What Manner of Man?

IN Human Nature and the Human Condition (Random House, $3.95) Joseph Wood Krutch characterizes mid-twentieth-century man as a victim of the very technological “advances” which were to have freed him of all his problems. Comparing our present condition with that demanded by our human nature, Dr. Krutch raises questions of man’s fundamental purpose, his capacities to know, and, most difficult of all, his final end.

In the seventeenth century, man abandoned traditional moral and philosophical theories as “meaningless” because they did not contribute directly to his “common welfare.” Scientific progress became paramount, until today man is reduced to a mere “tender of machines.” In a civilization based on material comforts, where status is judged by the number of bathrooms or modern kitchen appliances one can afford, “progress” is the end of man-progress undefined by relation to any ultimate goal. Mammoth production of goods necessitates increasing consumption, until modern advertising and communication are largely devoted to creating “needs” where there are none, and selling products not for their usefulness but because of their value as symbols of “status.”

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Carol Dawson

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IN Human Nature and the Human Condition (Random House, $3.95) Joseph Wood Krutch characterizes mid-twentieth-century man as a victim of the very technological “advances” which were to have freed him of all his problems. Comparing our present condition with that demanded by our human nature, Dr. Krutch raises questions of man’s fundamental purpose, his capacities to know, and, most difficult of all, his final end.

In the seventeenth century, man abandoned traditional moral and philosophical theories as “meaningless” because they did not contribute directly to his “common welfare.” Scientific progress became paramount, until today man is reduced to a mere “tender of machines.” In a civilization based on material comforts, where status is judged by the number of bathrooms or modern kitchen appliances one can afford, “progress” is the end of man-progress undefined by relation to any ultimate goal. Mammoth production of goods necessitates increasing consumption, until modern advertising and communication are largely devoted to creating “needs” where there are none, and selling products not for their usefulness but because of their value as symbols of “status.”