An introduction to the study of man PDF
Preview An introduction to the study of man
Z.Y J. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MAN liace GHuman cVariat c Fertility& gm cMortalitjr pulation & Ageing _ „. I Evolution cprimate cEvolu OXFORD PAPERBACKS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MAN AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN STUDY OF BY YOUNG Z. J. M.A., F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON OXFORD NEW YORK Oxford UniversityPress OXFORD LONDON NEWYORK GLASGOW TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPETOWN IBADAN NAIROBI DARESSALAAM LUSAKA ADDISABABA DEI.HI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALALUMPUR SINGAPORE HONGKONG TOKYO ISBN O 19 881333 3 © OxfordUniversityPress1971 Firstpublishedigyi FirstissuedasanOxfordUniversityPresspaperback 1974 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyany means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress Thisbookissoldsubjecttotheconditionsthatitshallnotbywayof tradeorotherwise,belent,re-sold,hiredout,orotherwisecirculated withoutthepublisher'spriorconsentinanyformofbindingorcover otherthanthatinwhichitispublishedandwithoutasimilarcondition includingthisconditionbeingimposedonthesubsequentpurchaser PrintedinGreatBritain attheUniversityPress,Oxford byVivianRidler PrintertotheUniversity PREFACE This bookaroseoutoflecturesgiven tomedicalanddentalstudentsatthe beginning of their studies. It is therefore literally an introduction to the possibilityofstudyingman inascientificmanner. Todothisisnot'natural' for most people, and indeed may seem actually repellent to some. Yet doctors and dentists have found that by approaching our problems in a scientificwaytheyhavebeenincreasinglyabletohelpus. Indeeditisalmost true to say that it is only since medicine became scientific that it has been abletobeofanyrealhelp incuringhuman ills. Itmay bethattherearestill large areas ofman's activity in which we can be helped by more detailed study. Many people fear that in some way this threatens an invasion ofthe individual personality. It is important to respect this apprehension and at all times to emphasize that the aim ofall scientific studies is to assist in the improvementofthequalityofhuman lifeandtoenlargeitscapacities. This book is the record ofthe search for a method by which this can be done. Indeed it can be read as a sort of detective story in which we are searching for an answer to the question 'What is man?' or, more subtly, for the answer to 'What are good ways to study men?' We begin by asking some conceptually rather simple and obviously 'scientific' questions such as 'What are men made of?' This gives an opportunity to look at some of the spectacular recent information that biochemistry has provided about the large molecules in the body, and especially about the information- carrying properties of the nucleic acids. Such knowledge provides com- pletely new ways of talking about the old questions of the nature and origin of life. These serve as preludes to the more specific questions we are interested in about man himself. His life, like that ofother creatures, is organized by the information that is received from the past, so that he takes actions thatare likely to preserve his lifeand thatofhisspecies in the future. An understanding ofthe origin and nature ofthis mechanism for ensuring continued maintenance or homeostasis would go far to give us that basic knowledge of the principles of life for which we are looking. Certainly we have not achieved it yet, but there have been large advances recently, and they revolutionize our knowledge of ourselves. To many people this will seem a necessarily imperfect framework because, they wouldsay,theessentialfeatureofamanishisdifferencefromothercreatures inthathepossessesasoul,insomesensevaluablein itself. Anyone proposing to study man must face this problem, and we shall indeed attempt to do so. The answers will probably be found inadequate PREFACE vi in many respects. Indeed many thoughtful people perhaps feel that we do not know enough to be able to solve this or indeed any otherofthe funda- mentalproblemsoftheoriginoftheworldorthemeaningoflife,andshould frankly admit our ignorance. One of our recurrent themes will be that human intelligence, for all its ability, is still very imperfect, but is improv- ing fast. We shall try to look for new light on some ofthe problems that have worried mankind forcenturies. I am very conscious that such consideration as is given to these great questions is very superficial compared to that of theologians and philo- sophers who devote their lives to them. Certainly there is no substitute for study of the works of those who have investigated man in all his many aspects. Nevertheless the biologist has at least one special contribution to make in that he studies the agent of study itself—the brain. The possi- bilities and difficulties that this brings are major themes of the book. As the investigation develops we shall meet repeatedly the particular paradox ofhumanbiology,thatwearetryingtofindmethodsforstudyingthestudent himself. Does this involve circular reasoning and if so how does it affect ourwholeendeavour? These are very old and deepquestions ofthe theory and nature of knowledge (epistemology). Although the biologist is not trained to deal with such problems of logic and philosophy he finds it impossible to avoid doing so. This is perhaps the mostserious ofthe many ways in which the reader must be suspicious ofthis book. The intention, however, is that he shall at least be stimulated to see some ofthe philo- sophical problems that are involved in his ordinary scientific and everyday ways of speech, even though the treatment is too superficial to provide really satisfying answers. Certainly no one discipline has a monopoly of the right to say what men should do. The body ofhuman knowledge is now so vast that no one setofpeopletrained inaparticulardisciplinecan providetheguidancethat we need. We have to depend upon artists as much as priests, physicists as wellasphilosophers,engineersandlawyers,historians,economists,doctors, and politicians, to mention only a few. The course of human life today dependsupon the knowledge ofall oftheseand a host more. Ihopethatthefactsandattitudesrecordedherewillbefoundtobeuseful and willgivesomesatisfaction and help todifferentsortsofpeople. What I have aimed to do is to provide enough information to evoke the inspiring spectacle ofthe vast range ofcontrolled activities that constitutes the life ofmen and ofthe living world. With sufficient knowledge wecan now just begintoimagineallthetensofthousandsofchemicalprocessesthatgoonin an orderly way as one individual man or woman sits and thinks. We can begin to see the wonderful complexity of the instrument in which the
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