Man on His Nature by Charles SherringtonReview by: M. F. Ashley MontaguIsis, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Dec., 1941), pp. 544-545Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/330635 .

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Reviews Reviews

from the Hellenic and patristic sources, but have also been influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.

A. R. NYKL

Cambridge, Mass.

SIR CHARLES SHERRINGTON: Man on his Nature. Pp. vii+413. New York, The Mac- millan Co.; Cambridge, England, At the University Press, 1941, ($3.75). I have just concluded reading this book and I am now looking over my notes

(made in 1923) on Sir CHARLES SHERRINGTON'S The Integrative Action of the Nervous

System (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1905). That book, as in the lives of so many others, was one of the great experiences of my life; in the very profoundest and real sense it was to me a revelation. It will, then, be understood that I ap- proached the reading of the present volume fully expecting that the summing-up of the world's leading neurophysiologist would be a rich experience indeed,-and so it has proven. This is a wonderfully good book. I do not recall ever to have read a work which puts the modern view of the world held by the scientist who is also a man and a poet as well as it is set out in this book. Man on his Nature reminds me a great deal of HERDER'S Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784- 91), for it has a great deal in common with that work.

Man on his Nature comprises The Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh during the years 1937-38, and completed for the press in August 1940. The lectures which are presented in the twelve chapters of this book each represent a contribution of the most efficient value towards the sympathetic understanding of the world in which we live and of man's place in it. I say "efficient value" because SHERRINGTON'S

book contains no airy abstractions or unwarranted extrapolations, but steers its steady course throughout by the compass of the demonstrated truth. Thus, SHER- RINGTON'S conclusions are immediately applicable to life in all its aspects, and when applied are seen to exhibit immediate results-good results.

I believe that this is the first book of which it could be truly said that it consti- tutes the complete answer to those who hold that "science is not enough ..." What the proponents of this view have, I think, had in mind was that science de- tached from human values was not enough, and they have been quite right-al- though not clear in the expression of their rightness. Thus, it seems possible to be right but not to be sufficiently right in the expression of one's rightness. True science, SHERRINGTON shows, is never detached from human values and leads directly to Natural Religion-the religion of demonstrated truth tempered by the ethical judg- ment. If our logic is to be tempered with sentiment, then our science must be tem- pered by the judgment of morality. In a notable passage SHERRINGTON writes:

Granted the scope of natural science be to distinguish true from false, not right from evil, that simply makes the man of science as such, not the whole man but a fractional man; he is not the whole citizen but a fraction of the citizen. The whole man now that his mind has 'values' must combine his scientific part-man with his human rest. Where his scientific part- man assures him of something and his ethical part-man declares that something to be evil it is for the whole man in his doing not to leave it at that. Otherwise in a world of mishap his

from the Hellenic and patristic sources, but have also been influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.

A. R. NYKL

Cambridge, Mass.

SIR CHARLES SHERRINGTON: Man on his Nature. Pp. vii+413. New York, The Mac- millan Co.; Cambridge, England, At the University Press, 1941, ($3.75). I have just concluded reading this book and I am now looking over my notes

(made in 1923) on Sir CHARLES SHERRINGTON'S The Integrative Action of the Nervous

System (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1905). That book, as in the lives of so many others, was one of the great experiences of my life; in the very profoundest and real sense it was to me a revelation. It will, then, be understood that I ap- proached the reading of the present volume fully expecting that the summing-up of the world's leading neurophysiologist would be a rich experience indeed,-and so it has proven. This is a wonderfully good book. I do not recall ever to have read a work which puts the modern view of the world held by the scientist who is also a man and a poet as well as it is set out in this book. Man on his Nature reminds me a great deal of HERDER'S Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784- 91), for it has a great deal in common with that work.

Man on his Nature comprises The Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh during the years 1937-38, and completed for the press in August 1940. The lectures which are presented in the twelve chapters of this book each represent a contribution of the most efficient value towards the sympathetic understanding of the world in which we live and of man's place in it. I say "efficient value" because SHERRINGTON'S

book contains no airy abstractions or unwarranted extrapolations, but steers its steady course throughout by the compass of the demonstrated truth. Thus, SHER- RINGTON'S conclusions are immediately applicable to life in all its aspects, and when applied are seen to exhibit immediate results-good results.

I believe that this is the first book of which it could be truly said that it consti- tutes the complete answer to those who hold that "science is not enough ..." What the proponents of this view have, I think, had in mind was that science de- tached from human values was not enough, and they have been quite right-al- though not clear in the expression of their rightness. Thus, it seems possible to be right but not to be sufficiently right in the expression of one's rightness. True science, SHERRINGTON shows, is never detached from human values and leads directly to Natural Religion-the religion of demonstrated truth tempered by the ethical judg- ment. If our logic is to be tempered with sentiment, then our science must be tem- pered by the judgment of morality. In a notable passage SHERRINGTON writes:

Granted the scope of natural science be to distinguish true from false, not right from evil, that simply makes the man of science as such, not the whole man but a fractional man; he is not the whole citizen but a fraction of the citizen. The whole man now that his mind has 'values' must combine his scientific part-man with his human rest. Where his scientific part- man assures him of something and his ethical part-man declares that something to be evil it is for the whole man in his doing not to leave it at that. Otherwise in a world of mishap his

544 544

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Reviews

scientific knowledge and his ethical judgment become two idle wheels spinning without effect, whereas they have been evolved and survive each to give the other effect. But for that he would not have them. Without that will he retain them? If he prize them he must use them, or Darwin might tell him he may lose them. (Pp. 375-76).

Could that have been better said? Science enriches the ethical judgment by utilizing it, and the ethical judgment

helps to ensure the effectiveness of science for the happiness of man by such inter- working. The one without the other is ultimately impossible. It is the development of life up to this point which SHERRINGTON discusses in this great book. Commencing with the mid-Renaissance background of the modern world, SHERRINGTON, in a

chapter entitled "Nature and Tradition," takes the work and ideas of that superb genius, JEAN FRANCOIS FERNEL (1497-1558),-of whom, incidentally, Sir CHARLES

promises us for the near future a documented account both biographical and biblio- graphical-for his starting point. Throughout the book comparisons are made and parallels are drawn with the ideas of FERNEL who died 400 years ago. The device is a very happy one for it serves to illustrate at once both the continuity and the change in thought since the Renaissance. In his last chapter SHERRINGTON demonstrates the essential nature of that change through the development of scientific thought, and the essentially greater beauty and coherence of our present view of the world, the conclusion to which science has finally led us that "We have, because human, an inalienable prerogative of responsibility which we cannot devolve, no, not as was once thought, even upon the stars. We can share it only with each other." (p. 404). And there is the essence of Natural Religion, true religion because it is demonstrably true by every test of measurable reality, and in which the anthropomorphic element and the appeal to supernaturalism are wanting and rendered entirely unnecessary.

SHERRINGTON'S book contains such a wealth of sound ideas and illuminating demonstrations respecting evolution, the nature of life, the character of the nervous system, its relation to mind, self and "I," social relations, and so much else that it would be impossible to resume in brief the true character of this remarkable book. Let it be said then, that it is the one indispensable book which every educated person of our time should make it his business to read, and to read slowly and carefully, for few books have been published in our time as important as this. Man on his Nature is destined to have a profound effect upon the philosophy of the present and of the future, and there can be no doubt that its views will eventually make their way among scientists. The Nobel Laureate in Medicine of 1932 deserves in 1941 the thanks of all humanity for his noble contribution to Scientific Humanism. This book is SHERRINGTON'S crowning achievement and it is worthy of the author of The Integra- tive Action of the Nervous System. It is with feelings of the most pleasurable anticipa- tion that I look forward to Sir CHARLES' study of FERNEL, for what he writes of FERNEL indicates that that study will be definitive.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU

Department of Anatomy, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, Philadelphia

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