The Measure of Man

Joseph Wood Krutch

• Publisher: Rare Treasure Editions
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9798907331303
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

''The Measure of Man: On Freedom, Human Values, Survival and the Modern Temper'' won the prestigious National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1955. Written during what Krutch termed the "Age of Anxiety" following two world wars, the book serves as a cultural critique of the mid-20th century. Krutch argues against the prevailing mechanistic and deterministic theories of human nature popularized by early and mid-century social sciences. He challenges the notion that human beings are merely conditioned animals or predictable machines governed entirely by environment, economics, or biology. Krutch deconstructs scientific determinism to argue that even if much of human behavior can be conditioned, there remains a fundamental, unconditioned core—a "minimal man"—capable of reason, choice, and consciousness. He critiques the social sciences for adopting a rigid, mechanistic view of humanity, warning that treating citizens as predictable, programmable entities threatens democratic freedom and edges closer to totalitarianism. Krutch argues that the mid-20th-century obsession with science and technology reduced human beings to mere statistics or machine-like entities. He critiques Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and radical behaviorism, arguing that they falsely treat humans as entirely shaped by biology, psychology, or social class. A central premise is that humans possess a unique consciousness, a sense of morals, and free will that cannot be fully explained by scientific equations or data. Written in the shadow of World War II and the rise of nuclear weapons, the book warns that humanity is gaining the power to destroy itself without the moral framework needed to prevent it. While acknowledging the heavy global anxieties of the nuclear age, Krutch remains eloquent in his defense of human potential, arguing that free will, ethics, and individual consciousness are vital for survival.

Table of contents

• THE LOSS OF CONFIDENCE
• GRAND STRATEGY
• HOW PROBABLE IS PROBABILITY ?