LECTURES IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 



Biological heredity and culture are interrelated; the possi- 

 bility of culture is conditioned by heredity. Culture can origi- 

 nate, endure, and grow only in the possessors of human genes. 

 This simple fact is important, and its consequences must be ap- 

 preciated. The fountainhead of the ability to gain and transmit 

 knowledge lies in human genes; but human genes are a product 

 of biological evolution, and biological evolution is fundamen- 

 tally utilitarian. The genetic equipment of the human species 

 is what it is because it proved to be useful. Indeed, biologically 

 considered, man is by far the most successful species. He has 

 spread all over the world, learned to control and utilize some 

 of the forces of nature, and forced other species to serve his 

 needs. This biological success became possible not because of 

 any particular strength or aptitude of the human body but be- 

 cause of the might of the human intellect. Man's ascendancy 

 is the fruit of his genetically conditioned powers of knowledge 

 and understanding. 5 



3. Man's Ability to Know as a Product of Evolution 



It is remarkable that evolution, though lacking design or 

 foresight, nevertheless results so often in furtherance of the har- 

 mony between the organism and its environment. One could 

 not expect it to do so always, however. Evolutionary changes 

 sometimes result in failure. Failure of life is death, extinction. 



The biological success of a species is often due to the excel- 

 lence of its organization in only one or in a few respects. In the 

 bird of prey, this is its keen eyesight and powerful flight; in the 

 prey it is concealment and escape; in many parasites it is tre- 

 mendous fecundity; in man it is the ability to learn and to 

 know. The evolutionary origin of man's ability to learn and 

 to know tends, however, to limit and circumscribe this ability. 

 To oversimplify the issue, man can know chiefly what is useful 

 for him to know. 



It must be admitted that the problem of the origin of hu- 

 man understanding has thus far eluded solution in evolutionary 

 terms. Everyone will agree that in man empirical knowledge is 

 useful for survival. But it is not quite clear what is the bio- 



5 See G. G. Simpson, Meaning of Evolution (New Haven. 1949), and A. 

 Roe and G. G. Simpson, ed., Behavior and Evolution (New Haven, 1958). 



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