Search

The sum of all the parts of Such – Of each laboratory scene – Is such. While science means this much And means no more, why, let it mean! But were the science-men to find Some animating principle Which gave synthetic Such a mind Vital, though metaphysical – To Such, such an event, I think, Would cause unscientific pain: Science, appalled by thought, would shrink To its component parts again. The first nineteen chapters of this book were written in the third person, with the author assuming the role of the proverbial fly on the wall. This was appropriate because the things described in those chapters are accessible to any observer, directly or indirectly, through his or her senses. In that respect, they exemplify what John Ziman said of science in general – they are public knowledge. The human mind has long been regarded as basically different because of its subjective dimension. We take a third-person stance when considering the workings of minds, admittedly, but our own thoughts are perforce first person and private. In this last chapter, therefore, I shall feel justified in making occasional first-person excursions, and there will even be expressions of my own subjective beliefs about such issues as consciousness and intelligence. But that doesn't imply acceptance of the view that the mind is fundamentally different from anything else in Nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chapter from the book "Everyday Life in Prehistory" is presented. It offers information on a hominid called Homo habilis, discovered by fossil hunters Louis and Mary Leakey in the early 1960s at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. It cites the use of fossilized brain size by scientists to determine which hominids belonged in the Homo genus. It suggests that the hominids used stone tools like chipped cobbles and round hammerstones, and that the hominids lived in the forest.

A chapter from the book "Everyday Life in Prehistory" is presented. It offers information on the first species of Homo, the hominid genus that is thought to have lived in Africa about 2.5 million years ago. It speculates that Homo rudolfensis may have existed 2.4 million years old. The possible competition for food between Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis is noted. Also noted are the skull sizes of Paranthropus boisei, Homo ergaster and Homo rudolfensis.