420 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



most of their conclusions. It is interesting to speculate on what would have 

 been Hitler's attitude toward race if he had had access to present scientific 

 knowledge. 



These few and tentative conclusions are suggestive for the future, but 

 they do not indicate to what extent the science of man may be possible. It 

 is only very recently that we have really lifted age-long taboos against an 

 honest examination of ourselves. In the past ru^enty years more of a start 

 has been made than might reasonably have been expected under the cir- 

 cumstances. The prospect for the future seems hopeful. The extent to 

 which we can have a science of man would seem almost unlimited provided 

 three major conditions are met: 



The first is plenty of time. 



The second is the enrolment in this work of men of high abilities, with 

 adequate support. 



The third is freedom of thought, freedom of inquiry and freedom of 

 criticism. 



Research problems concerning man are, in many cases, no different in 

 kind from research problems concerning other forms of mammals on which 

 effective work has been done. But the problems of man are infinitely greater 

 in complexity and require more time in proportion as the space betM-een 

 human generation is longer than the space between the generations of the 

 smaller mammals. What Tryon learned about the genetics of maze-running 

 ability in rats might be duplicated in human beings with regard to genetic 

 factors in differences in general intelligence, but it would take 200 years 

 and a quite inconceivable control of human breeding to carry out such an 

 experiment. The difficulties of studying environmental influences are al- 

 most as great, but there is no reason to believe they can not be solved by 

 sufficiently persistent effort and by the development and application of 

 new methods. 



There remains one important difference between the study of lower ani- 

 mals and the study of man, namely, that in the latter case man is studying 

 himself and thus finds it more difficult to exclude his personal and emo- 

 tional biases and reactions. It is for this reason, among others, that freedom 

 of criticism is as important as freedom of thought in the development of 

 the science of man. With all these difficulties taken into account, there is 

 still every reason to believe that the development of the science of man 

 will go forward rapidly from its present modest beginning. 



VI 



It is worth while to consider the different practical applications that may 

 result from the sciences of man. The first has to do with education. Present 

 methods of education are the product of a long evolution under the guid- 



