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The Reith Lectures

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The Reith Lectures: John Zachary Young - Doubt and Certainty in Science: The Biologist's Approach to Man

02/11/1950

The Biologist's Approach to Man

John Zachary Young - Doubt and Certainty in Science

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, John Zachary Young - Doubt and Certainty in Science, The Biologist's Approach to Man

J Z Young questions what biologists consider the important functions of man.

Zoologist and neurophysiologist John Zachary Young argues that biologists have got it wrong when considering the nature and functions of man, in his first Reith lecture. 

The English zoologist and neurophysiologist John Zachary Young explores the function of the brain, the way it facilitates communication between human beings, and the current scientific methods used to further our understanding of its capacity, in his Reith lecture series entitled 'Doubt and Certainty in Science'.

In his first lecture, entitled 'The Biologist's Approach to Man', J Z Young argues that the emphasis of biologists when considering the nature and functions of man has hitherto been wrong.  He argues that biologists have been concentrating on those features of man that are obviously like those of animals; ie digestion, locomotion and so on. Young argues that the fact that man is a thinking creature, and a worshipping one, is much more significant.

The Reith Lectures: John Zachary Young - Doubt and Certainty in Science

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Neurophysiologist J Z Young examines the scientific methods used to understand the brain.

English zoologist and neurophysiologist John Zachary Young explores the function of the brain, and the current scientific methods used to increase our understanding of it.

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