Diagnosis of Man
- Type:
Reviews
- Author:
Kenneth Walker, F.R.C.S.
Jonathan Cape. 10s. 6d.
All great attempts to deal with the nature of man leave behind them a conflicting impression of his weak- ness and strength, of the darkness and uncertainty into which he is born and the clear light that surrounds him. There is duality in the air that he breathes and the substance of which he is made ; ‘a being of intricate complexity, reducible to a scientific formula; master of his fate and an externally impelled machine; in him the creative power of philosopher, statesman, poet lies dormant yet he turns upon his fellow to destroy.
We draw no shallow hope of human nature and of human progress from a study of this book. The great victories of science are overarched by a sense of the fatal ignorance of man, of the inherent limitations of the intellectual process and the elusive nature of the problems to be met. War and disillusionment have followed upon material success and we are faced with the gigantic task of reconstruction. The problems that demand our notice are, perhaps, more simple than we like to think. ” We live in a dark house, but is it a house into which some light may be admitted ? This is, perhaps, the most important question that a man may ask.” (Page 145.)
It would be impossible within the limits of a review to give more than a brief survey of Diagnosis of Man and much that is relevant must be passed by. ” What man is ” and ” what he may become ” are questions that lie beyond the range of particularist departments of thought. The specialities can tell us nothing of his total function. Chemistry and biology, physiology and medical psychology offer their separate findings to the general body of knowledge but the task of synthesizing so vast a mass of material is beyond normal capacity. ” The man described by each of the specialists and the man described by all the specialists, is still not a man. There is a residue that remains, a residue that is more important than all that has been abstracted.” {Page 16.)
It is to the narrow outlook of the scientist and medical psychologist that we have to attribute part of the general failure to synthesize the results of research. But there is no longer any reasonable excuse for the specialist to remain within the four walls of his thought. The law of cause and effect, by whose monotonous applica- tion science claims her most brilliant successes, fades away in the higher realms of the mind ; the Cartesian division between matter and spirit has vanished ; old landmarks are changing and the barriers between com- peting Schools have gone down. No more may philo- sophy and religion, however intangible their results, be left in the background. It is significant that the following memorable passage on the nature of spiritual vision should come from the pen of one of the most eminent scientists of the day :?
” It is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things’, something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts’, something that gives meaning to all that passes and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach’, something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.’’’’?Whitehead. (Page 98.)
If it is to the East that the author turns for the most complete answer to the problem of human nature, it is not without due consideration of the philosophy j the West. At an early stage in their histories East a? West diverged ; the outer world of matter became ^ main pre-occupation of Western man; the Orie/1^ looked within to the region of the soul and found th?, the answer to the major problems of existence. both East and West reveal outstanding similar^1,, in the higher realms of thought?it is on the lower leve, that disagreement and discord take root. We ^ confine ourselves here, however, to a single assump*1 | which lies at the basis of all cultural philosophy: 411 . man cannot apprehend reality by his sense organs ale”. Like the Hindus in Jalalu’ddin Rumi’s poem, we gt?L with our hands through the darkness to discover nature of the whole and touch only the part.
yjl “By means of sensuous perception and inference shall never stand face to face with reality, and any that with a little more knowledge the intervening veil ^ be torn aside is futile. All that we shall gain from knowledge is a better acquaintance with the veil and ” with that which it conceals.” (Page 132.)
If at this point we could not escape from the c?l elusions of a materialistic philosophy there would small reason for hope. But the evidence lies in 0 . favour; the tables are turned; and those argum^, which formerly science made use of to confound f opponents are valid for us. Empirical man may incapable of apprehending reality but there is % assurance of potential faculties within him with ^ vision and capacity for development. Upon this all religious thinkers are agreed. ,
“Know that thou canst not possess ‘’the scienCli if thou dost not cleanse thy mind through God, by H7”’ is meant, that thou purgest thine heart from all c? ruption.’’?Alfidius.
” Out of other things thou wilt never make one uttle the one arises out of thyself.’”?Abbot TrithermiuS- The effort demanded for the change is difficult aj> costly, and alien to the natural ambitions and appeW^ of men; and there is small evidence that it forms P^, of what science is accustomed to describe as the evo’, tionary process. The hope for the future of mank1? depends not upon intellectual development but up0 the simple quality of goodness. j
Diagnosis of Man is not a book against which to 1?*. the trivial shafts of criticism that sometimes enliven ^ review. We have returned to it more than once and f3 each occasion new and arresting facts seem to spn? from its pages. We have no bones to pick with 1 author only a deep sense of gratitude that what K been struggling inarticulate in the hearts of many shot? at last have come forth in so clear and comprehensi, a form. We commend it without further praise to 3 thoughtful men and women of this generation. E.F.I-
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