Chapter 2: The Origins of Science

Science has deep roots in the human drive to understand and manipulate the world we live in. This chapter looks at the origins of science in the ancient world and its relation to a variety of other ways in which we have sought to make sense of things. Our capacity and drive to understand ourselves and our world finds expression in the spontaneous “magical thinking” that characterizes both young minds and young civilizations. Science and superstition are both rooted in our story-telling minds and here we begin our explorations of the common features and divergences between the two.