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    The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
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    The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    By John Fiske

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    About this ebook

    In this 1884 book, the author, an early popularizer of Darwin’s theories, takes on nothing less than the origin of humanity, its destiny, and its place in the universe. He argues that civilization and governments have replaced biological evolution as the main forces for change.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble
    Release dateNov 1, 2011
    ISBN9781411454125
    The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

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      The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) - John Fiske

      THE DESTINY OF MAN VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HIS ORIGIN

      JOHN FISKE

      This 2011 edition published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

      Barnes & Noble, Inc.

      122 Fifth Avenue

      New York, NY 10011

      ISBN: 978-1-4114-5412-5

      PREFACE

      HAVING been invited to give an address before the Concord School of Philosophy this summer, upon some subject relating to the question of immortality there under discussion, it seemed a proper occasion for putting together the following thoughts on the origin of Man and his place in the universe. In dealing with the unknown, it is well to take one's start a long way within the limits of the known. The question of a future life is generally regarded as lying outside the range of legitimate scientific discussion. Yet while fully admitting this, one does not necessarily admit that the subject is one with regard to which we are forever debarred from entertaining an opinion. Now our opinions on such transcendental questions must necessarily be affected by the total mass of our opinions on the questions which lie within the scope of scientific inquiry; and from this point of view it becomes of surpassing interest to trace the career of Humanity within that segment of the universe which is accessible to us. The teachings of the doctrine of evolution as to the origin and destiny of Man have, moreover, a very great speculative and practical value of their own, quite apart from their bearings upon any ultimate questions. The body of this essay is accordingly devoted to setting forth these teachings in what I conceive to be their true light; while their transcendental implications are reserved for the sequel.

      As the essay contains an epitome of my own original contributions to the doctrine of evolution, I have added at the end a short list of references to other works of mine, where the points here briefly mentioned are more fully argued and illustrated. The views regarding the progress of human society, and the elimination of warfare, are set forth at greater length in a little book now in the press, and soon to appear, entitled American Political Ideas.

      PETERSHAM, September 6, 1884.

      CONTENTS

      I. Man's Place in Nature as affected by the Copernican Theory

      II. As affected by Darwinism

      III. On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man

      IV. The Origin of Infancy

      V. The Dawning of Consciousness

      VI. Lengthening of Infancy and Concomitant Increase of Brain-Surface

      VII. Change in the Direction of the Working of Natural Selection

      VIII. Growing Predominance of the Psychical Life

      IX. The Origins of Society and of Morality

      X. Improvableness of Man

      XI. Universal Warfare of Primeval Men

      XII. First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilization

      XIII. Methods of Political Development, and Elimination of Warfare

      XIV. End of the Working of Natural Selection upon Man. Throwing off the Brute-Inheritance

      XV. The Message of Christianity

      XVI. The Question as to a Future Life

      I

      Man's Place in Nature, as affected by the Copernican Theory

      WHEN we study the Divine Comedy of Dante—that wonderful book wherein all the knowledge and speculation, all the sorrows and yearnings, of the far-off Middle Ages are enshrined in the glory of imperishable verse—we are brought face to face with a theory of the world and with ways of reasoning about the facts of nature which seem strange to us today, but from the influence of which we are not yet, and doubtless never shall be, wholly freed. A cosmology grotesque enough in the light of later knowledge, yet wrought out no less carefully than the physical theories of Lucretius, is employed in the service of a theology cumbrous in its obsolete details, but resting upon fundamental truths which mankind can never safely lose sight of. In the view of Dante and of that phase of human culture which found in him its clearest and sweetest voice, this earth, the fair home of man, was placed in the centre of a universe wherein all things were ordained for his sole behoof: the sun to give him light and warmth, the stars in their courses to preside over his strangely checkered destinies, the winds to blow, the floods to rise, or the fiend of pestilence to stalk abroad over the land,—all for the blessing, or the warning, or the chiding, of the chief among God's creatures, Man. Upon some such conception as this, indeed, all theology would seem naturally to rest. Once dethrone Humanity, regard it as a mere local incident in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes, and you arrive at a doctrine which, under whatever specious name it may be veiled, is at bottom neither more nor less than Atheism. On

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