No one need
be told how indispensable it is to have true ideas-just concepts-correct
notions-of the things with which we humans have to deal; everyone
knows for example, that to mistake solids for surfaces or
lines would wreck the science and art of geometry; anyone
knows that to confuse fractions with whole numbers would wreck
the science and art of arithmetic; everyone knows that to
mistake vice for virtue would destroy the foundation of ethics;
everyone knows that to mistake a desert mirage for a lake
of fresh water does but lure the fainting traveler to dire
disappointment or death. Now, it is perfectly clear that of
all the things with which human beings have to deal, the most
important by far is Man himself-humankind-men, women and children.
It follows that for us human beings nothing else can be quite
so important as a clear, true, just, scientific concept of
Man-a right understanding of what we as human beings really
are. For it requires no great wisdom, it needs only a little
reflection, to see that, if we humans radically misconceive
the nature of man-if we regard man as being something which
he is not, whether it be something higher than man or lower-we
thereby commit an error so fundamental and far reaching as
to produce every manner of confusion and disaster in individual
life, in community life and in the life of the race.
The question
we have, therefore, to consider first of all is fundamentally:
What is Man? What is a man? What is a human being? What is
the defining or characteristic mark of humanity? To this question
two answers and only two have been given in the course of
the ages, and they are both of them current to-day. One of
the answers is biological- man is an animal, a certain kind
of animal; the other answer is a mixture partly biological
and partly mythological or partly biological and partly philosophical-man
is a combination or union of animal with something
supernatural. An important part of my task will be to show
that both of these answers are radically wrong and that, beyond
all things else, they are primarily responsible for what is
dismal in the life and history of humankind. This done, the
question remains: What is Man? I hope to show clearly and
convincingly that the answer is to be found in the patent
fact that human beings possess in varying degrees a certain
natural faculty or power or capacity which serves at once
to give them their appropriate dignity as human beings and
to discriminate them, not only from the minerals and the plants
but also from the world of animals, this peculiar or characteristic
human faculty or power or capacity I shall call the time-binding
faculty or time-binding power or time-binding
capacity. What I mean by time-binding will be clearly
and fully explained in the course of the discussion, and when
it has been made clear, the question-What Is Man?-will be
answered by saying that man is a being naturally endowed with
time-binding capacity-that a human being is a time-binder-that
men, women and children constitute the time-binding class
of life.
There will then
remain the great task of indicating and in a measure sketching
some of the important ways in which the true conception of
man as man will transform our views of human society and the
world, affect our human conduct and give us a growing body
of scientific wisdom regarding the welfare of mankind including
all posterity.
The purpose
of this introductory chapter is to consider certain general
matters of a preliminary nature-to indicate the spirit of
the undertaking- to provide a short course of approach and
preparation-to clear the deck, so to speak, and make ready
for action.
There are two
ways to slide easily through life: Namely, to believe everything,
or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. The
majority take the line of least resistance, preferring to
have their thinking done for them; they accept ready-made
individual, private doctrines as their own and follow them
more or less blindly. Every generation looks upon its own
creeds as true and permanent and has a mingled smile of pity
and contempt for the prejudices of the past. For two hundred
or more generations of our historical past this attitude has
been repeated two hundred or more times, and unless we are
very careful our children will have the same attitude toward
us.
There can be
no doubt that humanity belongs to a class of life which to
a large extent determines its own destinies, establishes its
own rules of education and conduct, and thus influences every
step we are free to take within the structure of our social
system. But the power of human beings to determine their own
destinies is limited by natural law, Nature's law. It is the
counsel of wisdom to discover the laws of nature, including
the laws of human nature, and then to live in accordance with
them. The opposite is folly.
A farmer must
know the natural laws that govern his wheat, or corn, or cow,
as otherwise he will not have satisfactory crops, or the quality
and abundance of milk he desires, whereas the knowledge of
these laws enables him to produce the most favorable conditions
for his plants and animals, and thereby to gain the desired
results.
Humanity must
know the natural laws for humans, otherwise humans will not
create the conditions and the customs that regulate human
activities which will make it possible for them to have the
most favorable circumstances for the fullest human development
in life; which means the release of the maximum natural-creative
energy and expression in mental, moral, material and spiritual
and all the other great fields of human activities, resulting
in happiness in life and in work-collectively and individually-because
the conditions of the earning of a livelihood influence and
shape all our mental processes and activities, the quality
and the form of human inter-relationship.
Every human
achievement, be it a scientific discovery, a picture, a statue,
a temple, a home or a bridge, has to be conceived in the mind
first-the plan thought out-before it can be made a reality,
and when anything is to be attempted that involves any number
of individuals-methods of coordination have to be considered-the
methods which have proven to be the best suited for such undertakings
are engineering methods-the engineering of an idea toward
a complete realization. Every engineer has to know
the materials with which he has to work and the natural laws
of these materials, as discovered by observation and experiment
and formulated by mathematics and mechanics; else he can not
calculate the forces at his disposal; he can not compute the
resistance of his materials; he can not determine the capacity
and requirements of his power plant; in short, he can not
make the most profitable use of his resources. Lately in all
industries and particularly during the late World War, which
was itself a gigantic industrial process, another factor manifested
itself and proved to be of the utmost importance: namely,
the human factor, which is not material but is mental, moral,
psychological. It has been found that maximum production may
be attained when and only when the production is carried on
in conformity with certain psychological laws, roughly determined
by the analysis of human nature.
Except for productive
human labor, our globe is too small to support the human population
now upon it. Humanity must produce or perish.
Production is
essentially a task for engineers; it essentially depends upon
the discovery and the application of natural laws, including
the laws of human nature. It is, therefore, not a task for
old fashioned philosophical speculation nor for barren metaphysical
reasoning in vacuo; it is a scientific task and involves
the coordination and cooperation of all the sciences. This
is why it is an engineering task.
For engineering,
rightly understood, is the coordinated sum-total of human
knowledge gathered through the ages, with mathematics as its
chief instrument and guide. Human Engineering will embody
the theory and practice-the science and art-of all engineering
branches united by a common aim-the understanding and welfare
of mankind.
Here I want
to make it very clear that mathematics is not what many people
think it is; it is not a system of mere formulas and theorems;
but as beautifully defined by Professor Cassius J. Keyser,
in his book The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking (Columbia
University Press, 1916), mathematics is the science of "Exact
thought or rigorous thinking," and one of its distinctive
characteristics is "precision, sharpness, completeness of
definitions." This quality alone is sufficient to explain
why people generally do not like mathematics and why even
some scientists bluntly refuse to have anything to do with
problems wherein mathematical reasoning is involved. In the
meantime, mathematical philosophy has very little, if anything,
to do with mere calculations or with numbers as such or with
formulas; it is a philosophy wherein precise, sharp and rigorous
thinking is essential. Those who deliberately refuse to think
"rigorously"-that is mathematically-in connections where such
thinking is possible, commit the sin of preferring the worse
to the better; they deliberately violate the supreme law of
intellectual rectitude.
Here I have
to make it clear that for the purpose of Human Engineering
the old concepts of matter, space and time are sufficient
to start with; they are sufficient in much the same way as
they have been sufficient in the old science of mechanics.
Figuratively speaking Human Engineering is a higher order
of bridge engineering-it aims at the spanning of a gap in
practical life as well as in knowledge. The old meanings of
matter, space and time were good enough to prevent the collapse
of a bridge; the same understanding of space and time as used
in this book will protect society and humanity from periodical
collapses. The old mechanics lead directly to such a knowledge
of the intrinsic laws governing the universe as to suggest
the new mechanics. Human Engineering will throw a new light
on many old conceptions and will help the study and understanding
of matter, space and time in their relative meanings, and
perhaps will ultimately lead to an understanding of their
absolute meanings.
Philosophy in
its old form could exist only in the absence of engineering,
but with engineering in existence and daily more active and
far reaching, the old verbalistic philosophy and metaphysics
have lost their reason to exist. They were no more able to
understand the "production" of the universe and life than
they are now able to understand or grapple with "production"
as a means to provide a happier existence for humanity. They
failed because their venerated method of "speculation" can
not produce, and its place must be taken by mathematical
thinking. Mathematical reasoning is displacing metaphysical
reasoning. Engineering is driving verbalistic philosophy out
of existence and humanity gains decidedly thereby. Only a
few parasites and "speculators" will mourn the disappearance
of their old companion "speculation." The world of producers
-the predominating majority of human beings- will welcome
a philosophy of ordered thought and production.
The scientists,
all of them, have their duties no doubt, but they do not fully
use their education if they do not try to broaden their sense
of responsibility toward all mankind instead of closing themselves
up in a narrow specialization where they find their pleasure.
Neither engineers nor other scientific men have any right
to prefer their own personal peace to the happiness of mankind;
their place and their duty are in the front line of struggling
humanity, not in the unperturbed ranks of those who keep themselves
aloof from life. If they are indifferent, or discouraged because
they feel or think that they know that the situation is hopeless,
it may be proved that undue pessimism is as dangerous a "religion"
as any other blind creed. Indeed there is very little difference
in kind between the medieval fanaticism of the "holy inquisition,"
and modern intolerance toward new ideas. All kinds of intellect
must get together, for as long as we presuppose the situation
to be hopeless, the situation will indeed be hopeless. The
spirit of Human Engineering does not know the word "hopeless";
for engineers know that wrong methods are alone responsible
for disastrous results, and that every situation can be successfully
handled by the use of proper means. The task of engineering
science is not only to know but to know how. Most of the scientists
and engineers do not yet realize that their united judgment
would be invincible; no system or class would care to disregard
it. Their knowledge is the very force which makes the life
of humanity pulsate. If the scientists and the engineers have
had no common base upon which to unite, a common base must
be provided. To-day the pressure of life is such that we cannot
go forward without their coordinating guidance. But first
there must be the desire to act. One aim of this book is to
furnish the required stimulus by showing that Human Engineering
will rescue us from the tangle of private opinions and enable
us to deal with all the problems of life and human society
upon a scientific basis.
If those who
know why and how neglect to act, those who do not know will
act, and the world will continue to flounder. The whole history
of mankind and especially the present plight of the world
show only too sadly how dangerous and expensive it is to have
the world governed by those who do not know.
In paying the
price of this war, we have been made to realize that even
the private individual can not afford to live wrapped up in
his own life and not take his part in public affairs. He must
acquire the habit of taking his share of public responsibility.
This signifies that a very great deal of very simple work,
all pointing in the direction of a greater work, must be done
in the way of educating, not engineers and scientific men
only, but the general public to cooperate in establishing
the practice of Human Engineering in all the affairs of human
society and life.
In writing this
book I have had to wrestle with tremendous difficulties in
expressing new thoughts and in indicating new methods. The
reader who stops to criticize words or expressions because
of their more or less happy or unhappy use will miss the whole
point of the work. The reading of it should be done with a
view to seeing how much can be found in it of what is new
and good that may be elaborated further, and put into better
form. This new enterprise is too difficult and too vast for
the unaided labor of one man-life is too short.
The method used
in this book in analysing life phenomena is essentially an
engineering method, and as physics and mechanics always suggest
to mathematicians new fields for analysis, it is not improbable
that Human Engineering will give mathematicians new and interesting
fields for research. The humblest role of mathematicians in
Human Engineering may be likened to that of "Public accountants"
who put in order the affairs of business.
In relation
to mathematics Bertrand Russell has said: "Logic is the youth
of mathematics, mathematics is the manhood of logic." This
brilliant mot of the eminent philosopher of mathematics
is no doubt just and is profoundly significant; the least
it can teach us is that it is useless to try to find a dividing
line between logic and mathematics, for no such line exists;
to seek for one serves merely to betray one's ignorance of
mathematical philosophy. Elsewhere Mr. Russell says: "The
hope of satisfaction to our more human desires, the hope of
demonstrating that the world has this or that ethical characteristic,
is not one which, so far as I can see, philosophy can do anything
whatever to satisfy." By "philosophy" he means mathematical
philosophy-a philosophy that is rigorously scientific, not
vaguely speculative. I am entirely unable to agree with him
that such a philosophy can make no contribution to ethics.
On the contrary, I contend, and in this book I hope to show,
that by mathematical philosophy, by rigorously scientific
thinking, we can arrive at the true conception of what a human
being really is and that in thus discovering the characteristic
nature of man we come to the secret and source of ethics.
Ethics as a science will investigate and explain the essential
nature of man and the obligations which the essential nature
of man imposes upon human beings. It will be seen that to
live righteously, to live ethically, is to live in accordance
with the laws of human nature; and when it is clearly seen
that man is a natural being, a part of nature literally, then
it will be seen that the laws of human nature-the only possible
rules for ethical conduct-are no more supernatural
and no more man-made than is the law of gravitation,
for example, or any other natural law.
It is no cause
for wonder that mathematical thinking should lead to such
a result; for Man is a natural being, man's mind is
a natural agency, and the results of rigorous thinking,
far from being artificial fictions, are natural facts-natural
revelations of natural law.
I hope I have
not given the impression, by repeated allusion to mathematical
science, that this book is to be in any technical sense a
mathematical treatise. I have merely wished to indicate that
the task is conceived and undertaken in the mathematical spirit,
which must be the guiding spirit of Human Engineering; for
no thought, if it be non-mathematical in spirit, can be trusted,
and, although mathematicians sometimes make mistakes, the
spirit of mathematics is always right and always sound.
Whilst I do
not intend to trouble the reader with any highly technical
mathematical arguments, there are a few simple mathematical
considerations which anyone of fair education can understand,
which are of exceedingly great importance for our purpose,
and to which, therefore, I ask the reader's best attention.
One of the ideas is that of an arithmetical progression;
another one is that of a geometrical progression. Neither
of them involves anything more difficult than the most ordinary
arithmetic of the secondary school or the counting house,
but it will be seen that they throw a flood of light upon
many of the most important human concerns.
Because we are
human beings we are all of us interested in what we call progress-progress
in law, in government, in jurisprudence, in ethics, in philosophy,
in the natural sciences, in economics, in the fine arts, in
the practical arts, in the production and distribution of
wealth, in all the affairs affecting the welfare of mankind.
It is a fact that all these great matters are interdependent
and interlocking; it is therefore a fact of the utmost importance
that progress in each of the cardinal matters must keep abreast
of progress in the other cardinal matters in order to keep
a just equilibrium, a proper balance, and so to maintain the
integrity and continued prosperity of the whole complex body
of our social life; it is a fact, a fact of observation, that
in some of the great matters progress proceeds in accordance
with one law and one rate of advancement and in others in
accordance with a very different law and rate; it is a fact,
a fact of observation and sad experience, a fact attested
by all history and made evident by reason, that owing to the
widely differing laws and rates of progress in the great essential
concerns of humanity, the balance and equilibrium among the
parts is disturbed, the strain gradually increases until a
violent break ensues in the form of social conflicts, insurrections,
revolutions and war; it is a fact that the readjustment that
follows, as after an earthquake, does indeed establish a kind
of new equilibrium, but it is an equilibrium born of violence,
and it is destined to be again disturbed periodically without
end, unless by some science and art of Human Engineering progress
in all the great matters essential to human weal can be made
to proceed in accordance with one and the same law having
its validity in the nature of man.
Taken in combination,
the facts just stated are so extremely important that they
deserve to be stated with the utmost emphasis and clarity.
To this end I beg the reader to consider very carefully and
side by side the two following series of numbers. The first
one is a simple geometrical progression- denoted by (GP);
the second one is a simple arithmetical progression-denoted
by (AP)
GP: 2,
4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.;
AP: 2,
4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, etc.
For convenience
of comparison I let them begin with the same number and for
simplicity I have taken 2 for this initial term; observe that
in the (GP) each term is got from the preceding term
by multiplying by 2 and that in the (AP) each
term is got from its predecessor by adding 2; in the first
series the multiplier 2 is called the common ratio and
in the second series the repeatedly added 2 is called the
common difference; it is again for the convenience
of comparison that I have chosen the same number for both
common ratio and common difference and for the sake of simplicity
that I have taken for this number the easy number 2. Other
choices would be logically just as good.
Why have I introduced
these two series ? Because they serve to illustrate perfectly
two widely different laws of progress-two laws representing
vastly different rates of growth, increase, or advancement.
Do not fail
to observe in this connection the following two facts. One
of them is that the magnitude of the terms of any geometric
progression whose ratio (no matter how small) is 2 or more
will overtake and surpass the magnitude of the corresponding
terms of any arithmetical progression, no matter how large
the common difference of the latter may be. The other fact
to be noted is that the greater the ratio of a geometric progression,
the more rapidly do its successive terms increase; so that
the terms of one geometric progression may increase a thousand
or a million or a billion times faster than the corresponding
terms of another geometric progression. As any geometric progression
(of ratio equal to 2 or more), no matter how slow, outruns
every arithmetic progression, no matter how fast, so one geometric
progression may be far swifter than another one of the same
type.
To every one
it will be obvious that the two progressions differ in pace;
and that the difference between their corresponding terms
becomes increasingly larger and larger the farther we go;
for instance, the sum of the first six terms of the geometrical
progression is 126, whereas the sum of the first six terms
of the arithmetical progression is only 42, the difference
between the two sums being 84; the sum of 8 terms is 510 for
the (GP) and 72 for the (AP), the difference
between these sums (of only 8 terms each) being 438, already
much larger than before; if now we take the sums of the first
10 terms, they will be 2046 and 110 having a difference of
1936; etc., etc.
Consider now
any two matters of great importance for human weal-jurisprudence
for example, and natural science-or any other two major concerns
of humanity. It is as plain as the noon-day sun that, if progress
in one of the matters advances according to the law of a geometric
progression and the other in accordance with a law of an arithmetical
progression, progress in the former matter will very quickly
and ever more and more rapidly outstrip progress in the latter,
so that, if the two interests involved be interdependent (as
they always are), a strain is gradually produced in human
affairs, social equilibrium is at length destroyed; there
follows a period of readjustment by means of violence and
force. It must not be fancied that the case supposed is merely
hypothetical. The whole history of mankind and especially
the present condition of the world unite in showing that far
from being merely hypothetical, the case supposed has always
been actual and is actual to-day on a vaster scale than ever
before. My contention is that while progress in some of the
great matters of human concern has been long proceeding in
accordance with the law of a rapidly increasing geometric
progression, progress in the other matters of no less importance
has advanced only at the rate of an arithmetical progression
or at best at the rate of some geometric progression of relatively
slow growth. To see it and to understand it we have to pay
the small price of a little observation and a little meditation.
Some technological
invention is made, like that of a steam engine or a printing
press, for example; or some discovery of scientific method,
like that of analytical geometry or the infinitesimal calculus;
or some discovery of natural law, like that of falling bodies
or the Newtonian law of gravitation. What happens? What is
the effect upon the progress of knowledge and invention? The
effect is stimulation. Each invention leads to new inventions
and each discovery to new discoveries; invention breeds invention,
science begets science, the children of knowledge produce
their kind in larger and larger families; the process goes
on from decade to decade, from generation to generation, and
the spectacle we behold is that of advancement in scientific
knowledge and technological power according to the law and
rate of a rapidly increasing geometric progression or logarithmic
function.
And now what
must we say of the so-called sciences-the pseudo sciences-of
ethics and jurisprudence and economics and politics and government?
For the answer we have only to open our eyes and behold the
world. By virtue of the advancement that has long been going
on with ever accelerated logarithmic rapidity in invention,
in mathematics, in physics, in chemistry, in biology, in astronomy
and in applications of them, time and space and matter have
been already conquered to such an extent that our globe, once
so seemingly vast, has virtually shrunken to the dimensions
of an ancient province; and manifold peoples of divers tongues
and traditions and customs and institutions err now constrained
to live together as in a single community. There is thus demanded
a new ethical wisdom, a new legal wisdom, a new economical
wisdom, a new political wisdom, a new wisdom in the affairs
of government. For the new visions our anguished times cry
aloud but the only answers are reverberated echoes of the
wailing cry mingled with the chattering voices of excited
public men who know not what to do. Why? What is the explanation?
The question is double: Why the disease? And why no remedy
at hand ? The answer is the same for both. And the answer
is that the so-called sciences of ethics and jurisprudence
and economics and politics and government have not kept pace
with the rapid progress made in the other great affairs of
man; they have lagged behind; it is because of their lagging
that the world has come to be in so great distress; and it
is because of their lagging that they have not now the needed
wisdom to effect a cure.
Do you ask why
it is that the "social" sciences- the so-called sciences of
ethics, etc.-have lagged behind? The answer is not far to
seek nor difficult to understand. They have lagged behind,
partly because they have been hampered by the traditions and
the habits of a bygone world-they have looked backward instead
of forward; they have lagged behind, partly because they have
depended upon the barren methods of verbalistic philosophy-they
have been metaphysical instead of scientific; they have lagged
behind, partly because they have been often dominated by the
lusts of cunning "politicians" instead of being led by the
wisdom of enlightened statesmen; they have lagged behind,
partly because they have been predominantly concerned to protect
"vested interests," upon which they have in the main depended
for support; the fundamental cause, however, of their
lagging behind is found in the astonishing fact that, despite
their being by their very nature most immediately concerned
with the affairs of mankind, they have not discovered what
Man really is but have from time immemorial falsely regarded
human beings either as animals or else as combinations of
animals and something supernatural. With these two monstrous
conceptions of the essential nature of man I shall deal at
a later stage of this writing.
At present I
am chiefly concerned to drive home the fact that it is the
great disparity between the rapid progress of the natural
and technological sciences on the one hand and the slow progress
of the metaphysical, so-called social "sciences" on the other
hand, that sooner or later so disturbs the equilibrium of
human affairs as to result periodically in those social cataclysms
which we call insurrections, revolutions and wars. The reader
should note carefully that such cataclysmic changes-such jumps,"
as we may call them-such violent readjustments in human affairs
and human relationships -are recorded throughout the history
of mankind. And I would have him see clearly that, because
the disparity which produces them increases as we pass
from generation to generation-from term to term of our progressions-the
"jumps" in question occur not only with increasing violence
but with increasing frequency. This highly significant fact
may be graphically illustrated in the following figure:
Geometric evolution
of the natural and technological sciences.-Peaceful progress.
Arithmetical
evolution of the so-called social "sciences," accelerated
by violent "jumps."-Non-peaceful progress.
a'2,
2a, ab, bc, cd, represent the
geometrical law of progression in the natural and technological
sciences (peaceful evolution).
A'2,
2A, AB, CD, EF, represent the
lagging arithmetical law of progression in the so-called social
sciences (peaceful evolution).
Both of these
during the same periods of time.
BC, DE,
FG, represent revolutions or wars, with the aftermath
of revolution of ideas-the "jump"-violent readjustment of
ideas to facts-forced by events.
ab, bc,
cd, and AB, CD, EF, take the same
amount of time, but the second progression being much slower
than the first one, the "jumps" or revolutions occur at shorter
intervals as time goes on and thus more frequently force us
to coordinate our ideas to facts. Periods of peace or seeming
peace alternate more and more frequently with periods of violence;
the mentioned disparity of progress in peaceful times
is the hatching seed of future violence.*
As a matter
of fact these few mathematical considerations can hardly be
called mathematics or mathematical philosophy; nevertheless,
without bringing attention to these very simple mathematical
ideas we should not be able to proceed any further than in
the past. Our life problems have always been "solved" by verbalists
and rhetorical metaphysicians who cleverly played with vague
words and who always ignored the supremely important matter
of dimensions because they were ignorant of it. There was
no possible way to arrive at an agreement on the significance
of words, or even the understanding of them. Let us take,
for instance, such words as "good" or "bad" or "truth"; volumes
upon volumes have been written about them; no one has reached
any result universally acceptable; the effect has been to
multiply warring schools of philosophy-sectarians and partisans.
In the meantime something corresponding to each of
the terms "good," "bad," "truth" exists as matter of fact;
but what that something is still awaits scientific determination.
If only these three words could be scientifically defined,
philosophy, law, ethics and psychology would cease to be "private
theories" or verbalism and they would advance to the rank
and dignity of sciences.
Here I may quote
a characteristic of life as expressed by one of the "heroes"
of my esteemed friend Harvey O'Higgins, in his book, From
the Life, Imaginary Portraits of Some Distinguished Americans
(Harper, N. Y.).
"Warren
never philosophized; he handled facts as an artisan handles
his tools; but if he had philosophized, his theory
of life would probably have been something like this: 'There
is no justice, there is no morality, in nature or in natural
laws; justice and morality are laws only of human society.
But society, natural life, and all civilization are subject
in their larger aspects to natural laws-which contradict morality
and outrage justice-and the statesman has to move with those
laws and direct his people in accordance with them, despite
the lesser by-laws of morality and justice.' "
If such are
the creeds of "distinguished people" anywhere, what better
can we expect than that which we see in the history of humanity?
But the fact
that the old philosophy, law, ethics, psychology, politics
and sociology could not solve the practical problems of humanity,
is not any reason whatsoever why we should despair. The problems
can be solved.
To follow the
reasoning of this book, it is not necessary to be a highly
trained specialist; the only qualifications required are candor,
an open mind, freedom from blinding prejudice, thoughtfulness,
a real desire for truth, and enough common sense to understand
that to talk of adding three quarts of milk to three-quarters
of a mile is to talk nonsense.
*
To digress a bit, it may be interesting to add, that population
and the need of people increase in a geometrical progression;
and also that the growth of individuals is limited by the
fact, that they have to absorb their food through surfaces
which as growth goes on increase only as squares, while the
bodies to be fed, being volumes, increase in size as cubes
increase, as the cubes of the same base grow faster than the
squares,
22
=4, 23 =8, 32 =9, 33 =27,
and so on,