Integrative Levels : A Revaluation of the 



Idea of Progress 



(Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford University, 1937) 



The flower of humanity, captive still in its germ, will blossom one day 

 into the true form of man, like unto God, in a state of which no man 

 on earth can imagine the greatness and the majesty. — Herder. 



It is certain we shall attain 



No life till we stamp on all 



Life the tetragonal 



Pure symmetry of brain. — Day Lewis. 



Statement of the Theme. 



Disquisitions without summaries are among the worst trials of the 

 intellectual life. Only too often, on occasions such as the present one, 

 when a scientist or a philosopher has the honour to stand before 

 you, as now I have, forming one of a succession of plain thinkers 

 who offer their conclusions for comment and criticism, he is content 

 to leave his audience and his readers to gather his meaning as best 

 they may without the assistance of any summary. In this case, how- 

 ever, a summary shall be provided, and instead of leaving it until 

 the end, when your patience will have been, perhaps, severely taxed, 

 it shall be given at the beginning in the form of a statement of the 

 theme. 



The theme of integrative levels is not one which we can approach 

 without considerable hesitation, since the field which it covers is so 

 wide and deep, no less than the whole nature of the world we know, 

 and the way in which it has come into being. No one thinker can 

 hope to do justice to this theme, and the only apology which may be 

 offered for treating of it is that interest must always attach to what a 

 specialist in any field of research may say when he abandons for a 

 moment his speciality and looks boldly out to consider the world. 

 Moreover, in taking the whole world for his province, your lecturer 

 may the more easily, though a scientist, escape the condemnation of 

 philosophers, who have always been rather interested in the world as 

 a whole. The subject, then, to which our attention is to be given is 



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