BIOLOGY AND HUMAN PROBLEMS 



years there is still a battle line defending the hallowed 

 ground; but it is sadly harassed, and its morale is low. In 

 places an entry has been made, and the invaders have 

 consolidated their gains. The results are seen in sociology, 

 genetics, and psychology. The historical researches of the 

 sociologists — showing, as they have, that moral ideas are 

 matters of custom — have opened up the way to a more 

 acceptable framework of society based on reason and 

 knowledge. The geneticists have solved the mechanical 

 problem of heredity, and have gained a clear idea of the 

 factors involved in somatic development. Thus a whole 

 category of problems has been removed from the realm of 

 the mysterious, taken to mundane precincts, and arranged 

 ready for systematic attack. The psychologists have made 

 sufficient progress to demonstrate that the activities of the 

 mind have a physical basis. They have shown how easily 

 sensation, perception, and even intelligence may be meas- 

 ured. They are fast coming to the point where they can 

 tell us not only how we learn and when we learn, but also 

 what we do with our learning and what our learning does 

 with us. It is not too much to say that, within another 

 generation or so, the most serious problem the human race 

 can ever face, mental adjustment to reality, will have had 

 at least a formal solution. 



If this brief and ragged account of the efforts of biologists 

 brings to the imagination no vision of a world less encom- 

 passed with sorrow, the fault is mine. Let us assume that 

 the task had been accomplished to better purpose, for there 

 has been progress, admirable and exhilarating progress. 

 What then? Is it to be assumed that science can do away 

 with all of the trouble of the human race and can transform 

 this vale of tears into the best of all possible worlds? No ! 

 Such an eventuality is not to be expected, and if it were a 

 possibility, the result would probably be quite unsatis- 

 factory. Those havens of everlasting joy which our fancies 



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