Anthropo-biology : towards a system of the sciences

look from the point of view of the whole, it is entirely illegitimate to separate the planet Earth from Man and from the history and evolution of Man, and regard them as if they were independent. And we should further look at the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral and vegetable and the animal kingdoms, as a three-membered organism of which Man, Anthropos, is the fourth principle and the synthesis and the key. In this sense we see reflected in the mineral world the intelligence and thought of mankind. Our ordinary thought and intellect understand only the mineral world. As soon as life and biology come into the picture we do not understand it. Something arises in the living being which we do not understand, and much less is that quality of emotion and psyche which we see in the animal world understandable by our ordinary science. We can characterise the three kingdoms of nature thus. In the animal kingdom is that which experiences pleasure and pain, has a nervous system and self movement, and on the whole consumes more than it produces. The vegetable kingdom is the gigantic dynamic function of producing, building and storing the wealth which the animal kingdom uses up and spends. The mineral kingdom is understandable by intellect and reason and purely formal thinking. Man is not merely a higher plant, animal or mineral. Man is that synthesis of these three which holds them together; and the three aspects of Man can be seen and studied, reflected in the mirror of the three kingdoms of Nature. Nor is any of this in the least affected by whether it is or isn’t true that some chemist can split a virus and take it to pieces and put it together again!

Now let us try from this point of view to suggest constructive problems and tasks which undertaken earnestly and enthusiastically enough might enable us to face the problem of Mankind at the moment with a certain enthusiasm and inward steadfastness, and not with the quailing courage which is our biggest temptation to-day. For I certainly do not want simply to put forward solutions but rather to propose a programme and a task.

Anyone who is concerned with life meanings and the personal and spiritual problems of himself as an individual wonders how he can develop a coherent attitude to the world and life, so that

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