Hooley McLaughlin is a senior science and technology advisor at the Ontario Science Centre where he creates and develops major exhibitions. In The Ends of Our Exploring he takes the reader on journeys, both physical and philosophical, in order to examine how the way we view the world defines our interactions with it and to see if there is a more valid perspective.

The Ends of Our Exploring is divided into nine chapters and 364 numbered sections. The numbered sections mark where McLaughlin jumps from travelogue to philosophical musing and back, and there is a lot of jumping. For example, the third chapter takes the reader on a journey to Stalin’s slave-built Gulag railway in Siberia, a childhood excursion into the Ontario woods, the author’s memories of his Portuguese landlords in Toronto, and reflections on early 16th-century Portuguese navigation and map-making.

In fact, maps underlie the entire book; the maps we use to fit the world into our preconceived view and the alternatives that allow us to understand the world as interactive participants. The author’s main point is that the latter are more valid.

It takes a long time to get into this book, and readers who do not feel comfortable with terms such as “teleology” (a view that maintains that some phenomena can be explained fully only by citing the functions they perform, i.e. a function of the liver is to secrete bile) will not get far. Beneath the heavy prose, the philosophy is sometimes self-evident and is rarely presented for the general reader. The travel anecdotes are more accessible, but the shortness gives them a choppy feel. Those who persevere will find some interesting stories and some thoughtful ideas. However, unless the reader has a particular interest in the philosophy of western scientific thought, it is unlikely to be enough to hold their attention.