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Title: Manhood of Humanity.

Author: Alfred Korzybski

Release Date: May 13, 2008 [Ebook #25457]

Language: English

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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MANHOOD OF HUMANITY.***





                          *Manhood Of Humanity*

                          The Science and Art of

                            Human Engineering

                                    By

                             Alfred Korzybski

                                 New York

                          E. P. Dutton & Company

                             681 Fifth Avenue

                                   1921





CONTENTS


Acknowledgement
Preface
   Chapter I. Introduction
   Chapter II. Childhood of Humanity
   Chapter III. Classes of Life
   Chapter IV. What Is Man?
   Chapter V. Wealth
   Chapter VI. Capitalistic Era
   Chapter VII. Survival of the Fittest
   Chapter VIII. Elements Of Power
   Chapter IX. Manhood Of Humanity
   Chapter X. Conclusion
   Appendix I. Mathematics And Time-Binding
   Appendix II. Biology And Time-Binding
   Appendix III. Engineering And Time-Binding
Footnotes






ACKNOWLEDGEMENT


The author and the publishers acknowledge with gratitude the following
permissions to make use of copyright material in this work:

Messrs. D. C. Heath & Company, for permission to quote from "Unified
Mathematics," by Louis C. Karpinski, Harry Y. Benedict and John W.
Calhoun.

Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, for permission to quote
from "Organism as a Whole" and "Physiology of the Brain," by Jacques Loeb.

Messrs. Harper & Brothers, for permission to quote from "From the Life,
Imaginary Portraits of Some Distinguished Americans," by Harvey O'Higgins.

Messrs. D. Appleton & Company, for permission to quote from "Corporation
Finance," by E. S. Mead.

Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Company, for permission to quote from "Forced
Movements," by Jacques Loeb.

Princeton University Press, for permission to quote from "Heredity and
Environment," by Edwin Grant Conklin.

Columbia University Press, for permission to quote from "The Human Worth
of Rigorous Thinking," by C. J. Keyser.

The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, for permission to quote
from _The Journal of Experimental Medicine_, Vol. 27.

The New School for Social Research, for permission to quote from "An
Outline of the History of the Western European Mind," by James Harvey
Robinson.

The Engineering Magazine Company, for permission to quote from "Mastering
Power Production," by Walter N. Polakov.





PREFACE


This book is primarily a study of Man and ultimately embraces all the
great qualities and problems of Man. As a study of Man it takes into
consideration _all_ the characteristics which make Man what he is. If some
readers do note the absence of certain expressions familiar to them, it
does not mean that the author does not feel or think as many other
people--he does--and very much so; but in this book an effort has been made
to approach the problem of Man from a scientific-mathematical point of
view, and therefore great pains have been taken _not_ to use words
insufficiently defined, or words with many meanings. The author has done
his utmost to use such words as convey only the meaning intended, and in
the case of some words, such as "spiritual," there has been superadded the
word "so-called," not because the author has any belief or disbelief in
such phenomena; there is no need for _beliefs_ because some such phenomena
exist, no matter what we may think of them or by what name we call them;
but because the word "spiritual" is not scientifically defined, and every
individual understands and uses this word in a _personal_ and private way.
To be _im_personal the author has had to indicate this element by adding
"so-called." I repeat once again that this book is not a "materialistic"
or a "spiritualistic" book--it is a study of "Man" and therefore does and
_should_ include materialistic as well as spiritual phenomena because only
the complex of these phenomena constitutes the complex of Man.

The problem has not been approached from the point of view of any private
doctrine or creed, but from a mathematical, an engineering, point of view,
which is impersonal and passionless. It is obvious that to be able to
speak about the great affairs of Man, his spiritual, moral, physical,
economic, social or political status, it must first be ascertained what
Man is--what is his real nature and what are the basic laws of his nature.
If we succeed in finding the laws of human nature, all the rest will be a
comparatively easy task--the ethical, social, economic and political status
of Man should be in accord with the laws of his nature; then civilization
will be a human civilization--a permanent and peaceful one--not before.

It is useless to argue if electricity be "natural" or "_super_natural," of
"material" or of "spiritual" origin. As a matter of fact we do not ask
these questions in studying electricity; we endeavor to find out the
natural laws governing it and in handling live wires we do not argue or
speculate about them--we use rubber gloves, etc. It will be the same with
Man and the great affairs of Man--we have, first of all, to know what Man
is.

Though this book has been written with scrupulous care to avoid words or
terms of vague meaning--and though it often may seem coldly critical of
things metaphysical, it has not been written with indifference to that
great, perhaps the greatest, urge of the human heart--the craving for
spiritual truth--our yearning for the higher potentialities of that which
we call "mind," "soul" and "spirit"--but it has been written with the deep
desire to find the source of these qualities, their scientific
significance and a scientific proof of them, so that they may be
approached and studied by the best minds of the world without the
digressions, and misinterpretations that are caused by the color and the
confusion of personal emotions; and if the book be read with care, it will
be seen that, though the clarifying definition of the classes of life has
been chiefly used in the book for its great carrying power in the
_practical_ world, its greatest help will ultimately be in guiding the
investigation, the right valuation and especially the control and use of
the higher human powers.

In writing this book I have been not only introducing new ideas and new
methods of analysis, but I have been using a tongue new to me. The
original manuscript was very crude and foreign in form, and I am greatly
indebted to various friends for their patient kindness in correcting the
many errors of my poor English.

I am also under great obligations to Walter Polakov, Doctor of
Engineering, for his exceedingly helpful suggestions, not only in giving
me a thorough criticism from the point of view of the Engineer, but also
in devoting his energies to organizing the first "Time-binding Club" where
these problems have been discussed and criticized, with great practical
results.

To all those who have read and criticized the manuscript or helped
otherwise--Professors E. H. Moore, C. J. Keyser, J. H. Robinson, Burges
Johnson, E. A. Ross, A. Petrunkevitch; and Doctors J. Grove-Korski,
Charles P. Steinmetz, J. P. Warbasse; Robert B. Wolf, Vice-President of
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Champlain L. Riley,
Vice-President of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating
Engineers; Miss Josephine Osborn; to the authors, L. Brandeis, E. G.
Conklin, C. J. Keyser, J. Loeb, E. S. Mead, H. O'Higgins, W. Polakov, J.
H. Robinson, R. B. Wolf, for their kind permission to quote them, I wish
to express my sincere appreciation.

I wish also to acknowledge the deepest gratitude to my wife, formerly Mira
Edgerly, who has found in this discovery of the natural law for the human
class of life, the solution of her life long search, and who, because of
her interest in my work, has given me incomparably inspiring help and
valuable criticism. It is not an exaggeration to state that except for her
steady and relentless work and _her time, which saved my time_, this book
could not have been produced in such a comparatively short time.

Mr. Walter Polakov of New York City, Industrial Counsellor and Industrial
Engineer in New York City, has kindly consented at my request to act, with
my authority, as my representative to whom any further queries should be
addressed in my absence from America.

To all other friends who have helped in many personal ways I express
thankfulness, as I wish also to thank John Macrae, Esq., the
Vice-President of E. P. Dutton & Co., for his unusual attitude toward
publishing the book.

A. K.
_January 17, 1921_
_New York City._




Chapter I. Introduction. Method and Processes of Approach to a New Concept
of Life


    "For a while he trampled with impunity on laws human and divine
    but, as he was obsessed with the delusion that two and two makes
    five, he fell, at last a victim to the relentless rules of humble
    Arithmetic.

    "Remember, O stranger, Arithmetic is the first of the sciences and
    the mother of safety."

    BRANDEIS.


It is the aim of this little book to point the way to a new science and
art--the science and art of Human Engineering. By Human Engineering I mean
the science and art of directing the energies and capacities of human
beings to the advancement of human weal. It need not be argued in these
times that the establishment of such a science--the science of human
welfare--is an undertaking of immeasurable importance. No one can fail to
see that its importance is supreme.

It is evident that, if such a science is to be established it must be
founded on ascertained facts--it must accord with what is _characteristic_
of Man--it must be based upon a just conception of what Man is--upon a right
understanding of Man's place in the scheme of Nature.

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 rôle 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 _super_natural 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 are 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:

[ A horizontal line, with numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 above, and markings
_a'_, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_ in the corresponding locations below. ]

Geometric evolution of the natural and technological sciences.--Peaceful
progress.


[ A horizontal line, again marked with numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, but with
gaps between 6 and (unprinted) 7, 8 and (unprinted) 9, 10 and (unprinted)
11. Above are markings: _A'_ above 2 and _A_ above 4; _B_ above 6 and _C_
above 7; _D_ above 8 and _E_ above 9; _F_ above 10 and _G_ at the far
right end.  The steady progress areas, 2 to 4, 7 to 8, 9 to 10, are marked
"Peaceful", while the gaps are labeled "Jump, Revolution or War." ]

Arithmetical evolution of the so-called social "sciences," accelerated by
violent "jumps."--Non-peaceful social 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.(1)

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.




Chapter II. Childhood of Humanity


The conclusion of the World War is the closing of the period of the
childhood of humanity. This childhood, as any childhood, can be
characterized as devoid of any real understanding of values, as is that of
a child who uses a priceless chronometer to crack nuts.

This childhood has been unduly long, but happily we are near to the end of
it, for humanity, shaken by this war, is coming to its senses and must
soon enter its manhood, a period of great achievements and rewards in the
new and real sense of values dawning upon us.

The sacred dead will not have died for naught; the "red wine of youth,"
the wanton waste of life, has shown us the price of life, and we will have
to keep our oath to make the future worthy of their sweat and blood.

Early ideas are not necessarily true ideas.

There are different kinds of interpretations of history and different
schools of philosophy. All of them have contributed something to human
progress, but none of them has been able to give the world a basic
philosophy embracing the whole progress of science and establishing the
life of man upon the abiding foundation of Fact.

Our life is bound to develop according to evident or else concealed laws
of nature. The evident laws of nature were the inspiration of genuine
science in its cradle; and their interpretations or misinterpretations
have from the earliest times formed systems of law, of ethics, and of
philosophy.

Human intellect, be it that of an individual or that of the race, forms
conclusions which have to be often revised before they correspond
approximately to facts. What we call progress consists in coordinating
ideas with realities. The World War has taught something to everybody. It
was indeed a great reality; it accustomed us to think in terms of reality
and not in those of phantom speculation. Some unmistakable truths were
revealed. Facts and force were the things that counted. Power had to be
produced to destroy hostile power; it was found that the old political and
economic systems were not adequate to the task put upon them. The world
had to create new economic conditions; it was obliged to supplement the
old systems with special boards for food, coal, railroads, shipping,
labor, etc. The World War emergency compelled the nations to organize for
producing greater power in order to conquer power already great.

If there is anything which this war has proved, it is the fact that the
most important asset a nation or an individual can have, is the ability
"to do things."

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow ...," that is too true; they blow and
they are strong and red. But the purpose of this writing is not the
celebration of poetry, but the elucidation and right use of facts.

Normally, thousands of rabbits and guinea pigs are used and killed, in
scientific laboratories, for experiments which yield great and tangible
benefits to humanity. This war butchered millions of people and ruined the
health and lives of tens of millions. Is this climax of the pre-war
civilization to be passed unnoticed, except for the poetry and the
manuring of the battle fields, that the "poppies blow" stronger and better
fed? Or is the death of ten men on the battle field to be of as much worth
in knowledge gained as is the life of one rabbit killed for experiment? Is
the great sacrifice worth analysing? There can be only one answer--yes.
But, if truth be desired, the analysis must be scientific.

In science, "opinions" are tolerated when and only when facts are lacking.
In this case, we have all the facts necessary. We have only to collect
them and analyse them, rejecting mere "opinions" as cheap and unworthy.
Such as understand this lesson will know how to act for the benefit of
all.

At present the future of mankind is dark. "Stop, look, and listen"--the
prudent caution at railroad crossings--must be amended to read "stop, look,
listen, and THINK"; not for the saving of a few lives in railroad
accidents, but for the preservation of the life of humanity. Living
organisms, of the lower and simpler types, in which the differentiation
and the integration of the vital organs have not been carried far, can
move about for a considerable time after being deprived of the appliances
by which the life force is accumulated and transferred, but higher
organisms are instantly killed by the removal of such appliances, or even
by the injury of minor parts of them; even more easily destroyed are the
more advanced and complicated _social_ organizations.

The first question is: what are to be the scientific methods that will
eliminate diverse opinions and creeds from an analysis of facts and ensure
correct deductions based upon them? A short survey of facts concerning
civilization will help to point the way.

Humanity, in its cradle, did not have science; it had only the faculties
of observation and speculation. In the early days there was much
speculative thinking, but it was without any sufficient basis of facts.
Theology and philosophy flourished; their speculations were often very
clever, but all their primitive notions about facts--such as the structure
of the heavens, the form of the earth, mechanical principles,
meteorological or physiological phenomena--were almost all of them wrong.

What is history? What is its significance for humanity? Dr. J. H. Robinson
gives us a precise answer: "Man's abject dependence on the past gives rise
to the continuity of history. Our convictions, opinions, prejudices,
intellectual tastes; our knowledge, our methods of learning and of
applying for information we owe, with slight exceptions, to the past--often
to the remote past. History is an expansion of memory, and like memory it
alone can explain the present and in this lies its most unmistakable
value."(2)

The savage regards every striking phenomenon or group of phenomena as
caused by some personal agent, and from remotest antiquity the mode of
thinking has changed only as fast as the relations among phenomena have
been established.(3)

Human nature was always asking "why"? and not being able to answer why,
they found their answer through another factor "who." The unknown was
called, Gods or God. But with the progress of science the "why" became
more and more evident, and the question came to be "how." From the early
days of humanity, dogmatic theology, law, ethics, and science in its
infancy, were the monopolies of one class and the source of their
power.(4)

The first to break this power were the exact sciences. They progressed too
rapidly to be bound and limited by obscure old writings and prejudices;
life and realities were their domain. Science brushed aside all sophistry
and became a reality. Ethics is too fundamentally important a factor in
civilization to depend upon a theological or a legal excuse; ethics must
conform to the _natural_ laws of human _nature_.

Laws, legal ideas, date from the beginning of civilization. Legal
speculation was wonderfully developed in parallel lines with theology and
philosophy before the natural and exact sciences came into existence. Law
was always made by the few and in general for the purpose of preserving
the "existing order," or for the reestablishment of the old order and the
punishment of the offenders against it.

Dogmatic theology is, by its very nature, unchangeable. The same can be
said in regard to the spirit of the law. Law was and is to protect the
past and present status of society and, by its very essence, must be very
conservative, if not reactionary. Theology and law are both of them static
by their nature.(5)

Philosophy, law and ethics, to be effective in a dynamic world must be
dynamic; they must be made vital enough to keep pace with the progress of
life and science. In recent civilization ethics, because controlled by
theology and law, which are static, could not duly influence the dynamic,
revolutionary progress of technic and the steadily changing conditions of
life; and so we witness a tremendous downfall of morals in politics and
business. Life progresses faster than our ideas, and so medieval ideas,
methods and judgments are constantly applied to the conditions and
problems of modern life. This discrepancy between facts and ideas is
greatly responsible for the dividing of modern society into different
warring classes, which do not understand each other. Medieval legalism and
medieval morals--the basis of the old _social_ structure--being by their
nature conservative, reactionary, opposed to change, and thus becoming
more and more unable to support the mighty social burden of the modern
world, must be adjudged responsible in a large measure for the
circumstances which made the World War inevitable.

Under the flash of explosives some of the workings of those antiquated
ideas were exposed or crushed. The World War has profoundly changed
economic conditions and made it necessary to erect new standards of
values. We are forced to realize that evolution by transformation is a
cosmic process and that reaction, though it may retard it, can not
entirely stop it.(6)

The idea that organic species are results of special creation has no
scientific standard whatever. There is not one fact tending to prove
special or separate creation; the evidence, which is overwhelming, is all
of it on the other side. The hypothesis of special creation is a mere
fossil of the past. Evolution is the only theory which is in harmony with
facts and with all branches of science: life is dynamic, not static.

Philosophy, as defined by Fichte, is the "science of sciences." Its aim
was to solve the problems of the world. In the past, when all exact
sciences were in their infancy, philosophy had to be purely speculative,
with little or no regard to realities. But if we regard philosophy as a
Mother science, divided into many branches, we find that those branches
have grown so large and various, that the Mother science looks like a hen
with her little ducklings paddling in a pond, far beyond her reach; she is
unable to follow her growing hatchlings. In the meantime, the progress of
life and science goes on, irrespective of the cackling of metaphysics.
Philosophy does not fulfill her initial aim to bring the results of
experimental and exact sciences together and to solve world problems.
Through endless, scientific specialization scientific branches multiply,
and for want of coordination the great world-problems suffer. This failure
of philosophy to fulfill her boasted mission of scientific coordination is
responsible for the chaos in the world of general thought. The world has
no collective or organized higher ideals and aims, nor even fixed general
purposes. Life is an accidental game of private or collective ambitions
and greeds.(7)

Systematic study of chemical and physical phenomena has been carried on
for many generations and these two sciences now include: (1) knowledge of
an enormous number of facts; (2) a large body of natural laws; (3) many
fertile working hypotheses respecting the causes and regularities of
natural phenomena; and finally (4) many helpful theories held subject to
correction by further testing of the hypotheses giving rise to them. When
a subject is spoken of as a science, it is understood to include all of
the above mentioned parts. Facts alone do not constitute a science any
more than a pile of stones constitutes a house, not even do facts and laws
alone; there must be facts, hypotheses, theories and laws before the
subject is entitled to the rank of a science.

The primal function of a science is to enable us to anticipate the future
in the field to which it relates. Judged by this standard, neither
philosophy nor its kindred--the so-called social sciences--have in the past
been very effective. There was, for example, no official warning of the
coming of the World War--the greatest of catastrophes. The future was not
anticipated because political philosophers did not possess the necessary
basis of knowledge. To be just we must admit that philosophy has been but
little aided financially because it is commonly regarded as unnecessary.
The technical branches of science have been strongly backed and generally
supported by those to whom they have brought direct profit; and so they
have had better opportunities for development.

Ethics in the stifling grip of myth and legalism is not convincing enough
to exercise controlling influence. Such is the situation in which we find
ourselves. Being still in our childhood and thinking like savages, we
looked upon the World War as a personal creation of a "war-lord," because
those interested in it told us so. We neglected to use our common sense
and look deeper into its origins; to perform for ourselves the duty which
political philosophy did not perform for us--the duty of thinking in terms
of facts and not in terms of metaphysical speculations. Knowledge of facts
would have told us that the war lords were only the representatives of the
ruling classes. A system of social and economic order built exclusively on
selfishness, greed, "survival of the fittest," and ruthless competition,
must cease to exist, or exist by means of war. The representatives of this
system determined to continue to exist, and so war was the consequence.
The ruling classes carried the whole system under which they lived to its
logical conclusion and natural issue, which is "grab what you can." This
motto is not peculiar to any one country; it is the motto of our whole
civilization and is the inevitable outcome of our stupid philosophy
regarding the characteristic nature of man and the proper potentialities
of human life. Where are we to find the true doctrines? Where the true
philosophy? If we go back over the history of civilization, we find that
in all "sciences," except the exact ones, private opinions and theories
have shaped our beliefs, colored our mental processes and controlled our
destinies; we see, for example, pessimism opposed to optimism, materialism
to spiritualism, realism to idealism, capitalism to socialism, and so on
endlessly. Each of the disputatious systems has a large number of
followers and each faction looks upon the others as deprived of truth,
common sense and knowledge. All of them play with the words "natural law"
which they ignorantly presume to have as the basis and content of their
own particular doctrine.

It is the same in the realm of religions; there are approximately 291
million Confucianists, or Taoists, 261 million Roman Catholics, 211
million Mohammedans, 209 million Hindus, 177 million Protestants, 157
million Animists, 137 million Buddhists, 115 million Orthodox
Christians--to speak only of the most important religions. Each group, and
they are rather large groups, believes its theory or its faith to be
infallible and all the others to be false.

Bacon seems a bit remote, but the idols and medieval fetishes which he so
masterfully describes are equally venerated to-day.


    (_Novum Organum_, by Francis Bacon.)

    34. "Four species of idols beset the human mind, to which (for
    distinction's sake) we have assigned names, calling the first
    Idols of the Tribe, the second Idols of the Den, the third Idols
    of the Market, the fourth Idols of the Theatre.

    40. "The information of notions and axioms on the foundation of
    true induction is the only fitting remedy by which we can ward off
    and expel these idols. It is, however, of great service to point
    them out; for the doctrine of idols bears the same relation to the
    interpretation of nature as that of the confutation of sophisms
    does to common logic.

    41. "The idols of the tribe are inherent in human nature and the
    very tribe or race of man; for man's sense is falsely asserted to
    be the standard of things; on the contrary, all the perceptions
    both of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not to
    the Universe, and the human mind resembles these uneven mirrors
    which impart their own properties to different objects, from which
    rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them.

    42. "The idols of the den are those of each individual; for
    everybody (in addition to the errors common to the race of man)
    has his own individual den or cavern, which intercepts and
    corrupts the light of nature, either from his own peculiar and
    singular disposition, or from his education and intercourse with
    others, or from his reading, and the authority acquired by those
    whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impressions
    produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied and
    predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like; so that the
    spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is
    variable, confused, and, as it were, actuated by chance; and
    Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser
    worlds, and not in the greater or common world.

    43. "There are also idols formed by the reciprocal intercourse and
    society of man with man, which we call idols of the market, from
    the commerce and association of men with each other; for men
    converse by means of language, but words are formed at the will of
    the generality, and there arises from a bad and unapt formation of
    words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. Nor can the definitions
    and explanations with which learned men are wont to guard and
    protect themselves in some instances afford a complete
    remedy--words still manifestly force the understanding, throw
    everything into confusion, and lead mankind into vain and
    innumerable controversies and fallacies.

    44. "Lastly, there are idols which have crept into men's minds
    from the various dogmas of peculiar systems of philosophy, and
    also from the perverted rules of demonstration, and these we
    denominate idols of the theatre: for we regard all the systems of
    philosophy hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought
    out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds. Nor
    do we speak only of the present systems, or of the philosophy and
    sects of the ancients, since numerous other plays of a similar
    nature can be still composed and made to agree with each other,
    the causes of the most opposite errors being generally the same.
    Nor, again, do we allude merely to general systems, but also to
    many elements and axioms of sciences which have become inveterate
    by tradition, implicit credence, and neglect."(8)


Metaphysical speculation and its swarming progeny of blind and selfish
political philosophies, private opinions, private "truths," and private
doctrines, sectarian opinions, sectarian "truths" and sectarian doctrines,
querulous, confused and blind--such is characteristic of the _childhood_ of
humanity. The period of humanity's _manhood_ will, I doubt not, be a
scientific period--a period that will witness the gradual extension of
scientific method to all the interests of mankind--a period in which man
will discover the essential nature of man and establish, at length, the
science and art of directing human energies and human capacities to the
advancement of human weal in accordance with the laws of human nature.




Chapter III. Classes of Life


The problems to be dealt with in this chapter are not easy, but they are
exceedingly important. To classify phenomena correctly, they must be
correctly analysed and clearly defined. For the sake of clearness I will
use the simplest illustrations and, avoiding as much as possible the
difficulties of technical terms, will use language easily to be understood
by every one. In some cases the words will indeed have a technical meaning
and it will be necessary to exercise great care against the danger of
giving false impressions; for clear ideas are essential to sound thinking.
As a matter of fact our common daily speech is ill adapted for the precise
expression of thought; even so-called "scientific" language is often too
vague for the purpose and requires further refining. Some may say that it
is useless and unnecessary to lay so much stress on correct thinking and
precise expression; that it has no practical value; for they say that
"business" language is good enough to "talk business," or to put
"something over" the other fellow. But a little explanation will show that
precision is often of the greatest importance.

Humanity is a peculiar class of life which, in some degree, determines its
own destinies; therefore in practical life _words_ and _ideas_ become
_facts_--facts, moreover, which bring about important practical
consequences. For instance, many millions of human beings have defined a
stroke of lightning as being the "punishment of God" of evil men; other
millions have defined it as a "natural, casual, periodical phenomenon";
yet other millions have defined it as an "electric spark." What has been
the result of these "non-important" definitions in practical life? In the
case of the first definition, when lightning struck a house, the
population naturally made no attempt to save the house or anything in it,
because to do so would be against the "definition" which proclaims the
phenomenon to be a "punishment for evil," any attempt to prevent or check
the destruction would be an impious act; the sinner would be guilty of
"resisting the supreme law" and would deserve to be punished by death.

Now in the second instance, a stricken building is treated just as any
tree overturned by storm; the people save what they can and try to
extinguish the fire. In both instances, the behavior of the populace is
the same in one respect; if caught in the open by a storm they take refuge
under a tree--a means of safety involving maximum danger but the people do
not know it.

Now in the third instance, in which the population have a scientifically
correct definition of lightning, they provide their houses with lightning
rods; and if they are caught by a storm in the open they neither run nor
hide under a tree; but when the storm is directly over their heads, they
put themselves in a position of minimum exposure by lying flat on the
ground until the storm has passed.

Such examples could be given without end, but there is another example of
sufficient vital importance to be given here, as it has to do with our
conception of the social and economic system, and the state. If our
institutions are considered "God-given"--sacred and therefore static--every
reformer or advocate of change should be treated as a criminal or "a
danger to the existing order" and hanged or at least put in jail for life.
But now, if our institutions are "man made," imperfect and often foolish,
and subject to change all the time steadily and dynamically in obedience
to some known or unknown law; then of course all reactionaries would be a
"danger to the natural order" and they should be treated the same way. The
importance of definitions can be seen in all other fields of practical
life; definitions create conditions. To know the world in which we live,
we have to analyse facts by help of such facts as we know in daily
practice and such facts as are established in scientific laboratories
where men do not jump to conclusions. In some places it will be necessary
to make statements that will have to await full justification at a later
stage of the discussion. This will be necessary to indicate the trend of
the analysis.

The aim of the analysis is to give us just conceptions, correct
definitions, and true propositions. The process is slow, progressive, and
endless. The problems are infinitely many, and it is necessary to select.
Fortunately the solution of a few leads automatically to the solution of
many others. Some of the greatest and most far-reaching scientific
discoveries have been nothing else than a few correct definitions, a few
just concepts and a few true propositions. Such, for example, was the work
of Euclid, Newton and Leibnitz--a few correct definitions, a few just
concepts, a few true propositions; but these have been extended and
multiplied, sometimes by men of creative genius, and often almost
automatically by men of merely good sense and fair talent.

The matter of definition, I have said, is very important. I am not now
speaking of _nominal_ definitions, which for convenience merely give names
to known objects. I am speaking of such definitions of phenomena as result
from correct analysis of the phenomena. Nominal definitions are mere
conveniences and are neither true nor false; but analytic definitions are
definitive _propositions_ and are true or else false. Let us dwell upon
the matter a little more.

In the illustration of the definitions of lightning, there were three; the
first was the most mistaken and its application brought the most harm; the
second was less incorrect and the practical results less bad; the third
under the present conditions of our knowledge, was the "true one" and it
brought the maximum benefit. This lightning illustration suggests the
important idea of _relative_ truth and _relative_ falsehood--the idea, that
is, of degrees of truth and degrees of falsehood. A definition may be
neither absolutely true nor absolutely false; but of two definitions of
the same thing, one of them may be truer or falser than the other.

If, for illustration's sake, we call the first "truth" _A_, (alpha 1), the
second one _A_2 (alpha 2), the third one _A_3 (alpha 3), we may suppose
that a genius appears who has the faculty to surpass all the other
relative truths _A_1, _A_2, _A_3, ... _A_n and gives us an absolute or
final truth, VALID IN INFINITY (_A_infinity) say a final definition, that
lightning is so ... and so ..., a kind of energy which flows, let us say,
through a glass tube filled with charcoal. Then of course this definition
would immediately make obvious what use could be made of it. We could
erect glass towers filled with charcoal and so secure an unlimited flow of
available free energy and our whole life would be affected in an untold
degree. This example explains the importance of correct definitions.

But to take another example: there is such a thing as a phenomenon called
the "color" red. Imagine how it might be defined. A reactionary would call
it a "Bolshevik" (_A_1); a Bolshevik would say "My color" (_A_2); a
color-blind person would say "such a thing does not exist" (_A_3); a
Daltonist would say "that is green" (_A_4); a metaphysician would say
"that is the soul of whiskey" (_A_5); an historian would say "that is the
color of the ink with which human history has been written" (_A_6); an
uneducated person would say "that is the color of blood" (_A_7); the
modern scientist would say "it is the light of such and such wave length"
(_A_8). If this last definition be "valid in infinity" or not we do not
know, but it is, nevertheless, a "scientific truth" in the present
condition of our knowledge.

This final but unknown "truth valid in infinity" is somehow perceived or
felt by us as an ideal, for in countless years of observation we have
formed a series of less and less false, more and more nearly true "ideas"
about the phenomenon. The "ideas" are _reflexes_ of the phenomenon,
reflected in our midst as in a mirror; the reflexes may be distorted, as
in a convex or concave mirror, but they suggest an ideal reflex valid in
infinity. It is of the utmost importance to realize that the words which
are used to express the ideas and the ideals are THE MATERIALIZATION of
the ideas and ideal; it is only by words that we are enabled to give to
other human beings an exact or nearly exact impression which we have had
of the phenomenon.

It may be helpful to illustrate this process by an example. Let us suppose
that a man makes an experiment of doing his own portrait from a mirror,
which may be plane, concave or convex. If he looks into a plane mirror, he
will see his true likeness; even so, if he be a poor designer, he will
draw the likeness badly. Let us suppose that the man has beautiful
features but because the drawing is very poor, it will not convey the
impression that the features of the original were beautiful. If this poor
designer were to look into and work from a concave or convex mirror, the
drawing of his likeness would have practically no resemblance to his
original features.

For correct analysis and true definitions of the cardinal classes of life
in our world it is necessary to have some just ideas about dimensions or
dimensionality. The Britannica gives us some help in this connection. I
will explain briefly by an example. Measurable entities of different kinds
can not be compared directly. Each one must be measured in terms of a unit
of its own kind. A line can have only length and therefore is of one
dimension: a surface has length and width and is therefore said to have
two dimensions; a volume has length, width and thickness and is,
therefore, said to have three dimensions. If we take, for example, a
volume--say a cube--we see that the cube has surfaces and lines and points,
but a volume is not a surface nor a line nor a point. Just these
dimensional differences have an enormous unrealized importance in
practical life, as in the case of taking a line of five units of length
and building upon it a square, the measure of this square (surface) will
not be 5, it will be 25; and the 25 will not be 25 linear units but 25
square or surface units. If upon this square we build a cube, this cube
will have neither 5 nor 25 for its measure; it will have 125, and this
number will not be so many units of length nor of surface but so many
solid or cubic units.

It is as plain as a pike staff that, if we confused _dimensions_ when
computing lengths and areas and volumes, we would wreck all the
architectural and engineering structures of the world, and at the same
time show ourselves stupider than block-heads.

To analyse the classes of life we have to consider two very different
kinds of phenomena: the one embraced under the collective name--Inorganic
chemistry--the other under the collective name--Organic chemistry, or the
chemistry of hydro-carbons. These divisions are made because of the
peculiar properties of the elements chiefly involved in the second class.
The properties of matter are so distributed among the elements that three
of them--Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Carbon--possess an ensemble of unique
characteristics. The number of reactions in inorganic chemistry are
relatively few, but in organic chemistry--in the chemistry of these three
elements the number of different compounds is practically unlimited. Up to
1910, we knew of more than 79 elements of which the whole number of
reactions amounted to only a few hundreds, but among the remaining three
elements--Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen--the reactions were known to be
practically unlimited in number and possibilities; this fact must have
very far reaching consequences. As far as energies are concerned, we have
to take them as nature reveals them to us. Here more than ever,
mathematical thinking is essential and will help enormously. The reactions
in inorganic chemistry always involve the phenomenon of heat, sometimes
light, and in some instances an unusual energy is produced called
electricity. Until now, the radioactive elements represent a group too
insufficiently known for an enlargement here upon this subject.

The organic compounds being unlimited in number and possibilities and with
their unique characteristics, represent of course, a different class of
phenomena, but being, at the same time, _chemical_ they include the basic
chemical phenomena involved in all chemical reactions, but being unique in
many other respects, they also have an infinitely vast field of unique
characteristics. Among the energetic phenomena of organic chemistry,
besides the few mentioned above there are NEW AND UNIQUE energetic
phenomena occurring in this dimension.

Of these phenomena, mention may be made of the phenomenon "life," the
phenomenon of the "instincts" and of the "mind" in general. These
energetic phenomena are unique for the unique chemistry of the three
unique elements. It is obvious that this "uniqueness" is the reason why
these phenomena must be classified as belonging to or having a higher
dimensionality than belongs to the phenomena of inorganic chemistry just
as the uniqueness of the properties of a volume as compared with surface
properties depends upon the fact that a volume has a higher dimensionality
than a surface. Just as this difference of dimensions makes the whole
difference between the geometry of volumes and the geometry of surfaces,
the difference between the two chemistries involves a difference of
dimensionality.

The higher energies of the chemistries of the higher dimensionality are
very difficult to define; my descriptions are no better than the
description of life given by Professor Wilhelm Roux, in his _Der Kampf der
Teile im Organismus_, Leipzig, 1881, which are equally unsatisfactory. In
want of a better, I quote him. He defines a living being as a natural
object which possesses the following nine characteristic autonomous
activities: Autonomous change, Autonomous excretion, Autonomous ingestion,
Autonomous assimilation, Autonomous growth, Autonomous movement,
Autonomous multiplication, Autonomous transmission of hereditary
characteristics and Autonomous development. The words "Autonomous
activities" are important because they hint at the dimensional differences
of these energies. But a better word should be found to define the
dimensional differences between the activities found in inorganic
chemistry and those found in organic chemistry. We see it is a mistake to
speak about "life" in a crystal, in the same sense in which we use the
word life to name the curious AUTONOMOUS phenomenon of ORGANIC CHEMISTRY,
WHICH IS OF ANOTHER DIMENSION than the activities in inorganic chemistry.
For the so-called life in the crystals--the _not_ AUTONOMOUS (or
anautonomous) activities of crystals--another word than life should be
found. In the theory of crystals the term life is purely rhetorical: its
use there is very injurious to sound science. These old ideas of "life" in
crystals are profoundly unscientific and serve as one of the best examples
of the frequent confusion or intermixing of dimensions--a confusion due to
unmathematical, logically incorrect ways of thinking. If crystals "live,"
then _volumes are surfaces_, and 125 cubic units=25 square
units--absurdities belonging to the "childhood of humanity."


    "Crystals can grow in a proper solution, and can regenerate their
    form in such a solution when broken or injured; it is even
    possible to prevent or retard the formation of crystals in a
    supersaturated solution by preventing 'germs' in the air from
    getting into the solution, an observation which was later utilized
    by Schroeder and Pasteur in their experiments on spontaneous
    generation. However, the analogies between a living organism and a
    crystal are merely superficial and it is by pointing out the
    fundamental differences between the behavior of crystals and that
    of living organisms that we can best understand the specific
    difference between non-living and living matter. It is true that a
    crystal can grow, but it will do so only in a supersaturated
    solution of its own substance. Just the reverse is true for living
    organisms. In order to make bacteria or the cells of our body
    grow, solutions of the split products of the substances composing
    them and not the substances themselves must be available to the
    cells; second, these solutions must not be supersaturated, on the
    contrary, they must be dilute; and third, growth leads in living
    organisms to cell division as soon as the mass of the cell reaches
    a certain limit. This process of cell division can not be claimed
    even metaphorically to exist in a crystal. A correct appreciation
    of these facts will give us an insight into the specific
    difference between non-living and living matter. The formation of
    living matter consists in the synthesis of the proteins, nucleins,
    fats, and carbohydrates of the cells, from split products....

    "The essential difference between living and non-living matter
    consists then in this: the living cell synthesizes its own
    complicated specific material from indifferent or non-specific
    simple compounds of the surrounding medium, while the crystal
    simply adds the molecules found in its supersaturated solution.
    This synthetic power of transforming small 'building stones' into
    the complicated compounds specific for each organism is the
    'secret of life' or rather one of the secrets of life." (_The
    Organism as a Whole_, by Jacques Loeb.)


It will be explained later that one of the energetic phenomena of organic
chemistry--the "mind," which is one of the energies characteristic of this
class of phenomena, is "autonomous," is "self-propelling" and true to its
dimensionality. If we analyse the classes of life, we readily find that
there are three cardinal classes which are radically distinct in function.
A short analysis will disclose to us that, though minerals have various
activities, they are not "living." The plants have a very definite and
well known function--the transformation of solar energy into organic
chemical energy. They are a class of life which appropriates one kind of
energy, converts it into another kind and stores it up; in that sense they
are a kind of storage battery for the solar energy; and so I define THE
PLANTS AS THE CHEMISTRY-BINDING class of life.

The animals use the highly dynamic products of the _chemistry-binding_
class--the plants--as food, and those products--the results of
plant-transformation--undergo in animals a further transformation into yet
higher forms; and the animals are correspondingly a more dynamic class of
life; their energy is kinetic; they have a remarkable freedom and power
which the plants do not possess--I mean the freedom and faculty to move
about in _space_; and so I define ANIMALS AS THE SPACE-BINDING CLASS OF
LIFE.

And now what shall we say of _human_ beings? What is to be our definition
of Man? Like the animals, human beings do indeed possess the
_space-binding_ capacity but, over and above that, human beings possess a
most remarkable capacity which is entirely peculiar to them--I mean the
capacity to summarise, digest and appropriate the labors and experiences
of the past; I mean the capacity to use the fruits of past labors and
experiences as intellectual or spiritual capital for developments in the
present; I mean the capacity to employ as instruments of increasing power
the accumulated achievements of the all-precious lives of the past
generations spent in trial and error, trial and success; I mean the
capacity of human beings to conduct their lives in the ever increasing
light of inherited wisdom; I mean the capacity in virtue of which man is
at once the heritor of the by-gone ages and the trustee of posterity. And
because humanity is just this magnificent natural agency by which the past
lives in the present and the present for the future, I define HUMANITY, in
the universal tongue of mathematics and mechanics, to be the TIME-BINDING
CLASS OF LIFE.

These definitions of the cardinal classes of life are, it will be noted,
obtained from direct observation; they are so simple and so important that
I cannot over-emphasize the necessity of grasping them and most especially
the definition of Man. For these simple definitions and especially that of
Humanity will profoundly transform the whole conception of human life in
every field of interest and activity; and, what is more important than
all, the definition of Man will give us a starting point for discovering
the _natural_ laws of human nature--of the human class of life. The
definitions of the classes of life represent the different classes as
distinct in respect to dimensionality; and this is extremely important for
no measure or rule of one class can be applied to the other, _without
making grave mistakes_. For example, to treat a human being as an
animal--as a mere space-binder--because humans have certain animal
propensities, is an error of the same type and grossness as to treat a
cube as a surface because it has surface properties. It is absolutely
essential to grasp that fact if we are ever to have a science of human
nature.

We can represent the different classes of life in three life coordinates.
The minerals, with their inorganic activities would be the Zero (0)
dimension of "life"--that is the _lifeless_ class--here represented by the
point _M_.

The plants, with their "autonomous" growth, to be represented by the ONE
DIMENSIONAL line _MP_.

The animals, with their "autonomous" capacity to grow and to be active in
space by the TWO DIMENSIONAL plane _PAM_.

The humans, with their "autonomous" capacity to grow, to be active in
space AND TO BE ACTIVE IN TIME, by the THREE DIMENSIONAL region _MAPH_.

[ A drawing, like labeling the axes of a three-dimensional space. At the
center is "(Minerals) M". At the top of the Z axis is "H (Humans)". At the
end of the X axis is "P (Plants)". At the end of the Y axis is "A
(Animals)". ]

Such diagrammatic illustrations must not be taken too literally; they are
like figures of speech--helpful if understood--harmful if not understood.
The reader should reflect upon the simple idea of dimensions until he sees
clearly that the idea is not merely a thing of interest or of convenience,
but is absolutely essential as a means of discriminating the cardinal
classes of life from one another and of conceiving each class to be what
it is instead of mixing it confusedly with something radically different.
It will greatly help the reader if he will retire to the quiet of his
cloister and there meditate about as follows. A line has one dimension; a
plane has two; a plane contains lines and so it has line
properties--_one_-dimensional properties--but it has other
properties--_two_-dimensional properties--and it is these that are peculiar
to it, give it its own character, and make it what it is--a plane and not a
line. So animals have some plant properties--they grow, for example--but
animals have other properties--autonomous mobility, for example,--properties
of higher dimensionality or type--and it is these that make animals
_animals_ and not plants. Just so, human beings have certain animal
properties--autonomous mobility, for example, or physical appetites--but
humans have other properties or propensities--ethical sense, for example,
logical sense, inventiveness, progressiveness--properties or propensities
of higher dimensionality, level, or type--and it is these propensities and
powers that make human beings _human_ and _not_ animal. When and only when
this fact is clearly seen and keenly realized, there will begin the
_science of man_--the science and art of _human nature_--for then and only
then we shall begin to escape from the age-long untold immeasurable evils
that come from regarding and treating human beings as animals, as mere
binders of space, and we may look forward to an ethics, a jurisprudence
and economics, a governance--a science and art of human life and
society--based upon the laws of human nature because based upon the just
conception of humanity as the time-binding class of life, creators and
improvers of good, destined to endless advancement, in accord with the
potencies of Human Nature.(9)

Humanity is still in its childhood; we have "bound" so little time in the
course of the centuries, which are so brief in the scheme of the universe.
At the bottom of every human activity, historical fact or trend of
civilization, there lies some doctrine or conception of so-called "truth."
Apples had fallen from trees for ages, but without any important results
in the economy of humanity. The fact that a fallen apple hit Newton, led
to the discovery of the theory of gravitation; this changed our whole
world conception, our sciences and our activities; it powerfully
stimulated the development of all the branches of natural and
technological knowledge. Even in the event of the Newtonian laws being
proved to be not quite correct, they have served a great purpose in
enabling us to understand natural phenomena in a sufficiently approximate
way to make it possible to build up modern technology and to develop our
physical science to the point where it was necessary and possible to make
a correction of the Newtonian laws.

A similar organic change in our conception of human life and its phenomena
is involved in the foregoing definitions of the classes of life; they will
replace basic errors with scientific truths of fundamental importance;
they will form the basis for scientific development of a permanent
civilization in place of the periodically convulsive so-called
civilizations of the past and present. To know the cause of evil and error
is to find the cure.




Chapter IV. What Is Man?


Man has ever been the greatest puzzle to man. There are many and important
reasons for this fact. As the subject of this book is not a theoretical,
academic study of man, of which too many have already been written, I will
not recount the reasons, but will confine myself to the more pressing
matters of the task in hand, which is that of pointing the way to the
science and art of Human Engineering. The two facts which have to be dealt
with first, are the two which have most retarded human progress: (1) there
has never been a true definition of man nor a just conception of his rôle
in the curious drama of the world; in consequence of which there has never
been a proper principle or starting point for a science of humanity. It
has never been realized that man is a being of a dimension or type
different from that of animals and the characteristic nature of man has
not been understood; (2) man has always been regarded either as an animal
or as a supernatural phenomenon. The facts are that man is not
_super_natural but is literally a part of nature and that human beings are
not animals. We have seen that the animals are truly characterized by
their autonomous mobility--their space-binding capacity--animals are
space-binders. We have seen that human beings are characterized by their
creative power, by the power to make the past live in the present and the
present for the future, by their capacity to bind time--human beings are
time-binders. These concepts are basic and impersonal; arrived at
mathematically, they are mathematically correct.

It does not matter at all _how_ the first man, the first time-binder, was
produced; the fact remains that he was somewhere, somehow produced. To
know anything that is to-day of fundamental interest about man, we have to
analyse man in three coordinates--in three capacities; namely, his
chemistry, his activities in space, and especially his activities in time;
whereas in the study of animals we have to consider only two factors:
their chemistry and their activities in space.

Let us imagine that the aboriginal--original human specimen was one of two
brother apes, _A_ and _B_; they were alike in every respect; both were
animal space-binders; but something strange happened to _B_; he became the
first time-binder, a human. No matter how, this "something" made the
change in him that lifted him to a higher dimension; it is enough that in
some-wise, over and above his animal capacity for binding space, there was
superadded the marvelous new capacity for binding-time. He had thus a new
faculty, he belonged to a new dimension; but, of course, he did not
realize it; and because he had this new capacity he was able to analyze
his brother "_A_"; he observed "_A_ is my brother; he is an animal; but he
is my brother; therefore, _I_ AM AN ANIMAL." This fatal first conclusion,
reached by false analogy, by neglecting a fact, has been the chief source
of human woe for half a million years and it still survives. The
time-binding capacity, first manifest in _B_, increased more and more,
with the days and each generation, until in the course of centuries man
felt himself increasingly somehow different from the animal, but he could
not explain. He said to himself, "If I am an animal there is also in me
something higher, a spark of some thing _super_natural."

With this conclusion he estranged himself, as something apart from nature,
and formulated the impasse, which put him in a cul-de-sac of a double
life. He was neither true to the "supernatural" which he could not know
and therefore, could not emulate, nor was he true to the "animal" which he
scorned. Having put himself outside the "natural laws," he was not really
true to any law and condemned himself to a life of hypocrisy, and
established speculative, artificial, unnatural laws.

"How blind our familiar assumptions make us! Among the animals, man, at
least, has long been wont to regard himself as a being quite apart from
and not as part of the cosmos round about him. From this he has detached
himself in thought, he has estranged and objectified the world, and lost
the sense that he is of it. And this age-long habit and point of view,
which has fashioned his life and controlled his thought, lending its
characteristic mark and color to his whole philosophy and art and
learning, is still maintained, partly because of its convenience, no
doubt, and partly by force of inertia and sheer conservatism, in the very
teeth of the strongest probabilities of biological science. Probably no
other single hypothesis has less to recommend it, and yet no other so
completely dominates the human mind." (Cassius J. Keyser, loc. cit.) And
this monstrous conception is current to-day: millions still look upon man
as a mixture of animal and something supernatural.

There is no doubt that the engineering of human society is a difficult and
complicated problem of tremendous ethical responsibility, for it involves
the welfare of mankind throughout an unending succession of generations.
The science of Human Engineering can not be built upon false conceptions
of human nature. It can not be built on the conception of man as a kind of
animal; it can not be built on the conception of man as a mixture of
natural and supernatural. It must be built upon the conception of man as
being at once natural and higher in dimensionality than the animals. It
must be built upon the scientific conception of mankind as characterized
by their time-binding capacity and function. This conception radically
alters our whole view of human life, human society, and the world.

It must be obvious to any one that time-binding is the only natural
criterion and standard for the time-binding class of life. This mighty
term--time-binding--when comprehended, will be found to embrace the WHOLE of
the natural laws, the natural ethics, the natural philosophy, the natural
sociology, the natural economics, the natural governance, to be brought
into the education of time-binders; then really peaceful and progressive
civilization, without periodical collapses and violent readjustments, will
commence; not before. Everything which is really "time-binding" _is in_
the HUMAN DIMENSION; therefore, it will represent every quality that is
implied in such words as--_good_, _just_, _right_, _beautiful_; while
everything that is merely space-binding will be classified as "animal" and
be thus assessed at its proper value. Those ignorant "masters of our
destinies" who regard humans as animals or as monstrous hybrids of natural
and supernatural must be dethroned by scientific education.

Humans can be literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many
people have a just horror at the thought of putting poison into tea or
coffee, but seem unable to realize that, when they teach false ideas and
false doctrines, they are poisoning the time-binding capacity of their
fellow men and women. One has to stop and think! There is nothing mystical
about the fact that ideas and words are energies which powerfully affect
the physico-chemical base of our time-binding activities. Humans are thus
made untrue to "human nature." Hypnotism is a known fact. It has been
proved that a man can be so hypnotized that in a certain time which has
been suggested to him, he will murder or commit arson or theft; that,
under hypnotic influence, the personal morale of the individual has only a
small influence upon his conduct; the subject obeys the hypnotic
suggestions, no matter how immoral they are. The conception of man as a
mixture of animal and supernatural has for ages kept human beings under
the deadly spell of the suggestion that, animal selfishness and animal
greediness are their essential character, and the spell has operated to
suppress their REAL HUMAN NATURE and to prevent it from expressing itself
naturally and freely.

On the other hand, when human beings are educated to a lively realization
that they are by _nature_ time-binding creatures, then they will
spontaneously live in accordance with their time-binding nature, which, as
I have said, is the source and support of the highest ideals.

What is achieved in blaming a man for being selfish and greedy if he acts
under the influence of a social environment and education which teach him
that he is an animal and that selfishness and greediness are of the
essence of his nature?

Even so eminent a philosopher and psychologist as Spencer tells us: "Of
self-evident truths so dealt with, the one which here concerns us is that
a creature must live before it can act ... Ethics has to recognize the
truth that egoism comes before altruism." This is true for ANIMALS,
because animals die out from lack of food when their natural supply of it
is insufficient because they have NOT THE CAPACITY TO PRODUCE
ARTIFICIALLY. But it is not true for the HUMAN DIMENSION.

Why not? Because humans through their time-binding capacity are first of
all _creators_ and so their number is not controlled by the supply of
unaided nature, but only by men's artificial productivity, which is THE
MATERIALIZATION OF THEIR TIME-BINDING CAPACITY

Man, therefore, by the very intrinsic character of his being, MUST ACT
FIRST, IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO LIVE (through the action of parents--or
society) which is not the case with animals. The misunderstanding of this
simple truth is largely accountable for the evil of our ethical and
economic systems or lack of systems. As a matter of fact, if humanity were
to live in _complete_ accord with the animal conception of man, artificial
production--time-binding production--would cease and ninety per cent of
mankind would perish by starvation. It is just because human beings are
not animals but are time-binders--not mere finders but creators of food and
shelter--that they are able to live in such vast numbers.

Here even the blind must see the effect of higher dimensionality, and this
effect becomes in turn the cause of other effects which produce still
others, and so on in an endless chain. WE LIVE BECAUSE WE PRODUCE, BECAUSE
WE ARE ACTING IN TIME AND ARE NOT MERELY ACTING IN SPACE--BECAUSE MAN IS
NOT A KIND OF ANIMAL. It is all so simple, if only we apply a little sound
logic in our thinking about human nature and human affairs. If human
ethics are to be human, are to be in the human dimension, the postulates
of ethics must be changed; FOR HUMANITY IN ORDER TO LIVE MUST ACT FIRST;
the laws of ethics--the laws of right living--are _natural_ laws--laws of
human nature--laws having their whole source and sanction in the
time-binding capacity and time-binding activity peculiar to man. Human
excellence is excellence in time-binding, and must be measured and
rewarded by time-binding standards of worth.

Humanity, in order to live, must produce creatively and therefore must be
guided by applied science, by technology; and this means that the
so-called social sciences of ethics, jurisprudence, psychology, economics,
sociology, politics, and government must be emancipated from medieval
metaphysics; they must be made scientific; they must be _technologized_;
they must be made to progress and to function in the proper dimension--the
human dimension and not that of animals: they must be made time-binding
sciences.

Can this be done? I have no doubt that it can. For what is human life
after all?

To a general in the battlefield, human life is a factor which, if properly
used, can destroy the enemy. To an engineer human life is an equivalent to
energy, or a capacity to do work, mental or muscular, and the moment
something is found to be a source of energy and to have the capacity of
doing work, the first thing to do, from the engineer's point of view, is
to analyse the generator with a view to discovering how best to conserve
it, to improve it, and bring it to the level of maximum productivity.
Human beings are very complicated energy-producing batteries differing
widely in quality and magnitude of productive power. Experience has shown
that these batteries are, first of all, chemical batteries producing a
mysterious energy. If these batteries are not supplied periodically with a
more or less constant quantity of some chemical elements called food and
air, the batteries will cease to function--they will die. In the
examination of the structure of these batteries we find that the chemical
base is very much accentuated all through the structure. This chemical
generator is divided into branches each of which has a very different rôle
which it must perform in harmony with all the others. The mechanical parts
of the structure are built in conformity to the rules of mechanics and are
automatically furnished with lubrication and with chemical supplies for
automatically renewing worn-out parts. The chemical processes not only
deposit particles of mass for the structure of the generator but produce
some very powerful unknown kinds of energies or vibrations which make all
the chemical parts function; we find also a mysterious apparatus with a
complex of wires which we call brain glands, and nerves; and, finally,
these human batteries have the remarkable capacity of reproduction.

These functions are familiar to everybody. From the knowledge of other
physical, mechanical and chemical phenomena of nature, we must come to the
conclusion, that this human battery is the most perfect example of a
complex engine; it has all the peculiarities of a chemical battery
combined with a generator of a peculiar energy called life; above all, it
has mental or spiritual capacities; it is thus equipped with both mental
and mechanical means for producing work. The parts and functions of this
marvelous engine have been the subject of a vast amount of research in
various special branches of science. A very noteworthy fact is that both
the physical work and the mental work of this human engine are always
accompanied by both physical and chemical changes in the structure of its
machinery--corresponding to the wear and tear of non-living engines. It
also presents certain sexual and spiritual phenomena that have a striking
likeness to certain phenomena, especially wireless phenomena, to
electricity and to radium. This human engine-battery is of unusual
strength, durability and perfection; and yet it is very liable to damage
and even wreckage, if not properly used. The controlling factors are very
delicate and so the engine is very capricious. Very special training and
understanding are necessary for its control.

The reader may wish to ask: What is the essence of the time-binding power
of Man? Talk of essences is metaphysical--it is not scientific. Let me
explain by an example.

What is electricity? The scientific answer is: electricity is that which
exhibits such and such phenomena. Electricity means nothing but a certain
group of phenomena called electric. We are studying electricity when we
are studying those phenomena. Thus it is in physics--there is no talk of
essences. So, too, in Human Engineering--we shall not talk of the _essence_
of time-binding but only of the phenomena and the laws thereof. What has
led to the development of electric appliances is knowledge of electrical
phenomena--not metaphysical talk about the electrical essence. And what
will lead to the science and art of Human Engineering is knowledge of
time-binding phenomena--not vain babble about an essence of time-binding
power. There is no mystery about the word time-binding. Some descriptive
term was necessary to indicate that human capacity which discriminates
human beings from animals and marks man as man. For that use--the
appropriateness of the term time-binding becomes more and more manifest
upon reflection.

What are the conditions of life upon this earth? Is there war or peace in
daily life? All living beings require food; they multiply in a geometrical
ratio; and so the _natural_ productivity of the soil becomes increasingly
inadequate. The tendency to increase in geometrical ratio is true of all
life--vegetable, animal and human, but the tendency is checked by various
counteracting influences, natural and artificial. A short time ago these
checks had so operated to annul the law of increase as almost to stop the
growth of human population. It is only by the time-binding capacity of
man--by scientific progress and technological invention--that the checks
have been overcome. And so in the last century the population of Europe
increased more than it had increased in several centuries before.
Impoverished soil, excessive heat or cold, excessive moisture, the lack of
rain-fall, and many other factors are hostile to life. It is evident,
therefore, that human life must especially struggle for existence; it must
carry on a perpetual contest for self preservation. It seems obvious that,
if there is perpetual war in every-day life, war methods must be applied.

We have just passed through a tremendous world-wide _military_ war and we
developed special ways of producing power to overcome the enemy. We were
thus driven to discover some of the hidden sources of power and all of our
old habits and ideas were bent toward military methods and military
technology. The war of every-day life against hostile elements is war for
the subjugation of physical nature and not for the conquest of people. It
is a war carried on by the time-binding power of men pitted against
natural obstacles, and its progressive triumph means progressive
advancement in human weal.

The lesson of the World War should not be missed through failure to
analyse it. When nations war with nations, the normal daily war of
millions and millions of individuals to subjugate natural resources to
human uses is interrupted, and the slow-gathered fruits of measureless
toil are destroyed.

But peaceful war, war for the conquest of nature, involves the use of
methods of technology and, what is even more important, technological
philosophy, law and ethics.

What I want to emphasize in this little book, is the need of a
thoroughgoing revision of our ideas; and the revision must be made by
engineering minds in order that our ideas may be made to match facts. If
we are ill, we consult a physician or a surgeon, not a charlatan. We must
learn that, when there is trouble with the producing power of the world,
we have to consult an engineer, an expert on power. Politicians,
diplomats, and lawyers do not understand the problem. What I am advocating
is that we must learn to ask those who know how to produce things, instead
of asking those whose profession is to fight for the division of things
produced by nature or by other human beings.

As a matter of fact our civilization has been for a long time disorganized
to the point of disease. Lately through the whirl of changing conditions,
due to the great release of power in the new-born giant technology, the
disorganization has become acute. The sick seldom know the cure for
themselves. If the cure is to be enduring, we have to go to the source,
and this can be done only by men familiar, not only with effects but also
with the causes.

Money is not the wealth of a nation, but production is wealth; so _ordered
production_ is the main object for humanity. But to have the maximum of
production, it is necessary to have production put on a sound basis. No
mere preaching of brotherly love, or class hatred, will produce one single
brick for the building of the future temple of human victory--the temple of
_human_ civilization. Ordered production demands analysis of basic facts.

This era is essentially an industrial era. To produce we have to have: (1)
raw material or soil; (2) instruments for production--tools and machines;
and (3) the application of power.

The three requirements may be briefly characterized and appraised as
follows:

(1) Raw material and soil are products of nature; humanity simply took
them and had the use of them for nothing, because it is impossible to call
a prayer of thanksgiving (if any) addressed to a "creator" as payment to
gods or men. But raw material and soil, in the conditions in which nature
produces them, are of very little immediate benefit to humanity, because
unfilled soil produces very little food for humans, and raw material such
as wood, coal, oil, iron, copper, etc., are completely useless to humanity
until after human work is applied to them. It is necessary to cut a tree
for the making of timber; it is necessary to excavate the minerals, and
even then, only by applying further human work is it possible to make them
available for any human use. So, it is obvious that even raw materials in
the form in which nature has produced them, are mostly of no value and
unavailable for use, unless reproduced through the process of "human
creative production." Therefore, we may well conclude that "raw material"
must be divided into two very distinct classes: (_a_) raw material as
produced by nature--nature's free gift--which in its original form and place
has practically no use-value; and (_b_) raw material reproduced by man's
mental and muscular activities, by his "time-binding" capacities. Raw
materials of the second class have an enormous use-value; indeed they make
the existence of humanity possible.

As to the second requirement for production, namely:

(2) Tools and machines, it is obvious that "tools and machines" are made
of raw material by human work, mental and muscular.

And, finally:

(3) The application of power. Different sources of natural energy and
power are known. The most important available source of energy for this
globe is the sun--the heat of the sun. This solar heat is the origin of
water power, of wind power, and of the power bound up in coal, of the
chemistry, growth and transforming agency of plants.(10)

All foods which the animals as well as the humans use are, already, the
result of the solar energy transformed into what may be called chemical
energy. Transformation of energies is building up of life.

It is to be clearly seen that the only source of energy which can be
directly appropriated and used by man or animal is vegetable food found in
the wilderness; no other sources of power are available for _direct_ use;
they have first to be mastered and directed by human brain. The same is
true in regard to the getting of animal food, the creation of a water- or
windmill, or a steam engine, or the art of using a team of horses, or a
bushel of wheat; these are not available except by the use of the human
"time-binding" power.

This short survey of facts, known to everybody, brings us to the
conclusion that all problems of production come ultimately to the analysis
of

(1) Natural resources of raw material and natural energy, freely supplied
by nature, which, as we have seen, in the form as produced by nature
alone, have very little or no value for humanity;

(2) The activity of the human brain (because human muscles are always
directed by the brain) which gives value to the otherwise useless raw
materials and energies.

Hence, to understand the processes of production, it is essential to
realize that humanity is able to survive only by virtue of the capacity of
humans to exploit natural resources--to convert the products of nature into
forms available for human needs. If humanity had only the capacity of
apes, depending exclusively on wild fruits and the like, they would be
confined to those comparatively small regions of the globe where the
climate and the fertility of the soil are specially favorable. But in the
case supposed, humans would not be humans, they would not be
time-binders--they would be animals--mere space-binders.

There are other facts which must be kept constantly in mind. One of them
is that, in the world in which we live, there are natural laws of
inorganic as well as organic phenomena. Another of the facts is, as before
said, that the human class of life has the peculiar capacity of
establishing the social laws and customs which regulate and influence its
destinies, which help or hinder the processes of production upon which the
lives and happiness of mankind essentially and fundamentally depend.

It must not be lost sight of in this connection that the human class of
life is a part and a product of nature, and that, therefore, there must be
_fundamental laws which are natural for this class of life_. A stone obeys
the natural laws of stones; a liquid conforms to the natural law of
liquids; a plant, to the natural laws of plants; an animal, to the natural
laws of animals; it follows inevitably that there _must_ be natural laws
for humans.

But here the problem becomes more complicated; for the stone, the plant
and the animal do not possess the intellectual power to create and
initiate and so must blindly obey the laws that are natural for them; they
are not free to determine their own destinies. Not so with man; man has
the capacity and he can, through ignorance or neglect or mal-intent,
deviate from, or misinterpret, the natural laws for the human class of
life. Just therein lies the secret and the source of human chaos and woe--a
fact of such tremendous importance that it cannot be over-emphasized and
it seems impossible to evade it longer. To discover the nature of Man and
the laws of that _nature_, marks the summit of human enterprises. For to
solve this _problem is to open the way to everything which can be of
importance to humanity_--to human welfare and happiness.

The great problem has been felt as a powerful impulse throughout the ages
of human striving, for in all times it has been evident to thinkers that
upon the right solution of the problem must forever depend the welfare of
mankind. Many "solutions" have been offered; and, though they have
differed widely, they agree in one respect--they have had a common fate--the
fate of being false. What has been the trouble? The trouble has been, in
every instance, a radical misconception of what a human being really is.
The problem is to discover the natural laws of the human class of life.
All the "solutions" offered in the course of history and those which are
current to-day are of two and only two kinds--_zoological_ and
_mythological_. The zoological solutions are those which grow out of the
false conception according to which human beings are animals; if humans
are animals, the laws of human nature are the laws of animal nature; and
so the social "sciences" of ethics, law, politics, economics, government
become nothing but branches of zoology; as sciences, they are the studies
of animal life; as arts, they are the arts of managing and controlling
animals; according to this zoological philosophy, human wisdom about human
beings is animal wisdom about animals.

The mythological "solutions" are those which start with the monstrous
conception according to which human beings have no proper place in nature
but are mixtures of natural and _super_natural--unions or combinations of
animality and divinity. Such "solutions" contain no conception of
_natural_ law; scientifically judged, they are mythological
absurdities--muddle-headed chattering of crude and irresponsible
metaphysics--well-meaning no doubt, but silly, and deadly in their effects
upon the interests of mankind, vitiating ethics, law, economics, politics
and government.

Such have been and still are the regnant philosophies of human nature.
What is the remedy? How are the laws of human nature to be discovered?

It is evident that the enterprise, like all other scientific enterprises,
must be based upon and guided by realities. It is essential to realize
that the great, central, dominant, all-embracing reality is the reality of
_human nature_. If we misconceive this fundamental matter, the enterprise
must fail; that is both logically clear and clear in the sad light of
history; but if we conceive it aright, we may confidently expect the
enterprise to prosper. That is why, in the chapter on "The Classes of
Life," I have laid so much stress on the absolute necessity of conceiving
Man as being what he really is, and not something else. And we have
discovered what man is: we have discovered that man is characterized by
the capacity or power to bind time, and so we have _defined_ humanity as
the time-binding class of life. That concept is fundamental. It contains
the germ of the science and art of Human Engineering. The problem of
discovering and applying the "laws of human nature" is the problem of
discovering and applying to the conduct of life the laws of
time-binding--of time-binding activity--of time-binding _energy_. This fact
must be firmly seized and kept steadily in mind.

Energy, we have noted, is the capacity to do work. In human economy work
may be (1) _useful_ or (2) _neutral_ or (3) _harmful_. These words have no
significance except in human economy. The energy of the human intellect is
a time-binding energy, for it is able to direct, to use, to transform
other energies. This time-binding energy is of higher rank--of higher
dimensionality--than the other natural energies which it directs, controls,
uses, and transforms. This higher energy--which is commonly called the
mental or spiritual power of man--_is_ time-binding because it makes past
achievements live in the present and present activities in time-to-come.
It is an energy that initiates; it is an energy that creates; it is an
energy that can understand the past and foretell the future--it is both
historian and prophet; it is an energy that loads _abstract_ time--the
vehicle of events--with an ever-increasing burden of intellectual
achievements, of spiritual wealth, destined for the civilization of
posterity. And what is the natural law of the increase? What is the
natural law of human advancements in all great matters of human concern?

The question is of utmost importance both theoretically and practically,
for the law--whatever it be--is a _natural_ law--a law of human nature--a law
of the time-binding energy of man. What _is_ the law? We have already
noted the law of arithmetical progression and the law of geometric
progression; we have seen the immense difference between them; and we have
seen that the natural law of human progress in each and every cardinal
matter is a law like that of a rapidly increasing geometric progression.
In other words, the natural law of human progress--the natural law of
amelioration in human affairs--the fundamental law of human nature--the
basic law of the time-binding energy peculiar to man--is a Logarithmic
law--a law of logarithmic increase. I beg the reader not to let the term
bewilder him but to make it his own. It is easy to understand; and its
significance is mighty and everlasting. Even its mathematical formulation
can be understood by boys and girls. Let us see how the formulation looks.

Suppose _PR_ to denote the amount of progress made in some important field
by a given generation--which we may call the "first" generation; where _R_
denotes the common ratio--the ratio of improvement--that is, the number by
which the progress of one generation must be multiplied to give the amount
of progress made by the next generation; then the amount of progress made
by the second generation will be _PR__2_; that made by the third
generation will be _PR__3_; and so on; now denote by _T_ the number of
generations, counting the first one and all that follow in endless
succession. Then the following series will show the law of human progress
in the chosen field:

_PR, PR__2__, PR__3__, PR__4__, PR__5__, ..., PR__T__, PR__T+1__, ..._;

notice how it goes; the first generation ends with PR; the second
generation starts with _PR_, adds _PR__2_, and ends with _PR + PR__2_; the
third generation starts with _PR + PR__2_, adds _PR__3_ and ends with _PR
+ PR__2__ + PR__3_; and so on and on; the _gain_ made in the _T__th_
generation is _PR__T_; _the total gain_ made in _T_ generations is

_PR + PR__2__ + PR__3__ + ... + PR__T_;

this total gain is given by the formula,

Total gain in T generations = (R ÷ R-1) (PRT-P).

If we take _R_ to be 2 (which is a very small ratio, requiring the
progress of each generation to be merely double that of the preceding one)
and if we take _T_ to be (say) 10, then we see that the progress made by
the single 10th generation is _P_ × 210, which is 1024 times the progress
made in the "first" generation; and we readily compute that the total gain
in 10 generations is 2046 times the progress made in the "first"
generation. Moreover, to gain a just sense of the impressiveness of this
law, the reader must reflect upon the fact that it operates, not merely on
one field, but in all fields of human interest. "Operates in all fields" I
have just now said; as a matter of fact, as before pointed out, it does
not so operate _now_ in _all_ fields nor has it ever done so. My point is
that it _will_ so operate when we once acquire sense enough to let it do
so. That sense we shall have when and only when we discover that by nature
we are time-binders and that the _effectiveness_ of our time-binding
capacity is not only a function of time but is, as I have explained, a
logarithmic or exponential function of time--a function in which time (_T_)
enters as an _exponent_, as in the expression _PR__T_, so that we humans
are, unlike animals, naturally qualified not only to progress, but to
progress more and more rapidly, with an always _accelerating
acceleration_, as the generations pass.

This great fact is to be at once the basis, the regulator and guide in the
science and art of Human Engineering. Whatever squares with that law of
time-binding human energy, is right and makes for human weal; whatever
contravenes it, is wrong and makes for human woe.

And so I repeat that the world will have uninterrupted, peaceful progress
when and only when the so-called social "sciences"--the life-regulating
"sciences" of ethics, law, philosophy, economics, religion, politics, and
government--are technologized; when and only when they are made genuinely
scientific in spirit and method; for then and only then will they advance,
like the natural, mathematical and technological sciences, in conformity
to the fundamental exponential law of the time-binding nature of man; then
and then only, by the equal pace of progress in all cardinal matters, the
equilibrium of social institutions will remain stable and social
cataclysms cease.




Chapter V. Wealth


I beg the reader to allow me to begin this chapter with a word of warning.
The reader is aware that Criticism--by which I mean Thought--may be any one
of three kinds: it may be purely destructive; it may be purely
constructive; or it may be both destructive and constructive at the same
time. Purely destructive criticism is sometimes highly useful. If an old
idea or a system of old ideas be false and therefore harmful, it is a
genuine service to attack it and destroy it even if nothing be offered to
take its place, just as it is good to destroy a rattlesnake lurking by a
human pathway, even if one does not offer a substitute for the snake. But,
however useful destructive criticism may be, it is not an easy service to
render; for old ideas, however false and harmful, are protected alike by
habit and by the inborn conservatism of many minds. Now, habit indeed is
exceedingly useful--even indispensable to the effective conduct of life--for
it enables us to do many useful things automatically and therefore easily,
without conscious thinking, and thus to save our mental energy for other
work; but for the same reason, habit is often very harmful; it makes us
protect false ideas automatically, and so when the destructive critic
endeavors to destroy such ideas by reasoning with us, he finds that he is
trying to reason with automats--with machines. Such is the chief difficulty
encountered by destructive criticism. On the other hand, purely
constructive criticism--purely constructive thought--consists in introducing
new ideas of a kind that do not clash, or do not seem to clash, with old
ones. Is such criticism or thought easy? Far from it. It has difficulties
of its own. These are of two varieties: the difficulty of showing people
who are content with their present stock of old ideas that the new ones
are interesting or important; and the great difficulty of making _new_
ideas clear and intelligible, for the art of being clear and perfectly
intelligible is very, very hard to acquire and to practise. The third kind
of criticism--the third kind of thought--the kind that is at once both
destructive and constructive--has a double aim--that of destroying old ideas
that are false and that of replacing them with new ideas that are true;
and so the third kind of criticism or thought is the most difficult of
all, for it has to overcome both the difficulty of destructive criticism
and that of constructive thought.

The reader, therefore, if he will be good enough to reflect a little upon
the matter, can not fail to appreciate the tremendous difficulties which
beset the writing of this little book, for he must perceive, not only that
the work belongs to the third kind of critical thought, but--what is much
more--the errors it aims to destroy are fundamental, world-wide and old,
while the true ideas it seeks to substitute for them are fundamental and
new. This great difficulty, felt at _every_ stage of this writing, is, for
a reason to be presently explained, greatly enhanced and felt with
especial keenness in the present chapter. I therefore beg the reader to
give me here very special cooperation--the cooperation of open-mindedness,
candor and critical attention. It is essential to keep in mind the nature
of our enterprise as a whole, which is that of pointing the way to the
science and art of Human Engineering and laying the foundations thereof;
we have seen Human Engineering, when developed, is to be the science and
art of so directing human energies and capacities as to make them
contribute most effectively to the advancement of human welfare; we have
seen that this science and art must have its basis in a true conception of
human nature--a just conception of what Man really is and of his natural
place in the complex of the world; we have seen that the ages-old and
still current conceptions of man--zoological and mythological conceptions,
according to which human beings are either animals or else hybrids of
animals and gods--are mainly responsible for the dismal things in human
history; we have seen that man, far from being an animal or a compound of
natural and supernatural, is a perfectly natural being characterized by a
certain capacity or power--the capacity or power to bind time; we have seen
that humanity is, therefore, to be rightly conceived and scientifically
defined as the time-binding class of life; we have seen that, therefore,
the laws of time-binding energies and time-binding phenomena are the laws
of human nature; we have seen that this conception of man--which must be
the basic concept, the fundamental principle and the perpetual guide and
regulator of Human Engineering--is bound to work a profound transformation
in all our views on human affairs and, in particular, must radically alter
the so-called social "sciences"--