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2.1.1: The Science of Who We Are and Where We Come From

  • Page ID
    136373
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    As we discussed at the end of Chapter 1, all peoples tell stories about their ancestors. Scientific stories about our ancestors are constrained by the assumptions of science, which developed out of 17th-century European philosophy. The first of these scientific assumptions is that the universe is divisible into (a) the natural world of matter and law and (b) the supernatural world of spirit and miracle, and we can focus our attention solely on the former. The second is that miracles, or capricious suspensions of the laws of nature, are not explanatory in the natural world; rather, historical processes are. The third is that we learn about nature by principally collecting data, under controlled circumstances, so that anyone, anywhere, can come to the same conclusions. We call such fundamental cultural assumptions like these epistemes, and we can label these as naturalism, rationalism, and empiricism, respectively. Our fourth assumption is that maximum accuracy is the only goal of a good scientific explanation. All of these are quite unusual cross-culturally; after all, the basis of most polite conversation universally is the assumption that maximum accuracy is not desirable. For example, when someone in the United States asks how you are, they generally do not really want to know, and if you insist on telling them, they will probably think you are a freak and not talk to you again.


    2.1.1: The Science of Who We Are and Where We Come From is shared under a CC BY-NC license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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