Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
levies, drawn from this general supply, and of all the machinery of
communication, provisioning, and so forth. They will not be necessarily
the “social superiors” of their commands, but they will naturally
exercise the same authoritative command in warfare that a doctor does in
a sick-room.] or for the naval and mercantile services, or into research
and the literature of science. Some also would pass on to study for
the profession of medicine through more special work in Chemistry and
Physiology, and some with a proclivity for drawing and design would
become architects, designers of appliances, and the like. The idea of
the ordinary development of this course is not so very remote from what
already exists in Great Britain as the Organized Science School, but,
as with all these courses, it would be done in varying degrees of
thoroughness and extension under varying conditions. This is the first
of my three alternative College courses.
The second course will probably seem less acceptable to many readers,
but all who are qualified to speak will testify to its enormous
educational value. It is what one may speak of as the Biological Course.
Just as the conception of Energy will be the central idea of the Natural
Philosophy course, so the conception of Organic Evolution will be the
central idea of the Biological Course. A general review of the whole
field of Biology--not only of the Natural History of the present but
of the geological record--in relation to the known laws and the various
main theories of the evolutionary process will be taken, and in
addition some special department, either the Comparative Anatomy of
the Vertebrata chiefly, or of the plants chiefly, or of several
Invertebrated groups chiefly, will be exhaustively worked out in
relation to these speculations. The first of these alternatives is not
only probably the most invigorating mental exercise of the three but
bears also more directly upon the practical concerns of life. Physiology
will be taken up in relation to this special exhaustive study, and the
“Elementary Physics of the Schooling” stage will be prolonged up into a
treatment of Chemistry with especial reference to biological problems.
Through such a course as this students might pass to the study of
medicine just as well as through Natural Philosophy, and the medical
profession would profit by the clash of the two types of student. The
biological course, with its insistence upon heredity and physiological
facts, would also give the very best and gravest preparation in the
world for the practical concerns of motherhood. From it students would
pass on illuminated to the study of psychology, philosophical science,
and educational method. The training in the discussion of broad
generalization, and much of the fact involved, would be a most excellent
preliminary to special theological study and also to the advanced study
of economics and political science. From this course also artists of
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