Abstract
AS the reading public gradually accepts the doctrine of evolution and its corollary, the unity of life, a demand arises for books which deal, on one hand, with the application of biological methods and ideas to human life, and on the other, with an analysis of those ideas. With the narrowing of the gulf between man and the other animals, we find a quite legitimate tendency to interpret the mind of animals in terms of the human mind, and conversely. But such a procedure demands enormous caution, and one can scarcely hope to find the necessary critical attitude in books which are written to defend a point of view rather than to examine all sides of a problem. Yet they may justify themselves if they are sufficiently stimulating or attractive.
(1) The Study of Living Things: Prolegomena to a Functional Biology.
By Dr. E. S. Russell. Pp. xx + 139. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 5s. net.
(2) The Passing of the Phantoms: a Study of Evolutionary Psychology and Morals.
By Prof. C. J. Patten. Pp. 95 + 4 plates. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1924.) 2s. 6d. net.
(3) Tantalus: or the Future of Man.
By Dr. F. C. S. Schiller. Pp. 72. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 2s. 6d. net.
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H., J. (1) The Study of Living Things: Prolegomena to a Functional Biology (2) The Passing of the Phantoms: a Study of Evolutionary Psychology and Morals (3) Tantalus: or the Future of Man. Nature 115, 218–219 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115218a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115218a0
