Toward World Unity

"The City of Man," a summary of past conceptions of world civilization, is disappointing. Like so many books of its type, this particular review is no more than a jumbled recapitulation of the ideas of a dozen men and cultures, presented without fresh ideas or an adequate synthesis.

The author, a history professor at Wellesley, has addressed himself to a genuine problem. No one today denies that the world has its troubles, and an integrated world society has been a persistently proposed solution. Wagar's object--to examine the history of the concept in religion, the humanities and science--is praiseworthy, but the final result demonstrates too clearly his inability to manage material from such diverse sources. His information from the humanities is handled well; the religious philosophers get rather murky treatment, while many scientists are plainly misinterpreted. When Wager says, "biology teaches us that existence and increase are the supreme goods of life," he could not be more completely incorrect. This is precisely the kind of value judgment that good science most vigorously eschews.

Because his book is such a sprawling survey, Wagar never comes to grips with any of the many problems he envisions in world civilization. He hasn't time. Instead, he wriggles around stumbling blocks most of his readers would prefer to see confronted. He is notoriously relaxed about not defining his terms; he relies heavily on the Artful Equivocation and the prestige of the thinker he is discussing to make many of his more doubtful points.

Wager is almost fanatically enthusiastic about world civilization. He feels it is something we must institute quickly, "while there is still time." Yet, by his own admission, a world society will be an immensely difficult thing, and very slow to build and put into operation. And his own marked preference for delineating the problem rather than proposing solutions may be symptomatic of doubts he holds for the ultimate practibility of a world civilization, a City of Man.