An Introduction to a Biology 



us leads. Surely the way to find out about life is 

 to study life at work ; or at play ; at any rate, in 

 action. There is no other field at all comparable 

 with that of human activities for such a study. 

 It is only in human life that we can approach close 

 to, and study minutely the very nature of, existence. 



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But there is one human activity which stands 

 out from the rest and demands the most severely 

 critical study. This is the process of investigation 

 itself. It seems to me that one of the most impor- 

 tant branches of biology should be a critical study 

 of the process of investigation. It is a perfectly 

 legitimate branch, because this process is indubitably 

 a manifestation of life. It is, moreover, a branch 

 which requires the most careful attention, because 

 if the process of investigation be unsound the results 

 obtained by it will be worthless. Man's theory of 

 life, his biology, is the product of his imagination. 

 Is it not high time, therefore, that he turned his 

 eye inwards and pondered upon the relation between 

 himself and the objects of his investigation ? It 

 takes two to make a science. There are two parties 

 to the bargain : the mind of the investigator and 

 the things investigated. 



The attention of the investigator perpetually flows 

 outwards, intent upon its object ; it does not stop 

 to look at itself ; it is all taken up with its prey ; 

 none of it is left over to be devoted to its source, 

 the mind. The interests of the investigator do not 

 lie within, but without. He has no misgivings as 



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