Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

by Jane Goodall

In order to collect good, scientific data, one is told, it is necessary to be coldly objective. You record accurately what you see and, above all, you do not permit yourself to have any empathy with your subjects. Fortunately I did not know that during the early months at Gombe. A great deal of my understanding of these intelligent beings was built up just because I felt such empathy with them. Once you know why something happens, you can test your interpretation as rigorously as you like. There are still scientists around nowadays who will raise supercilious eyebrows if you talk of empathy with animals, but attitudes are beginning to soften. At any rate, I felt very much as though I was learning about fellow beings in those early days—animal beings who bridged the supposed gap between human beings and the rest of the animal kingdom.