to achieve them. So in a sense we are all scientists.