The Cosmic Perspective

Abstract

My topic throughout this book has been the good for individual man. I began by considering just that, as though the individual were only a whole containing parts and not himself a part of any larger whole, or as though he were part of a larger whole which had to be considered just in connection with the perspective taken from that particular part. A certain amount of insight was gained in that way but the picture could not be completed because there are moral considerations which remain to be defined in terms of a larger context. For man is not independent but exists in virtue of his ability to adapt to his environment. Thus it became necessary to consider the morality of the human species, and now we shall have to include in our considerations the relations between the human species and other species.