Motivation, Endurance in an Adaptive Brain

Abstract

Science labors under the burden of great expectations, such as cures for common maladies that afflict the human condition. Meeting those expectations is never simple or easy, however. There is always the nudge toward simplification, which is a good thing when it comes to foraging for coherence. The simpler, the better the tool for foraging. We do this all the time in science: one method comes to dominate or the one tool does. But science, particularly the biological sciences, is about pluralism (Dupre, 1981) more than monism. It is about coming to terms with gaps between explanations at levels of analysis and examining where explanations mesh and where they do not.