CHAPTER I 



OUR APPROACH 



An Open and Unbiased Mind Is Necessary 



IN approaching the realm of biology as a science it is well to 

 discard all pre-conceived ideas of life, traditions as to its 

 origin, and all metaphysical speculations. Viewing things ob- 

 jectively is a safeguard against shock to prejudice or to religious 

 belief. We must realize that man cannot get outside of himself 

 in the interpretation of the universe and that he is dependent 

 upon his senses and reasoning power in the formulation of con- 

 cepts of matter, space, and time. We must further realize that 

 these concepts change as newer evidence gained by the senses and 

 by reasoning increases, and we must therefore conclude that, at 

 present, final causes are unknowable, that so-called "laws" are 

 not final, and that all knowledge is relative. 



To enter the realm of biology in this way is to bring an open 

 and an unbiased mind to the contemplation of living things. In 

 biology, as in other branches of exact knowledge, we find con- 

 cepts which have the value of so-called facts, and concepts having 

 the value of theories, or attempted explanations of the facts and 

 their relationships. In the last analysis, and with the changing 

 conceptions of atoms, matter, and energy which are resulting 

 from increased knowledge, even our so-called facts may have to 

 be relegated to the realm of theory, or they may be found to be 

 based on theory, and as such to be merely relative. Yet such 

 facts are the most stable concepts we have, and when based 

 upon accurate observations afford a safe criterion of truth and 

 a stimulus to further progress. 



Facts, in this limited sense, are the building-blocks for further 

 theories, and such theories become more or less permanent crea- 

 tions according to the number, variety, and universality of the 

 facts which enter into their construction. Such, for example, is 

 the conception established today and known as the doctrine of 



evolution. 



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