Science and Life

Abstract

SCIENCE, by flinging into the lap of an unprepared world an over–rich and embarrassing assortment of food for thought, must be held responsible for the mental indigestion from which the world is suffering. It is not surprising, considering the bewildering array of new knowledge and the number of new theories spread before us, that the only beliefs are unbeliefs, that traditions are anachronisms, and precedents ephemeral things. This is not an age of reason but of unreason. We are attempting to explain everything in terms of psycho-physiologico-physico concepts, but have so far succeeded only in making life more complicated for the majority. No great synthesis of our new knowledge has yet been attempted upon which to base a guiding philosophy for puzzled mankind. Mr. H. G. Wells may yet accomplish this task for us, but that it has still to be done is the opinion held by many, an opinion which will find reinforcement in this latest volume by Mr. Aldous Huxley, in which nearly every character is shown either floundering or detached.

Point Counter Point.

By Aldous Huxley. Pp. V + 601. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1928.) 10s. 6d. net.