Name: A new way to explain explanation
Uploaded: 2009-10-26T08:34:00Z
Duration: 16 min 21 s
Description: For tens of thousands of years our ancestors understood the world through myths, and the pace of change was glacial. The rise of scientific understanding transformed the world within a few centuries. Why? Physicist David Deutsch proposes a subtle answer.

For tens of thousands of years our ancestors understood the world through myths, and the pace of change was glacial. The rise of scientific understanding transformed the world within a few centuries. Why? Physicist David Deutsch proposes a subtle answer.

David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation

A new way to explain explanation

Discoveries like fire marked rare moments of progress in a world where our ancestors' understanding improved little over millennia.

Seeking hard-to-vary explanations underpins all progress, challenging us to favor theories that rigorously account for observed phenomena.

Exploring myths to physical laws, the quest for knowledge transformed with the scientific revolution, igniting progress.