232 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



ties, too. Even though most scientists reject the idea of the 

 social superindividual, the epi-organism, the proponents of 

 homeostasis feel that societies can be looked upon as biologi- 

 cal entities established by evolutionary factors, in which 

 case there would be the analogy of the physiological ho- 

 meostatic regulatory mechanism. In the social world the 

 mechanism would work toward the integration of indi- 

 viduals into the society and toward a directional evolution. 

 They hope that the concept of homeostasis, along with 

 other principles of science, will find at least indirect applica- 

 tion in the study of culture and ethics. 



It is true that ethics arises in part from subjective feelings, 

 but science can and does objectivize and analyze subjective 

 data. Psychologists study and catalogue behavior that arises 

 out of subjective emotions, emotional expressions such as 

 fear and anger. Physiologists and psychologists know that 

 hormones affect behavior and that emotions influence think- 

 ing; and there is, of course, a rapidly growing knowledge of 

 emotional or psychosomatic medicine. Scientists cannot di- 

 vorce themselves from human emotions, but they can grad- 

 ually discover and evaluate the relationships of objective 

 and subjective manifestations. We are, indeed, at the thresh- 

 old of a real science of social evolution, as a part of the gen- 

 eral science of man— a science that will eventually analyze 

 objectively social change with more certainty than now. 



The scientific humanists see the very urgent need of a 

 synthesis of scientific thought and social action to furnish a 

 new foundation for culture, nonabsolutist, nonacademic, 

 nonracial, and nonsupernaturalistic. The new social struc- 

 ture must be based on a sound growth of science and social 

 reform working together. There must be "democracy in 

 thinking." There must be a thorough and unbiased study of 

 the needs of mankind, a scientific inventory of the world's 

 resources to meet these needs, and a reorganization of social 

 institutions where they do not contribute to the use of such 

 resources for the basic requirements of all. And above all, 



