Source and Limits of Human Intellect

Leonardo. Vol. 17. No. I. pp. 40-45, 1984. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/84 $3.00+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd. SOURCE AND LIMITS OF HUMAN INTELLECT* Leon N. Cooper** I. Recently, Victor Weisskopf, a humane and learned man and one of the eminent scientists of our time, in a talk The Frontiers and Limits ofScience, stated optimistically that "at least potentially, science can justifiably claim the ability to understand every observable phenomenon." This statement was of course qualified: "there are many phenomena ... that we do not yet understand. But ... it is reasonable to predict that man will eventually understand all of nature scientifically." [I). I was struck, however, with Professor Weisskopf's concern about the limits of science. "A Beethoven sonata" he says "is a natural phenomenon which can be analyzed physically by studying the vibrations in the air, as well as chemically, physiologically and psychologically by studying the processes at work in the brain of the listener. However, even if these processes are completely understood in scientific terms, this kind of analysis does not touch what we consider relevant and essential in a Beethoven sonata-the immediate and direct expression of the music. In the same way, one can understand a sunset or the stars in the night sky in a scientific way, but there is something about experiencing these phenomena that lies outside science." Now, I know no one who would claim that a Beethoven sonata or, for that matter, a early Simon song could somehow be replaced by science. Yet, while I am not in disagreement with Professor Weisskopf when he says that "there is something about experiencing these phenomena that lies outside science", I am puzzled as to why this is a limitation on science. Rather, I suspect, this is an expression of a more general unease that scientific understanding, if it probes too deeply, can endanger some part of ourselves we regard as too precious to jeopardize, that the generality of such understanding may destroy the particularity of our experience, may lessen our ability to enjoy, or even to participate as human animals in, ordinary experience. And when we attempt to extend such understanding to our own selves, this unease becomes anxiety. It may be that we are so frightened of what we will (or will not) find if all is understood, that we are willing to deny the possibility that we can understand. Not so long ago the eye was thought to be a somewhat miraculous organ functioning in a more prosaic body. We smile indulgently at the naivete of our intellectual grandparents. To~ay, though we regard our eyes with great respect, few attnbute magical properties to them. The same might be said for kidneys, the heart, and other organs. We appreciate their importance, we may understand how they work, we may not be able to build them as efficiently as nature does, yet we hardly regard them as mysterious. The same calm does not seem to prevail when we consider the brain. Although the brain could be regarded in the same way we regard the heart, the eye, or a muscle, the functions associated •Abridged version, reprinted by permission of Daedalus. Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 109 (1980) p. I, Cambridge, MA.··Co-Director, Center for Neural Science, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A. 40 with the physical entity 'brain' such as thought, consciousness, and awareness of self-those most precious human characteristics-are not as easily attributed to the earthy material in which they mayor may not originate, as the function of pumping might be attributed to heart. The object of scientific endeavor, as I understand it, is to construct from the materials and concepts (laws of nature, if we insist) provided by the physicist all of the entities of the world including brain and mind. We do not know if this will be possible. But evidence that it is not possible would be among the more important discoveries of science. If it is possible, all of the marvel that is a human being, the distinction between I and other, arises not from a new material or a new principle, but rather...