"A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on.  Once he gets an answer, he has other questions."

Frederick Seitz (1972) ⌂

ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

Whether it is in response to external pressures imposed upon him by his environment; to internal pressures imposed by his desire to comprehend his own mortality; or to seemingly innate curiosities that operate beyond, or below, his ability to comprehend; the fundamental question which underlies every scientific research inquiry has long remained largely unanswered:

Why does man seek to understand his world?

To appreciate the breadth of this question; consider, for a moment, the sense of curiosity with which children look out upon their world.  They ask questions, challenge conventional wisdom, and explore their surroundings as though, by each new sensation, this world were rendered anew.  Their desire to glean understanding of its nature, furthermore, appears limitless - as often, attempts to respond and address their questions are met not with acceptance and a sense of mutual accordance; but with skepticism, and often, further questions.

The pursuit for scientific understanding, though regarded by many as a mere occupation today; is, in fact, none other than the extension of this childhood curiosity and skepticism into the realm of organized study.  As such, the question that we must approach if we are to truly comprehend this pursuit becomes not why does man seek to understand his world - as it would appear there is no time in his life when he does not do so; but rather, why does this childhood curiosity and skepticism not endure within his nature indefinitely, and to suit what end does man yield this skepticism in favor of believing in those answers he has provided his questions?

In our preceding discussion (Preface), we introduced the idea that the scientific understanding developed by each individual human society is built upon a unique body of assumptions and beliefs adopted, in part, from its cultural foundation.  In the introductory lectures that follow, we shall explore the origins of this foundation; its relationship to scientific understanding; and those underlying mechanisms by which both have evolved throughout the course of man's intellectual history.

Furthermore, as contemporary human societies have grown increasingly interdependent in the years since the end of the European colonial period; we shall conclude by extending upon this discussions with an exploration of the distinction between ancestrally-bound and intellectually-bound societies; and the properties of each that have contributed to the current degree of dissociation between contemporary (i.e. experimental) scientific understanding and locally-held cultural beliefs.