Humankind Advancing, Vol.8, No.1 January 1997

Anyone for whom it is an exhilarating experience to meet a truly intelligent person will be richly rewarded by this book. For here the experience is compounded manyfold. Dr. Hutcheon not only presents her case with unusual clarity and perceptiveness, but, to back up her conclusions, she introduces the reader to about thirty outstanding thinkers throughout history, from 600 years B.C. up to the present, most of whom received a special chapter of their own. Before each of these thinkers is critically scrutinized, he or she is brought alive through vivid biographical details. Typical of her thoroughness is Dr. Hutcheon's practice to study, wherever this is possible, the original writings of everyone she discusses, in addition to the major positive or negative judgments they received, either from contemporaries or later in history. The most interesting aspect of the book, however, remains Dr. Hutcheon's own critical evaluation. It is here that the reader encounters true surprises.

The choice of the author's cast has been determined by her desire to make social science more relevant to our constantly mounting global problems. Each of the persons considered has special relevance to the problem of how, and in which direction, human attitudes must be changed, but especially how they can be changed. Unless we approach that problem with the rigor of science, all efforts are useless. In Dr. Hutcheon's view, the main obstacle to our success is ideology -- and here she means the grand visions unsupported by reality, such as Marxism, which arose from a striving for justice and yet led to immense bloodshed, terror, and brutality in a vain effort to change human nature. She urges us to leave "the imagined security of humanity's culturally created cave" (to which her title refers) and let the cold and refreshing winds of practical reality clear our minds. Only if we first acquire knowledge of what can be learned, and how it can be learned, and only if constant evaluation procedures have been put into place, we will be ready for slow and careful step by step progress in human thought and behavior. But that will be true progress rather than a headlong rush into catastrophe.

Dr. Hutcheon's heroes are persons who, throughout history, have succeeded in dragging part of humankind out of the cave. But the efforts were not cumulative; returns into the cave were the rule, and darkness settled over history again and again. She pursues the current of a mindset that recognized human beings as parts of nature without the involvement of magic, a current that started centuries ago, but, instead of gaining strength, drained away repeatedly, only to spring up once more in other places and times.

"On the whole, my attempt to trace the perseverance of this naturalistic current within social thought throughout twenty-six centuries of cultural evolution has been at once intriguing and profoundly sad. From the perspective of humanity in general I found it to be the story of opportunities lost and possibilities unrealized. All too often the record revealed a painful "rediscovery of the wheel," century after century. The failure of scholars to evaluate and build upon what came before -- and even to read seriously the works of their contemporaries operating from competing models and related disciplines -- has been an almost insurmountable obstacle to progress in every era." (ix) The author's book is designed to overcome this deficit.

Her thorough reading of original work has led Dr. Hutcheon in many cases to courageously defend widely misunderstood and rejected personalities. One of her favourites is B.F. Skinner. Countering the prevailing opinion that he advocates the manipulation of human beings, she uses his own words to explain that we are already manipulated, but toward most unfortunate and disastrous ends. [Emphasis added.] Unless we realize that fact and ask for the consequences of what our children learn, there will be no hope.

Moral development is, in fact, Dr. Hutcheon's main aim, and she believes it must and can be attained in practical, workable steps rather than through abstract theorizing. "Evolutionary naturalists realize that this [how children acquire precepts and build values] is an important process that cannot be left to chance. Interaction with the physical environment provides children with the opportunity to incorporate mentally the connections and limitations in the inorganic realm -- and thereby to achieve logical concepts such as conservation. So too, must their cultural surroundings encourage them to experience social boundaries, to assimilate rules of conduct and to build in the empathy and habits that not only make social life workable and rewarding, but possible at all." (P.480) The ability to experience the consequences of their choices is most important, "throughout the process of building morality intellectual development is necessary but not sufficient... cultural influences are crucial." (Ibid)

But adults, too, are in urgent need of new learning and understanding. Without special intent, our culture, especially our technology, affects the further course of evolution. "This occurs in non-rational and often destructive ways, thus imposing upon us cultural evolutionary paths which we may neither anticipate nor desire. The scientific process can be equally effective, if we would but develop and use it, in creating powerful and positive cultural contingencies; selective influences that would direct the stream of cause and effect rationally, in life-affirming and humanly fulfilling directions." (P.482)

The amount of knowledge provided by the book itself is outstanding. Not only facts are presented. The critical method of evaluation used by the author enlightens the subject matter -- and the mind of the reader -- to such an extent that he or she uses it with increasing ease during the process of reading, resulting in more critical comments on the latter chapters than the former ones. But all these comments fade in comparison with the importance of the books main message: the learning imperative is the greatest blessing, the greatest gift bestowed upon humankind by evolution. We are wasting it at our peril.

Dr. Hutcheon's main concerns are accelerating population growth, pollution, destruction of our life support system and our environment, increasing economic inequality, and -- of special relevance to her as an educator -- "the accelerating corruption of human culture...by media portrayals of gratuitous violence and other desensitizing images." She speaks of "the dangers posed by the social pathology, tribalism and universal brutalization" that will be the result of our neglect to deal with the above listed problems. (P.490)

The ending of her book, however, expresses hope -- hope that we will be able to find the right direction through "an integrated, interdisciplinary systems approach to social science: one that is soundly grounded in contemporary evolutionary theory." (P.491)