Travel as Exploration: Science, the Unknown and Personal Discovery

Abstract

This chapter shows that exploratory travel has shaped human history, and is related to a fundamental human desire to encounter the unknown. In particular the chapter focuses on the role of exploration in the development of the scientific method during the Age of Discovery, specifically the work of early modern thinkers such as Francis Bacon. The chapter explores the motivations for exploration, which often involve both personal quests for wealth, adventure and glory, aligned with larger-scale political and economic forces. The chapter argues that exploration is still possible today, on land and increasingly under the sea and in space. The chapter also examines the more intimate aspect of exploration as an endeavour undertaken in our personal lives, a desire that drives us to step off the beaten track and push ourselves beyond the familiar.