The Faith of Biology

Originally published in 2000, this updated edition includes a new preface about these reflections on order, meaning and free will in modern medical science. Pollack argues that it is now more difficult to find meaning given the discoveries of modern science about evolution and the brain. This includes, in his view, the discovery that the conscious mind is the product of cells in the brain, an assumption that many readers will question. He also addresses the role of the unconscious and our inescapable mortality, both of which we may be inclined to deny in the short term. He nevertheless moves towards the proposition that it is an ethical obligation 'to help scientists accept the validity of their own inner voices and see their research as an expression of their innermost feelings.' The three lectures address order versus meaning as represented by science and religion, the meaning in the order of DNA-based medicine, and meaning beyond order in the unknowable.