s--_zoological_ and
_mythological_. The zoological solutions are those which grow out of the
false conception according to which human beings are animals; if humans
are animals, the laws of human nature are the laws of animal nature; and
so the social "sciences" of ethics, law, politics, economics, government
become nothing but branches of zoology; as sciences, they are the studies
of animal life; as arts, they are the arts of managing and controlling
animals; according to this zoological philosophy, human wisdom about human
beings is animal wisdom about animals.

The mythological "solutions" are those which start with the monstrous
conception according to which human beings have no proper place in nature
but are mixtures of natural and _super_natural--unions or combinations of
animality and divinity. Such "solutions" contain no conception of
_natural_ law; scientifically judged, they are mythological
absurdities--muddle-headed chattering of crude and irresponsible
metaphysics--well-meaning no doubt, but silly, and deadly in their effects
upon the interests of mankind, vitiating ethics, law, economics, politics
and government.

Such have been and still are the regnant philosophies of human nature.
What is the remedy? How are the laws of human nature to be discovered?

It is evident that the enterprise, like all other scientific enterprises,
must be based upon and guided by realities. It is essential to realize
that the great, central, dominant, all-embracing reality is the reality of
_human nature_. If we misconceive this fundamental matter, the enterprise
must fail; that is both logically clear and clear in the sad light of
history; but if we conceive it aright, we may confidently expect the
enterprise to prosper. That is why, in the chapter on "The Classes of
Life," I have laid so much stress on the absolute necessity of conceiving
Man as being what he really is, and not something else. And we have
discovered what man is: we have discovered that man is characterized by
the capacity or power to bind time, and so we have _defined_ humanity as
the time-binding class of life. That concept is fundamental. It contains
the germ of the science and art of Human Engineering. The problem of
discovering and applying the "laws of human nature" is the problem of
discovering and applying to the conduct of life the laws of
time-binding--of time-binding activity--of time-binding _energy_. This fact
must be firmly seized and kept ste