UG#608 - Flight From Meaning 3 (Science, Chimpanzees and The Monongahela)
Robin Upton | 12.01.2013 12:12 | Analysis | Health | Sheffield | World
After a quick introduction we switch from the Talbott reading for a 25 minute TED talk by Jane Goodall, an expert on chimpanzee society, in which she has lived for decades. She exemplifies the sympathetic approach to studying the animal world; she was subject to much criticism for using names rather than numbers for referring to the chimpanzees she was studying, since custom at the time dictated that use of numbers was more scientific, while names risked anthropomorphism. She credits the dog from her childhood in UK with teaching her the most important lessons about animals, and concludes by emphasizing the importance of personal choice and taking responsibility in preventing ecological disaster.
We then continue into our second hour with the reading How Biologists Lost Sight of The Meaning of Life. Talbott notes how that whilst submitting to a doctrine of academic rigor which 'de-means' their work, scientists nevertheless betray with their discourse and thinking -- as well as in their everyday lives -- that it is impossible to deny the importance of meaning. The fact that 'meaning' cannot be rigorously defined in no way invalidates it as a concept -- as he notes, a definition in itself signifies nothing unless we accept, a priori, the validity of meaning. Echoing the thoughts on Cartesian dualism we heard in episode 606, Talbott asks on what grounds does modern science attempt to deny the centrality of 'meaning' in the life which is all around us?
We conclude with a reading from chapter 10 of John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education. Gatto is describing his boyhood in Monongaheela, how as he grew up he was allowed to find his own meanings in the world around him. (Lyn Gerry skipped this chapter in 2008/9 when she read the book on air).
Robin Upton
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