The Ascent of Man: Knowledge or Certainty

52 minutes, color
Source: Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc.

This film, based on the chapter "Knowledge or Certainty" from Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, artfully raises questions about the search for absolute knowledge. It introduces the development of the Heisenberg principle of uncertainty and describes the collision of thought that happened in Nazi Germany as some scientists measured skulls in an effort to create a race science, while other scientists proposed the principle of tolerance. "When the future looks back on the 1930's it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture...the ascent of man, against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty."