l8 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



sible by technical language. Science has no need, 

 however, and is ill-served by any tendency to de- 

 velop a cult of obscurity. Scientists must be free to 

 attack the unknown as effectively as they can and 

 in return for intellectual freedom they have an 

 obligation, which rests heavily on those able to do 

 so, to interpret research results in terms which can 

 be understood by intelligent and interested people. 

 There is current in at least one American uni- 

 versity at present an attempt to organize all knowl- 

 edge about metaphysics, and so secure a longed-for 

 unity. In order to obtain a simplified system, the 

 group of men occupied with this enterprise turn 

 back to the days before the present scientific era to 

 find a statement of eternal principles which will 

 serve as a unifying nucleus for human experience 

 and thought. Such efforts at establishing a Neo- 

 Scholastic philosophy, while furnishing an excellent 

 corrective for overconfident scientists, seem mis- 

 chievously naive as a serious, present-day movement. 

 We do need relief from our absorbed attention to 

 conflicting scientific detail, but progress must needs 

 come from newer syntheses which take account of 

 the world and man as science sees them rather 

 than by accepting almost as a whole some ancient 

 system of historical significance. These systems are out 

 of date primarily because they were evolved before 



