6 



Man 



Giordano Bruno was one of the earliest modem thinkers 

 to insist that man, to be understood, must be looked upon as 

 a part of nature. With him, and later with Spinoza and 

 Darwin, an objective conception of man as part of the ani- 

 mal kingdom developed. We are careful today to maintain 

 this point of view but at the same time to be reminded, sub- 

 jectively, of the distinctive aspects of man's individuality. 

 Man is classifiable as an animal, but an animal of unequaled 

 personality— not new or different in kind, but of superlative 

 degree. 



His origin is obviously one with the mammals; he is a 

 primate of the primates— in structure, a ground ape. These 

 comparisons can be carried to the highest degree of mor- 

 phological and physiological detail. It goes without saying, 

 of course, that man's real nature and position in the animal 

 kingdom could not be determined by the study of structure 

 and metabolism alone, and this is actually true of all organ- 

 isms. Individual behavior and social relationships are always 

 important to know. Who could arrive at an evaluation of 

 the ant or honeybee through the study of body structure 

 alone? It is quite apparent in the complete comparison of 

 man with other organisms that the evolutionary process has 

 reached in man the highest level yet reached on this earth. 

 But it is of the greatest importance in emphasizing this that 

 we do not lose sight of man's origins. A knowledge of his 

 origins and relationships and, particularly, of the reasons for 



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