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3 J. Pub. L. 328 (1954)
Implications of Humanics for Law and Science

handle is hein.journals/emlj3 and id is 330 raw text is: SECTION II

LAW-SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS
IMPLICATIONS OF HUMANICS FOR
LAW AND SCIENCE
ROGER J. WILLIAMS*
HUMANICS has, according to Webster's International Dictionary, a very
simple short definition: the study of human nature. We shall use the word in
exactly this sense with the important amplification that it includes the study of
the differences as well as likenesses that exist within the human family.
Philosophers have been prone to think in general terms regarding human
beings. Man, an abstraction logically denoting the sum of all the human qualities
in the world divided by the total number of individuals, has been the center of
interest. This generalized representative being, embodying -all that is common
to humanity, is often thought of as crucial; man needs to be understood, cared
for and improved. This generalized thinking carries the implication that human
.beings are essentially all the same, and that the differences which exist are
negligible, certainly insofar as major considerations are concerned.
Alexander Pope, in his famous Essay on Man, discourses at length on the
assumption that it is this generalized human creature that is or should be our
primary concern. He epitomizes this in the famous line, the proper study of
mankind is man. Alexis Carrel, in his Man the Unknown, seeks to show how
far we are from understanding man and how much mystery surrounds him.
Stuart Chase, in his recent book The Proper Study of Mankind, dwells upon the
same general theme from the standpoint of the social sciences and what, they are
doing and can do to arrive at universal truths regarding man, the center of their
interest. He gives the typical American a name, George Rutherford Adams, and
dwells at considerable length upon his doings and thinkings, all on the basic
assumption that he was molded by his environment to be what he is.'
Indeed, in the whole realm of social science there is a pervading assumption
*Ph.D.; D.Sc.; Director of the Biochemical Institute, University of Texas;
author, Free and Unequal (1953) and other books.
'Chase, The Proper Study of Mankind (1948).