Blog 13

                In chapter four of Dr. Pennock’s book, “Ardent Observers,” he discusses the importance of having friends and other colleagues within the scientific fields and later describes the autonomy and humanistic side of science. He emulates this by saying that being a scientist is not only like going an adventure with an unknown end but also like being in a love relationship with all the emotions of excitement, attentiveness, and just pure love for the field. Often, people adopt the stereotypical idea of a scientist as an emotionless intellectual. Yet, scientists are people just like anyone else who are filled with emotions, passions, and desires. Dr. Pennock supports this notion by showing that scientists are attentive, which anyone in any relationship knows is an important expression of love and care, and have the emotional capacity to act and just state reasoning. It is important for scientists to be attentive because if they were not, they would find nothing of interest or something that sparks their curiosity to pursue. Being observant enough to notice all the details in the environment around themselves and then wanting to know more about it shows a scientists devotion to science. Also, when they find something to research and discover, scientists house the emotion inspiration to act upon that desire. Though scientists rely heavily on reasoning and reasoning is essential for a scientist, reasoning will only give the scientist a plan of how to move forward, emotion give them the motivation to follow it. This kind of emotional motivation can be seen in scientists like Barbra McClintock when she continued to study maize despite what others said and in Darwin when he describes the excited feelings he had when collecting beetles. Having motivation stemming from emotion does not compromise a scientist’s objectivism though. Dr. Pennock shows that one can have the emotion to find something elegant and beautiful while still being objective by learning from the practically wise what the objective aesthetic standards are. In any case, if people knew how truly passionate scientists are about their field, they may be more relaxed about what scientists are doing these days and may even want to understand some scientific background to understand their passions.

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