PREFACE 



This excursion by a biologist into a 

 field usually posted "No Trespassing" 

 from this side has a two-fold purpose: 

 first, to inquire how far it is profitable to 

 push the inquiry into the problems of hu- 

 man behaviour with the ordinary methods 

 of natural science and so to knit our con- 

 scious and social life in with the rest of 

 our world of experience in lawful fashion; 

 and second, to see whether the conclusions 

 thus reached shed any light upon the most 

 acute problems of human conduct — self- 

 control, self-determination, self-culture, so- 

 cial control, personal and social morality. 



During the past ten years the writer 

 has repeatedly endeavored to formulate 

 these problems in strictly biological terms, 

 so far as possible uninfluenced by philo- 

 sophical tradition (of which, perhaps for- 

 tunately, he knows very little) and with- 

 out sacrifice of the scientific method by 

 yielding to the lure of mystical or meta- 

 physical short-cuts which take us to the 

 desired conclusions without troublesome 

 distraction by inconvenient factual evi- 

 dence. 



[v] 



