BIOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 439 



is to prolong an infantile reaction beyond the period when it is necessary. 

 To become truly adult, we must learn to bear the burden of incertitude. 



MAN IS the' MEASURE OF PROGRESS 



I would draw some such general and final conclusion as this. A scientifi- 

 cally based philosophy enables us in the first place to cease tormenting 

 ourselves with questions that ought not to be asked because they cannot be 

 answered — such as questions about a First Cause, or Creation, or Ultimate 

 Reality. Secondly, it encourages us to think in terms of right direction and 

 optimum speed in place of complete but static solutions. At the present 

 moment, for instance, it is much more essential to know that we are moving 

 with reasonable speed toward certain general types of supernational co- 

 operation than to nail some elaborate blueprint of international organiza- 

 tion to our masthead. Thirdly, it is capable of giving man a much truer pic- 

 ture of his nature and his place in the universe than any other philosophic 

 approach. Man is now the dominant biological type, and the developed 

 human individual the highest product of the cosmic process that we know. 

 That is a proud piece of knowledge. It is tempered by the reflection that 

 very few human individuals realize a fraction of their possibilities, and that 

 in a large proportion, passive or active evil predominates. But the knowledge 

 has important practical bearings. Once we realize that the development of 

 individuals is the ultimate yardstick by which to measure human progress, 

 we can see more clearly how to formulate our war aims. 



The fact that we, all the human beings now in existence, are the exclusive 

 trustees for carrying any further the progress already achieved by life is a 

 responsibiHty which, if sobering, is also inspiring; as is the fact that we have 

 no longer either the intellectual or the moral right to shift any of this re- 

 sponsibility from our own shoulders to those of God or any other outside 

 power. Indeed, the problem that appears to be the most perplexing and dis- 

 tressing turns out, in the light of a thoroughgoing scientific approach, to 

 be full of encouragement. I mean the problem of ethical and other values. 

 We have been accustomed to think of these as a scaffolding for our morals, 

 conveniently run up for us by some outside agency. Now that this is no 

 longer possible, we feel bewildered, unable to conceive of any firm moral 

 construction in which we can abide. The truth, however, as shown by the 

 extension of scientific method into individual and social psychology, is 

 that we create our own values. Some we generate consciously; some sub- 

 consciously; and some only indirectly, through the structure of the societies 

 in which we live. Through a fuller comprehension of these mechanisms we 

 shall be able to guide and accelerate this process of value creation, which 

 is not only essential for our individual lives but basic to the achieving of 

 true evolutionary progress in the future. 



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