The Washington herald., 1922-06-25
MeHys9M
Scientific
a@A0fes
A0gzA1@23
.; ;9;:|!||;;;;;{lng9,
SUNDAY, JUNE rs. 1912.
HUMAN SCIENCE URGED
TO CHECK ANTI.EVOLUTIO

young people and prevent such con-
nicts as that now waging over
evolution was advocated by DIR.
James Harvey Robinson. founder
| of the New School of Social Re-
search and author OF The Mind in
the Making" at the meeting of the
Pacific Division OF the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science on Friday at Salt Lake
City.
The most striking parts of DR..
Robinson's address follow:
Modern scientific research in spite
| OF Its professed aloofness and dis
regard of human feelings and mo-
tives, has succeeded in unfolding to
cur gaze so new a world in its
origin. development, workings and
| possibilities of control in the in
terests of human welfare that prac-
tically all of the older poetic and
religious ideas have to be fun1a-
mentally revised or reinterpreted.
Scientific knowledge ingeniously
applied and utilized by inventors
and engineers has. with the assis-
tance of business men and finan-
ciers. metamorphosed our environ
| ment and our relations with our
fellow men. Our notions of our
own nature are being so altered
that should we discreetly apply our
| increasing knowledge of the work.
ings of the mind and the feelings a
| tar more successful technique might
nnally emerge for the regulation OF
the emotions than any that has
| hitherto been suggested. This is at
least an exhilarating hope. We are
| forced to ask whether IT Is safe
f, when our life has come to be so
/ profoundly affected by and depend
ent on scientific knowledge to per-
init the great mass OF mankind and
their leaders and teachers to con-
unue to operate on the basis of
| presuppositions and prejudices
! which owe their respectability and
currency to their great age and
uncritical character. but which fail
to correspond with real things and
actual operations as they are COM
ing to be understood.
Much has been written of the
conflict of science and religion.
| The real problem is nothing less
| than the stupendous task of culti-
waiting an appreciation of the ma
ture and significance of precise
| thought and exact knowledge in
| being by nature and nurture so
careless of truth and given to
modes of thinking repugnant to
scientific intelligence. For even
| the more magnificent scientific dis
coveries. especially those of recent
years, have not penetrated into our
| general education and are entirety
disregarded in most discussions of
| social problems. And yet an i'm
posing accumulation of critical in
| formation of wide bearing Is at our
| disposal which would become an ac-
| tive factor in the readjustment of
| the troubled relations of men were
| II possible to overcome the OBJ
stacles to its general dissemination
| and acceptance.
striking illustration of the
| present ineffective methods OF
| popularizing cardinal scientific dis
| coveries has recently been supplied
| by the revival of strong ana
threatening opposition TO the knowl-
edge we now have OF mans affinity
and obvious relationships with the
rest of the organic world. The idea
| of organic evolution is perhaps the
most momentous in its bearings of
all the great generalizations which
| have come with increased knowl-
edge of the globes history and the
history of its inhabitants. Those
| who will take the trouble to con-
slider even in the most elementary
manner the multifold and concur
rent evidence of the successive ap-
| pearance of vegeta Bile and animal
| species on the earth and the reasons
for including man among the pri-
mates, cannot fail, unless they be
utterly blinded by prejudice. freely
| to concede the animalhood OF man
| Recently serious misunder-
standing has resulted from the re-
| port that men OF science are giving
up "Darwinism," that "Darwinism
| Is dead" This has puzzled those
| who supposed that evolution was
| well substantiated assumption and
has filled with a somewhat mali
| cious joy those who have always
| denounced the rotion as wicked and
opposed to Scripture. To the pub
| lie, Darwinism means evolution,
mans monkey origin. as the matter
is popularity but inexactly phrased.
But to the paleontologist and biol
ogist Darwinism does not mean the
| theory of mans animal descent
which was formulated long before
the publication of the Origin of
! Species" but is confined to the in
genious theories which Darwin so
| patiently worked out to account for
/ the facts Of evolution. The state
| ment that Darwinism is dead does
| not mean that the evidence for the
evolutionary hypothesis has in any
J way been weakened or that any
I really competent man Of science
doubts our animal derivation. 1t
only means that Darwin's explana-
tions of how one species may have
been derived from another have
| proved. as result of increasing
| knowledge, to be mistaken or
| wholly inadequate. 1t means that
We cannot any longer assign the
1 Importance he did to sexual ana
| natural selection and the hereditary
| transmissibility of acquired charac-
| ters. But the confessed failure so
| far of biologists to clear up the
| process of evolution, or expert
| mentally create a new species from
an existing one, does not affect the
| facts derived from many converg-
| ing sources which lead to the un-
avoidab'e conclusion that man has
a genealogical relation to the
| higher animals.
The chief aim of education for us
| who really grasp the value of
scientific attitude and appreciate
the inherent obstacles which oppose
| themselves to its successful culti-
walton in the human species, should
be the incubation of the profound
est of truths, namely that science
Is one. 1t is all nothing more or
less than the most accurate and best
authenticated information that we
| possess, subject to constant recti-
| fcat.on and amplification, of mans