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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FOOD GRAINS
Second Edition
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FOOD GRAINS
Second Edition
VOLUME 1
THE WORLD OF FOOD GRAINS
EDITORS
COLIN WRIGLEY
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
HAROLD CORKE
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
KOUSHIK SEETHARAMAN{
JON FAUBION
Kansas State University, Manhattan KS, USA
{
deceased
The following articles are US government works in the public domain and are not subject to copyright:
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on
how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as
the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted
herein).
Notice
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in
research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers may always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods,
compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the
safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or
damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
Preface xvii
Tributes to Former Co-Editors xix
Editors‘ Biography xxiii
Editorial Advisory Board xxv
Contributors xxvii
VOLUME 1
The Basics 1
The Grains that Feed the World 1
CW Wrigley, H Corke, and J Faubion
Grain and Plant Morphology of Cereals and how characters can be used to identify varieties 51
J Wyatt
Maize: Overview 99
MP Scott and M Emery
Wheat: An Overview of the Grain That Provides ‘Our Daily Bread’ 105
CW Wrigley
v
vi Contents
African Rice (Oryza glaberrima): A Brief History and Its Growing Importance in Current
Rice Breeding Efforts 140
JT Manful and S Graham-Acquaah
Barley: An Overview of a Versatile Cereal Grain with Many Food and Feed Uses 147
AM Stanca, A Gianinetti, F Rizza, and V Terzi
Grain Production and Consumption in Oceania: Australia and Pacific Countries 409
CW Wrigley and RJ French
Research Organizations of the World: Asia-Pacific, Central–South America, and Africa–Middle East 444
JH Skerritt
viii Contents
Research Organizations of the World: Global Trends and the Commercial Sector 451
JH Skerritt
VOLUME 2
Celiac Disease 83
P Koehler, H Wieser, and KA Scherf
Proteins 98
The Protein Chemistry of Cereal Grains 98
F Békés and CW Wrigley
The Enzymes Associated with Food Grains and Their Functions in Processing 138
DJ Mares, K Mrva, and GB Fincher
Carbohydrates 161
Carbohydrate Metabolism 161
RN Chibbar, S Jaiswal, M Gangola, and M Båga
Fats 248
Lipid Chemistry 248
L Day
Mycotoxins 290
MT Fletcher and BJ Blaney
Units of Grain Science and Trade: Equivalence between the US, Chinese, and Metric Units 308
W Huang and CW Wrigley
VOLUME 3
Wheat-Based Foods 1
Cereals: Overview of Uses: Accent on Wheat Grain 1
CF Morris
Breads 8
TR Moore
Noodles: Starch 64
LS Collado and H Corke
Pasta 79
M Sissons
Tortillas 90
LW Rooney and SO Serna-Saldivar
Non-wheat Foods 97
Maize: Foods from Maize 97
SO Serna-Saldivar
Contents xi
Biodiesel 245
Y Yan
The Gluten Proteins of the Wheat Grain in Relation to Flour Quality 375
F Békés, MC Gianibelli, and CW Wrigley
VOLUME 4
Wheat: Marketing 9
RL Cracknell and RM Williams
The Nature, Causes, and Control of Grain Diseases in the Major Cereal Species 74
RA McIntosh, PM Williamson, and CW Wrigley
Contaminants of Grain 83
J McLean and CW Wrigley
xiv Contents
Appendix 1. Nutrient-Composition Tables for Grains and for Grain-Based Products 433
SF Schakel, N Van Heel, and J Harnack
Appendix 2. Lists of Standardized Testing Methods for the Analysis of Grain and Grain-Based Foods 450
AR Bridges and CW Wrigley
Appendix 3. Grains, Foods, and Ingredients Suiting Gluten-Free Diets for Celiac Disease 460
JM Jones, V Zevallos, and CW Wrigley
Glossary 467
Index 491
PREFACE
The grain-producing plants are essential to life on earth. They are the primary means by which sunlight, the
primary source of the earth’s energy, is captured via photosynthesis to turn carbon dioxide and water into
carbohydrates and thus into the wider range of the biochemicals needed by all life forms.
The summary is simple:
The sun’s energy þ CO2 þ H2O
#
Grain-bearing plants
which provide:
Food, Fats, Fuel and Fiber for ourselves
Feed, Forage, Fodder for our animals
Food for Fish Farms
As its title indicates, the Encyclopedia of Food Grains concentrates on the food uses of grains, but details are also
provided about the wider roles of grains. Greater detail about the use of grains for animal feeding is already
available via the on-line Feedipedia encyclopedia (http://www.feedipedia.org/).
Worldwide, however, it is our food that is our obsession – first and foremost. We see our health (or
otherwise) to be intimately related to our diet. Therefore nutrition is a major accent of this second edition,
occupying the whole of the second volume, following the first volume’s description of the basic aspects of the
world of grains. The third and fourth volumes work their ways back up the value-added grain chain to describe
grain processing and production, thence to breeding and genetics.
The sequence of articles in the first edition (the Encyclopedia of Grain Science, 2004) followed an alphabetical
order. In contrast, the distinct ordering of articles in the second edition assembles fundamental concepts in
Volume 1 – The World of Food Grains. Moving into the later volumes, greater complexity and erudition are
evident. Thus, unusual terms such as “Transcriptomics”, “Aeciospore” and “Allelopathy” are more likely to be
found in later volumes than in the first. In any case, reference to the glossary and the index should help in
elucidating such terms.
This second edition is a considerable expansion on the content of the first edition, with its three print volumes
and 168 articles. Now, some twelve years later, the four print volumes of the Encyclopedia of Food Grains provide
xvii
xviii Preface
216 articles, many newly written for the new edition. Those articles that have been reprinted from the first
edition have been updated. In all cases, authors and reviewers are world renowned experts in their respective
fields.
This second edition has been more than three years in its development. In the early stages, the editors were
Harold Corke, Chuck Walker and Colin Wrigley (the three editors of the first edition). Sadly in 2012, Chuck
Walker passed away, leaving a gap that was difficult to fill.
Chuck was replaced by Koushik Seetharaman, who worked avidly in developing the concepts for this second
edition, including his contributions to a meeting of the editors and Elsevier staff in Sydney, January, 2013.
Sadly, Koushik suffered a heart attack in June, 2014. However, his contributions to the second edition during
this critical development stage were such that Elsevier decided that his name should remain as a co-editor.
Tributes to Professors Walker and Seetharaman are provided below.
In July, 2014, Professor Jon Faubion was appointed as a co-editor. Dr Faubion is the Charles Singleton
Professor of Baking and Cereal Science in the Department of Grain Science, Kansas State University. He is a
more than worthy replacement under such tragic circumstances.
The production of an encyclopedia involves a wide range of experts with expertise in a diversity of areas of
knowledge. We acknowledge with grateful thanks the groups of contributors:
• Members of the Editorial Advisory Board;
• Authors who have shared their special knowledge and experience;
• Elsevier staff who have provided extensive advice and administrative services, especially Donna de
Weerd-Wilson, Simon Holt and Rachel Gerlis (successive Supervisory Staff) and Gemma Tomalin,
Gemma Taft, Joanne Williams and Mark Harper (successive Content Project Managers).
The Editors
Harold Corke, Jon Faubion, Koushik Seetharaman, and Colin Wrigley
TRIBUTES TO FORMER CO-EDITORS
Chuck Walker was one of the three editors of the first edition of Elsevier’s Grains
Encyclopedia (the Encyclopedia of Grain Science, 2004). He was again appointed
as an editor of this second edition. He participated in the planning stages for the
second edition until his untimely death on 26 April 2012. At the time of his
death, Chuck was a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Grain Science and
Industry at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA.
Charles Eugene Walker was born on 17 December 1936, in Winterset, Mad-
ison county, IA, USA, during the great depression. He was the eldest child of
Albert Cecil and Bessie Irene Headley Walker, poor farmers in Winterset, Mad-
ison county, IA, USA. He walked more than a mile to attend rural one-room
grammar schools in Warren county and graduated from high school in New
Virginia, IA, USA.
Better known as ‘Chuck’ in later life, Dr Walker received a BS degree in
Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, in May 1959. At a ‘mixer’ party in the fall
of 1957, he met Shannon Rose Philp, a pretty freshman student from Loup city, NE, USA. This was just after a
summer spent working alone on a fire-lookout tower for the US Forest Service, in the wilds of Clearwater
National Forest, in Northern Idaho. They were married on 1 June 1958 and she became his wife of 54 years. She
later rewarded him with two sons, Alan Eugene and Tomas Charles, and they adopted a daughter, Bekianne.
Upon graduation, Chuck worked in flour milling research at the General Mills Central Research Laboratories
in the Minneapolis area from 1959 to 1962. He then accepted a fellowship to graduate school at North Dakota
State University in Fargo from 1962 to 1965, majoring in Cereal Chemistry. Chuck received his PhD in
Chemistry in the summer of 1966. For his PhD dissertation, he developed a micro brewery and studied barley
proteins and their influence on beer quality – a rather ironic choice of topics, considering he remained a strict
teetotaler all his life.
While finishing his thesis, he joined the faculty of the North Dakota State College, Valley city, ND, USA
(1965–1974), teaching various physical science and chemistry courses to undergraduate students. Feeling the
pull of industry, he moved south to work for the Fairmont Foods Central Research Laboratory in Omaha, NE,
USA (1974–1980), where he did research, product development, and technical assistance on baking, pizza,
snack, and dairy products, eventually reaching the position of Associate Director of Research.
Dismemberment and sale of this Fortune-500 company provided him an opportunity to return to academia
at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA (1980–1987), where he developed a Cereal Technology
Program within the Department of Food Technology. He developed and taught various food science and
technology courses to both undergraduate and graduate students, and developed a vigorous research program.
He became Interim Department Head and Food Processing Center Director.
In December 1987, Chuck joined the Department of Grain Science and Industry at Kansas State University as
the Bakers National Educational Foundation’s Baking Science Professor. There he maintained a busy program
xix
xx Tributes to Former Co-Editors
in research, teaching, graduate student advising, publishing, traveling and consulting, specializing in baking
technology.
During his career, Chuck published more than 100 technical papers, and advised about 50 MS and PhD
graduate students. He was heavily involved in applied rheology (mixing and flow characteristics) of flour
products. In recognition of his commitment to international graduate students, Mr Roland Temme, TMCO,
Lincoln, NE, USA, established an international graduate student fellowship in his honor.
Chuck entered 50% phased-in retirement at age 65 þ in 2002 and retired in 2005, only to be hired back 1/
10-time afterward to assist with seminars and the department’s centennial recognition in 2010. He continued
to support the department’s activities on a volunteer basis.
Chuck’s research and consulting travels took him to more than a dozen countries, including many extended
trips to Australia, eventually earning permanent resident status in Australia – a country which had fascinated
him since childhood. Most of his time in Australia was spent with the Bread Research Institute in Sydney. He
also made several extended trips to China, serving as guest lecturer at ShanDong Agricultural University, Tai’An,
and at Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou.
Chuck always commented that “the best legacy a person could leave is the knowledge he has shared.” A
significant way in which his knowledge has been shared is represented by his contributions to the first and
second editions of Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Food Grains.
In August 2012, Koushik Seetharaman was appointed as the third editor of this
second edition of Elsevier’s Grains Encyclopedia, replacing Professor Walker.
Tragically, Koushik’s many contributions to the Encyclopedia of Food Grains were
cut short by his untimely death at 48 years in June 2014.
Koushik received his BS at the Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand, Guja-
rat, India. His MS training was at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, and his
PhD research was carried out at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
At the time of Koushik’s appointment as encyclopedia editor (August 2012),
he was Associate Professor and Cereals Chair in the Department of Food Science
at the University of Guelph, Canada. Research in his laboratory spanned the
cereal-grain value chain, focusing on grain quality, processing and ingredient
interactions, and on consumer acceptability and health.
His research on grain quality at Guelph involved collaboration with cereal-breeding companies, grain
farmers of Ontario and local processors, by analyzing Ontario wheats for functionality and nutritional
attributes. Special accents were on antioxidant activity, and on fiber and phenolics contents. Interactions
with breeders and processor related to the chemistry, sensory properties and consumer acceptance of whole
grain products, with specific focus on red versus white wheats in different product matrices.
Koushik had a special interest in the behavior of starch in water-poor systems, such as dough and baked
products. His research group had demonstrated that the constituent polymers of wheat starch are a series of
biopolymers ranging from linear to branched, depending on several factors including genetics and growth
environment. Moreover, the proportion of these polymers further defines their functional properties.
Research funding had been provided by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Council with contributions
from the Ontario Cereal Industry Research Council, Kellogg, Kraft, Kraft Canada Mill, Dow AgroSciences, C&M
Seeds, Grain Farmers of Ontario and Brabender GmbH.
Several months before his death, Koushik had been appointed as an Associate Professor to the Department
of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA, there taking the position of
General Mills Cereal Chair. In that capacity, Koushik had again initiated collaborations with breeders and
geneticists, millers and processors, with a focus on what product quality means for the consumer. His research
focused on interactions of grain biopolymers – starch and gluten in particular – and the impact on processing,
product attributes and consumer health.
Tributes to Former Co-Editors xxi
His group included three postdoctoral research associates, five doctoral students and one MS student. They
were collaborating extensively with research groups around the world including University of Milan, Italy;
University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Lille University, France; ONIRIS, France; Tamilnadu Agricultural Uni-
versity, India; Iowa State University, USA; African Rice Research Institute, Benin; University of Guelph, Canada;
and Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada.
Koushik’s research background and his collaborations placed him well to contribute to the preparation of
the grains encyclopedia, both by his our writing and via his contacts to engage world-authority contributors.
The grain-science community world-wide was shocked by Koushik’s sudden passing. Koushik left a wife
Debra Freedman and an eight-year-old son, Samuel.
Koushik’s contribution to the encyclopedia was such that Elsevier decided that his name should remain as a
co-editor even though he did not live to see the end result of his contributions.
Colin W. Wrigley’s 55 years in grain-science research have earned him international recognition in
the form of several international and Australian research awards. His work is described in about
600 research publications, including several patents, a series of eight books on Australian cereal
varieties, and many edited books. He was Editor-in-Chief of the first edition of the Encyclopedia of
Grain Science (2004).
His research interests have centered on the characterization of cereal-grain proteins in relation to
processing quality. This has involved developing new methods of protein fractionation, including
gel isoelectric focusing and its 2D combination with gel electrophoresis, leading into proteomic
mapping. Other diagnostic methods developed relate to the evaluation of grain quality in wheat
and barley, such as better methods for variety identification and for characterizing quality in starch
and sprouted grain (as co-patentee of the Rapid ViscoAnalyser). Research involvement has also
included elucidation of grain-quality variation due to environmental factors (heat stress, fertilizer
use, CO2 levels and storage conditions).
In 2009, Wrigley was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) ‘for service to primary
industry, particularly to grain science as a researcher, and to the development of methods for
improving wheat quality.’
He is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Harold Corke is a professor in the Food and Nutritional Sciences program at The University of
Hong Kong, and a Chutian Scholar Distinguished Foreign Professor in the Glyn O. Phillips
Hydrocolloid Research Center at HUT, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China. In more
than 22 years in Hong Kong, he has had responsibility for teaching a diverse array of food science
courses, including the major courses Grain Production and Utilization, Food Safety and Quality
Management, Food Product Development, and general education courses Feeding the World, and
Food: Technology, Trade and Culture. He is author or co-author of 180 refereed journal articles,
and his 22 PhD graduates have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry around the
world. He is on the editorial boards of Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, LWT Food Science and
Technology and Journal of Cereal Science, and with Colin Wrigley and Chuck Walker was one of the
editors of the first edition of Encyclopedia of Grain Science, published in 2004. Corke is active in
consulting in grain processing and food safety in Asia and Eastern Europe.
Jon Faubion is the Charles Singleton Professor of Baking and Cereal Science in the Department of
Grain Science, Kansas State University. Over his 35þ year career, he has had the sole or shared
responsibility for teaching nine different cereal or food science courses at Texas A&M University,
The University of Minnesota and Kansas State. In 2011, he received the Excellence in Teaching
Award from the American Association of Cereal Chemists International. He is a senior editor of
Cereal Chemistry, and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cereal
Chemists International and an executive editor of Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Prior
to rejoining the department faculty in 2005, he directed the Applied Technology and Sensory
Science Groups for the research and development arm of The Schwan Food Company.
xxiii
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
xxv
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CONTRIBUTORS
E Akhunov BJ Blaney
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
PC Annis JE Bock
CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, ACT, Australia University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
GA Annor F Bonomi
University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana University of Milan, Milan, Italy
CA Atkins AR Bridges
The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, AACC International, St Paul, MN, USA
Australia
H Brinch-Pedersen
W Atwell Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark
Bill Atwell Consulting, Champlin, MN, USA
G Bultosa
M Båga Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia; Botswana
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada College of Agriculture, Gaborone, Botswana
JS Bao W Bushuk
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
VJ Barthet YZ Cai
Canadian Grain Commission, Winnipeg, MB, Canada China National Seed Group, Beijing, PR China;
SA Barton Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, PR China;
Oxford Agricultural Trials Ltd, Oxford, UK The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China;
Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, PR China
IL Batey
Sunset Cereal Services, Meadowbank, NSW, Australia EF Caldwell
AACC International, Roseville, MN, USA
F Békés
FBFD PTY LTD, Beecroft, NSW, Australia KJ Carpenter
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
AR Belcher
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA JC Catullo
INTA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
JN BeMiller
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA SP Cauvain
BakeTran, Witney, OX, UK
T Beta
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada S Ceccarelli
Via delle Begonie 2, Ascoli Piceno, Italy
JL Black
John L Black Consulting, Warrimoo, NSW, Australia GK Chandi
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
MH Blanco
(Retired) Plant Breeder and Geneticist, Encinitas, N Chaudhary
CA, USA G. J. University of Science and Technology, Hisar, India
xxvii
xxviii Contributors
RN Chibbar JE Dexter
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada Canadian Grain Commission, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
M Chisi B Dobraszczyk
Golden Valley Research Station, Chisamba, Zambia Reading Science Centre, Reading, UK
S Cloutier D Domingues
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON, General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA
Canada
C Dowd
LS Collado General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA
The University of the Philippines Los Banos, Laguna,
LM Duizer
Philippines
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
NC Collins
RW Duncan
School of Agriculture Food and Wine, The University of
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Adelaide, Glen Osmond, SA, Australia
KG Duodu
H Corke
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Pokfulam,
PR China; Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, SR Eckhoff
PR China (Retired) University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
RL Cracknell M Edney
Crackers Consulting, Mount Eliza, VIC, Australia Canadian Grain Commission, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
GB Crosbie M Emery
Crosbie Grain Quality Consulting, East Fremantle, WA, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
Australia
W Erskine
JS Croser University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
WD Eustace
A Cruickshank (Retired) Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
DAFF Queensland, Warwick, QLD, Australia
A Evans
A Cuesta-Marcos Tate and Lyle, Hoffman Estates, IL, USA
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
E Evans
MG D’Egidio The Tassie Beer Dr, Lindisfarne, TAS, Australia
Unità di ricerca per la Valorizzazione Qualitativa dei
JD Faris
Cereali, Rome, Italy
USDA-ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit, Fargo, ND,
D Dan Ramdath USA
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada
J Faubion
P Dangi Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
G. J. University of Science and Technology, Hisar, India
AM Fehily
JK Daun Tinuviel Software, Warrington, UK
(Deceased)
T Filichkin
C David Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
ISARA Lyon, Lyon, France
GB Fincher
L Day Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant
AgResearch Ltd., Palmerston North, New Zealand Cell Walls, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond, SA,
Australia
D Deneke
South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA SP Fisk
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
R DePauw
Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, Swift Current, SK, MT Fletcher
Canada The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
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selves, and that the Absolute is therefore a society of selves? Our
answer to this question must depend, I think, upon two
considerations,—(a) the amount of continuity we regard as essential
to a self, and (b) the kind of unity we attribute to a society.
(a) If we regard any and every degree of felt teleological continuity
as sufficient to constitute a self, it is clear that we shall be compelled
to say that selves, and selves only, are the material of which reality is
composed. For we have already agreed that Reality is exclusively
composed of psychical fact, and that all psychical facts are
satisfactions of some form of subjective interest or craving, and
consequently that every psychical fact comprised in the whole
system of existence must form part of the experience of a finite
individual subject. Hence, if every such subject, whatever its degree
of individuality, is to be called a self, there will be no facts which are
not included somewhere in the life of one or more selves. On the
other hand, if we prefer, as I have done myself, to regard some
degree of intellectual development, sufficient for the recognition of
certain permanent interests as those of the self, as essential to
selfhood, we shall probably conclude that the self is an individual of
a relatively high type, and that there are consequently experiences of
so imperfect a degree of teleological continuity as not to merit the
title of selves.
And this conclusion seems borne out by all the empirically
ascertained facts of, e.g., the life of the lower animals, of human
infants, and again of adults of abnormally defective intellectual and
moral development. Few persons, unless committed to the defence
of a theory through thick and thin, would be prepared to call a worm
a self, and most of us would probably feel some hesitation about a
new-born baby or a congenital idiot. Again, finite societies are clearly
components of Reality, yet, as we have seen, it is probably an error
to speak of a society as a self, though every true society is clearly an
individual with a community and continuity of purpose which enable
us rightly to regard it as a unity capable of development, and to
appreciate its ethical worth. Hence it is, perhaps, less likely to lead to
misunderstandings if we say simply that the constituents of reality
are finite individual experiences, than if we say that they are selves.
The self, as we have seen, is a psychological category which only
imperfectly represents the facts of experience it is employed to
correlate.
(b) Again, if we speak of the Absolute as a society of finite
individuals, we ought at least to be careful in guarding ourselves
against misunderstanding. Such an expression has certainly some
manifest advantages. It brings out both the spiritual character of the
system of existence and the fact that, though it contains a plurality of
finite selves and contains them without discord, it is not properly
thought of as a self, but as a community of many selves.
At the same time, such language is open to misconstructions,
some of which it may be well to enumerate. We must not, for
instance, assume that all the individuals in the Absolute are
necessarily in direct social interrelation. For social relation, properly
speaking, is only possible between beings who are ἴσοι καὶ ὅμοιοι at
least in the sense of having interests of a sufficiently identical kind to
permit of intercommunication and concerted cooperation for the
realisation of a common interest. And our own experience teaches
us that the range of existence with which we ourselves stand in this
kind of relation is limited. Even within the bounds of the human race
the social relations of each of us with the majority of our fellows are
of an indirect kind, and though with the advance of civilisation the
range of those relations is constantly being enlarged, it still remains
to be seen whether a “cosmopolitan” society is a realisable ideal or
not. With the non-human animal world our social relations, in
consequence of the greater divergence of subjective interest, are
only of a rudimentary kind, and with what appears to us as inanimate
nature, as we have already seen, direct social relation seems to be
all but absolutely precluded.
Among the non-human animals, again, we certainly find traces of
relations of a rudimentarily social kind, but once more only within
relatively narrow limits; the different species and groups seem in the
main to be indifferent to one another. And we have no means of
disproving the possibility that there may be in the universe an
indefinite plurality of social groups, of an organisation equal or
superior to that of our human communities, but of a type so alien to
our own that no direct communication, not even of the elementary
kind which would suffice to establish their existence, is possible. We
must be prepared to entertain the possibility, then, that the
individuals composing the Absolute fall into a number of groups,
each consisting of members which have direct social relations of
some kind with each other, but not with the members of other
groups.
And also, of course, we must remember that there may very well
be varieties of degree of structural complexity in the social groups
themselves. In some the amount of intelligent recognition on the part
of the individuals of their own and their fellows’ common scheme of
interests and purposes is probably less articulate, in others, again, it
may be more articulate than is the case in those groups of co-
operating human beings which form the only societies of which we
know anything by direct experience.
On the other hand, we must, if we speak of the Absolute as a
society, be careful to avoid the implication, which may readily arise
from a false conception of human societies, that the unity of the
Absolute is a mere conceptual fiction or “point of view” of our own,
from which to regard what is really a mere plurality of separate units.
In spite of the now fairly complete abandonment in words of the old
atomistic theories, which treated society as if it were a mere
collective name for a multitude of really independent “individuals,” it
may be doubted whether we always realise what the rejection of this
view implies. We still tend too much to treat the selves which
compose a society, at least in our Metaphysics, as if they were given
to us in direct experience as merely exclusive of one another, rather
than as complementary to one another. In other words, of the two
typical forms of experience from which the concept of self appears to
be derived, the experience of conflict between our subjective
interests and our environment, and that of the removal of the
discord, we too often pay attention in our Metaphysics to the former
to the neglect of the latter. But in actual life it is oftener the latter that
is prominent in our relations with our fellow-men. We—the category
of co-operation—is at least as fundamental in all human thought and
language as I and thou, the categories of mutual exclusion. That you
and I are mutually complementary factors in a wider whole of
common interests, is at least as early a discovery of mankind as that
our private interests and standpoints collide.
If we speak of existence as a society, then we must be careful to
remember that the individual unity of a society is just as real a fact of
experience as the individual unity of the members which compose it,
and that, when we call the Absolute a society rather than a self, we
do not do so with any intention of casting doubt upon its complete
spiritual unity as an individual experience. With these restrictions, it
would, I think, be fair to say that if the Absolute cannot be called a
society without qualification, at any rate human society affords the
best analogy by which we can attempt to represent its systematic
unity in a concrete conceptual form. To put it otherwise, a genuine
human society is an individual of a higher type of structure than any
one of the selves which compose it, and therefore more adequately
represents the structure of the one ultimately complete system of the
Absolute.
We see this more particularly in the superior independence of
Society as compared with one of its own members. It is true, of
course, that no human society could exist apart from an external
environment, but it does not appear to be as necessary to the
existence of society as to that of a single self, that it should be
sensible of the contrast between itself and its rivals. As we have
already sufficiently seen, it is in the main from the experience of
contrast with other human selves that I come by the sense of my
own selfhood. Though the contents of my concept of self are not
purely social, it does at least seem clear that I could neither acquire
it, nor retain it long, except for the presence of other like selves
which form the complement to it. But though history teaches how
closely similar is the part played by war and other relations between
different societies in developing the sense of a common national
heritage and purpose, yet a society, once started on its course of
development, does appear to be able to a large extent to flourish
without the constant stimulus afforded by rivalry or co-operation with
other societies. One man on a desert land, if left long enough to
himself, would probably become insane or brutish; there seems no
sufficient reason to hold that a single civilised community, devoid of
relations with others, could not, if its internal organisation were
sufficiently rich, flourish in a purely “natural” environment. On the
strength of this higher self-sufficiency, itself a consequence of
superior internal wealth and harmony, a true society may reasonably
be held to be a finite individual of a higher type than a single human
self.
The general result of this discussion, then, seems to be, that
neither in the self nor in society—at any rate in the only forms of it
we know to exist—do we find the complete harmony of structure and
independence of external conditions which are characteristic of
ultimate reality. Both the self and society must therefore be
pronounced to be finite appearance, but of the two, society exhibits
the fuller and higher individuality, and is therefore the more truly real.
We found it quite impossible to regard the universe as a single self;
but, with certain important qualifications, we said that it might be
thought of as a society without very serious error.[194] It will, of
course, follow from what has been said, that we cannot frame any
finally adequate conception of the way in which all the finite
individual experiences form the unity of the infinite experiences. That
they must form such a perfect unity we have seen in our Second
Book; that the unity of a society is, perhaps, the nearest analogy by
which we can represent it, has been shown in the present
paragraph. That we have no higher categories which can adequately
indicate the precise way in which all existence ultimately forms an
even more perfect unity, is an inevitable consequence of the fact of
our own finitude. We cannot frame the categories, because we, as
finite beings, have not the corresponding experience. To this extent,
at least, it seems to me that any sound philosophy must end with a
modest confession of ignorance.
“There is in God, men say,
A deep but dazzling darkness,”