Science as a quest: Don Quixote, neuroscience and the interrogation of truth

Authors

  • Romén Reyes-Peschl University of Kent (United Kingdom).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.0.3532

Keywords:

Quixote, quest, neuroscience, brain, Borges.

Abstract

Neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga has wondered whether «scientists, embarked upon their personal quests – their quixotic endeavours – spend their time just thinking». This adjectival invocation of Cervantes’s Don Quixote pitches science as an epic quest that equates scientific rationality with the Don’s delusions. Does science quest after truth in a quixotic, literary way that philosopher Nicholas Maxwell terms «rationalistically neurotic»?

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Author Biography

Romén Reyes-Peschl, University of Kent (United Kingdom).

Assistant Lecturer at the School of English. University of Kent (United Kingdom).

References

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Curran, P. J., 2009. «The Seemingly Quixotic Pursuit of a Cumulative Psychological Science: Introduction to the Special Issue». Psychological Methods, 14(2): 77–80. DOI: <10.1037/a0015972>.

De Cervantes, M., 2005. Don Quixote. Vintage. London. Durán, M. and F. R. Rogg, 2006. Fighting Windmills: Encounters with Don Quixote. Yale University Press. New Haven, CT/London.

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Lepenies, W., 1988. Between Literature and Science: The Rise of Sociology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Maxwell, N., 2004. Is Science Neurotic? Imperial College Press. London.

Quian Quiroga, R., 2012. Borges and Memory: Encounters with the Human Brain. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA.

Sleigh, C., 2011. Literature and Science. Palgrave MacMillan.

Basingstoke. Stadler, M., 2012. «The Neuromance of Cerebral History». In Choudhury, S. and J. Slaby (eds.), 2012. Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience. Wiley-Blackwell. Chichester.

Zeki, S., 2009. Splendors and Miseries of the Brain: Love, Creativity, and the Quest for Human Happiness. Wiley-Blackwell. Chichester.

Published

2015-04-16

How to Cite

Reyes-Peschl, R. (2015). Science as a quest: Don Quixote, neuroscience and the interrogation of truth. Metode Science Studies Journal, (5), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.0.3532
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Section

Crossroads. Where science and literature meet

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