| Summary: | "In this paper Clarence Leuba has brought together some findings of scientific research helpful in answering the question "What is the essential nature of man?" by summarizing the findings of scientific research. Leuba not only offers a description of the "natural man," but he demonstrates the use by the modern psychologist of scientific researches which relate to his problems. Here the author has turned to the systematic observations of chimpanzees in the field and in controlled breeding and laboratory centers; he includes the reports on children, seemingly raised by animals, who subsequently came under human scrutiny; and he reviews the reports of anthropologists who have studied primitive (more correctly designated nonliterate) cultures throughout the world. These three lines of evidence are, of course, only suggestive of an answer, and Leuba makes a plea for direct experimentation, again illustrating the emphasis of psychologists on the use of research rather than speculation. The material presented here emphasizes still another important modern trend.
As the scientific disciplines have developed there has been a strong tendency toward ever-increasing specialization and separateness among the various fields. Most important problems in what are now coming to be termed the life sciences or the behavior sciences call for the knowledge of more than one field. In attempting to meet the challenge of these problems, cooperation of specialists in the different fields has been required. Here we are shown a sample of modern interdisciplinary, or perhaps more accurately, multidisciplinary thinking applied to a single significant problem. For years, Leuba has been working toward the integration of the biological, psychological, anthropological, and sociological sciences in the development of courses of instruction for college undergraduates. The natural man is drawn from the materials prepared for such courses and is an example of the multidisciplinary approach often endorsed in the abstract, but rarely available in the concrete"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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