Abstract
MR. MORLEY ROBERTS'S study of the social organism, as he admits and indeed proclaims, is based on analogy, specifically on the thesis that the communities of bees, ants and termites, and therefore also human societies, resemble organisms. “Whatever the groups, the laws of organic development which produce order, form, interdependence, and differentiation are everywhere the same.” Hence, studies in the pathology of single animals can be applied to the functions of social and national groups. “Where protoplasmic units, however simple or complex, work together in symbiosis or communal life, they can best be considered as organisms, and as such liable to the diseases and disorders which change or destroy them.” He is not afraid of carrying his analogies to an extreme. For example: “After what was said earlier on immunity, students of medicine will have no difficulty in thinking that sarcoma, or malignant revolt of various connective tissue elements, may be nearly matched by a revolt of the police.”
Bio-Politics
an Essay in the Physiology, Pathology and Politics of the Social and Somatic Organism. By Morley Roberts. Pp. xv + 240. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1938.) 15s. net.
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Bio-Politics. Nature 142, 138 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142138c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142138c0
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