All the languages of the world, I believe, have words to distinguish, among men, between intellectuals and manual workers: the former use their brains more than their hands; the latter use their hands more than their brains. Since the beginning of time, many men could easily be classified in one or the other of these groups (and certainly many others could fall into the intermediate zones between the two poles). For example, “ intellectuel “ and “manoeuvre“ are very old words in the French language, direct heirs of Latin words designating the brain and the hand.

Science may be designated as the search for the understanding of phenomena apprehended by one or more of the senses in terms of theoretically postulated entities and the interrelationships between them in such a manner that the apprehended phenomena may be deducible from them along with others for which it was not postulated and with respect to which its truth and falsity, or rather fecundity or sterility, could be judged. This continuous interplay between the theoretically postulated and the sensuously apprehended, initially in terms of that which is first sought to be understood but more essentially in terms of that which has not yet been apprehended but which can be apprehended if the theoretical postulation is true, is the heart of the scientific enterprise as we have come to practice it today. The theoretical postulation thus links the past with the future, and thus makes the seeking for knowledge connected in an essential manner with what can only be called its relation to the future.

The relationship intelligentsia-morality-politics is characterized by a number of important features. In the first place, it is not a question of an abstract logical structure, but of an objectively existing social phenomenon. In other words, it is a question of the attitude of real, living men, with their intimate personal feelings and experiences, their social and political convictions.

The theme of Darwin's struggle between reason and imagination is perhaps most clearly shown in his efforts in the Origin to conceive of how the eye of the body might have developed through natural selection. Thus he wrote:

To arrive, however, at a just conclusion regarding the formation of the eye, with all its marvellous yet not absolutely perfect characters, it is indispensable that the reason * should conquer the imagination; but I have felt the difficulty far too keenly to be surprised at others hesitating to extend the principle of natural selection to so startling a length.

Our age is trying in many ways to deal with the problem of the survival of ethnic minorities. Being confronted with a centralized political power which destroys cultural differences, many of these minorities have become conscious of their originality (which is often hidden away in folklore) and are in search of a new balance with the dominant culture. They try to achieve this new balance by bringing their basic characteristics up to date or even deliberately entering a phase of counter acculturation and adopting an attitude of political liberation much like that of the formerly colonized peoples.