CHAPTER 4 . HOW DO INDIVIDUALS DIFFER? 



1 What brings about differences among people? 



2 In what respects are all individuals exactly alike? 



3 What characteristics of a person are important to his friends, 



fellow workers, neighbors? 



4 What characteristics of a human being are important to himself? 



5 Why are there different kinds of people in different parts of the 



world ? 



6 Are the distinctive characteristics of persons inherited by their 



children ? 



7 Has the human race improved within historic times? 



8 Does a large head mean greater intelligence? 



Humpty Dumpty, you may recall, was not sure that he would recognize 

 Alice if he should meet her again since, like other people, she had an eye 

 on each side of the nose, mouth across face under nose, hair on top of head, 

 and so on. In some ways all of us are alike. In some ways all the members 

 of a species or "kind" are quite alike. That is what we mean when we call 

 cows "cow" and all pine trees "pine tree". Among thousands of distinct 

 objects we take some to be of "the same sort"; that is, we emphasize simi- 

 larities and disregard differences. 



Individuals of a species differ from each other. Perhaps you have mis- 

 taken one person for another: the two were so much alike. But then you 

 discovered your mistake. If all were exactly alike, however, you never could 

 have discovered your mistake, nor would it have mattered. If you feel 

 like making a gift to a friend, it does matter that you get it to the right 

 person. 



Each of us wants to be enough like others to be recognized as "belong- 

 ing", as being "regular". But each of us wants also to be known for him- 

 self, for what is distinctive, and not be mixed up with a dozen or a hundred 

 others, or even one other. Each knows himself to be unique. Of what does 

 this uniqueness consist? 



In What Ways Do People Differ? 



Physical Differences^ The people whom you know differ from one 

 another in almost every way that you can observe — height, girth, coloring, 

 the relative sizes of the various features of the face, the relative length of 

 arms and legs and trunk. You distinguish your acquaintances not alone by 

 their general appearance, but also by their voices — which means that the 



^See Nos. 1 and 2, p. 74, 



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