Way of Science: Finding Truth and Meaning in a Scientific Worldview

by Dennis R. Trumble

How science can convey a profound sense of wonder, connectedness, and optimism about the human condition. This book makes a compelling case that now more than ever the public at large needs to appreciate the critical-thinking tools that science has to offer and be educated in basic science literacy. The author emphasizes that the methods and facts of science are accessible to everyone, and that, contrary to popular belief, understanding science does not require extraordinary intelligence. He also notes that scientific rationality and critical thinking are not only good for our physical well-being but also are fully in sync with our highest moral codes. He illustrates the many ways in which the scientific worldview offers a profound sense of wonder, connectedness, and optimism about the human condition, an inspiring perspective that satisfies age-old spiritual aspirations. At a time of daunting environmental challenges and rampant misinformation, this book provides a welcome corrective and reason to hope for the future.

428 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 16, 2013

About the author

Dennis R. Trumble is an engineer, educator, and science writer who has lived and worked in the city of Pittsburgh since 1988. Though now a confirmed city-dweller, he grew up in a small town in upstate New York where farm animals outnumbered village residents by a wide margin and snowmobiles were a common mode of transportation in the winter months. Following high school he attended the University of Notre Dame where he worked the sidelines of the 1981 Sugar Bowl and earned two degrees in Electrical Engineering (BS/MS) before heading to the Artificial Heart Lab at Penn State to complete a second master’s degree, this one in Bioengineering. After working twenty-plus years as a research scientist, he completed his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University where he currently teaches Medical Devices and directs the Clinical Practicum program for the Biomedical Engineering Department.
The first part of Dr. Trumble’s professional career was spent at Allegheny General Hospital where he met his wife Kathleen and worked with surgeons to develop better ways to capture muscle power for long-term circulatory support. It was here, amid a thriving surgical research program, that he gained a profound appreciation not only for the importance of this work in alleviating human suffering, but also for the animals that served as a test bed for the lifesaving procedures developed in the lab.
Having been raised in a farming community and schooled in the best Protestant tradition, Dennis was very familiar with the biblical doctrine that all animals were created specifically for human use and that “every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you” (Genesis 9:3). Still, as a researcher in the life sciences he couldn’t help wondering whether, in modern times, science might offer a more reliable appraisal of our moral obligations toward our fellow creatures. It was this question that prompted him to begin writing The Way of Science, first as a personal meditation on the question of animal welfare and, ultimately, as a way to share what he came to understand in the process; namely, that scientific rationality and critical thinking are not only good for our physical well-being but also good for the soul—and essential to our achieving the kind of global stewardship worthy of our spiritual aspirations.
When Dennis is not working to advance artificial heart technologies or pondering the larger implications of the scientific worldview, he enjoys traveling, winemaking, vegetarian cooking, ballroom dancing, and playing hoops.