INTRODUCTION 



and integrating them into a unified, self-consistent 

 body of knowledge. As the interrelationships thus es- 

 tablished became known to the workers in their respec- 

 tive fields, new pathways were illuminated and fresh 

 progress stimulated. There can be little doubt that 

 synthesis of knowledge is as important a tool in man's 

 intellectual workshop as the gathering of the facts. 



Yet despite all the progress that has been made, the 

 overall status of man's knowledge of himself, of the 

 society he forms, his place in nature, as well as the re- 

 lationship of life to other matter — is still rather unsat- 

 isfactory. 



Is the development of life just an accident; or does 

 it represent the result of an inherent process in na- 

 ture? Are life processes completely explicable in terms 

 of the physical and chemical processes that are known 

 to apply for inanimate matter; or are some entirely 

 new principles involved? Is the evolution of intelligent 

 life, such as man, merely the result of an accident 

 piled upon a series of accidents; or is it predictable in 

 terms of a consistent pattern of development? How 

 can the accomplishments of man, who in terms of his 

 physical structure is not so very different from the 

 other higher animals, be accounted for by evolutionary 

 theory? What about consciousness; does not its very 

 existence tend to contradict any assumptions as to the 

 purely material nature of mind? Or is it possible for 

 matter to become "self-conscious" under certain con- 



