The wisdom about the good life and about norms in general cannot be deduced from neutral scientific and technological knowledge. Therefore, education as upbringing and formation of the human being cannot dispense the commitment of the educator who must stand for what he or she teaches. A school with a teacher that educates as a machine is like a school without teacher. Thus, the crucial questions for the philosophy of education in our time are: What is commitment? What is a committed educator? How is it possible to be committed in education?

H.G. Wells's view of the world - and hence his writing - was strongly influenced by the biologist's training he received during his three years as a student at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington (now Imperial College, London). Those things which a creature needs in order for it and its species to thrive get particular attention in Wells's books. Tracing biological themes through Wells's work, as Peter Kemp does here, shows the pattern of his thought and brings to light the bizarre workings of a fascinating imagination. For the book's reissue in paperback, an afterword has been...