Wallas

GRAHAM WALLAS (1858 - 1932)

Wallas was born in Bishopwearmouth. After Oxford, he worked at the London School of Economics and became professor of political science in 1914. He was an early member of the Fabian Society, but left in 1904 because of its increasingly ant-liberal stance. He always regarded socialism as the as the fulfilment of liberalism rather than its antithesis. His influential teaching and writings in social psychology included Human Nature in Politics (1908), emphasising the role of irrational forces in determining public opinion and political actions. In it, he writes:

'Whoever sets himself to base his political thinking on a re-examination of the working of human nature, must begin by trying to overcome his own tendency to exaggerate the intellectuality of mankind.'

His book The Great Society (1914) recognised the obstacles placed by increasing centralisation and the impersonality of modern industry in the way of individual self-fulfilment. Nevertheless, Wallas still asserted the rational reconstruction of society to make the conditions for human happiness more generally available. A well-known quotation from his The Art of Thought (1926) goes:

'The little girl had the makings of a poet in her who, being told to be sure of her meaning before she spoke, said, 'How can I know what I think till I see what I say?'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
GRAHAM WALLAS (1858 - 1932) Wallas was born in Bishopwearmouth. After Oxford, he worked at the London School of Economics and became professor of political science in 1914. He was an early member of the Fabian Society, but left in 1904 because of its increasingly ant-liberal stance. He always regarded socialism as the as the fulfilment of liberalism rather than its antithesis. His influential teaching and writings in social psychology included Human Nature in Politics (1908), emphasising the role of irrational forces in determining public opinion and political actions. In it, he writes: 'Whoever sets himself to base his political thinking on a re-examination of the working of human nature, must begin by trying to overcome his own tendency to exaggerate the intellectuality of mankind.' His book The Great Society (1914) recognised the obstacles placed by increasing centralisation and the impersonality of modern industry in the way of individual self-fulfilment. Nevertheless, Wallas still asserted the rational reconstruction of society to make the conditions for human happiness more generally available. A well-known quotation from his The Art of Thought (1926) goes: 'The little girl had the makings of a poet in her who, being told to be sure of her meaning before she spoke, said, 'How can I know what I think till I see what I say?'
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