ZOOLOGY AND HUMAN WELFARE 



greater importance than it at first may seem, for the 

 insistent inculcation of these taboos in early childhood is 

 responsible not only for a foolishly artificial attitude in 

 regard to matters of everyday physiology, but also for 

 the building up in the growing individual of abnormal 

 phobias and useless inhibitions that are often ruinous to 

 vv^elfare. Children who have parents with some biological 

 training will be likely to escape this danger. 



We hear, on all sides, that what the distraught inhabi- 

 tants of our modern world most need is an adequate 

 philosophy of life to rescue them from tumbling igno- 

 miniously into a vaguely defined abyss that seems to be 

 yawning before them. Some saviors of society propose a 

 retreat to fixed religious standards, humanistic or ortho- 

 dox; others believe that a new economic scheme is what 

 we need; still others call for fundamental changes in human 

 nature, such as the assumption of disinterestedness. And 

 there are the frank pessimists, already noticed, who should 

 be for jumping in at once and thus putting an end to it. 

 All such prophets seem unworthy of serious consideration 

 to those whose philosophy of life is fortified by science. 

 In this section we have seen how zoological knowledge, 

 in particular, can afford some elements useful in the forma- 

 tion of an intellectual outlook adapted to the environment 

 in which we perforce must live; and we who believe that 

 it is possible for life to be reasonably happy and comfortable 

 will not be surprised, when scientific knowledge in general 

 becomes the basis for social ethics, if the consequent 

 advancement of human welfare goes far beyond the present 

 expectations of a reasonably guarded optimism. 



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