The present article takes a glance at some aspects of the contemporary crisis of morality in Western civilization with particular reference to the writings of Sir Julian Huxley, more especially to his book Religion without Revelation. There is a flash-back to the Victorian background that prepared the way for evolutionism as the doctrine of inevitable progress, sometimes called “evolutionary humanism”. An instance of evolutionary humanism in operation is to be seen in Dewey-ism, a movement that is currently suspect because it (...) appears to lie at the root of disturbing factors in the American educational system and to be connected with increased delinquency, unhappy homes and broken marriages, and the general brittle atmosphere sensed by observant viewers of the social life in North America outside the Catholic and fundamentalist communities. (shrink)

The present article takes a glance at some aspects of the contemporary crisis of morality in Western civilization with particular reference to the writings of Sir Julian Huxley, more especially to his book Religion without Revelation. There is a flash-back to the Victorian background that prepared the way for evolutionism as the doctrine of inevitable progress, sometimes called “evolutionary humanism”. An instance of evolutionary humanism in operation is to be seen in Dewey-ism, a movement that is currently suspect because it (...) appears to lie at the root of disturbing factors in the American educational system and to be connected with increased delinquency, unhappy homes and broken marriages, and the general brittle atmosphere sensed by observant viewers of the social life in North America outside the Catholic and fundamentalist communities. (shrink)

Is automation a glimpse of the future of humanity? Last year the question was gone into at meetings of the Catholic Association of French Thinkers. Persons with experience of automation in industry and scientific research were the main contributors, and the present volume gives the text of the papers and discussions.

The Bampton Lectures are named after John Bampton, their founder, a Canon of Salisbury who died a little over two centuries ago and left £120 per annum to the University of Oxford as endowment of eight “divinity-lecture-sermons” to be delivered each year “to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics.” No person was to preach the sermons unless he had at least a Master’s Degree of Oxford or Cambridge. It is one of the ironies (...) of history that the lectures are now given by heretics. But what heretic could be more agreeable to members of the true Church than Dr. Mascall, the Bampton Lecturer for 1956? The discourses were never meant to be popular addresses, but have always been valuable and learned expositions of Christian teaching. Without any shadow of doubt the high standard of the past is maintained in the present volume. (shrink)

The experiments described in this publication had their start during the Second World War under the direction of Professor Sir Frederick Bartlett at Cambridge. The immediate aim was to compare the various tests that had been devised at one time or another to help in selecting people for such night tasks as required keen night vision. The work gradually turned into a laboratory investigation for studying the outstanding traits of the key tests. When the war came to an end, the (...) research was continued because it was seen to have importance for the theory of human vision in general. In the post-war investigations, special attention was paid to the way in which quantum properties of light might be related to excitation of the retina. (shrink)

Thoughtful people who look at the world scene and see civilization in danger of collapse or extinction, are not without hope that by taking thought they may discover remedies. The trouble has been brilliantly diagnosed by Alexis Carrel in his best-selling publication, Man the Unknown, a book that is both scientific and wise. Silva Mello, in the volume before us, tackles the same question, but the flavour is quite different. His book pulsates with feeling and love of humanity, as well (...) as great sincerity, but the approach to problems is intuitive rather than analytical. The English version is based on the fourth Portuguese edition, the book having achieved high popularity in Latin America. (shrink)

It is generally recognised that Western civilization is faced with a double threat to its survival, communism from without and disintegration from within. The latter had its beginnings in the Renaissance and the Reformation, both of which had disruptive effects of a size that is now being more or less clearly seen. We also see that there is urgent need to offset the consequences of these movements, and as rapidly as possible. To-day the accent is on co-operation between the diverse (...) elements of Western culture, and a good deal of thought is being given to devising ways and means of bringing the estranged components together, and re-establishing a unity akin to that which formerly existed in Christendom. (shrink)

Professor Bridgman is a physicist of distinction who has contributed to the philosophy of physics. Dissatisfied with the traditional obscurities and irrationalities of certain branches of his subject, he evolved for himself a logic of modern physics, and focussed his attention on that aspect of scientific method which he called “operational”. His name has been associated with “operational research” and “operational definition” ever since. The present volume, a second and enlarged edition, is a collection of non-technical writings that illustrate what (...) the operational point of view can lead to. The papers are of varying length, some of them quite slight, and the quality is likewise variable. It seems to me the book would improve with pruning, and editing. Besides some irksome mannerisms, there are crudities of style that one would wish to see removed. (shrink)

Thinking about Thinking, by Merl R. Wolfard, is a sign of the times, especially American times. Merl is a research engineer of forty years’ standing with a leaning to philosophy. A self-taught “thinker” or philosopher, he has been thinking about thinking since 1950, and the present volume is the result.