EVOLUTIONISM AND MAN'S HOPE 



logical utility of abstract and theoretical knowledge. The solu- 

 tion may be that in human affairs "utility" has a deeper meaning 

 than appears on the surface. Man is not a solitary animal; he 

 is a social and, in Aristotle's words, a political animal. Man's 

 survival depends not alone on his having enough to eat and on 

 successful avoidance of physical hazards of the environment. It 

 depends also on man's ability to arrive at a mutual accommo- 

 dation with his neighbors. 



Interpersonal relations are facilitated by the use of language. 

 So are the processes of instruction and learning. The biological 

 adaptive function of communication by means of language is 

 beyond question. Now, the establishment of language depends 

 upon the ability to form and to deal with generalizations, sym- 

 bols, and abstractions. The word "stone" or "water" does not 

 refer to just one particular object, but to classes of objects hav- 

 ing in common the property of stoniness or of wateriness. The 

 so-called languages of animals do not involve the use of such 

 generalizing or abstract thought, or at most involve the barest 

 rudiments of it. The human kind of language is a phenomenon 

 which has little precedent on the subhuman level. 



4. Symbolic Thought, Language, and Self-Awareness 



Without doubt, natural selection has favored the develop- 

 ment and strengthening of the ability of symbolic and abstract 

 thought. This ability, almost totally foreign to the animal world 

 at large, has set man apart as a biologically unique species, 

 equipped to pursue a quite novel way of life. There is no need 

 to stress the importance of this ability to social man; its loss 

 owing to injury or to inherited defects makes a human being 

 an idiot, helpless in a human community. 



However, the ability to form symbols, generalizations and 

 abstract ideas is not subservient to linguistic needs alone. A 

 basic ability of this sort opens up avenues of cognition quite 

 foreign to the animal world and inaugurates a variety of new 

 possibilities of further evolutionary developments. Natural se- 

 lection is opportunistic; it favors properties which are useful at 

 the time and in the place of their establishment, regardless of 

 whether these properties will be useful or harmful in the future. 



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