The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1919-06-21
Scientists Explain Thot Our Heads Are
of Detailed knowledge That We Fail to s
Facts as Did Coper1ojcus, aristotle, Colu
Shakespeare Who Kne1O Less Than IA
School Children, but Made the Great Dis
By Charles Gray Shaw, Phi. D
Professor Of Philosophy, Ne" YORK
University.

-HE human brain apparently Is on
the point Of protesting that 1t is
L suffering as suffers an overloaded
stomach. Against the befogging influence
OF alcohol we have legislated in an abrupt,
nrohibitory way. Shall We find It neces'
sary to save the brain from too much
thinking as We have saved It from too
much drinking?
When work becomes excessive in hours
and severity, workingmen strike; suppose
students and scholars were to consider the
very plausible idea that there Is too much
knowledge in the world would not men
tai strike be just and worth while? 1t IS
quite impossible TO give an inventory OF the
intellect to AL out sheet with all the
mental assets OF the race would be more
difficult than It must be for the multi-mil-
uonaire 10 put down in symbolic hgures
lust what he owns just how much income
he receives per annum. There IS sense
in which there is 100 much wealth not
with all perhaps. but with some; and there
"a no doubt that there Is 100 much knowI-
adge in the brain OF mankind generally.
Without attempting for moment TO AID
and ahet illiteracy. one can easily come 10
and proclaim the practical conclusion that
man to-day knows too much for his brains.
The brain is arranged in such way as 10
do something more than receive impress
sions from the world. which latter has for
IA tens OF thousands Of sensations; It is
the business OF the brain tc retain impress
sions. as also 70 react upon them in ways
suita Die and profitable.
As the brain OF school child, student
scientist and man Of the world generally IS
now working. the functions OF receptivity
are so absorbed in the acquisition OF
knowledge that there is no ability to retain
wha; is learned. still less to return 1t 10 the
world in suitable forms OF creation. Ihls
excess Of mentality appears not only IN
the sciences. but IN the affairs OF man as
man. II is not sufficient 10 live; one must
master the science OF hygiene. It Is not
enough TO beget children and replenish the
earth; one must be an adept In eugenics.
The voter, man or woman. must kno"
more than the character and ability OF his
or her candidate for the Assembly or White
House: ne and she must be such experts
IN international law as to be able 70 deter
mine Just which Of the fourteen points are
good. which bad; in what respects the con-
sti,ution OF the League OF Nations is salts
factory. or how it will apply TO Armenia
and Argentina. Mexico and New Zealand.
The activity of the brain IN receiving the
Impressions peculiar to a knowledge OF
physics and politics cali be guessed by no
one but the psychologist, and not by him,
either.
In all our mental getting we have been
possessed Of the notion that It Is quantity
OF knowledge which Is the principal thing.
A fact is a fact. one fact Is as good as
another. hence the more facts We have
the more knowledge We possess. Hence
school children have a colporteur's library
under their puny arms, colleges print
longer and longer curriculums. libraries
install more and more shelves The time
when one brain like that Of Aristotle or
Bacon could encompass about al. the
knowledge there was has long since
passed away. New sciences nave come
into being. old ones have been subdivided.
specialization has become the inrariaole
rule.
n~~-the midst Of all this, It 10 the
same brain in the same limited skull
which must set up an attitude toward
knowledge as a whole. and that brain
seems about 10 strike. to insist that there
has been an overproduction in the wares
NJ the Intellect. We have knowledge, but
II IS too big for the brain we carry around
with US
The moment we consider how the great
mental work was done by the great
minds. we discover that as rule from
which there is little variation great minds
have proceeded toNtruth with minimum
~ facts and laws. Socrates laid the basis
for all Western speculation. but his
knowledge OF the human mind would never
enable him to pass an eXauihatton in
nsychology such as is given IN normal
school. Plato worked the universe over
into a world OF ideas. about which men
are still disputing, but his knowledge OF
the universe was so limited that he could
NOT think Of entering a freshman class
In even a fresh water college.
II has been said upon good authority
that IL Copern!cus had had before his
mind the facts OF contemporary astrono-
my he would never have been able to dis
cover that the earth moves about the sun
It was the lack Of rich, detailed knowledge