Author Description

In the belief that biology provides a useful framework to help man understand himself, this highly acclaimed study traces the far-ranging factors controlling human activity from their biochemical basis to the highest levels of consciousness. The author, an eminent zoologist, presents a coherent, general scheme within which the basic scientific facts of human biology are set out and their relationships to other disciplines demonstrated. Professor Young investigates such topics as homeostasis and cybernetics, heredity and reproduction, growth, individual development, intelligence testing, aging, and population, and traces the stages of man’s evolution from the origin of life to the beginnings of human culture. The discussion of man as a social animal is so broad as to include free will, aggression and war, racial conflict, population control, and pollution. Philosophical and sociological problems raised by a biological view of man are considered. A central theme is that knowledge about the brain is revolutionizing our understanding of ourselves and the world.