Table Of ContentThe Origin of Science
The Evolutionary Roots of Scientific Reasoning
and its Implications for Tracking Science
Second Edition
Louis Liebenberg
Cape Town, South Africa
www.cybertracker.org
2021
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Endorsements
“This is an extraordinary book. Louis Liebenberg, our intrepid and erudite
guide, gives us a fascinating view of a people and a way of life that have much
to say about who we are, but which soon will vanish forever. His data are
precious, his stories are gripping, and his theory is a major insight into the
nature and origins of scientific thinking, and thus of what makes us unique as a
species.” Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, and author of How the Mind Works and Rationality.
“Louis Liebenberg’s argument about the evolution of scientific thinking is
highly original and deeply important.” Daniel E. Lieberman, Professor of
Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and author of The Story of
the Human Body and Exercised.
“Although many theories of human brain evolution have been offered over the
years, Louis Liebenberg’s is refreshingly straightforward.” David Ludden,
review in PsycCRITIQUES.
“The Origin of Science is a stunningly wide-ranging, original, and important
book.” Peter Carruthers, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland,
and author of The Architecture of the Mind.
“Charles Darwin and Louis Liebenberg have a lot in common. Their early
research was supported financially by their parents, and both studied origins...
Both risked their lives for their work.” Ian Percival, Professor of Physics and
Astronomy at the University of Sussex and Queen Mary, University of London
and the Dirac medal for theoretical physics.
“Louis Liebenberg is a scholar and adventurer whose work combines academic
rigor, inspired leaps of insight, and a remarkable willingness to risk himself in
pursuit of an idea.” Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run.
Louis Liebenberg is an Associate of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard
University and a Laureate of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.
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A New Vision of Science
In this book I will address one of the great mysteries of human evolution:
How did the human mind evolve the ability to develop science?
The art of tracking may well be the origin of science. Science may have
evolved more than a hundred thousand years ago with the evolution of
modern hunter-gatherers. Scientific reasoning may therefore be an innate
ability of the human mind. This may have far-reaching implications for
self-education and tracking science.
The implication of this theory is that anyone, regardless of their level of
education, whether or not they can read or write, regardless of their
cultural background, can make a contribution to science. Kalahari trackers
have been employed in modern scientific research using GPS-enabled
handheld computers and have co-authored scientific papers. Tracking
scientists have made fundamental contributions to science. From a simple
observation of a bird captured on a smart phone through to a potential
Einstein, some may be better than others, but everyone can participate in
science.
Today humanity is becoming increasingly dependent on science and
technology for survival, from our dependence on information technology
through to solving problems related to energy production, food
production, health, climate change and biodiversity conservation.
Involving everyone in science may be crucial for the survival of humanity
over the next hundred years.
Scientific reasoning was part of hunter-gatherer culture, along with music,
storytelling and other aspects of their culture. Science and art should be an
integral part of human culture, as it has been for more than a hundred
thousand years.
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The Origin of Science
Endorsements
A New Vision of Science
Contents
1. A Paradox of Human Evolution
2. The Kudu Chase
3. Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence
4. Persistence Hunting
5. The Art of Tracking
6. The Evolution of Tracking
7. The Evolution of Science
8. The Scientific Imagination
9. Science, Language and Art
10. Modern Tracking
11. Tracking Science
12. The Future
CyberTracker Conservation
Acknowledgements
About the Author
References
First eBook Edition: 2013
Second eBook Edition: 2021 Version 2.2
ISBN 978-0-620-57683-3 (e-book)
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND
This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License and distributed as a free digital book.
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in
whole (including the CyberTracker logo and website address on the title page), with credit to the author.
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Contents
Chapter 1: A Paradox of Human Evolution
The history of science suggests that when a theory confronts a paradox,
the resolution will be a new paradigm that transcends what went before.
In this chapter I look at one of the greatest paradoxes in human evolution:
How did the human mind evolve the cognitive ability for scientific
reasoning?
Chapter 2: The Kudu Chase
Persistence hunting was probably one of the first forms of human hunting
and may have played a critical role in the origin of science.
Chapter 3: Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence
To reconstruct the context in which the art of tracking may have evolved,
it is useful to identify and define various aspects of hunter-gatherer
subsistence. While the methods used by recent hunter-gatherers cannot
simply be retrojected back into the past an analysis of known methods of
hunting and gathering may help to recreate the ways in which hominin
subsistence may have evolved.
• Foraging 24
• Scavenging 26
• Hunting 29
• Persistence Hunting 29
• Hunting with Missile Weapons 31
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• Natural Traps 32
• Artificial Traps and Snares 32
• Ambush 33
• Hunting with Domesticated Animals 34
• The Evolution of Hunting and Gathering 35
Chapter 4: Persistence Hunting
Persistence hunting may have been the origin of hunting and represent a
transition from predation to hunting. Early forms of persistence hunting
that involved simple and systematic tracking would have been a form of
predation, while more sophisticated forms persistence hunting that
involves speculative tracking may have been the first form of hunting that
involves creative human culture.
• Participatory Observations 37
• Observations of the Persistence Hunt 39
• Local Knowledge and Practice 44
• Endurance Running by Humans 45
• Relative Success Rates of Hunting Methods 48
Chapter 5: The Art of Tracking
In this chapter I look at the art of tracking as practiced by Kalahari
trackers in a traditional hunting context.
• Lion Tracking 53
• Track Identification 56
• Recognition of Signs 58
• Peripheral Perception 62
• Intuition 64
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• Interpretation of Activities 66
• Ageing of Tracks & Signs 67
• Reconstruction of Activities 68
• Track Anticipation and Prediction 70
• Systematic and Speculative Tracking 73
• Knowledge of Animal Behaviour 80
• Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge 85
• Mental Qualities 88
• Underlying Simplicity, Symmetry and Unity 90
• The Scientific Process in Tracking 92
• Mythology and Religion 101
• Skepticism and Individualistic Theories and Hypotheses 104
• !Nate’s Cosmology 105
Chapter 6: The Evolution of Tracking
To reconstruct how tracking may have evolved, this chapter breaks down
tracking into three levels. Climate change resulting in environmental
change would have resulted in the evolution of tracking from simple to
systematic through to speculative tracking. This would explain how,
through natural selection, humans evolved the ability to develop creative
science.
• Tracking an Aardvark 108
• Simple, Systematic and Speculative Tracking 109
• The Origin of Tracking 111
• How Tracking Evolved 114
• The Evolution of the Human Brain 122
• Visual Perception and the Imagination 122
• Landmarks in the Evolution of Tracking 127
• The Logistic Growth of Knowledge 129
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Chapter 7: The Evolution of Science
In this chapter I will develop a model of the growth of science based on an
evolutionary definition of science. This model will allow us to resolve
apparent paradoxes and explain how science evolved through natural
selection.
• Scientific Revolutions 132
• The Logistic Growth of Scientific Knowledge 133
• An Evolutionary Definition of Science 136
• Natural Selection for the Origin of Science 138
• Rare and Infrequent Technological Inventions 142
• The Cultural Evolution of Science 142
• Cultural Relativism 145
• Conceptual Discontinuities 147
Chapter 8: The Scientific Imagination
To develop an explanation of how science evolved, we need to have some
understanding of what we mean by the term “science.” In this book I will
make a clear distinction between “empirical knowledge” and “creative
science.” I will look at how some scientists think when they engage in
scientific reasoning and the views of various scientists and philosophers of
science. I will point out the similarities between the art of tracking and
modern science, with particular reference to modern physics.
• Novel Predictions in Tracking 149
• Unifying “Law-Like” Generalities in Tracking 155
• Novel Predictions in Modern Science 157
• The Origins of Special Relativity Theory 157
• Deeper Underlying Unity 159
• Anthropomorphic Representation 161
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• Spatial Visualization 164
• Benefits of Relativity Theory to Kalahari Trackers 165
• The Logic of Science 165
• Inductive-Deductive Reasoning 166
• Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning 168
• Thematic Presuppositions 170
• Constructing a Scientific Theory 173
• Reasonable even if Impossible to Verify 177
• The Absence of the Scientific-Philosophic Tradition 179
• Why Science is so Successful 180
• Superstition and Irrational Beliefs 181
Chapter 9: Science, Language and Art
Science required complex language and art played an important role in
science. Science, language and art would therefore have co-evolved.
Archaeological evidence for art may therefore be indirect evidence of
science and language.
• The Art of Storytelling 184
• Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge 186
• Art for Art’s Sake 187
• Metaphor and the Origin of Language 188
• Evidence of Tracking in Prehistoric Art 191
• Empathy in Science and Art 194
Chapter 10: Modern Tracking
If the art of tracking is the origin of science and a non-literate Kalahari
tracker hunting with a bow-and-arrow uses scientific reasoning, then there
is no reason why traditional trackers should not be employed in modern
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