South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-12-12
THE NEED OF MORE THINKING

Vii II y III VI aloAAAA AAAAANAA
The manner in which man has
revOlutioniZed his environment.
habits Of conduct, and views Of life
by inventions is perhaps the most
astonishing thing in human history.
II is an obscure and hitherto rath-
or neglected subject. But Il Is clear
enough. from the little that has
been said here. that since the Mid
die Ages. and especially in the past
hundred years, science has so has
tened the process Of change that 1t
becorres increasingly difficult for
mans common run OF thinking 60
keep pace with the radical altera-
tons in his actual practices and
conditions Of living.
Man has never been able TO adj
Just himself very perfectly TO his
civilization, and there has always
been deal OF injustice and malad-
iustnent which might conceivaoly
have been greatly decreased by in
telligence. But now il would seem
that this chronic malaise has be
come acute. and some careful OBJ
servers express the quite honest
conviction that unless thought be
raised TO a far higher plane than
hitherto some great setback to civ
uization is inevitable. The chaos
and suffering in the world are daily
evidence that the ideas appropriate
mayhaD, a century or more ago,
are quite unsuited 10 the unprece-
dcnted conditions Of today. Yet in
stead of subjectinG traditional ideas
auG rules to q thorouEhgoing recon
sidera ton. our impulse IS to hasten
10 Justify existing and habitual no
tions OF human conduct. There are
even those who fiattcr themselves
that by suppressing so-called ''radi-
cal" thought and its diffusion, the
present system can be made 20 work
satisfactorily on the basis OF ideas
OF a hundred or a hundred thous-
and years ago. The new knowledge
is still very far from being common
possession. and most OF us still cling
TO Eampering ideas about man and
his development which would not
bear sufficient scrutiny, nor the test
Of modern discoveries. We have, in
short. permitted our free thought
I'm the natural sciences 70 spoil the
old world. while we allow our
schools and even our universities 10
continue 10 inculcate beliefs and
ideals which may or may not have
been appropriate 10 the past, but
which are clearly anachronisms
now. Indeed. the social science
taught in our schools is an orderly
rresentatiOn OF the conventional
uroprieties. rather than a summons
TO Crapple with the novel and dis
concerning facts that surround US
on every side.
At the opening OF the twentieth
century the sO-called sciences OF
man. despite some progress. are in
much the same position that the
natural sciences were three centur-
les earlier. Hobbies says of the
scholastic philosophy that il went on
one brazen leg and one OF an ass.
This seems 10 be our plight today
Our scientific leg IL lusty and grows
in strength daily; its fellow men,
ber-our thought Of man and his
sorry estates capricious and halt
ing. We have not realized the
hopes OF the eighteenth century
illumination" when confident phi
losophers believed that humanity
was shaking OF its ancient chains,
that the clouds OF superstition were
lifting. and that with the new
achievements OF science man would
boldly and rapidly advance toward
hitherto undreamed- concord and
happiness. We can no longer
countenance the specious precision
OF the English classical school Of
economics. whose premises nave
been given the lie by further
thought and experience. We have
really 10 start anew.-James Har-
vev Robinson in Harper's Magazine
for December.
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