Abstract
PROF. CONKLIN'S book is well intentioned and well written, but, at least to me, profoundly unsatisfactory. The theme is, in the main, the time-honoured problem of the relation between science and religion, and it would be near the truth to say that, for the author, real man is man as science discloses him, while ideal man falls in the province of religion. Prof. Conklin evidently writes for a public which is still not unaffected by Fundamentalism, for echoes of the Tennessee controversy over evolution lend some of his remarks an asperity which English readers will consider strange. But the pages iruwhich he outlines the evolution of man and the origin of races are clear and easy to understand by the general reader. They call for no comment except recognition of their admirable lucidity. He concludes that "the main direction of human progress has turned from the path of further differentiation of the individual to that of increasing differentiation and integration of society".
Man, Real and Ideal
Observations and Reflections on Man's Nature, Development and Destiny. By Prof. Edwin Grant Conklin. Pp. xvii + 247. (D.800.) (New York and London: C. Scribner's Sons, 1943.) 2.50 dollars.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MATTHEWS, W. Man, Real and Ideal. Nature 153, 38–39 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153038a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153038a0
