2 54 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



V I I 



Man's evolution now is primarily social and cultural. It has been going 

 on since earliest man; its description is the burden of histors'. And in spite 

 of the wails of the pessimists its progress has not been slight. So it will con- 

 tinue to be throughout the immediate future, sav for the next ten or hun- 

 dred millenniums. x\s in biological evolution, there is variation (by the 

 introduction of new ideas), heredity (in the sense of transmission by tradi- 

 tion), and struggle for survival, both within and between groups. That 

 struggle is ever^'where present in current American Hfe, and is now going 

 on on a world scale with furious intensity in the present war. As with 

 biological evolution, cultural evolution has been mainly unconscious and 

 altogether unplanned; but here, too, man has reached a stage when he 

 could in a measure take it in charge. 



One important aspect of social evolution is the development of con- 

 sideration for others, of the idea of right and wrong, of moralit^^ Animal 

 nature is non-moral. The question of right and wrong does not exist when 

 the wolf drass down the deer. Consideration for others besran with the 

 early family. The long period of human infancy, close-spaced births over 

 the woman's bearing period of thirty- years or so, held the family together. 

 In such soil thought for others had a chance to grow. Alan's susceptibihty 

 to the favorable or unfavorable opinion of others helped. As a result there 

 has come that slow gro^^•th of sympathy for others which has raised the 

 strucrale for existence above the animal level. It is these and other distinctly 



DC ^ 



human traits which make life worth while. 



VIII 



What are some of the first steps that should be taken in planning for 

 the future? The foremost need is a clear-cut human ideal, the envisaging 

 of "the highest human values realizable on earth through human effort" 

 (Max Otto). This comes close to the democratic ideal, namely the fullest 

 development of the possibihties of every individual, both on his own 

 account and for the service he can render the world, the state being 

 guardian, not master or slave driver. Each man to have his chance. It means 

 the end of race discrimination. The claim of superiority by Europeans 

 over non-Europeans has done immense harm to both. 



In giving content to this aim, science, that is, knowledge, must help. 

 Science, some sav, has brought us to the mess we are in. True, technology 

 rests back on science, but science is not responsible for technology', nor 

 is technology responsible for the uses made of it. For that we are all 

 responsible, through our stupidirv^ and selfishness. We need to know vastly 

 more about man, his heredirv, the effects of his environment, the way 

 his mind works. Millions are spent for research in technology, for im- 

 proving glass, rubber, com and hogs; very little for the study of man 



