σος ον. μμ πμ 
Memoirs of the Kyancutta Museum 
No. 5 
Kyancutta, South Australia 
February, 1938 
. AN OUTLINE OF *BIOSOPHY" (Part I.) 
, BY R. BEDFORD 
.CONTENTS OF PART I. 
INTRODUCTION. Free Will. Forerunners of Biosophy. 
Chapter 1—KNOWLEDGE AND THINGS KNOWN. 
Chapter II.-—LIFE AS A FUNCTION OF CHEMICAL 
; COMPLEXITY. 
Chapter III—CONSCIOUSNESS AS A FUNCTION 
OF CHEMICAL COMPLEXITY. Relation of 
the whole to its parts. 
Frequency rate of con- 
$ciousness. ' . 
Chapter IV—ELIMINATION OF THE SUPER- 
NATURAL. Biosophy and the Churches. 
Chapter V—SCALE IN NATURE (To be continued). 
INTRODUCTION. 
l. My reason for using a new name, “Biosophy” 
(Wisdom of Life) for the following outline is that 
| have in view a certain scope of subject, a certain 
method of treatment, and certain aims which may best 
be defined under a new name as a distinction from 
names previously used for writings which, while having 
many points of resemblance, have sufficient. difference 
either in scope, treatment, or aim to render their use 
for the present study misleading. 
2. Let me say at once that the attempt of this work 
is too ambitious to make anything more at first than 
a crude, unbalanced outline possible, for me at all events, 
and that my justification for writing it is not so much 
in the small amount of original work it contains, or in 
saying things again which more capable writers have 
already said before, but in the fact that whereas a 
minority of people will probably agree in the main 
with its point of view, it is certain that the great majority 
still base their conduct on entirely different assumptions. 
3. The aim of Biosophy is to bring together the main 
generalisations of the sciences, particularly those which 
concern man's place in Nature and his future possi- 
bilities, and to base thereon a rational plan of living 
and a right scheme of economic, political, and inter- 
national relations. This aim assumes that for every 
question that may be put there is onc true answer, and 
that to obtain this true answer it is necessary to facc 
the- question honestly and to clear away from it all 
entangling falsehoods and prejudices. Although no one 
would claim that science has reached:finality in funda- 
mental principles, it may nevertheless be claimed fairly 
that enormous progress has been made, and, which is 
most important from our point of view, it is certain 
that the world in general lags far behind the advanced 
knowledge of our time, and that the abuse of the 
practical discoveries of science is fully as marked as 
` a science, 
39 
their rational use. There is need to crystallise and 
popularise the scientific outlook and to make it service- 
able for the best use of humanity, and Biosophy aims 
to do this. In brief, Biosophy is the Science of Life and 
the Art of Living. : ; 
4. In its method Biosophy is to a large extent a 
series of laboratory sciences, but it must also be founded 
on research in social and international fields. It thus 
envisages the co-operation of research specialists and 
more or less extensive publications of more or less tech- 
nical nature. But even more important for utility and 
effectiveness is the preparation of a manual of Biosophy 
in a form readable by the average intelligent and fairly 
educated man. Such a manual should be in the nature 
of a universal institution and should be constantly 
improved, re-written, and brought abreast of current. 
knowledge, in the form of a single moderate-sized 
volume, as a scientific guide to mankind in the things. 
that really matter, 
5. Biosophy, as I am introducing the term, negatives. 
the existence of a god or providence.and the survival 
of the, human personality after death, and regards the 
ideas of such as untrue, and therefore to be actively 
combated and not merely ignored; it regards natural 
science as the only and sufficient guide to man, and- 
mankind's destiny as dependent solely on his own 
knowledge and on his own reactions to his environment. 
In the unlikely (I would say impossible) event of a 
god appearing or.of human personality being proved 
to survive death, then Biosophy would cease to exist as 
I consider that the conception of life and 
consciousness as a function of molecular complexity, as 
partially: developed in my second and third chapters, 
agrees sufficiently with known facts to be accepted as 
disproving the possibility of god or human survival 
after death, 
D 
