Pioneer primatologist Jane Goodall was highlighted in Nova’s web series ‘The Secret Lives of Scientists & Engineers’, and in the clip above she talks about some of the ways in which Science has gone wrong: namely, its lack of empathy and its confusing of coldness for ‘objectivity.’
At the beginning of her career, she was heavily criticized for naming the chimpanzees she was observing. “I was told you have to give them numbers because you have to be objective as a scientist,” Goodall says in the video, “and you mustn’t empathize with your subject. And I feel this is where science has gone wrong. To have this coldness, this lack of empathy, has enabled some scientists to do unethical behavior.” It was precisely her ability to connect & empathize with her observation subjects, what enabled her to do the groundbreaking work she’s famous for, which eventually help revolutionize our understanding of social groups in primates & other animals.
“I think empathy is really important, and I think only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential.”
(h/t Cryptomundo)
