OF OUR CONDUCT by WILLIAM E. RITTER President of Science Service; Professor Emeritus of Zoology & Director WITH THE COLLABORATION OF EDNA WATSON BAILEY FB NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY 7240 7-11-27 15281 PREFACE THIS book and one to come are intimately connected with my long and close association with that remarkable man, E. W. Scripps. Realist, student, philosopher, successful journalist and business man, and above all humanist, Scripps was quick to see important implications in the biological idea of "the organism as a whole" for humankind, once that idea had gained secure foothold in his mind. As a consequence, even before he had read any comprehensive biological exposition of the idea, he began to wonder what a thorough-going study of human beings from this standpoint would bring to light; for the enigma of man with his infinite capacity for noble thoughts and deeds and his equal capacity for ignoble thoughts and deeds harassed Scripps beyond measure. By the time my mind and hands had worked themselves free from enthrallment with The Unity of the Organism, his demands to know what this "damned human animal is, anyway," became so insistent that I could hardly escape taking them seriously, even though they were not usually leveled at me personally. These demands, superimposed upon rather strong humanistic and philosophic tendencies of my own, must be put down as the "effective environmental factor” in the production of this book and a companion soon to follow. The other book will have as title The Natural Philosophy of Our Conduct. Despite the circumstance that the product of my task is wrapped up in two packages, the task itself was a unit and not twofold. This follows from the unitary point of view implied by the organismal conception. Adequate acknowledgment of all to whom I am indebted, |