Abstract
PERMIT me to suggest that the science of man is scarcely “a vicious circle of introspective examinations”, but is itself “one of the realities of external Nature”, to use Prof. Soddy's definitions (NATURE, October 5, p. 90). The science of man, as a biological phenomenon that changes the aspect of the inanimate world and interferes with most branches of living matter—as an organism the groups of which have a definite life-history of growth and decay of ability, sometimes called cycles of civilisation—or producing collective average mentality, which results in rapid expansion of ability combined with great destructiveness—in all these ways the science of man appears to stand, like geology or astronomy, apart from all introspection. The purely scientific study by comparison of these phenomena in mass-action, apart from individual movement, is as scientific as the study of mass-action of matter, physical and chemical, apart from tracing the movement of single atoms. The understanding of this seems to be academically needed if we are to escape from British narrowness, and see the world whole.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
S., F., A., F. Science in Education. Nature 98, 108 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098108d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098108d0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.