In the early 19th century, St. Louis was a trading center for the individuals who initially charted the interior of North America. However, there was quite a different type of individual for whom St. Louis was itself a source of livelihood and a more or less permanent home. A division of function existed between these two types of individuals: the traders, mountain men, and explorers were significantly different from the entrepreneurs and other civilized people who inhabited the city. This division was a symbiotic one that benefited parties of both interests. Without the city dwellers, the explorers would have had no purpose and could not have constituted a vector destined to conquer a continent. That purpose, manifest in those explorers, represents an essential aspect of human behavior then and now.
Human behavior is characterized by a symbiosis between discovery and justification. This is, for example, a simple definition of science. In understanding the efficacy of this behavior it is important to note the abyss that separates the two functions. Just as it would have been impossible to miss the distinction between the explorer and city dweller upon seeing them together in downtown St. Louis, it is easy to note the difference between those who provide discovery and those who provide justification in probably all aspects of human endeavor.
The division of function here is as marked as if there was a difference in phenotype, and the division is critical to the efficacy of human behavior.
Please e-mail your impressions to: kengelhart@igc.org