Ambimama - India

MAN,THE UNKNOWN, by ALEXIS CARREL, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER is a book published in 1935. This book is still today the inspiring work for many authors, nation builders and scientists and philosophers equally.
Some notes from the book without any editing is given:

1. There is no other road open to human progress than the optimum development of all the physiological, intellectual, and spiritual potentialities of the individual. Only apprehension of the whole reality can save modern man. We must, therefore, give up philosophical systems, and rely exclusively upon scientific concepts.

2. Today, mankind should be given an immortal brain, a permanent focus of thoughts to guide its faltering steps. Our institutions for scientific research are not sufficient, because their discoveries are always fragmentary. In order to build a science of man, and a technology of civilization, centers of synthesis must be created where collective thinking and integration of specialized data will forge a new knowledge. In this manner, both individuals and society will be given the immovable foundations of operational concepts, and the power to survive.

3. However, the public does not yet fully understand the significance of the economic crisis, of the decline in the birth rate, of the moral, nervous, and mental decay of the individual. It does not conceive how immense a catastrophe a European war will be for humanity–how urgent is our renovation.

4. Nevertheless, in democratic countries, the initiative for this renovation must emanate from the people, and not from the leaders.

5. The intellectual and moral surroundings in which we are immersed have equally been molded by science. There is a profound difference between the world that permeates the mind of modern men and the world wherein our ancestors lived. Before the intellectual victories that have brought us wealth and comfort, moral values have naturally given ground. Reason has swept away religious beliefs. The knowledge of the natural laws, and the power given us by this knowledge over the material world, and also over human beings, alone are of importance. Banks, universities, laboratories, medical schools, hospitals, have become as beautiful as the Greek temples, the Gothic cathedrals, and the palaces of the Popes.

The book deals with inner power of Man with respect for Religious beleifs and Science to be applied for his development and the World.