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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75958-0.txt b/75958-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..825c497 --- /dev/null +++ b/75958-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2815 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75958 *** + + + + + + +The Dale Memorial Lectures, 1922. + +THE DECAY AND THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION + +THE PHILOSOPHY OF CIVILIZATION + +PART I + +BY + +ALBERT SCHWEITZER + +D.THEOL.; D.PHIL.; D.MED. (STRASSBURG) + +TRANSLATED BY + +C. T. CAMPION M.A. (OXON.) (SOMETIME OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD) + +A. & C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 1923 + + + + + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS,LTD., LONDON AND +TONBRIDGE. + + + + + +To ANNIE FISCHER IN DEEPEST GRATITUDE + + + + +AUTHOR’S PREFACE + +“The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization” is the first part of a +complete philosophy of civilization with which I have been occupied +since the year 1900. + +The second part, entitled “Civilization and Ethics”, will appear +immediately. The third is called “The World-View_(_*_)_ of Reverence +for Life”. The fourth has to do with the civilized State. + +That over which I have toiled since 1900 has been finally ripened in +the stillness of the primeval forest of Equatorial Africa. There, +during the years 1914-17, the clear and definite lines of this +philosophy of civilization have been developed. + +The first part, “The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization”, is a +kind of introduction to the philosophy of civilization. It states the +problem of civilization. + +Entering on the question as to what is the real essential nature of +civilization, I come to the pronouncement that this is ultimately +ethical. I know that in thus stating the problem as a moral one I [pg +viii] shall surprise and even disgust the spirit of our times, which +is accustomed to move amidst æsthetic, historical and material +considerations. I imagine, however, that I am myself enough of an +artist and also of an historian to be able to comprehend the æsthetic +and historical elements in civilization, and that, as a modern +physician and surgeon, I am sufficiently modern to appreciate the +glamour of the technical and material attainments of our age. + +Notwithstanding this, I have come to the conviction that the æsthetic +and the historical elements, and the magnificent extension of our +material knowledge and power, do not themselves form the essence of +civilization, but that this depends on the mental disposition of the +individuals and nations who exist in the world. All other things are +merely accompanying circumstances of civilization, which have nothing +to do with its real essence. + +Creative, artistic, intellectual, and material attainments can only +show their full and true effects when the continued existence and +development of civilization have been secured by founding civilization +itself on a mental disposition which is truly ethical. It is only in +his struggle to become ethical that man comes to possess real value as +a personality; it is only under the influence of ethical convictions +that the various relations of human society are formed in such a way +that individuals and peoples can [pg ix] develop in an ideal manner. +If the ethical foundation is lacking, then civilization collapses, +even when in other directions creative and intellectual forces of the +strongest nature are at work. + +This moral conception of civilization, which makes me almost a +stranger amidst the intellectual life of my time, I express clearly +and unhesitatingly, in order to arouse amongst my contemporaries +reflection as to what civilization really is. We shall not succeed in +re-establishing our civilization on an enduring basis until we rid +ourselves completely of the superficial concept of civilization which +now holds us in thrall, and give ourselves up again to the ethical +view which obtained in the eighteenth century. + +The second point which I desire should obtain currency is that of the +connection between civilization and our theory of the universe. At the +present time no regard is paid to this connection. In fact, the period +in which we are living altogether misses the significance of having a +theory of the universe. It is the common conviction nowadays, of +educated and uneducated alike, that humanity will progress quite +satisfactorily without any theory of the universe at all. + +The real fact is that all human progress depends on progress in its +theory of the universe, whilst, conversely, decadence is conditioned +by a similar [pg x] decadence in this theory. Our loss of real +civilization is due to our lack of a theory of the universe. + +Only as we again succeed in attaining a strong and worthy theory of +the universe, and find in it strong and worthy convictions, shall we +again become capable of producing a new civilization. It is this +apparently abstract and paradoxical truth of which I proclaim myself +the champion. + +Civilization, put quite simply, consists in our giving ourselves, as +human beings, to the effort to attain the perfecting of the human race +and the actualization of progress of every sort in the circumstances +of humanity and of the objective world. This mental attitude, however, +involves a double predisposition: firstly, we must be prepared to act +affirmatively toward the world and life; secondly, we must become +ethical. + +Only when we are able to attribute a real meaning to the world and to +life shall we be able also to give ourselves to such action as will +produce results of real value. As long as we look on our existence in +the world as meaningless, there is no point whatever in desiring to +effect anything in the world. We become workers for that universal +spiritual and material progress which we call civilization only in so +far as we affirm that the world and life possess some sort of meaning, +or, which is the same thing, only in so far as we think +optimistically. + +[pg xi] + +Civilization originates when men become inspired by a strong and clear +determination to attain progress, and consecrate themselves, as a +result of this determination, to the service of life and of the world. +It is only in ethics that we can find the driving force for such +action, transcending, as it does, the limits of our own existence. + +Nothing of real value in the world is ever accomplished without +enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. + +But it is impossible to convince men of the truth of world- and +life-affirmation and of the real value of ethics by mere declamation. +The affirmative and ethical mentality which characterizes these +beliefs must originate in man himself as the result of an inner +spiritual relation to the world. Only then will they accompany him as +strong, clear, and constant convictions, and condition his every +thought and action. + +To put it in another way: world- and life-affirmation must be the +products of thought about the world and life. Only as the majority of +individuals attain to this result of thought and continue under its +influence will a true and enduring civilization make progress in the +world. Should the mental disposition towards world- and +life-affirmation and towards ethics begin to wane, or become dim and +obscured, we shall be incapable of working for true civilization, nay, +more, we shall be unable even to [pg xii] form a correct concept of +what such civilization ought to be. + +And this is the fate which has befallen us. We are bereft of any +theory of the universe. Therefore, instead of being inspired by a +profound and powerful spirit of affirmation of the world and of life, +we allow ourselves, both as individuals and as nations, to be driven +hither and thither by a type of such affirmation which is both +confused and superficial. Instead of adopting a determined ethical +attitude, we exist in an atmosphere of mere ethical phrases or declare +ourselves ethical sceptics. + +How is it that we have got into this state of lacking a theory of the +universe? It is because hitherto the world- and life-affirming and +ethical theory of the universe had no convincing and permanent +foundation in thought. We thought again and again that we had found +such a basis for it; but it lost power again and again without our +being aware that it was doing so, until, finally, we have been +obliged, for more than a generation past, to resign ourselves more and +more to a complete lack of any world-theory at all. + +Thus, in this introductory part of my work, I proclaim two truths and +conclude with a great note of interrogation. The truths are the +following: The basic ethical character of civilization, and the +connection between civilization and our theories of [pg xiii] the +universe. The question with which I conclude is this: Is it at all +possible to find a real and permanent foundation in thought for a +theory of the universe which shall be both ethical and affirmative of +the world and of life? + +The future of civilization depends on our overcoming the +meaninglessness and hopelessness which characterize the thoughts and +convictions of men to-day, and reaching a state of fresh hope and +fresh determination. We shall be capable of this, however, only when +the majority of individuals discover for themselves both an ethic and +a profound and steadfast attitude of world- and life-affirmation, in a +theory of the universe at once convincing and based on reflection. + +Without such a general spiritual experience there is no possibility of +holding our world back from the ruin and disintegration towards which +it is being hastened. It is our duty then to rouse ourselves to fresh +reflection about the world and life. + +In “Civilization and Ethics”, the second part of this philosophy of +civilization, I describe the road along which thought has led me to +world- and life-affirmation and to ethics. The root-idea of my theory +of the universe is that my relation to my own being and to the +objective world is determined by reverence for life. This reverence +for life is given as an element of my will-to-live, and becomes +clearly [pg xiv] conscious of itself as I reflect about my life and +about the world. In the mental attitude of reverence for life which +should characterize my contact with all forms of life, both ethics and +world- and life-affirmation are involved. It is not any kind of +insight into the essential nature of the world which determines my +relation to my own existence and to the existence which I encounter in +the world, but rather only and solely my own will-to-live which has +developed the power of reflection about itself and the world. + +The theory of the universe characterized by reverence for life is a +type of mysticism arrived at by self-consistent thought when persisted +in to its ultimate conclusion. Surrendering himself to the guidance of +this mysticism, man finds a meaning for his life in that he strives to +accomplish his own spiritual and ethical self-fulfilment, and, +simultaneously and in the same act, helps forward all the processes of +spiritual and material progress which have to be actualized in the +world. + +I do not know how many, or how few, will allow themselves to be +persuaded to travel with me on the road indicated above. What I desire +above all things—and this is the crux of the whole affair—is that we +should all recognize fully that our present entire lack of any theory +of the universe is the ultimate source of all the catastrophes and +misery of [pg xv] our times, and that we should toil in concert for a +theory of the universe and of life, in order that thus we may arrive +at a mental disposition which shall make us really and truly civilized +men. + +It was a great joy to me to be afforded the opportunity of putting +forward, in the _Dale Lectures_, delivered in Oxford, the views on +which this philosophy of civilization is based. + +I would tender my deepest thanks to my friends, Mr. C. T. Campion, +M.A., now of Grahamstown, South Africa, and Dr. J. P. Naish, of +Oxford. Mr. Campion is the translator of this first part of the +“Philosophy of Civilization”. Dr. Naish has seen the book through the +press and translated this preface. + +ALBERT SCHWEITZER. + +Strasbourg, Alsace. + +_February_, 1923. + + + + +[pg xvi] + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I How Philosophy is Responsible for the Collapse of +Civilization [1] + +CHAPTER II Hindrances to Civilization in our Economic and Spiritual +Life [15] + +CHAPTER III Civilization essentially Ethical in Character [35] + +CHAPTER IV The Way to the Restoration of Civilization [62] + +CHAPTER V Civilization and Theories of the Universe [80] + + +[pg xvii] + + + + +THE DECAY AND THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOW PHILOSOPHY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION + + +Our self-deception as to the real conditions of our civilization. The +collapse of the theory of the universe on which our ideals were based. +The superficial character of modern philosophizing. + +We are living to-day under the sign of the collapse of civilization. +The situation has not been produced by the war; the latter is only a +manifestation of it. The spiritual atmosphere has solidified into +actual facts, which again react on it with disastrous results in every +respect. This interaction of material and spiritual has assumed a most +unhealthy character. Just below a mighty cataract we are driving along +in a current full of formidable eddies, and it will need the most +gigantic efforts to rescue the vessel of our fate from the dangerous +side channel into which we have [pg 002] allowed it to drift, and +bring it back into the main stream, if, indeed, we can hope to do so +at all. + +We have drifted out of the stream of civilization because there was +amongst us no real reflection upon what civilization is. It is true +that at the end of the last century and the beginning of this there +appeared a number of works on civilization with the most varied +titles; but, as though in obedience to some secret order, they made no +attempt to settle and make clear the conditions of our intellectual +life, but devoted themselves exclusively to its origin and history. +They gave us a relief map of civilization marked with roads which men +had observed or invented, and which led us over hill and dale through +the fields of history from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. +It was a triumph for the historical sense of the authors. The crowds +whom these works instructed were filled with satisfied contentment +when they understood that their civilization was the organic product +of so many centuries of the working of spiritual and social forces, +but no one worked out and described the content of our spiritual life. +No one tested its value from the point of view of the nobility of its +ideas, and its ability to produce real progress. + +Thus we crossed the threshold of the twentieth century with an +unshakable conceit of ourselves, [pg 003] and whatever was written at +that time about our civilization only confirmed us in our ingenuous +belief in its high value. Anyone who expressed doubt was regarded with +astonishment. Many, indeed, who were on the road to error, stopped and +returned to the main road again because they were afraid of the path +which led off to the side. Others continued along the main road, but +in silence; the understanding and insight which were at work in them +only condemned them to isolation. + +It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in +progress. What yet remains of it is no longer safe. It is still +standing, indeed, because it was not exposed to the destructive +pressure which overwhelmed the rest, but, like the rest, is built upon +rubble, and the next landslide will very likely carry it away. + +But what was it that preceded and led up to this loss of power in the +innate forces of civilization? + +The age of the Illuminati and of rationalism had put forward ethical +ideals, based on reason, concerning the development of the individual +to true manhood, his position in society, the material and spiritual +problems which arose out of society, the relations of the different +nations to each other, and their issue in a humanity which should be +united in [pg 004] the pursuit of the highest moral and spiritual +objects. These ideals had begun, both in philosophy and in general +thought, to get into contact with reality and to alter the general +environment. In the course of three or four generations there had been +such progress made, both in the ideas underlying civilization and in +their material embodiment, that the age of true civilization seemed to +have dawned upon the world and to be assured of an uninterrupted +development. + +But about the middle of the nineteenth century this mutual +understanding and co-operation between ethical ideals and reality +began to break down, and in the course of the next few decades it +disappeared more and more completely. Without resistance, without +complaint, civilization abdicated. Its ideas lagged behind, as though +they were too exhausted to keep pace with it. How did this come about? + + * * * * * + +The decisive element in the production of this result was philosophy’s +renunciation of her duty. + +In the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth it was +philosophy which led and guided thought in general. She had busied +herself with the questions which presented themselves to mankind at +each successive period, and had kept the [pg 005] thought of civilized +man actively reflecting upon them. Philosophy at that time included +within herself an elementary philosophizing about man, society, race, +humanity and civilization, which produced in a perfectly natural way a +living popular philosophy that controlled the general thought, and +maintained the enthusiasm for civilization. + +But that ethical, and at the same time optimistic, view of things in +which the Illuminati and rationalism had laid the foundations of this +healthy popular philosophy, was unable in the long run to meet the +criticism levelled at it by pure thought. Its naïve dogmatism raised +more and more prejudice against it. Kant tried to provide the +tottering building with new foundations, undertaking to alter the +rationalistic view of things in accordance with the demands of a +deeper theory of knowledge, without, however, making any change in its +essential spiritual elements. Goethe, Schiller and other intellectual +giants of the age, showed, by means of criticism both kindly and +malicious, that rationalism was rather popular philosophy than real +philosophy, but they were not in a position to put into the place of +what they destroyed anything new which could give the same effective +support to the ideas about civilization which were current in the +general thought of the time. + +[pg 006] + +Fichte, Hegel, and other philosophers, who, for all their criticism of +rationalism, paid homage to its ethical ideals, attempted to establish +a similar ethical and optimistic view of things by speculative +methods, that is by logical and metaphysical discussion of pure being +and its development into a universe. For three or four decades they +succeeded in deceiving themselves and others with this supposedly +creative and inspiring illusion, and in doing violence to reality in +the interests of their theory of the universe. But at last the natural +sciences, which all this time had been growing stronger and stronger, +rose up against them, and, with a plebeian enthusiasm for the truth of +reality, reduced to ruins the magnificent creations of their +imagination. + +Since that time the ethical ideas on which civilization rests have +been wandering about the world, poverty-stricken and homeless. No +theory of the universe has been advanced which can give them a solid +foundation; in fact, not one has made its appearance which can claim +for itself solidity and inner consistency. The age of philosophic +dogmatism had come definitely to an end, and after that nothing was +recognized as truth except the science which described reality. +General theories of the universe no longer appeared as fixed stars; +they [pg 007] were regarded as resting on hypothesis, and ranked no +higher than comets. + +The same weapon which struck down the dogmatism of knowledge about the +universe struck down also the dogmatic enunciation of spiritual ideas. +The early simple rationalism, the critical rationalism of Kant, and +the speculative rationalism of the great philosophers of the +nineteenth century had all alike done violence to reality in two ways. +They had given a position above that of the facts of science to the +views which they had arrived at by pure thought, and they had also +preached a series of ethical ideals which were meant to replace by new +ones the various existing relations in the ideas and the material +environment of mankind. When the first of these two forms of violence +was proved to be a mistaken one, it became questionable whether the +second could still be allowed the justification which it had hitherto +enjoyed. The doctrinaire methods of thought which made the existing +world nothing but material for the production of a purely theoretical +sketch of a better future were replaced by sympathetic attempts to +understand the historical origin of existing things for which Hegel’s +philosophy had prepared the way. + +With a general mentality of this description, a real combination of +ethical ideals with reality was no [pg 008] longer possible; there was +not the freedom from prejudice which that required, and so there came +a weakening of the convictions which were the driving power of +civilization. So, too, an end was put to that justifiable violence to +human convictions and circumstances without which the reforming work +of civilization can make no advance, because it was bound up with that +other unjustifiable violence to reality. That is the tragic element in +the psychological development of our spiritual life during the latter +half of the nineteenth century. + +Rationalism, then, had been dismissed; but with it went also the +optimistic convictions as to the moral meaning of the universe and of +humanity, of society and of man, to which it had given birth, though +the conviction still exerted so much influence that no attention was +paid to the catastrophe which had really begun. + + * * * * * + +Philosophy did not realize that the power of the ideas about +civilization which had been entrusted to it was becoming a doubtful +quantity. At the end of one of the most brilliant works on the history +of philosophy which appeared at the close of the nineteenth century +philosophy is defined as the process “by which there comes to +completion, step by step, [pg 009] and with ever clearer and surer +consciousness, that conviction about the value of civilization the +universal validity of which it is the object of philosophy itself to +affirm.” But the author has forgotten the essential point, viz., that +there was a time when philosophy did not merely convince itself of the +value of civilization, but also let its convictions go forth as +fruitful ideas destined to influence the general thought, while from +the middle of the nineteenth century onwards these convictions had +become more and more of the nature of hoarded and unproductive +capital. + +Once philosophy had been an active worker producing universal +convictions about civilization. Now, after the collapse in the middle +of the nineteenth century, this same philosophy had become a mere +drawer of dividends, concentrating her activities far from the world +on what she had managed to save. She had become a mere science, which +sifted the results of the historical and natural sciences, and +collected from them material for a future theory of the universe, +carrying on with this object in view a learned activity in all +branches of knowledge. At the same time she became more and more +absorbed in the study of her own past. Philosophy came to mean +practically the history of philosophy, but the creative spirit had +left her. She became more and [pg 010] more a philosophy which +contained no real thought. She reflected, indeed, on the results +achieved by the individual sciences, but she lost the power of thought +about fundamental problems. + +She looked back with condescending pity on the rationalism which she +had outstripped. She prided herself on being able to trace her descent +through Kant, on having been shown by Hegel the inner meaning of +history, and on being at work to-day in close sympathy with the +natural sciences. But for all that she was poorer than the poorest +rationalism, because she now carried on in imagination only, and not +in reality, the recognized work of philosophy, which the latter had +practised so zealously. Rationalism, for all its simplicity, had been +a working philosophy, but philosophy herself had now become, for all +her insight, merely a pedantic philosophy of degenerates. She still +played, indeed, some sort of _rôle_ in schools and universities, but +she had no longer any message for the great world. + +In spite of all her learning, she had become a stranger to the world, +and the problems of life which occupied men and the whole thought of +the age had no part in her activities. Her way lay apart from the +general spiritual life, and just as she derived no stimulus from the +latter, so she gave none back. Refusing to concern herself with +fundamental [pg 011] problems, she contained no fundamental philosophy +which could become a philosophy of the people. + +From this impotence came the aversion to all generally intelligible +philosophizing which is so characteristic of her. Popular philosophy +was for her merely a review, prepared for the use of the crowd, +simplified, and therefore rendered inferior, of the results given by +the individual sciences which she had herself sifted and put together +in view of a future theory of the universe. She was wholly unconscious +of several things, viz., that there is a popular philosophy which +arises out of such a review; that it is just the province of +philosophy to deal with the primary, deeper questions about which +individuals and the crowd are thinking, or ought to be thinking, to +apply to them more comprehensive and more thorough methods of thought, +and then restore them to general currency; and, finally, that the +value of any philosophy is in the last resort to be measured by its +capacity, or incapacity, to transform itself into a living philosophy +of the people. + +Whatever is deep is also simple, and can be reproduced as such, if +only its relation to the whole of reality is preserved. It is then +something abstract, which secures for itself a many-sided life as soon +as it comes into contact with facts. + +[pg 012] + +Whatever of inquiring thought there was among the general public was +therefore compelled to languish, because our philosophy refused either +to acknowledge or to help it. It found in front of it a deep chasm +which it could not cross. + +Of gold coinage, minted in the past, philosophy had abundance; +hypotheses about a soon to be developed theological theory of the +universe filled her vaults like unminted bullion; but food with which +to appease the spiritual hunger of the present she did not possess. +Deceived by her own riches, she had neglected to plant any ground with +nourishing crops, and therefore, ignoring the hunger of the age, she +left the latter to its fate. + +That pure thought never managed to construct a theory of the universe +of an optimistic, ethical character, and to build up on that for a +foundation the ideals which go to produce civilization, was not the +fault of philosophy; it was a fact which became evident as thought +developed. But philosophy was guilty of a wrong to our age in that it +did not admit the fact, but remained wrapped up in its illusion, as +though this were really a help to the progress of civilization. + +The ultimate vocation of philosophy is to be the guide and guardian of +the general reason, and it was her duty, in the circumstances of the +time, to confess [pg 013] to our world that ethical ideals were no +longer supported by any general theory of the universe, but were, till +further notice, left to themselves, and must make their way in the +world by their own innate power. She ought to have shown us that we +have to fight on behalf of the ideals on which our civilization rests. +She ought to have tried to give these ideals an independent existence +by virtue of their own inner value and inner truth, and so to keep +them alive and active without any extraneous help from a corresponding +theory of the universe. No effort should have been spared to direct +the attention of the cultured and the uncultured alike to the problem +of the ideals of civilization. + +But philosophy philosophized about everything except civilization. She +went on working undeviatingly at the establishment of a theoretical +view of the universe, as though by means of it everything could be +restored, and did not reflect that this theory, even if it were +completed, would be constructed only out of history and science, and +would accordingly be unoptimistic and unethical, and would remain for +ever an “impotent theory of the universe,” which could never call +forth the energies needed for the establishment and maintenance of the +ideals of civilization. + +So little did philosophy philosophize about [pg 014] civilization that +she did not even notice that she herself and the age along with her +were losing more and more of it. In the hour of peril the watchman who +ought to have kept us awake was himself asleep, and the result was +that we put up no fight at all on behalf of our civilization. + + + + + +[pg 015] + +CHAPTER II + +HINDRANCES TO CIVILIZATION IN OUR ECONOMIC AND SPIRITUAL LIFE + + +The unfree economic position of the modern man. The undeveloped +condition of the modern man. The modern man’s want of humanity. The +lack of spiritual independence in the man of to-day. + +Even if the abdication of thought has been, as we have seen, the +decisive factor in the collapse of our civilization, there are yet a +number of other causes which combine with it to hinder our progress in +this regard. They are to be found in the field of spiritual as well as +in that of economic activity, and depend, above all, on the +interaction between the two, an interaction which is unsatisfactory +and continually becoming more so. + +The capacity of the modern man for progress in civilization is +diminished because the circumstances in which he finds himself placed +injure him psychically and stunt his personality. + +The development of civilization comes about—to put it quite +generally—by individual men thinking out ideals which aim at the +progress of the whole, and then so fitting them to the realities of +life that [pg 016] they assume the shape in which they can influence +most effectively the circumstances of the time. A man’s ability to be +a pioneer of progress, that is, to understand what civilization is and +to work for it, depends, therefore, on his being a thinker and on his +being free. He must be the former if he is to be capable of +comprehending his ideals and putting them into shape. He must be free +in order to be in a position to launch his ideals out into the general +life. The more completely his activities are taken up in any way by +the struggle for existence, the more strongly will the impulse to +improve his own condition find expression in the ideals of his +thought. Ideals of self-interest then get mixed up with and spoil his +ideals of civilization. + +Material and spiritual freedom are closely bound up with one another. +Civilization presupposes free men, for only by free men can it be +thought out and brought to realization. + +But among mankind to-day both freedom and the capacity for thought +have been sadly diminished. + +If society had so developed that a continually widening circle of the +population could enjoy a modest, but well-assured, condition of +comfort, civilization would have been much more helped than it has +been by all the material conquests which are lauded in its name. These +do, indeed, make [pg 017] mankind as a whole less dependent upon +nature, but at the same time they diminish the number of free and +independent lives. The artisan who was his own master becomes the +factory hand through the compulsion of machinery. Because in the +complicated business world of to-day only undertakings with abundant +capital behind them can maintain their existence, the place of the +small, independent dealer is being taken more and more completely by +the employee. Even the classes which still possess a larger or smaller +amount of property or maintain a more or less independent activity get +drawn more and more completely into the struggle for existence because +of the insecurity of present conditions under the economic system of +to-day. + +The lack of freedom which results is made worse still because the +factory system creates continually growing agglomerations of people +who are thereby compulsorily separated from the soil which feeds them, +from their own homes and from nature. Hence comes serious psychical +injury. There is only too much truth in the paradoxical saying that +abnormal life begins with the loss of one’s own field and +dwelling-place. + +Civilization is, it is true, furthered to a certain extent by the +self-regarding ideals produced by the [pg 018] groups of people who +unite and co-operate in defence of their similarly threatened +interests in so far as they seek to obtain an improvement in their +material, and thereby also in their spiritual, environment. But these +ideals are a danger to the idea of civilization as such, because the +form which they assume is either not at all, or very imperfectly, +determined by the really universal interests of the community. The +consideration of civilization as such is held back by the competition +between the various self-regarding ideals which go under its name. + +To the want of freedom we have to add the evil of overwork. For two or +three generations numbers of individuals have been living as workers +merely, not as human beings. Whatever can be said in a general way +about the moral and spiritual significance of labour has no bearing on +what they have to do. An excessive amount of labour is the rule to-day +in every department of industry, with the result that the labourer’s +spiritual element cannot possibly thrive. This overwork hits him +indirectly even in his childhood, for his parents, caught in the +inexorable toils of work, cannot devote themselves to his up-bringing +as they should. Thus his development is robbed of something which can +never be made good, and later in life, when he himself is the slave of +over-long hours, he feels more and [pg 019] more the need of external +distractions. To spend the time left to him for leisure in +self-cultivation, or in serious intercourse with his fellows or with +books, requires a mental collectedness and a self-control which he +finds very difficult. Complete idleness, forgetfulness, and diversion +from his usual activities are a physical necessity. He does not want +to think, and seeks not self-improvement, but entertainment, that kind +of entertainment, moreover, which makes least demand upon his +spiritual faculties. + +The mentality of this mass of individuals, spiritually relaxed and +incapable of self-collectedness, reacts upon all those institutions +which ought to serve the cause of culture, and therewith of +civilization. The theatre takes a second place behind the pleasure +resort or the picture show, and the instructive book behind the +diverting one. An ever increasing proportion of periodicals and +newspapers have to accommodate themselves to the necessity of putting +their matter before their readers in the shape which lets it be +assimilated most easily. A comparison of the average newspapers of +to-day with those of fifty or sixty years ago shows how thoroughly +such publications have had to change their methods in this respect. + +When once the spirit of superficiality has penetrated [pg 020] into +the institutions which ought to sustain the spiritual life, these +exercise on their part a reflex influence on the society which they +have brought to this condition, and force on all alike this state of +mental vacuity. + +How completely this want of thinking power has become a second nature +in men to-day is shown by the kind of sociability which it produces. +When two of them meet for a conversation each is careful to see that +their talk does not go beyond generalities or develop into a real +exchange of ideas. No one has anything of his own to give out, and +everyone is haunted by a sort of terror lest anything original should +be demanded from him. + +The spirit produced in such a society of never-concentrated minds is +rising among us as an ever growing force, and it results in a lowered +conception of what man should be. In ourselves, as in others we look +for nothing but vigour in productive work and resign ourselves to the +abandonment of any higher ideal. + +When we consider this want of freedom and of mental concentration, we +see that the conditions of life for the inhabitants of our big cities +are as unfavourable as they could be. Naturally, then, those +inhabitants are in most danger on their spiritual side. It is doubtful +whether big cities [pg 021] have ever been foci of civilization in the +sense that in them there has arisen the ideal of a man well and truly +developed as a spiritual personality; to-day, at any rate, the +condition of things is such that true civilization needs to be rescued +from the spirit that issues from them and their inhabitants. + + * * * * * + +But, besides the hindrance caused to civilization by the modern man’s +lack of freedom and of the power of mental concentration, there is a +further hindrance caused by his imperfect development. The enormous +increase of human knowledge and power, in specialized thoroughness as +well as in extent, necessarily leads to individual activities being +limited more and more to well-defined departments. Human labour is +organized and co-ordinated so that specialization may enable +individuals to make the highest and most effective possible +contribution. The results obtained are amazing, but the spiritual +significance of the work for the worker suffers. There is no call upon +the whole man, only upon some of his faculties, and this has a reflex +effect upon his nature as a whole. The faculties which build up +personality and are called out by comprehensive and varied tasks are +ousted by the less comprehensive ones, which from this point of view +are, in the [pg 022] general sense of the word, less spiritual. The +artisan of to-day does not understand his trade as a whole in the way +in which his predecessor did. He no longer learns, like the latter, to +work the wood or the metal through all the stages of manufacture; many +of these stages have already been carried out by men and machines +before the material comes into his hands. Consequently his +reflectiveness, his imagination, and his skill are no longer called +out by ever varying difficulties in the work, and his creative and +artistic powers are atrophied. In place of the normal +self-consciousness which is promoted by work into the doing of which +he must put his whole power of thought and his whole personality, +there comes a self-satisfaction which is content with a fragmentary +ability which, it may be admitted, is perfect, and this +self-satisfaction is persuaded by its perfection in mastering details +to overlook its imperfection in dealing with the whole. + +In all professions, most clearly perhaps in the pursuit of science, we +can recognize the spiritual danger with which specialization threatens +not only individuals, but the spiritual life of the community. It is +already noticeable, too, that education is carried on now by teachers +who have not a wide enough outlook to make their scholars understand +the interconnection of the individual sciences, and [pg 023] to be +able to give them a mental horizon as wide as it should be. + +Then, as if specialization and the organization of work, where it is +unavoidable, were not already injurious enough to the soul of the +modern man, it is pursued and built up where it could be dispensed +with. In administration, in education, and in every kind of calling +the natural sphere of activity is narrowed as far as possible by rules +and superintendence. How much less free in many countries is the +elementary school teacher of to-day compared with what he was once! +How lifeless and impersonal has his teaching become as a result of all +these limitations! + +Thus through our methods of work we have suffered loss spiritually and +as individuals just in proportion as the material output of our +collective activity has increased. Here, too, is an illustration of +that tragic law which says that every gain brings with it, somehow or +other, a corresponding loss. + + * * * * * + +But man to-day is in danger not only through his lack of freedom, of +the power of mental concentration, and of the opportunity for +all-round development: he is in danger of losing his humanity. + +The normal attitude of man to man is made very [pg 024] difficult for +us. Owing to the hurry in which we live, to the increased facilities +for intercourse, and to the necessity for living and working with many +others in an overcrowded locality, we meet each other continually, and +in the most varied relations, as strangers. Our circumstances do not +allow us to deal with each other as man to man, for the limitations +placed upon the activities of the natural man are so general and so +unbroken that we get accustomed to them, and no longer feel our +mechanical, impersonal intercourse to be something that is unnatural. +We no longer feel uncomfortable that in such a number of situations we +can no longer be men among men, and at last we give up trying to be +so, even when it would be possible and proper. + +In this respect, too, the soul of the townsman is influenced most +unfavourably by his circumstances, and that influence, in its turn, +works most unfavourably on the mentality of society. + +Thus we tend to forget our relationship with our fellows, and are on +the path towards inhumanity. Wherever there is lost the consciousness +that every man is an object of concern for us just because he is man, +civilization and morals are shaken, and the advance to fully developed +inhumanity is only a question of time. + +As a matter of fact, the most utterly inhuman [pg 025] thoughts have +been current among us for two generations past in all the ugly +clearness of language and with the authority of logical principles. +There has been created a social mentality which discourages humanity +in individuals. The courtesy produced by natural feeling disappears, +and in its place comes a behaviour which shows entire indifference, +even though it is decked out more or less thoroughly in a code of +manners. The standoffishness and want of sympathy which are shown so +clearly in every way to strangers are no longer felt as being really +rudeness, but pass for the behaviour of the man of the world. Our +society has also ceased to allow to all men, as such, a human value +and a human dignity; many sections of the human race have become +merely raw material and property in human form. We have talked for +decades with ever increasing light-mindedness about war and conquest, +as if these were merely operations on a chess-board; how was this +possible save as the result of a tone of mind which no longer pictured +to itself the fate of individuals, but thought of them only as figures +or objects belonging to the material world? When the war broke out the +inhumanity within us had a free course. And what an amount of +insulting stuff, some decently veiled, some openly coarse, about the +coloured races, has made its appearance during the last decades, and +passed for truth and [pg 026] reason, in our colonial literature and +our parliaments, and so become an element in general public opinion! +Twenty years ago there was a discussion in one of our Continental +parliaments about some deported negroes who had been allowed to die of +hunger and thirst; and there was no protest or comment when, in a +statement from the tribune, it was said that they “had been lost” +(“_eingegangen_” or “_crêvé_”), as though it were a question of +cattle! + +In the education and the school books of to-day the duty of humanity +is relegated to an obscure corner, as though it were no longer true +that it is the first thing necessary in the training of personality, +and as if it were not a matter of great importance to maintain it as a +strong influence in our human race against the influence of outer +circumstances. It has not been so always. There was a time when it was +a ruling influence not only in schools, but in literature, even down +to the book of adventures. Defoe’s hero, Robinson Crusoe, is +continually reflecting on the subject of humane conduct, and he feels +himself so responsible for loyalty to this duty that when defending +himself he is continually thinking how he can sacrifice the smallest +number of human lives; he is so faithful, indeed, to this duty of +humanity, that the story of his adventures acquires thereby quite a +peculiar character. Is [pg 027] there among works of this kind to-day +a single one in which we shall find anything like it? + + * * * * * + +Another hindrance to civilization to-day is the over-organization of +our public life. + +While it is certain that a properly ordered environment is the +condition and, at the same time, the result of civilization, it is +also undeniable that, after a certain point has been reached, external +organization is developed at the expense of spiritual life. +Personality and ideas are then subordinated to institutions, when it +is really these which ought to influence the latter and keep them +inwardly alive. + +If a comprehensive organization is established in any department of +social life, the results are at first magnificent, but after a time +they fall off. It is the already existing resources which are realized +at the start, but later on the destructive influence of such +organization on what is living and original is clearly seen in its +natural results, and the more consistently the organization is +enlarged, the more strongly its effect is felt in the repression of +creative and spiritual activity. There are modern States which cannot +recover either economically or spiritually from the paralysing effects +of a concentration which dates from a very early period of their +history. + +[pg 028] + +The conversion of a wood into a park and its maintenance as such may +be a step towards carrying out several different objects, but it is +all over then with the rich vegetation which would assure its future +condition in nature’s own way. + +Political, religious and economic associations aim to-day at forming +themselves in such a way as will combine the greatest possible inner +cohesion with the highest possible degree of external activity. +Constitution, discipline, and everything that belongs to +administration are brought to a perfection hitherto unknown. They +attain their object, but just in proportion as they do so these +centres of activity cease to work as living organizations, and come +more and more to resemble perfected machines. Their inner life loses +in richness and variety because the personalities of which they are +composed must needs decay in character. + +Our whole spiritual life nowadays has its course within organizations. +From childhood up the man of to-day has his mind so full of the +thought of discipline that he loses the sense of his own individuality +and can only see himself as thinking in the spirit of some group or +other of his fellows. A thorough discussion between one idea and +another or between one man and another, such as constituted the +greatness of the eighteenth century, is never met [pg 029] with now. +But at that time fear of public opinion was a thing unknown. All ideas +had then to justify themselves to the individual reason. To-day it is +the rule—and no one questions it—always to take into account the views +which prevail in organized society. The individual starts by taking it +for granted that both for himself and his neighbours there are certain +views already established which they cannot hope to alter, views which +are determined by nationality, creed, political party, social +position, and other elements in one’s surroundings. These views are +protected by a kind of taboo, and are not only kept sacred from +criticism, but are not a legitimate subject of conversation. This kind +of intercourse, in which we mutually abjure our natural quality as +thinking beings, is euphemistically described as respect for other +people’s convictions, as if there could be any convictions at all +where there is no thought. + +The modern man is lost in the mass in a way which is without precedent +in history, and this is perhaps the most characteristic trait in him. +His diminished concern about his own nature makes him as it is +susceptible, to an extent that is almost pathological, to the views +which society and its organs of expression have put, ready made, into +circulation. Since, over and above this, society, [pg 030] with its +well-constructed organization, has become a power of as yet unknown +strength in the spiritual life, man’s want of independence in the face +of it has become so serious that he is almost ceasing to claim a +spiritual existence of his own. He is like a rubber ball which has +lost its elasticity, and preserves indefinitely every impression that +is made upon it. He is under the thumb of the mass, and he draws from +it the opinions on which he lives, whether the question at issue is +national or political or one of his own belief or unbelief. + +Yet this abnormal subjection to external influences does not strike +him as being a weakness. He looks upon it as an achievement, and in +his unlimited spiritual devotion to the interests of the community he +thinks he is preserving the greatness of the modern man. He +intentionally exaggerates our natural social instincts into something +fantastically great. + +It is just because we thus renounce the indefeasible rights of the +individual that our race can neither produce new ideas nor make +current ones serviceable for new objects; its only experience is that +prevailing ideas obtain more and more authority, take on a more and +more one-sided development, and live on till they have produced their +last and most dangerous consequences. + +Thus we have entered on a new mediæval period. [pg 031] The general +determination of society has put freedom of thought out of fashion, +because the majority renounce the privilege of thinking as free +personalities, and let themselves be guided in everything by those who +belong to the various groups and cliques. + +Spiritual freedom, then, we shall recover only when the majority of +individuals become once more spiritually independent and self-reliant, +and discover their natural and proper relation to those organizations +in which their souls have been entangled. But liberation from the +Middle Ages of to-day will be a much more difficult process than that +which freed the peoples of Europe from the first Middle Ages. The +struggle then was against external authority established in the course +of history. To-day the task is to get the mass of individuals to work +themselves out of the condition of spiritual weakness and dependence +to which they have brought themselves. Could there be a harder task? + +Moreover, no one as yet clearly perceives what a condition of +spiritual poverty is ours to-day. Every year the spread of opinions +which have no thought behind them is carried further by the masses, +and the methods of this process have been so perfected, and have met +with such a ready welcome, that our [pg 032] confidence in being able +to raise to the dignity of public opinion the silliest of statements, +wherever it seems necessary to get them currently accepted, has no +need to justify itself before acting. + +During the war the control of thought was made complete. Propaganda +definitely took the place of truth. + +With independence of thought thrown overboard, we have, as was +inevitable, lost our faith in truth. Our spiritual life is +disorganized, for the over-organization of our external environment +leads to the organization of our absence of thought. + +Not only in the intellectual sphere, but in the moral also, the +relation between the individual and the community has been upset. With +the surrender of his own personal opinion the modern man surrenders +also his personal moral judgment. + +In order that he may find good what the mass declares to be such, +whether in word or deed, and may condemn what it declares to be bad, +he suppresses the scruples which stir in him. He does not allow them +to find utterance either with others or with himself. There are no +stumbling-blocks which his feeling of unity with the herd does not +enable him to surmount, and thus he loses his judgment in that of the +mass, and his own morality in theirs. + +Above all, he is thus made capable of excusing [pg 033] everything +that is meaningless, cruel, unjust, or bad in the behaviour of his +nation. Unconsciously to themselves, the majority of the members of +our barbarian civilised States give less and less time to reflection +as moral personalities, so that they may not be continually coming +into inner conflict with their fellows as a body, and continually +having to get over things which they feel to be wrong. + +Public opinion helps them by popularizing the idea that the actions of +the community are not to be judged so much by the standards of +morality as by those of expediency, but they suffer injury to their +souls. If we find among men of to-day only too few whose human and +moral sensibility is still undamaged, the chief reason is that the +majority have offered up their personal morality on the altar of their +country, instead of remaining at variance with the mass and acting as +a force which impels the latter along the road to perfection. + +Not only between the economic and the spiritual, then, but also +between the mass of men and individuals, there has developed a +condition of unfavourable action and reaction. In the days of +rationalism and serious philosophy the individual got help and support +from society through the general confidence in the victory of the +rational and moral, which society never failed to acknowledge [pg 034] +as something which explained and justified itself. Individuals were +then carried along by the mass; we are stifled by it. The bankruptcy +of the civilized State, which becomes more manifest every decade, is +ruining the man of to-day. The demoralization of the individual by the +mass is in full swing. + +The man of to-day pursues his dark journey in a time of darkness, as +one who has no freedom, no mental collectedness, no all-round +development, as one who loses himself in an atmosphere of inhumanity, +who surrenders his spiritual independence and his moral judgment to +the organized society in which he lives, and who finds himself in +every direction up against hindrances to the temper of true +civilization. Of the dangerous position in which he is placed +philosophy has no understanding, and therefore makes no attempt to +help him. She does not even urge him to reflection on what is +happening to himself. + +The terrible truth that with the progress of history and the economic +development of the world it is becoming not easier, but harder, to +develop true civilization, has never found utterance. + + + + +[pg 035] + +CHAPTER III + +CIVILIZATION ESSENTIALLY ETHICAL IN CHARACTER + + +What is civilization? Origin of the unethical conception of +civilization. Our sense of reality. Our historical sense. Nationalism. +National civilization. Our misleading trust in facts and organization. +The true sense for reality. + +This question ought to have been pressing itself on the attention of +all men who consider themselves civilized, but it is remarkable that +in the world’s literature generally one hardly finds that it has been +put at all until to-day, and still more rarely is any answer given. It +was supposed that there was no need for a definition of civilization, +since we already possessed the thing itself. If the question was ever +touched upon, it was considered to be sufficiently settled with +references to history and the present day. But now, when events are +bringing us inexorably to the consciousness that we live in a +dangerous medley of civilization and barbarism, we must, whether we +wish to or not, try to determine the nature of true civilization. + +For a quite general definition we may say that civilization is +progress, material and spiritual progress, on the part of individuals +as of the mass. + +[pg 036] + +In what does it consist? First of all in a lessening of the strain +imposed on individuals and on the mass by the struggle for existence. +The establishment of as favourable conditions of living as possible +for all is a demand which must be made partly for its own sake, partly +with a view to the spiritual and moral perfecting of individuals, +which is the ultimate object of civilization. + +The struggle for existence is a double one: man has to assert himself +in nature and against nature, and similarly also among his fellow-men +and against them. + +A diminution of the struggle is secured by strengthening the supremacy +of reason over both external nature and human nature, and making it +subserve as accurately as possible the ends proposed. + +Civilization is then twofold in its nature: it realizes itself in the +supremacy of reason, first, over the forces of nature, and, secondly, +over the dispositions of men. + +Which of these kinds of progress is most truly progress in +civilization? The latter, though it is the least open to observation. +Why? For two reasons. First, the supremacy which we secure by reason +over external nature represents not unqualified progress, but a +progress which brings with its advantages also disadvantages which may +work in the direction of barbarism. The reason why the economic +circumstances of our time endanger our civilization is to be sought +for partly in the fact that we have pressed [pg 037] into our service +natural forces which can be embodied in machines. But with that there +must be such a supremacy of reason over the dispositions of men that +they, and the nations which they form, will not use against one +another the power which the control of these forces gives them, and +thus plunge one another into a struggle for existence which is far +more terrible than that between men in a state of nature. + +A normal claim to be civilized can, then, only be reckoned as valid +when it recognizes this distinction between what is essential in +civilization and what is not. + +Both kinds of progress can, indeed, be called spiritual in the sense +that they both rest upon a spiritual activity in man, yet we may call +the supremacy over natural forces material progress because in it +material objects are mastered and turned to man’s use. The supremacy +of reason over human dispositions, on the other hand, is a spiritual +achievement in another sense, in that it means the working of spirit +upon spirit, _i.e._, of one section of the power of reflexion upon +another section of it. + +And what is meant by the supremacy of the reason over human +dispositions? It means that both individuals and the mass let their +willing be determined by the material and spiritual good of the whole +and the individuals that compose it; that [pg 038] is to say, their +actions are ethical. Ethical progress is, then, that which is truly of +the essence of civilization, and has only one significance; material +progress is that which is not of the essential at all, and may have a +twofold effect on the development of civilization. This moral +conception of civilization will strike some people as rationalistic +and old-fashioned. It accords better with the spirit of our times to +conceive of civilization as a natural manifestation of life in the +course of human evolution, but one with most interesting +complications. We are concerned, however, not with what is ingenious, +but with what is true. In this case the simple is the true—the +inconvenient truth with which it is our laborious task to deal. + + * * * * * + +The attempts to distinguish between civilization as what the Germans +call “Kultur” and civilization as mere material progress aim at making +the world familiar with the idea of an unethical form of civilization +side by side with the ethical, and at clothing the former with a word +of historical meaning. But nothing in the history of the word +“civilization” justifies such attempts. The word, as commonly used +hitherto, means the same as the German “Kultur”, viz., the development +of man to a state of higher organization and a higher [pg 039] moral +standard. Some languages prefer one word; others prefer the other. The +German usually speaks of “Kultur”, the Frenchman usually of +“civilisation”, but the establishment of a difference between them is +justified neither philologically nor historically. We can speak of +ethical and unethical “Kultur” or of ethical and unethical +“civilisation”, but not of “Kultur” and “civilisation”. + +But how did it come about that we lost the idea that the ethical has a +decisive meaning and value as part of civilization? + +All attempts at civilization hitherto have been a matter of processes +in which the forces of progress were at work in almost every +department of life. Great achievements in art, architecture, +administration, economics, industry, commerce, and colonization +succeeded each other with a spiritual impetus which produced a higher +conception of the universe. Any ebb of the tide of civilization made +itself felt in the material sphere as well as in the ethical and +spiritual, earlier, as a rule, in the former than in the latter. Thus +in Greek civilization there set in as early as the time of Aristotle +an incomprehensible arrest of science and political achievement, +whereas the ethical movement only reached its completion in the +following centuries in that great work of education which was +undertaken in the ancient [pg 040] world by the Stoic philosophy. In +the Chinese, Indian and Jewish civilizations ability in dealing with +material things was from the start, and always remained, at a lower +level than the spiritual and ethical efforts of these races. + +In the movement of civilization which began with the Renaissance, +there were both material and spiritual-ethical forces of progress at +work side by side, as though in rivalry with each other, and this +continued down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then, +however, something unprecedented happened: man’s ethical energy died +away, while the conquests achieved by his spirit in the material +sphere increased by leaps and bounds. Thus for several decades our +civilization enjoyed the great advantages of its material progress +while as yet it hardly felt the consequences of the dying down of the +ethical movement. People lived on in the conditions produced. By that +movement without seeing clearly that their position was no longer a +tenable one and preparing to face the storm that was brewing in the +relations between the nations and within the nations themselves. In +this way our own age, having never taken the trouble to reflect, +arrived at the opinion that civilization consists primarily in +scientific, technical and artistic achievements, and that it can reach +its goal without ethics, or, at any rate, with a minimum of them. + +[pg 041] + +Public opinion bowed down before this merely external conception of +civilization because it was exclusively represented by persons whose +position in society and scientific culture seemed to show them to be +competent to judge in matters of the spiritual life. + + * * * * * + +What was the result of our giving up the ethical conception of +civilization, and therewith all attempts to bring reasoned ethical +ideals into effective relation with reality? It was that instead of +using thought to produce ideals which fitted in with reality, we left +reality without any ideals at all. Instead of discussing together the +essential elements, such as population, State, Church, society, +progress, which decide the character of our social development and +that of mankind generally, we contented ourselves with starting from +what is given by experience. Only forces and tendencies which were +already at work were to be considered. Fundamental truths and +convictions which ought to produce logical or ethical compulsion we +would no longer acknowledge. We refused to believe that any ideas +could be applicable to reality except those derived from experience. +Thus ideals which had been knowingly and intentionally lowered +dominated our spiritual life and the whole world. + +[pg 042] + +How we glorified our practical common-sense, which was to give us such +power in dealing with the world! Yet we were behaving, really, like +boys who give themselves up exultingly to the forces of nature and +whizz down a hill on their toboggan without asking themselves whether +they will be able to steer their vehicle successfully when they come +to the next bend or the next unexpected obstacle. + +It is only a conviction which is based upon reasoned ethical ideals +that is capable of producing free activity, _i.e._, activity +deliberately planned with a view to its object. In proportion as +ideals taken from the workaday world are combined with it, reality +influences reality. But then the human soul acts merely as an agent of +debasing change. + +Events which are to produce practical results within us are worked +upon and moulded by our mentality. This mentality has a certain +character, and on that character depends the nature of those +value-judgments which rule our relation to facts. + +Normally this character is to be found in the reasoned ideas which our +reflection upon reality brings into existence. If these disappear +there is not left a void in which “events in themselves” can affect +us, but the control of our mentality passes now to the opinions and +feelings which hitherto have been ruled and kept under by our reasoned +ideas. When the virgin forest is cut down, brushwood [pg 043] springs +up where the big trees were formerly. Whenever our great convictions +are destroyed their place is taken by smaller ones which carry out in +inferior fashion the functions of the former. + +With the giving up of ethical ideals which accompanies our passion for +reality our practical efficiency is not, therefore, improved, but +diminished. It does not make the man of to-day a cool observer and +calculator such as he supposes himself to be, for he is under the +influence of opinions and emotions which are created in him by facts. +All unconsciously he mixes with what is the work of his reason so much +of what is emotional that the one spoils the other. Within this circle +move the judgments and impulses of our society, whether we deal with +the largest questions or the smallest. Individuals and nations alike, +we deal indiscriminately with real and imaginary values, and it is +just this confused medley of real and unreal, of sober thought and +capacity for enthusiasm for the unmeaning, that makes the mentality of +the modern man so puzzling and so dangerous. + +Our sense of reality, then, means this, that, as a result of emotional +and short-sighted calculations of advantage, we let one fact issue +immediately in another, and so on indefinitely. As we are not +consciously aiming at any definitely planned goal, our activity may +really be described as a kind of natural happening. + +[pg 044] + +We react to facts in the most irrational way. Without plan or +foundations we build our future into the circumstances of the time and +leave it exposed to the destructive effects of the chaotic jostling +that goes on amongst them. “Firm ground at last”! we cry, and sink +helpless in the stream of events. + + * * * * * + +The blindness with which we endure this fate is made worse by our +belief in our historical sense, which, in this connection, is nothing +else than our sense of reality prolonged backwards. We believe +ourselves to be a critical generation which, thanks to its thorough +knowledge of the past, is in a position to understand the direction +which events are destined to take from the present to the future. We +add to the ideals which have been taken from existing reality others +which we borrow from history. + +The achievements of historical science reached by the nineteenth +century do, indeed, deserve our admiration, but it is another question +whether our generation, for all its possession of an historical +science, possesses a true historical sense. + +Historical sense, in the full meaning of the term, implies a critical +objectivity in the face of far-off and recent events alike. To keep +this faculty free from the bias of opinions and interests when we are +[pg 045] estimating facts is a power which even our historians do not +possess. As long as they are dealing with a period so remote that it +has no bearing on the present they are critical so far as the views of +the school to which they belong allow it. But if the past stands in +any real connection with “to-day”, we can perceive at once in their +estimate the influence of their particular standpoint, rational, +religious, social or economic. + +It is significant that while during the last few decades the learning +of our historians has, no doubt, increased, their critical objectivity +has not. Previous investigators kept this ideal before their eyes in +much greater purity than have those of to-day; we have gone so far +that we no longer seriously make the demand that in scientific +dealings with the past there shall be a suppression of all prejudices +which spring from nationality or creed. It is quite common nowadays to +see the greatest learning bound up with the strongest bias. In our +historical literature the highest positions are occupied by works +written with propagandist aims. + +So little educative influence has science had on our historians that +they have often espoused as passionately as anyone the opinions of +their own people instead of calling the latter to a thoughtful +estimate of the facts, as was their duty to their profession; they +have remained nothing but men [pg 046] of learning. They have not even +started on the task for which they entered the service of +civilization, and the hopes of civilization, which in the middle of +the nineteenth century rested on the rise of a science of history, +have been as little fulfilled as those which were bound up with the +demand for national States and democratic forms of government. + +The generation that has been brought up by teachers such as these has +naturally not much idea of an elevated or active conception of events. +Accurately viewed, its characteristic feature is not so much that we +understand our past better than earlier generations understood theirs, +but rather that we attribute to the past an extraordinarily increased +meaning for the present. Now and again we actually substitute it for +the latter. It is not enough for us that what has been is present in +its results in what now is; we want to have it always with us, and to +feel ourselves determined by it. + +In this effort to be continually experiencing our historical process +of becoming, and to acknowledge it, we replace our normal relation to +the past by an artificial one, and wishing to find within the past the +whole of our present, we misuse it in order to deduce from it, and to +legitimize by an appeal to it, our claims, our opinions, our feelings +and our passions. Under the very eyes of our historical learning there +springs up a manufactured history for popular use, [pg 047] in which +the current national and confessional ideas are unreservedly approved +and upheld, and our school history books become regular culture beds +of historical lies. + +The misuse of history is a necessity for us. The ideas and +dispositions which rule us cannot be justified by reason; nothing is +left for us but to give them foundations in history. + +It is significant that we have no real interest in what is valuable in +the past. Its great spiritual achievements are mechanically +registered, but we do not let ourselves be touched by them. Still less +do we accept them as a heritage; nothing has any value for us except +what can be squared with our plans, passions, feelings, and æsthetic +moods of to-day. With these we live ourselves by lies into the past, +and then assert with unshaken assurance that we have our roots in it. + +This is the character of the reverence we pay to history. Blinded by +what we consider or declare to be past and done with, we lose all +sense for what is to happen, so that of nothing can we say: “It is +finished,” nothing now gets accomplished. Again and again we let what +is past rise up artificially in what is present, and endow bygone +facts with a persistence of being which makes wholly impossible the +normal development of our peoples. Just as our sense of reality makes +us lose ourselves in [pg 048] present-day events, so does our +historical compel us to do the same in those of the past. + + * * * * * + +From these two things, our sense of reality and our historical sense, +is born the nationalism to which we must refer the external +catastrophe in which the decadence of our civilization finds its +completion. + +What is nationalism? It is an ignoble patriotism, exaggerated till it +has lost all meaning, which bears the same relation to the noble and +healthy kind as the fixed idea of an imbecile does to normal +conviction. + +How does it develop among us? + +About the beginning of the nineteenth century the course of thought +gave the national State its rightful position, starting for this from +the axiom that it, as a natural and homogeneous organism, was better +calculated than any other to make the ideal of the civilized State a +working reality. In Fichte’s addresses to the German nation the +nation-State is summoned to the bar of the moral reason and learns +that it has to submit in all things to the latter. It gives the +necessary promise and straightway receives a commission to bring the +civilized State into existence. It is given emphatically to understand +that it must recognize as its highest task the [pg 049] continuous and +steady development of the purely human element in the nation’s life. +It is to seek greatness by representing the ideas which can bring +healing to the nations. Its citizens are urged to show their +membership of it not through the lower, but through the higher, +patriotism, that is, not to overvalue its external greatness and +power, but to be careful to take for their aim “the unfolding of what +is eternal and Godlike in the world,” and to see that their objects +coincide with the highest aims of humanity. Thus national feeling is +placed under the guardianship of reason, morality and civilization. +The cult of patriotism as such is to be considered as barbarism; it +does, indeed, announce itself to be such by the purposeless wars which +it necessarily brings in its train. + +In this way the idea of nationality was raised to the level of a +valuable ideal of civilization. When civilization began to decline, +its other ideals all fell also, but the idea of nationality maintained +itself because it had transferred itself to the sphere of reality. It +incorporated henceforward all that remained of civilization, and +became the ideal which summed up all others. Here, then, we have the +explanation of the mentality of our age, which concentrates all the +enthusiasm of which it is capable on the idea of nationality, and +believes itself to possess in that all moral and spiritual good +things. + +[pg 050] + +But with the decay of civilization the character of the idea of +nationality changed. The guardianship exercised over it by the other +moral ideals to which it had hitherto been subordinate now ceased, +since these were themselves on trial, and the nationalist idea began a +career of independence. It asserted, of course, that it was working in +the service of civilization, but it was, in truth, only an idea of +reality with a halo of civilization round it, and it was guided by no +ethical ideals, but only by the instincts which deal with reality. + +That reason and morality shall not be allowed to contribute a word to +the formation of nationalist ideas and aspirations is demanded by the +mass of men to-day as a sparing of their holiest feelings. + +If in earlier times the decay of civilization did not produce any such +confusion in the sentiments of the various nations, this was because +the idea of nationality had not then been raised in the same way to be +the ideal of civilization. It was, therefore, impossible that it +should insinuate itself into the place of the true ideals of +civilization, and through abnormal nationalist conceptions and +dispositions bring into active existence an elaborate system of +uncivilization. + +That in nationalism we have to do not so much with things as with the +unhealthy way in which they [pg 051] are dealt with in the imagination +of the crowd, is clear from its whole behaviour. It claims to be +following a policy of practical results (Realpolitik); in reality it +by no means represents the uncompromisingly businesslike view of all +the questions of home and foreign policy, but side by side with its +egoism displays a certain amount of enthusiasm. Its practical policy +is an over-valuation of certain questions of territorial economic +interests, an over-valuation which has been elevated to a dogma and +idealized, and is now supported by popular sentiment. It fights for +its demands without having established any properly thought-out +calculation of their real value. In order to be able to dispute the +possession of millions of value, the modern State loaded itself with +armaments costing hundreds of millions. Meaning to care for the +protection and extension of its trade, it loaded the latter with +imposts which imperilled its power of competing with its rivals much +more than did any of the measures taken by those rivals. + +Its practical politics were, therefore, in truth impracticable +politics, because they allowed popular sentiment to come in, and +thereby made the simplest questions insoluble. This style of politics +put economic interests in the shop window, while it kept in the +warehouse the ideas about greatness and conquest which belong to +nationalism. + +[pg 052] + +Every civilized State, in order to increase its power, gathered allies +wherever it could. Thus half-civilized and uncivilized races were +summoned by civilized ones to fight against the civilized neighbours +of the latter, and these helpers were not content with the subordinate +_rôle_ which had been assigned to them. They acquired more and more +influence on the course of events, till they were at last in a +position to decide when the civilized nations of Europe should begin +to fight each other about them. Thus has Nemesis come upon us for +abandoning our wishes and betraying to the uncivilized world all that +we still possessed of things that were of universal value. + +It was significant of the unhealthy character of nationalism’s +“practical” politics that it tried in every possible way to deck +itself out with a tinsel imitation of idealism. The struggle for power +became one for right and civilization; the alliances for the promotion +of their selfish interests which various nations made with one another +against all the rest were made to appear to be friendships and +spiritual affinities. As such they were dated back into the past, even +though history had a great deal more to say about hereditary quarrels +than about spiritual relationships. + + * * * * * + +[pg 053] + +Finally, nationalism was not content with putting aside, in the sphere +of politics generally, all attempts to bring into existence a really +civilized humanity; it distorted the very idea of civilization itself +and talked of national civilization. + +Once there was what was known just simply as civilization, and every +civilized nation strove to possess it in its purest and most fully +developed form. In this respect nationality had in the idea of +civilization at that time something much more original and less spoilt +than it has in the same idea to-day. If, in spite of this, there was +no impulse among the nations to separate the spiritual life of each +from that of its neighbours, we have a proof that nationality is not +in itself the strong element in the people that demanded this. Such a +claim as is made to-day to have a _national civilization_ is an +unhealthy phenomenon. It presupposes that the civilized peoples of +to-day have lost their healthy nature, and no longer follow instincts, +but theories. They percuss and sound their souls to such an extent +that these are no longer capable of any natural action. They analyse +and describe them so continuously that in thinking of what they ought +to be they forget what they actually are. Questions of spiritual +differences between races are discussed so subtly, and with such +obstinacy and dogmatism, that the talk works like an obsession, and +the [pg 054] peculiarities that are said to exist make their +appearance like imaginary diseases. + +In every department of life more and more effort is devoted to making +clearly visible in the results which follow from them the emotions, +the ideas, and the reasonings of the mass of the people. Any +peculiarity preserved and fostered in this way shows that its natural +counterpart has perished. The individual element in the personality of +a people no longer, as something unconscious or half conscious, plays +with varying lights on the totality of the nation’s spiritual life. It +becomes an artifice, a fashion, a self-advertisement, a mania. There +is bred in the nation a mass of thought, the serious results of which +in every department become more evident year by year. The spiritual +life of some of the leading civilized nations has already, in +comparison with earlier days, taken on a monotonous tone such as makes +an observer feel anxious. + +The unnatural character of this development shows itself not only in +its results, but in the part which it allows to be played by conceit, +self-importance, and self-deception. Anything valuable in a +personality or a successful undertaking is attributed to some special +excellence in the national character. Foreign soil is assumed to be +incapable of producing the same or anything similar, and in most +countries this vanity has grown to such a [pg 055] height that the +greatest follies are no longer beyond its reach. + +It goes without saying that there follows a serious decline in the +spiritual element in the national civilization. The spirituality is, +moreover, only a kind of disguise; it has in reality an avowedly +materialist character. It is a distillation from all the external +achievements of the nation in question and appears in partnership with +its economic and political demands. While alleged to be grounded in +the national peculiarities, nationalist civilization will not, as we +should normally expect, remain limited to the nation itself; it feels +called upon to impose itself upon others and make them happy! Modern +nations seek markets for their civilization, as they do for their +manufactures! + +National civilization, therefore, is matter for propaganda and for +export, and the necessary publicity is secured by liberal expenditure. +The necessary phrases can be obtained ready-made and need only be +strung together. Thus the world has inflicted on it a competition +between national civilizations, and between these civilization itself +comes off badly. + +The nations of Europe entered the Middle Ages side by side as the +heirs of the Greco-Roman world, and lived side by side with the freest +mutual intercourse through the Renaissance, the period of the [pg 056] +Illuminati, and of the philosophy of more recent times. But we no +longer believe that they, with their offshoots in the other +continents, form an indivisible unit of civilization. If, however, in +this latest age, the differences in their spiritual life have begun to +stand out more distinctly, the cause of it is that the level of +civilization has sunk. When the tide ebbs, shallows which separate +bodies of deep water become visible; while the tide is flowing they +are out of sight. + +How closely the nations which form the great body of civilized +humanity are still interrelated spiritually is shown by the fact that +they have all side by side suffered the same decadence. + + * * * * * + +With our sense of reality is bound up, further, the false confidence +which we have in facts. We live in an atmosphere of optimism, as if +the contradictions which show themselves in the world arranged +themselves automatically so as to promote well-thought-out progress, +and reconciled themselves in syntheses in which the valuable parts of +the thesis and the antithesis coalesced. + +In justification of this optimism appeal is made, both rightly and +wrongly, to Hegel. It cannot be denied that he is the spiritual father +of our sense of reality; he is the first thinker who tried to be just +[pg 057] to things as they exist. We have been trained by him to +realize the method of progress in thesis, antithesis, and synthesis as +they show themselves in the course of events. But his optimism was not +a simple optimism about facts, as ours is. He lived still in the +spiritual world of rationalism, and believed in the power of ethical +ideas worked out by reason; that was why he believed also in the +certainty of uninterrupted spiritual progress. And it was because this +was something upon which he could rely that he undertook to show how +it was to be seen in the successive phases of events, and at the same +time how it made itself a reality in the stream of outward facts. By +emphasizing, however, the progressive purpose, which he finds immanent +in the course of events, so strongly that it is possible to forget the +ethical-spiritual presuppositions of his belief in progress, he is +preparing the way for the despiritualized optimism about reality which +has for decades been misleading us. Between the facts themselves there +is nothing but an endless series of contradictions.The fresh mediating +fact in which they counteract each other so as to make progress +possible they cannot of themselves produce. This fact can only assert +itself if the contradictions resolve themselves in a reasoned view in +which there are ethical ideas about the condition of things which [pg +058] it is sought to realize. These are the formative principles for +the new element which is to arise out of the contradictories, and it +is only in this reasoned ethical view that the latter cease to be +blind, leading to no issue. + +It was because we assumed the existence of principles, of progress, in +the facts, that we viewed the advance of history, in which our future +was being prepared, as progress in civilization, even though evolution +condemned our optimism. And even now, when facts of the most terrible +character cry out loudly against it, we shrink from giving up our +creed. It no longer, indeed, gives us any real enlightenment, but the +alternative, which bases optimism on belief in the ethical spirit, +means such a revolution in our mode of thought that we find it +difficult to take it into consideration. + +With our reliance upon facts is bound up our reliance on +organizations. The activities and the aims of our time are penetrated +by a kind of obsession that if we could only succeed in perfecting or +reforming in one direction or another the institutions of our public +and social life, the progress demanded by civilization would begin of +itself. We are, indeed, far enough from unanimity as to the plan +needed for the reform of our arrangements: one section sketches out an +anti-democratic plan; [pg 059] others believe that our mistake lies in +the fact that democratic principles have not yet been applied +consistently; others, again, see salvation only in a Socialist or +Communist organization of society. But all agree in attributing our +present condition, with its absence of true civilization, to a failure +of our institutions; all look for the attainment of such civilization +to a new organization of society; all unite in thinking that with new +institutions there would arise a new spirit. + + * * * * * + +In this terrible confusion are entangled not only the unreflecting +masses, but also many of the most earnest amongst us. The materialism +of our age has reversed the relation between the spiritual and the +actual. It believes that something with spiritual value can result +from the working of facts. It was even expected that the war would +bring us a spiritual regeneration! In reality, however, the relation +between them works in the opposite direction. A spiritual element of +real value can, if it is present, influence the moulding of reality so +as to bring about desired results, and can thus produce facts in +support of itself. All institutions and organizations have only a +relative significance. With the most diverse social and political [pg +060] arrangements, the various civilized nations have all sunk to the +same depth of barbarism. What we have experienced, and are still +experiencing, must surely convince us that the spirit is everything +and that institutions count for very little. Our institutions are a +failure because the spirit of barbarism is at work in them. The best +planned improvements in the organization of our society (though we are +quite right in trying to secure them) cannot help us at all until we +become at the same time capable of imparting a new spirit to our age. + +The difficult problems with which we have to deal, even those which +lie entirely in the material and economic sphere, are in the last +resort only to be solved by an inner change of character. The wisest +reforms in organization can only carry them a little nearer solution, +never to the goal. The only conceivable way of bringing about a +reconstruction of our world on new lines is first of all to become new +men ourselves under the old circumstances, and then as a society in a +new frame of mind so to smooth out the opposition between nations that +a condition of true civilization may again become possible. Everything +else is more or less wasted labour, because we are thereby building +not on the spirit, but on what is merely external. + +In the sphere of human events which decide the future of mankind +reality consists in an inner [pg 061] conviction, not in given outward +facts. Firm ground for our feet we find in reasoned ethical ideals. +Are we going to draw from the spirit strength to create new conditions +and turn our faces again to civilization, or are we going to continue +to draw our spirit from our surroundings and go down with it to ruin? +That is the fateful question with which we are confronted. + +The true sense for reality is that insight which tells us that only +through ethical ideas about things can we arrive at a normal relation +to reality. Only so can man and society win all the power over events +that they are able to use. Without that power we are, whatever we may +choose to do, delivered over into bondage to them. + +What is going on to-day between nations and within them throws a +glaring illumination upon this truth. The history of our time is +characterized by a lack of reason which has no parallel in the past. +Future historians will one day analyse this history in detail, and +test by means of it their learning and their freedom from prejudice. +But for all future times there will be, as there is for to-day, only +one explanation, viz., that we sought to live and to carry on with a +civilization which had no ethical principle behind it. + + + + +[pg 062] + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WAY TO THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION + + +Civilization-ideals have become powerless. Evolution and decay in the +history of civilization. The reform of institutions and the reform of +convictions. The individual as the sole agent of the restoration of +civilization. The difficulties which beset the restoration of +civilization. + +The ethical conception of civilization, then, is the only one that can +be justified. + +But where is the road that can bring us back from barbarism to +civilization? Is there such a road at all? + +The unethical conception of civilization answers: “No.” To it all +symptoms of decay are symptoms of old age, and civilization, just like +any other natural process of growth, must after a certain period of +time reach its final end. There is nothing, therefore, for us to do, +so it says, but to take the causes of this as quite natural, and do +our best at any rate to find interesting the unedifying phenomena of +its senility, which testify to the gradual loss of the ethical +character of civilization. + +In the thinking then which surrenders itself to our sense of reality, +optimism and pessimism are inextricably intermingled. If our optimism +about [pg 063] reality is proved untenable, the optimism which thinks +that continuous progress evolves itself among the facts as such, then +the spirit which from above contemplates and analyses the situation +turns without much concern to the mild pessimistic supposition that +civilization has reached its Indian summer. + +The ethical spirit cannot join in this little game of “Optimism or +pessimism?” It sees the symptoms of decay as what they really are, +viz., something terrible. It asks itself with a shudder what will +become of the world if this dying process really goes on unchecked. +The condition of civilization is a source of pain to it, for +civilization is not an object which it is interesting to analyse, but +the hope on which its thoughts fly out over the future existence of +the race. Belief in the possibility of a renewal of civilization is an +actual part of its life; that is why it can no longer quiet itself +with what contents the sense of reality as it hovers between optimism +and pessimism. + +Those who regard the decay of civilization as something quite normal +and natural console themselves with the thought that it is not +civilization, but a civilization, which is falling a prey to +dissolution; that there will be a new age and a new race in which +there will blossom a new civilization. But that is a mistake. The +earth no longer has in reserve, as it had once, gifted peoples as yet +unused, [pg 064] who can relieve us and take our place in some distant +future as leaders of the spiritual life. We already know all those +which the earth has to dispose of. There is not one among them which +is not already taking such a part in our civilization that its +spiritual fate is determined by our own. All of them, the gifted and +the ungifted, the distant and the near, have felt the influence of +those forces of barbarism which are at work among us. All of them are, +like ourselves, diseased, and only as we recover can they recover. + +It is not the civilization of a race, but that of mankind, present and +future alike, that we must give up as lost, if belief in a rebirth of +our civilization is a vain thing. + +But it need not be so given up. If the ethical is the essential +element in civilization, decadence changes into renaissance as soon as +ethical activities are set to work again in our convictions and in the +ideas which we undertake to stamp upon reality. The attempt to bring +this about is well worth making, and it should be world-wide. + +It is true that the difficulties that have to be reckoned with in this +undertaking are so great that only the strongest faith in the power of +the ethical spirit will let us venture on it. + +First among them towers up the inability of our generation to +understand what is and must be. [pg 065] The men of the Renaissance +and the Illuminati of the eighteenth century drew courage to desire +the renewal of the world through ideas from their conviction of the +absolute indefensibility of the material and spiritual conditions +under which they lived. Unless with us, too, the many come to some +such conviction, we must continue incapable of taking in hand this +work, in which we must imitate them. But the many obstinately refuse +to see things as they are, and hold with all their might to the most +optimistic view of them that is possible. For this power, however, of +idealizing with continually lowering ideals the reality which is felt +to be ever less and less satisfying, pessimism also is partly +responsible. Our generation, though so proud of its many achievements, +no longer believes in the one thing which is all-essential: the +spiritual advance of mankind. Having given up the expectation of this, +it can put up with the present age without feeling such suffering as +would compel it, for very pain, to long for a new one. What a task it +will be to break the fetters of unthinking optimism and unthinking +pessimism which hold us prisoners, and so to do what will pave the way +for the renewal of civilization! + +A second difficulty besetting the work which lies before us is that it +is a piece of reconstruction. The ideas of civilization which our age +needs are not new [pg 066] and strange to it. They have been in the +possession of mankind already, and are to be found in many an +antiquated formula. We have fundamentally nothing else to do than to +restore to them the respect in which they were once held, and again +regard them seriously as we bring them into relation with the reality +which lies before us for treatment. + +To make what is used up usable—is there a harder task? “It is an +impossible one,” says history. “Never hitherto have worn-out ideas +risen to new power among the peoples who have worn them out. Their +disappearance has always been a final one.” + +That is true. In the history of civilization we find nothing but +discouragement for our task. Anyone who finds history speaking +optimistically lends her a language which is not her own. + +Yet from the history of the past we can infer only what has been, not +what will be. Even if it proves that no single people has ever lived +through the decay of its civilization and a rebirth of it, we know at +once that this, which has never happened yet, must happen with us, and +therefore we cannot be content to say that the reasoned ethical ideas +on which civilization rests get worn out in the course of history, and +console ourselves with the reflection that this is exactly in +accordance with the ordinary processes of nature. We require to know +why it has [pg 067] so happened hitherto, and to draw an explanation, +not from the analogy of nature, but from the laws of spiritual life. +We want to get into our hands the key of the secret, so that we may +with it unlock the new age, the age in which the worn out becomes +again unworn and the spiritual and ethical can no longer get worn out. +We must study the history of civilization otherwise than as our +predecessors did, or we shall be finally lost. + +Why do not thoughts which contribute to civilization retain the +convincing power which they once had, and which they deserve on +account of their content? Why do they lose the evidential force of +their moral and rational character? Why do traditional truths cease to +be realities and pass from mouth to mouth as mere phrases? + + * * * * * + +Is this an unavoidable fate, or is the well drying up because our +thinking did not go down to the permanent level of the water? + +Moreover, it is not merely that the past survives among us as +something valueless; it may cast a poisonous shade over us. There are +thoughts on which we have never let our minds work directly because we +found them ready formulated in history. Ideas which we have inherited +do not let the truth [pg 068] which is in them come out into active +service, but show it through a kind of dead mask. The worn out +achievements which pass over from a decadent civilization into the +current of a new age often become like rejected products of +metabolism, and act as poisons. + +Granted that the Teutonic nations received a powerful stimulus to +civilization at the Renaissance by reverting to the ideas of +Greco-Roman thinkers, not less true is it that for many centuries they +had been kept by that same Greco-Roman civilization in a condition of +spiritual dependence which was wholly in contradiction to their native +character. They took over from it decadent ideas which were for a long +time a hindrance to their normal spiritual life, and thence came that +strange mixture of strength and weakness which is the chief +characteristic of the Middle Ages. The dangerous elements in the +Greco-Roman civilization of the past still show themselves in our +spiritual life. It is because Oriental and Greek conceptions which +have had their day are still current among us that we bleed to death +over problems which otherwise would have no existence for us. How much +we suffer from the one fact that to-day and for several centuries past +our thoughts about religion have been under the hereditary foreign +domination of Jewish transcendentalism and Greek metaphysics, and, +instead of [pg 069] being able to express themselves naturally, have +suffered continual distortion! + +Because ideas get worn out in this way, and in this condition hinder +the thinking of later generations, there is no continuity in the +spiritual progress of mankind, but only a confused succession of ups +and downs. The threads get broken, or knotted, or lost, or when tied +up again get tied wrongly. Hitherto it has been thought possible to +interpret this up-and-down movement optimistically because it was +universally held that the Renaissance and the age of the Illuminati +were quite natural successors of the Greco-Roman civilization, and it +was assumed further that, as a permanent result of this, renewed +civilizations would spring up in the place of exhausted ones, and thus +continual progress be assured. But this generalization cannot +justifiably be drawn from such observations. It was because new +peoples came on the scene, who had been only superficially touched by +the decadent civilizations and now produced others of their own, that +it was possible to see this succession of ups and downs ending in an +ascent. As a matter of fact, however, our newer civilization was not +in any organic connection with the Greco-Roman, even if it did take +its first steps with the help of the crutches which the latter +provided; it may be [pg 070] described more truly as the reaction of a +healthy spirit against the worn out ideas which were thus offered to +it. The essential element in the process was the contact of what was +worn out with the fresh thought of young peoples. + +To-day, however, all our thought is losing its power in its contact +with the worn-out ideas of our expiring civilization, or—in the case +of the Hindus and the Chinese—of our own and other expiring +civilizations. The up-and-down movement will end, therefore, not in +slow progress, but in unbroken descent—unless we can succeed in giving +the worn out ideas a renewal of their youth. + + * * * * * + +Another great difficulty in the way of the regeneration of our +civilization lies in the fact that it must be an internal process, and +not an external as well, and that, therefore, there is no place for +healthy co-operation between the material and the spiritual. From the +Renaissance to the middle of the nineteenth century the men who +carried on the work of civilization could expect help towards +spiritual progress from achievements in the sphere of external +organization. Demands in each of these spheres stood side by side in +their programme and were pushed on simultaneously. They were convinced +that while working to transform [pg 071] the institutions of public +life they were producing results which would call forth the +development of the new spiritual life. Success in one sphere +strengthened at once the hopes and the energies that were at work in +the other. They laboured for the progressive democratization of the +State with the idea of thereby spreading through the world the rule of +grace and justice. + +We, who have lived to see the spiritual bankruptcy of all the +institutions which they created, can no longer work in this way +simultaneously at the reform of institutions and the revival of the +spiritual element. The help which such co-operation would give is +denied us. We cannot even reckon any longer on the old co-operation +between knowledge and thought. Once these two were allies. The latter +fought for freedom and in so doing made a road for the former, and, on +the other hand, all the results attained by knowledge worked for the +general good of the spiritual life in that the reign of law in nature +was more and more clearly demonstrated, and the reign of prejudice was +becoming continually more restricted. The alliance also strengthened +the thought that the well-being of mankind must be based upon +spiritual laws. Thus knowledge and thought joined in establishing the +authority of reason and the rational tone of mind. + +[pg 072] + +To-day thought gets no help from science, and the latter stands facing +it independent and unconcerned. The newest scientific knowledge may be +allied with an entirely unreflecting view of the universe. It +maintains that it is concerned only with the establishment of +individual facts, since it is only by means of these that scientific +knowledge can maintain its practical character; the co-ordination of +the different branches of knowledge and the utilization of the results +to form a theory of the universe are, it says, not its business. Once +every man of science was also a thinker who counted for something in +the general spiritual life of his generation. Our age has discovered +how to divorce knowledge from thought, with the result that we have, +indeed, a science which is free, but hardly any science left which +reflects. + +Thus we no longer have available for the renewal of our spiritual life +any of the natural external helps which we used to have. We are called +upon for a single kind of effort only, and have to work like men who +are rebuilding the damaged foundations of a cathedral under the weight +of the massive building. There is no progress in the world of +phenomena to encourage us to persevere; an immense revolution has to +be brought about without the aid of any collateral revolutionary +activities. + + * * * * * + +[pg 073] + +Again, the renewal of civilization is hindered by the fact that it is +so exclusively the individual personality which must be looked to as +the agent in the new movement. + +The renewal of civilization has nothing to do with movements which +bear the character of experiences of the crowd; there are never +anything but reactions to external happenings. But civilization can +only revive when there shall come into being in a number of +individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among +the crowd and in opposition to it, a tone of mind which will gradually +win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its +character. It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the +slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in +individuals. + +The final decision as to what the future of a society shall be depends +not on how near its organization is to perfection, but on the degrees +of worthiness in its individual members. The most important, and yet +the least easily determinable, element in history is the series of +unobtrusive general changes which take place in the individual +dispositions of the many. These are what precede and cause the +happenings, and this is why it is so difficult to understand +thoroughly the men and the [pg 074] events of past times. The +character and worth of individuals among the mass and the way they +work themselves into membership of the whole body, receiving +influences from it and giving others back, we can even to-day only +partially and uncertainly understand. + +One thing, however, is clear. Where the collective body works more +strongly on the individual than the latter does upon it, the result is +deterioration, because the noble element on which everything depends, +viz., the spiritual and moral worthiness of the individual, is thereby +necessarily constricted and hampered. Decay of the spiritual and moral +life then sets in, which renders society incapable of understanding +and solving the problems which it has to face. Thereupon, sooner or +later, it is involved in catastrophe. + +That is the condition in which we are now, and that is why it is the +duty of individuals to rise to a higher conception of their +capabilities and undertake again the function which only the +individual can perform, that of producing new spiritual-ethical ideas. +If this does not come about in a multitude of cases nothing can save +us. + +A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The +existing one is maintained by the Press, by propaganda, by +organization, and by financial and other influences which are at its +[pg 075] disposal. This unnatural way of spreading ideas must be +opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies +solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for +new truth. Unarmed, and following the human spirit’s primitive and +natural fighting method, it must attack the other, which faces it, as +Goliath faced David, in the mighty armour of the age. + +About the struggle which must needs ensue no historical analogy can +tell us much. The past has, no doubt, seen the struggle of the +free-thinking individual against the fettered spirit of a whole +society, but the problem has never presented itself on the scale on +which it does to-day, because the fettering of the collective spirit +as it is fettered to-day by modern organizations, modern +unreflectiveness, and modern popular passions, is a phenomenon without +precedent in history. + + * * * * * + +Will the man of to-day have strength to carry out what the spirit +demands from him, and what the age would like to make impossible? + +In the over-organized societies which in a hundred ways have him in +their power, is he destined to become once more an independent +personality and [pg 076] to exert influence back upon them? They will +use every means to keep him in that condition of impersonality which +suits them. They fear personality because the spirit and the truth, +which they would like to muzzle, find in it a means of expressing +themselves. And their power is, unfortunately, as great as their fear. + +There is a tragic alliance between society as a whole and its economic +conditions. With a grim relentlessness those conditions tend to bring +up the man of to-day as a being without freedom, without +self-collectedness, without independence, in short as a human being so +full of deficiencies that he lacks the qualities of humanity. And they +are the last things that we can change. Even if it should be granted +us that the spirit should begin its work, we shall only slowly and +incompletely gain power over these forces. There is, in fact, being +demanded from the will that which our conditions of life refuse to +allow. + +And how heavy the tasks that the spirit has to take in hand! It has to +create the power of understanding the truth that is really true where +at present nothing is current but propagandist truth. It has to depose +ignoble patriotism, and enthrone the noble kind of patriotism which +aims at ends that are worthy of the whole of mankind, in circles where +the hopeless issues of past and present [pg 077] political activities +keep nationalist passions aglow even among those who in their hearts +would fain be free from them. It has to get the fact that civilization +is an interest of all men and of humanity as a whole recognized again +in places where national civilization is to-day worshipped as an idol, +and the notion of a humanity with a common civilization lies broken to +fragments. It has to maintain our faith in the civilized State, even +though our modern States, spiritually and economically ruined by the +war, have no time to think about the tasks of civilization, and dare +not devote their attention to anything but how to use every possible +means, even those which undermine the conception of justice, to +collect money with which to prolong their own existence. It has to +unite us by giving us a single ideal of civilized man, and this in a +world where one nation has robbed its neighbour of all faith in +humanity, idealism, righteousness, reasonableness, and truthfulness, +and all alike have come under the domination of powers which are +plunging us ever deeper into barbarism. It has to get attention +concentrated on civilization while the growing difficulty of making a +living absorbs the masses more and more in material cares, and makes +all other things seem to them to be mere shadows. It has to give us +faith in the possibility of [pg 078] progress while the reaction of +the economic on the spiritual becomes more pernicious every day and +contributes to an ever growing demoralization. It has to provide us +with a capacity for hope at a time when not only secular and religious +institutions and associations, but the men, too, who are looked upon +as leaders, continually fail us, when artists and men of learning show +themselves as supporters of barbarism, and notabilities who pass for +thinkers, and behave outwardly as such, are revealed, when crises +come, as being nothing more than writers and members of academies. + +All these hindrances stand in the path of the will to civilization. A +dull despair hovers about us. How well we now understand the men of +the Greco-Roman decadence, who stood before events incapable of +resistance, and, leaving the world to its fate, withdrew upon their +inner selves! Like them, we are bewildered by our experience of life. +Like them, we hear enticing voices which say to us that the one thing +which can still make life tolerable is to live for the day. We must, +we are told, renounce every wish to think or hope about anything +beyond our own fate. We must find rest in resignation. + +The recognition that civilization is founded on some sort of theory of +the universe, and can be restored only through a spiritual awakening +and a will for ethical good in the mass of mankind, compels [pg 079] +us to make clear to ourselves those difficulties in the way of a +rebirth of civilization which ordinary reflection would overlook. But +at the same time it raises us above all considerations of possibility +or impossibility. If the ethical spirit provides a sufficient standing +ground in the sphere of events for making civilization a reality, then +we shall get civilization, provided that we return to a suitable +theory of the universe and the convictions to which this properly +gives birth. + +The history of our decadence preaches the truth that when hope is dead +the spirit becomes the deciding court of appeal, and this truth will +in the future find in us a sublime and noble fulfilment. + + + + +[pg 080] + +CHAPTER V + +CIVILIZATION AND THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE + + +The regeneration of our theory of the universe and the restoration of +civilization. A reflective theory of the universe; rationalism and +mysticism. The optimistic-ethical theory as a theory of civilization. +The regeneration of our ideas by reflection about the meaning of life. + +The greatest of all the spirit’s tasks is to produce a theory of the +universe (_Weltanschauung__(_*_)_), for in such a theory all the +ideas, convictions and activities of an age have their roots, and it +is only when we have arrived at one which is compatible with +civilization that we are capable of holding the ideas and convictions +which are the conditions of civilization in general. + +What is meant by a theory of the universe? It is the content of the +thoughts of society and the individuals which compose it about the +nature and object of the world in which they live, and the position +and the destiny of mankind and of individual men within it. What +significance have the society in which I live and I myself in the +world? What do we want to do in the world, what do we [pg 081] hope to +get from it, and what is our duty to it? The answer given by the +majority to these fundamental questions about existence decides what +the spirit is in which they and their age live. + +Is not this putting too high the value of a theory of the universe? + +At present, certainly, the majority do not, as a rule, attain to any +properly thought-out theory, nor do they feel the need of deriving +their ideas and convictions from such a source. They are in tune, more +or less, with all the tones which pervade the age in which they live. + +But who are the musicians who have produced these tones? They are the +personalities who have thought out theories of the universe, and drawn +from them the ideas, more or less valuable, which are current amongst +us to-day. In this way all thoughts, whether those of individuals or +those of society, go back ultimately, in some way or other, to a +theory of the universe. Every age lives in the consciousness of what +has been provided for it by the thinkers under whose influence it +stands. + +Plato was wrong in holding that the philosophers of a State should +also be its governors. Their supremacy is a different and a higher one +than that which consists in taking cognizance of laws and ordinances +and giving effect to official authority. [pg 082] They are the +officers of the general staff who sit in the background thinking out, +with more or less clearness of vision, the details of the battle which +is to be fought. Those who play their part in the public eye are the +subordinate officers who, for their variously sized units, convert the +general directions of the staff into orders of the day: namely, that +the forces will start at such and such a time, move in this or that +direction, and occupy this or that point. Kant and Hegel have +commanded millions who had never read a line of their writings, and +who did not even know that they were obeying their orders. + +Those who command, whether it be in a large or a small sphere, can +only carry out what is already in the thought of the age. They do not +build the instrument on which they have to play, but are merely given +a seat at it. Nor do they compose the piece they have to play; it is +simply put before them, and they cannot alter it; they can only +reproduce it with more or less skill and success. If it is +meaningless, they cannot do much to improve it, but neither, if it is +good, can they damage it seriously. + +To the question, then, whether it is personalities or ideas which +decide the fate of an age, the answer is that the age gets its ideas +from personalities. If the thinkers of a certain period produce a +worthy theory of the universe, then ideas pass into currency [pg 083] +which guarantee progress; if they are not capable of such production, +then decadence sets in in some form or other. Every theory of the +universe draws after it its own special results in history. + +The fall of the Roman Empire in spite of that empire’s having over it +so many rulers of conspicuous ability, may be traced ultimately to the +fact that ancient philosophy produced no theory of the universe with +ideas which tended to that empire’s preservation. With the rise of +Stoicism, as the definitive answer of the philosophic thought of +antiquity, the fate of the world down to the Middle Ages was decided. +The idea of resignation, noble idea as it is, could not ensure +progress in a world-wide empire. The efforts of its strongest emperors +were useless. The yarn with which they had to weave was rotten. + +In the eighteenth century, under the rule, in most places, of +insignificant rococo-sovereigns and rococo-ministers, a progressive +movement began among the nations of Europe which was unique in the +history of the world. Why? The thinkers of the Illuminati and of +rationalism produced a worthy theory of the universe from which worthy +ideas were spread among mankind. + +But when history began to shape itself in accordance with these ideas, +the thought which had [pg 084] produced the progress came to a halt, +and we have now a generation which is squandering the precious +heritage it has received from the past, and is living in a world of +ruins, because it cannot complete the building which that past began. +Even had our rulers and statesmen been less short-sighted than they +actually were, they would not in the long run have been able to avert +the catastrophe which burst upon us. Both the inner and the outer +collapse of civilization were latent in the circumstances produced by +the prevalent view of the universe. The rulers, small and great alike, +did not [nothing but] act in accordance with the spirit of the age. + +With the disappearance of the influence exerted by the _Aufklärung_, +rationalism, and the serious philosophy of the early nineteenth +century, the seeds were sown of the world-war to come. Then began to +disappear also the ideas and convictions which would have made +possible a solution on right lines of the controversies which arise +between nations. + +Thus the course of events brought us into a position in which we had +to get along without any real theory of the universe. The collapse of +philosophy and the rise and influence of scientific modes of thought +made it impossible to arrive at an idealist theory which should +satisfy thought. Moreover, our age is poorer in deep thinkers than +perhaps any preceding one. There were a few [pg 085] strong spirits +who, with varied knowledge, and with devoted efforts, offered the +world some patchwork thought; there were some dazzling comets; but +that was all that was granted us. Their products in the way of world +theories were good enough to interest a circle of academic culture, or +to delight a few believing followers, but the people as a whole were +entirely untouched. + +We began, therefore, to persuade ourselves that it was, after all, +possible to get through without any theory of the universe. The +feeling that we needed to stir ourselves up to ask questions about the +world and life, and to come to a decision upon them, gradually died +away. In the unreflective condition to which we had surrendered +ourselves, we took, to meet the claims of our own life and the +nation’s life, the chance ideas provided by our feeling for reality. +During more than a generation and a half we had proof enough and to +spare that the theory which is the result of absence of theory is the +most worthless of all, involving not only ruin to the spiritual life, +but ruin universal. For where there is no general staff to think out +its plan of campaign for any generation its subordinate officers lead +it, as in actual warfare so in the sphere of ideas, from one +profitless adventure to another. + +The reconstruction of our age, then, can begin [pg 086] only with a +reconstruction of a theory of the universe. There is hardly anything +more urgent in its claim on us than this which seems to be so far off +and abstract. Only when we have made ourselves at home again in the +solid thought-building of a theory which can support a civilization, +and when we take from it, all of us in co-operation, ideas which can +stimulate our life and work, only then can there again arise a society +which shall possess ideals with magnificent aims and be able to bring +these into effective agreement with reality. It is from new ideas that +we must build history anew. + +For individuals as for the community, life without a theory of things +is a pathological disturbance of the higher capacity for +self-direction. + + * * * * * + +What conditions must a theory of the universe fulfil to enable it to +create a civilization? + +First, and defined generally, it must be the product of thought. +Nothing but what is born of thought and addresses itself to thought +can be a spiritual power affecting the whole of mankind. Only what has +been well turned over in the thought of the many, and thus recognized +as truth, possesses a natural power of conviction which will work on +other minds and will continue to be effective. Only where there is a +constant appeal to the need [pg 087] of a reflective view of things +are all man’s spiritual capacities called into activity. + +Our age has a kind of artistic prejudice against a reflective theory +of the universe. We are still children of the Romantic movement to a +greater extent than we realize. What that movement produced in +opposition to the _Aufklärung_ and to rationalism seems to us valid +for all ages against any theory that would found itself solely on +thought. In such a theory of the universe we can see beforehand the +world dominated by a barren intellectualism, convictions governed by +mere utility, and a shallow optimism, which together throw a wet +blanket over all human genius and enthusiasm. + +In a great deal of the opposition which it offered to rationalism the +reaction of the early nineteenth century was right. Nevertheless it +remains true that it despised and distorted what was, in spite of all +its imperfections, the greatest and most valuable manifestation of the +spiritual life of man that the world has yet seen. Down through all +circles of cultured and uncultured alike there prevailed at that time +a belief in thought and a reverence for truth. For that reason alone +that age stands higher than any which preceded it, and much higher +than our own. + +At no price must the feelings and phrases of [pg 088] Romanticism be +allowed to prevent our generation from forming a clear conception of +what reason really is. It is no dry intellectualism which would +suppress all the manifold movements of our inner life, but the +totality of all the functions of our spirit in their living action and +interaction. In it our intellect and our will hold that mysterious +intercourse which determines the character of our spiritual being. +These fundamental ideas which it produces contain all that we can feel +or imagine about our destiny and that of mankind, and give our whole +being its direction and its value. The enthusiasm which comes from +thought has the same relation to that which rises from the cauldron of +feeling as the wind which sweeps the heights has to that which eddies +about between the hills. If we venture once more to seek help from the +light of reason, we shall no longer keep ourselves down at the level +of a generation which has ceased to be capable of enthusiasm, but +shall follow the deep and noble passion inspired by great and sublime +ideals. This will so fill and expand our being that that by which we +now live will seem to be merely a petty kind of excitement, and will +disappear. + +Rationalism is more than a movement of thought which realized itself +at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth +centuries. It is a necessary phenomenon in all normal spiritual life. +[pg 089] All real progress in the world is in the last analysis +produced by rationalism. + +It is true that the intellectual productions of the period which we +designate historically as the rationalistic are incomplete and +unsatisfactory, but the principle, which was then established, of +basing our views of the universe on thought and thought alone, is +valid for all time. Even if the tree’s earliest fruit did not ripen +perfectly, the tree itself remains, nevertheless, the tree of life for +the life of our spirit. + +All the movements that have claimed to take the place of rationalism +stand far below it in the matter of achievement. From speculative +thought, from history, from feeling, from æsthetics, from science, +they tried to construct a theory of the universe, grubbing at +haphazard in the world around them instead of excavating +scientifically. Rationalism alone chose the right place for its +digging, and dug systematically, according to plan. If it found only +metal of small value, that was because, with the means at its +disposal, it could not go deep enough. Impoverished and ruined as we +are because we sought as mere adventurers, we must make up our minds +to sink another shaft in the ground where rationalism worked, and to +go down through all the strata to see whether we cannot find the gold +which must certainly be there. + +[pg 090] + +To think out to the end a theory of the universe which has been +produced by thought—that is the only possible way of finding our +bearings amid the confusion of the world of thought to-day. + +Philosophical, historical, and scientific questions with which it was +not capable of dealing overwhelmed the earlier rationalism like an +avalanche, and buried it in the middle of its journey. The new +rational theory of the universe must work its way out of this chaos. +Leaving itself freely open to the whole influence of the world of +fact, it must explore every path offered by reflection and knowledge +in its effort to reach the ultimate meaning of being and life, and to +see whether it can solve some of the riddles which they present. + +The ultimate knowledge, in which man recognizes his own being as a +part of the All, belongs, they say, to the realm of mysticism, by +which is meant that he does not reach it by the method of ordinary +reflection, but somehow or other lives himself into it. + +But why assume that the road of thought must suddenly stop at the +frontier of mysticism? It is true that pure reason has hitherto called +a halt whenever it came into this neighbourhood, for it was unwilling +to go beyond the point at which it could still exhibit everything as +part of a smooth, logical plan. Mysticism, on its side, always +depreciated [pg 091] pure reason as much as it could, to prevent at +all costs the idea from gaining currency that it was in any way bound +to give an account to reason. And yet, although they refuse to +recognize each other, the two belong to each other. + +It is in reason that intellect and will, which in our nature are +mysteriously bound up together, seek to come to a mutual +understanding. The ultimate knowledge that we strive to acquire is +knowledge of life, which intellect looks at from without, will from +within. Since life is the ultimate object of knowledge, our ultimate +knowledge is necessarily our thinking experience of life, but this +does not lie outside the sphere of reason, but within reason itself. +Only when the will has thought out its relation to the intellect, has +come, as far as it can, into line with it, has penetrated it, and in +it become logical, is it in a position to comprehend itself, so far as +its nature allows this, as a part of the universal will-to-live and a +part of being in general. If it merely leaves the intellect on one +side, it loses itself in confused imaginings, while the intellect, +which, like the rationalism of the past, will not allow that in order +to understand life it must finally lose itself in thinking experience, +renounces all hope of constructing a deep and firmly based theory of +the universe. + +[pg 092] + +Thus reflection, when pursued to the end, lead somewhere and somehow +to a living mysticism which is for all men everywhere a necessary +element of thought. + +Doubts whether the mass of men can ever attain to that level of +reflection about themselves and the world which is demanded by a +reflective theory of the universe, are quite justifiable if the man of +to-day is taken as an example of the race. But he, with his diminished +need of thought, is a pathological phenomenon. + +In reality there is given in the mental endowment of the average man a +capacity for thought which to the individual makes the creation of a +reflective theory of things of his own not only possible, but under +normal conditions even a necessity. The great movements of +illumination in ancient and modern times help to maintain the +confident belief that there is in the mass of mankind a power of +thought on fundamentals which can be roused to activity. This belief +is strengthened by observation of mankind and intercourse with the +young. A fundamental impulse to reflect about the universe stirs us +during those years in which we begin to think independently. Later on +we let it languish, even though feeling clearly that we thereby +impoverish ourselves and become less capable of what is good. We are +like springs of water which no longer run [pg 093] because they have +not been watched and have gradually become choked with rubbish. + +More than any other age has our own neglected to watch the thousand +springs of thought; hence the drought in which we are pining. But if +we only go on to remove the rubbish which conceals the water, the +sands will be irrigated again, and life will spring up where hitherto +there has been only a desert. + +Certainly there are guides and the guided in the department of +world-theories, as in others. So far the independence of the mass of +men remains a relative one. The question is only whether the influence +of the guides leads to dependence or independence. The latter brings +with it a development in the direction of truthfulness; the former +means the death of that virtue. + +Every being who calls himself a man is meant to develop into a real +personality within a reflective theory of the universe which he has +created for himself. + + * * * * * + +But of what character must the theory be if ideas and convictions +about civilization are to be based on it? + +That theory of the universe is optimistic which [pg 094] gives +existence the preference as against non-existence and thus affirms +life as something possessing value in itself. From this attitude to +the universe and to life results the impulse to raise existence, in so +far as our influence can affect it, to its highest level of value. +Thence originates activity directed to the improvement of the living +conditions of individuals, of society, of nations and of humanity, +from which spring the external achievements of civilization, the +lordship of spirit over the powers of nature, and the higher social +organization. + +Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection +of his own personality. In itself it is quite independent of whether +the theory of the universe is pessimistic or optimistic. But its +sphere of action is contracted or widened according as it appears in +connection with a theory of the first or the second type. + +In the determinist-pessimistic theory of the universe, as we have it +in the thought of the Brāhmans or of Schopenhauer, ethics has nothing +whatever to do with the objective world. It aims solely at securing +the self-perfection of the individual as this comes to pass in inner +freedom and disconnection from the world and the spirit of the world. + +But the scope of ethics is extended in proportion [pg 095] as it +develops and strengthens a connection with a theory of the universe +which is affirmative toward the world and life. Its aim is now the +inner perfection of the individual and at the same time the direction +of his activity so as to take effect on other men and on the objective +world. It is true that in face of the objective world and its spirit +ethics no longer holds itself up to man as an aim in itself. By its +means man is to become capable of acting among men and in the world as +a higher and purer force, and thus to do his part towards the +actualization of the ideal of general progress. + +Thus the optimistic-ethical theory of the universe works in +partnership with ethics to produce civilization. Neither is capable of +doing so by itself. Optimism supplies confidence that the +world-process has somehow or other a spiritual-sensible aim, and that +the improvement of the general relations of the world and of society +promotes the spiritual-moral perfection of the individual. From ethics +is derived ability to develop the purposive state of mind necessary to +produce action on the world and society and to cause the co-operation +of all our achievements to secure the spiritual and moral perfection +of the individual which is the final end of civilization. + +Once we have recognized that the energies which spring out of a theory +of the universe, and impel us to [pg 096] create a civilization, are +rooted in the ethical and the optimistic, we get light on the question +why and how our ideals of civilization got worn out. This question is +not to be answered by good or bad analogies from nature. The decisive +answer is that they got worn out because we had not succeeded in +establishing the ethical and optimistic elements on a sufficiently +firm foundation. + +If we should analyse the process in which the ideas and convictions +that produce civilization reveal themselves, it would be found that +whenever an advance has been registered, either the optimist or the +ethical element in the theory of the universe has proved more +attractive than usual, and has had as its consequence a progressive +development. When civilization is decaying there is the same chain of +causation, but it works negatively. The building is damaged or falls +in because the optimist element or the ethical, or both, give way like +a weak foundation. No amount of inquiry will give any other reason for +the changes. All imaginable ideas and convictions of that character +spring from optimism and the ethical impulse. If these two pillars are +strong enough, we need have no fears about the building. + +The future of civilization depends, therefore, on whether it is +possible for thought to reach a theory of the universe which will have +a more secure and [pg 097] fundamental hold on optimism and the +ethical impulse than its predecessors have had. + + * * * * * + +We Westerners dream of a theory of the universe which corresponds to +our impulse to action and at the same time justifies it. We have not +been able to formulate such a theory definitely. At present we are in +the state of possessing merely an impulse without any definite +orientation. The spirit of the age drives us into action without +allowing us to attain any clear view of the objective world and of +life. It claims our toil inexorably in the service of this or that +end, this or that achievement. It keeps us in a sort of intoxication +of activity so that we may never have time to reflect and to ask +ourselves what this restless sacrifice of ourselves to ends and +achievements really has to do with the meaning of the world and of our +lives. And so we wander hither and thither in the gathering dusk +formed by lack of any definite theory of the universe like homeless, +drunken mercenaries, and enlist indifferently in the service of the +common and the great without distinguishing between them. And the more +hopeless becomes the condition of the world in which this adventurous +impulse to action and progress ranges to and fro, the more bewildered +[pg 098] becomes our whole conception of things and the more +purposeless and irrational the doings of those who have enlisted under +the banner of such an impulse. + +How little reflection is present in the Western impulse to action +becomes evident when this tries to square its ideas with those of the +Far East. For thought in the Far East has been constantly occupied in +its search for the meaning of life, and forces us to consider the +problem of the meaning of our own restlessness, the problem which we +Westerners burke so persistently. We are utterly at a loss when we +contemplate the ideas which are presented to us in Indian thought. We +turn away from the intellectual presumption which we find there. We +are conscious of the unsatisfying and incomplete elements in the ideal +of cessation from action. We feel instinctively that the +will-to-progress is justified not only in its aspect as directed to +the spiritual perfection of personality, but also in that which looks +towards the general and material. + +For ourselves we dare to allege that we adventurers, who take up an +affirmative attitude toward the world and toward life, however great +and even ghastly our mistakes may be, can yet show not only greater +material, but also greater spiritual and ethical, contributions than +can those who lie under the ban of a theory of the universe +characterized by cessation from action. + +[pg 099] + +And yet, all the same, we cannot feel ourselves completely justified +in the face of these strange Eastern theories. They have in them +something full of nobility which retains its hold on us, even +fascinates us. This tinge of nobility comes from the fact that these +convictions are born of a search for a theory of the universe and for +the meaning of life. With us, on the other hand, activist instincts +and impulses take the place of a theory of the universe. We have no +theory affirming the world and life to oppose to the negative theory +of these thinkers, no thought which has found a basis for an +optimistic conception of existence to oppose to this other, which has +arrived at a pessimistic conception. + +The reawakening of the Western spirit must thus begin by our people, +educated and simple alike, becoming conscious of their lack of a +theory of the universe and feeling the horror of their consequent +position. We can no longer be satisfied to make shift with substitutes +for such a theory. What is the basis of the will-to-activity and +progress which impels both to great actions and to terrible deeds, and +which tries to keep us from reflection? We must bend all our energies +to the solution of this problem. + +There is only one way in which we can hope to emerge from the +meaningless state in which we are [pg 100] now held captive into one +informed with meaning. Each one of us must turn to contemplate his own +being, and we must all give ourselves to co-operative reflection so as +to discover how our will to action and to progress may be +intellectually based on the way in which we interpret our own lives +and the life around us, and the meaning which we give to these. + +The great revision of the convictions and ideals in which and for +which we live will only take place when, by constantly proclaiming +them, we have given currency among our contemporaries to ideas and +thoughts other and better than those by which they are dominated at +the moment. Only thus will the many come to reflect about the meaning +of life and to reorientate, revise and make over again their ideals of +action and of progress, asking themselves whether these have a meaning +in accord with that which we attribute to our life itself. This +personal reflection about final and elemental things is the one and +only reliable way of measuring values. My willing and doing have real +meaning and value only in proportion as the aims which action sets +before itself can be justified as being in direct accord with my +interpretation of my own and of other life. All else, however much it +may pass current as approved by tradition, usage, and public opinion, +is vain and dangerous. + +It seems, indeed, a matter for scorn and derision [pg 101] that we +should urge men to anything so remote as a return to reflection about +the meaning of life at a time when the sufferings and the follies of +the nations have become so intense and so extended, when unemployment +and poverty and starvation are rife, when power is being dissipated on +all sides in the most shameless and senseless way, and when organized +human life is dislocated in every direction. But only when the general +population begins to reflect in this way will forces come into being +which will be able to effect something to counterbalance all this ruin +and misery. Whatever other measures it is attempted to carry out will +have doubtful and altogether inadequate results. + +When in the spring the withered grey of the pastures gives place to +green, this is due to the millions of young shoots which sprout up +freshly from the old roots. In like manner the revival of thought +which is essential for our time can only come through a transformation +of the opinions and ideals of the many brought about by individual and +universal reflection about the meaning of life and of the world. + +But are we sure of being able to think out that affirmation of the +world and of life, which is such a powerful impulse in us, into a +theory of the world and of life from which a stream of energy +productive [pg 102] of intelligible life and action may convincingly +and constantly proceed? How are we to succeed in doing what the spirit +of the Western world during past generations has in vain toiled to +accomplish? + +Even if thought, once more awakened, should only attain to an +incomplete and unsatisfying theory of the universe, yet this, as the +truth to which we have ourselves worked through, would be of more +value than a complete lack of any theory at all, or, alternatively, +than any sort of authoritative theory to which, neglecting the demands +of true thought, we cling on account of its supposed intrinsic value +without having any real and thorough belief in it. + +The beginning of all spiritual life of any real value is courageous +faith in truth and open confession of the same. The most profound +religious experience, too, is not alien to thought, but must be +capable of derivation from this if it is to be given a true and deep +basis. Mere reflection about the meaning of life has already value in +itself. If such reflection should again come into being amongst us, +the ideals, born of vanity and of suffering, which now flourish in +rank profusion like evil weeds among the convictions of the generality +of people, would infallibly wither away and die. How much would +already be accomplished towards our salvation from our present +circumstances if only we would all give up three minutes every evening +to gazing up into the infinite [pg 103] world of the starry heavens +and meditating on it, or if in taking part in a funeral procession we +would reflect on the enigma of life and death, instead of engaging in +thoughtless conversation as we follow behind the coffin! The ideals, +born of folly and suffering, of those who make public opinion and +direct public events, would have no more power over men if they once +began to reflect about eternity and mortality, existence and +dissolution, and thus learnt to distinguish between true and false +standards, between those which possess real value and those which do +not. The old-time rabbis used to teach that the kingdom of God would +come if only the whole of Israel would really keep a single Sabbath +simultaneously! How much more is it true that the injustice and +violence and untruth, which are now bringing so much disaster on the +human race, would lose their power if only a single real trace of +reflection about the meaning of the world and of life should appear +amongst us! + +But is there not a danger in challenging men with this question about +the meaning of life and in demanding that our impulse to action should +justify and clarify itself in such reflection as that of which we have +spoken? Shall we not lose, in acceding to this demand, some +irreplaceable element of naïve enthusiasm? + +[pg 104] + +We need not thus be anxious as to how strong or how weak our impulse +to action will prove to be when it shall have arrived, as the result +of intellectual reflection, at an interpretation of life. Only that +has real meaning for life which is given as an element of our +interpretation of life. It is not the quantity, but the quality, of +activity that really matters. What is needed is that our +will-to-action should become conscious of itself and should cease to +work blindly. + +But perhaps, it may be objected, we shall end in the resignation of +agnosticism, and shall be obliged to confess that we cannot discover +any meaning in the universe or in life. + +If thought is to set out on its journey unhampered, it must be +prepared for anything, even for arrival at intellectual agnosticism. +But even if our will-to-action is destined to wrestle endlessly and +unavailingly with an agnostic view of the universe and of life, still +this painful disenchantment is better for it than persistent refusal +to think out its position at all. For this disenchantment does, at any +rate, mean that we are clear as to what we are doing. + +There is, however, no necessity whatever for such an attitude of +resignation. We feel that a position of affirmation regarding the +world and life is something which is in itself both necessary and +valuable. Therefore it is at least likely that a foundation can be [pg +105] found for it in thought. Since it is an innate element of our +will-to-live, it must be possible to comprehend it as a necessary +corollary to our interpretation of life. Perhaps we shall have to look +elsewhere than we have done hitherto for the real basis of that theory +of the universe which carries with it affirmation of the world and of +life. Previous thought imagined that it could deduce the meaning of +life from its interpretation of the universe. It may be that we shall +be obliged to resign ourselves to abandon the problem of the +interpretation of the universe and to find the meaning of our life in +the will-to-live as this exists in ourselves. + +The ways along which we have to struggle toward the goal may be veiled +in darkness, yet the direction in which we must travel is clear. We +must reflect together about the meaning of life; we must strive +together to attain to a theory of the universe affirmative of the +world and of life, in which the impulse to action which we experience +as a necessary and valuable element of our being may find +justification, orientation, clarity and depth, may receive a fresh +access of moral strength, and be retempered, and thus become capable +of formulating, and of acting on, definite ideals of civilization, +inspired by the spirit of true humanitarianism. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +* _Weltanschauung_. Translated ‘theory of the universe’ throughout the +first part and elsewhere in this preface. + +* Translated “world-view” throughout the second part of these +Lectures. + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + +The formatting of both the .htm and .txt files followed that of two +similar books, The Quest of the Historical Jesus and The Mystery of +the Kingdom of God, already in Project Gutenberg. + +In the .txt version I have used utf8 encoding and the following +markers: + +1. italic text surrounded by _ +2. footnote references in the form +_(_number_)_ + +I have included page numbers in the format [pg xxx] for both .htm and +.txt. + +I made several hyphenation choices, mostly forced by de-hyphenation at +the ends of lines: + +1. world-theory +2. overcoming +3. self-regarding +4. never-concentrated +5. over-organization +6. over-valuation +7. self-importance +8. rococo-ministers +9. non-existence + +In addition, on page 5 of the .pdf file on Internet Archive, the +display of this page was corrupted in my copy. As pointed out by +an editor, this has been corrected in the current version at Internet +Archive. + +On page 84 the word “not” in the sentence: + +“The rulers, small and great alike, did not act in accordance with +the spirit of the age.” + +was changed to “[nothing but]”. The original German is: + +“Die kleinen und die großen Regierenden taten nichts anderes, als daß +sie im Geiste der Zeit handelten.” + +Google Translate (4/25/2025) renders this as: + +“The small and the big rulers did nothing other than act in the spirit +of the times.” + +The printed sentence in the book is either a typo or a mis-translation. +It does not fit the sense of the author who means that the rulers +themselves are not to blame for the collapse of civilization but rather +it is the fault of the “spirit of the age”. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75958 *** diff --git a/75958-h/75958-h.htm b/75958-h/75958-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d6796b --- /dev/null +++ b/75958-h/75958-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3760 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> + <title>The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization | Project Gutenberg</title> + <meta name="author" content="Albert Schweitzer"> + <meta name="publisher" content="Actonian Press"> + <meta name="generator" content="BBEdit 9.6"> + <style> + +#pg-header div, #pg-footer div { + all: initial; + display: block; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: 2em; +} +#pg-footer li { + all: initial; + display: block; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + text-indent: -0.6em; +} +#pg-footer #project-gutenberg-license { + font-size: 110%; + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + text-align: center; +} +#pg-header-heading { + all: inherit; + text-align: center; + font-size: 120%; + font-weight:bold; +} +#pg-footer-heading { + all: inherit; + text-align: center; + font-size: 120%; + font-weight: normal; + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; +} +#pg-header #pg-machine-header p { + text-indent: -4em; + margin-left: 4em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 0; + font-size: medium +} +#pg-header #pg-header-authlist { + all: initial; + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; +} +#pg-header #pg-machine-header strong { + font-weight: normal; +} +#pg-header #pg-start-separator, #pg-footer #pg-end-separator { + margin-bottom: 3em; + margin-left: 0; + margin-right: auto; + margin-top: 2em; + text-align: center +} + h2 {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center} + h4 {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center} + h3 {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; font-style: italic} + .drop { text-indent: 0pt} + .drop:first-letter { font-size:xx-large} + +.tei { + margin: 0; + padding: 0; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: normal; + font-style: normal + } +body.tei { + margin: 4ex 10%; + text-align: justify + } +div.tei { + margin: 2em 0 + } +p.tei { + margin: 0 0 1em 0; + text-indent: 0 + } +blockquote.tei { + margin: 2em 4em + } +hr.doublepage { + margin: 4em 0; + height: 5px + } +hr.page { + margin: 4em 0; + height: 2px + } +ul.tei-index { + list-style-type: none + } +dl.tei { + margin: 1em 0 + } +span.tei-pb { + position: absolute; + left: 1%; + width: 8%; + font-style: normal + } +table.tei { + border-collapse: collapse + } +:link { + border: none + } +:visited { + border: none + } +.summary { + font-size: 90% + } + </style> +<!-- +Version created for Project Gutenberg April 2025</p> +eBook version 1.1 + + p {text-indent: 2em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em; padding-left: -2em;} + +<p>--> +</head> +<body class="tei"> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75958 ***</div> +<hr class="page"> +<div class="tei" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">The Dale Memorial Lectures, 1922.</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">THE DECAY AND THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">THE PHILOSOPHY OF CIVILIZATION</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 120%">PART I</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">BY</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.44em"><span style="font-size: 144%">ALBERT SCHWEITZER</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">D.THEOL.; D.PHIL.; D.MED. (STRASSBURG)</p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.44em"><span style="font-size: 144%">TRANSLATED BY</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">C. T. CAMPION</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span>M.A. (OXON.)</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span>(SOMETIME OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD)</span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">A. & C. BLACK, LTD.</p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1</p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">1923</p> +</div> + +<p><hr class="page"> +<div class="tei" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i></span></p> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 90%">THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS,LTD., LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center"> +<img alt="Cover Art" src="images/cover.jpg" id="img_images_cover.jpg"> +</div> + +<p><hr class="page"> +<p class="chapter"></p> +<p style="text-align: center; line-height: 0; margin-bottom: 2em">To</p> +<p style="line-height: 0; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2em">ANNIE FISCHER</p> +<p style="line-height: 0; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2em">IN</p> +<p style="line-height: 0; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2em">DEEPEST GRATITUDE</p> + +<p><hr class="page"> +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_p" class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"> +<span style="font-size: 173%">AUTHOR’S PREFACE</span></h2> + +<p>“The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization” +is the first part of a complete philosophy of +civilization with which I have been occupied since +the year 1900.</p> + +<p>The second part, entitled “Civilization and +Ethics”, will appear immediately. The third is +called “The World-View<a id="in1-ref" href="#in1">*</a> of Reverence for Life”. +The fourth has to do with the civilized State.</p> + +<p>That over which I have toiled since 1900 has been +finally ripened in the stillness of the primeval forest +of Equatorial Africa. There, during the years +1914-17, the clear and definite lines of this philosophy +of civilization have been developed.</p> + +<p>The first part, “The Decay and the Restoration +of Civilization”, is a kind of introduction to the +philosophy of civilization. It states the problem of +civilization.</p> + +<p>Entering on the question as to what is the real +essential nature of civilization, I come to the pronouncement +that this is ultimately ethical. I know +that in thus stating the problem as a moral one I +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pageviii">[pg viii]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgviii"></a> +shall surprise and even disgust the spirit of our +times, which is accustomed to move amidst æsthetic, +historical and material considerations. I imagine, +however, that I am myself enough of an artist and +also of an historian to be able to comprehend the +æsthetic and historical elements in civilization, and +that, as a modern physician and surgeon, I am sufficiently +modern to appreciate the glamour of the +technical and material attainments of our age.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding this, I have come to the conviction +that the æsthetic and the historical elements, +and the magnificent extension of our material knowledge +and power, do not themselves form the essence +of civilization, but that this depends on the mental +disposition of the individuals and nations who exist +in the world. All other things are merely accompanying +circumstances of civilization, which have +nothing to do with its real essence.</p> + +<p>Creative, artistic, intellectual, and material attainments +can only show their full and true effects when +the continued existence and development of civilization +have been secured by founding civilization +itself on a mental disposition which is truly ethical. +It is only in his struggle to become ethical that man +comes to possess real value as a personality; it is +only under the influence of ethical convictions that +the various relations of human society are formed +in such a way that individuals and peoples can +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pageix">[pg ix]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgix"></a> +develop in an ideal manner. If the ethical foundation +is lacking, then civilization collapses, even +when in other directions creative and intellectual +forces of the strongest nature are at work.</p> + +<p>This moral conception of civilization, which makes +me almost a stranger amidst the intellectual life of +my time, I express clearly and unhesitatingly, in +order to arouse amongst my contemporaries reflection +as to what civilization really is. We shall not +succeed in re-establishing our civilization on an +enduring basis until we rid ourselves completely of +the superficial concept of civilization which now +holds us in thrall, and give ourselves up again to +the ethical view which obtained in the eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p>The second point which I desire should obtain +currency is that of the connection between civilization +and our theory of the universe. At the present +time no regard is paid to this connection. In fact, +the period in which we are living altogether misses +the significance of having a theory of the universe. +It is the common conviction nowadays, of educated +and uneducated alike, that humanity will progress +quite satisfactorily without any theory of the +universe at all.</p> + +<p>The real fact is that all human progress depends +on progress in its theory of the universe, whilst, +conversely, decadence is conditioned by a similar +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagex">[pg x]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgx"></a> +decadence in this theory. Our loss of real civilization +is due to our lack of a theory of the universe.</p> + +<p>Only as we again succeed in attaining a strong and +worthy theory of the universe, and find in it strong +and worthy convictions, shall we again become +capable of producing a new civilization. It is this +apparently abstract and paradoxical truth of which +I proclaim myself the champion.</p> + +<p>Civilization, put quite simply, consists in our +giving ourselves, as human beings, to the effort to +attain the perfecting of the human race and the +actualization of progress of every sort in the circumstances +of humanity and of the objective world. +This mental attitude, however, involves a double +predisposition: firstly, we must be prepared to act +affirmatively toward the world and life; secondly, +we must become ethical.</p> + +<p>Only when we are able to attribute a real meaning +to the world and to life shall we be able also to give +ourselves to such action as will produce results of +real value. As long as we look on our existence in +the world as meaningless, there is no point whatever +in desiring to effect anything in the world. We +become workers for that universal spiritual and +material progress which we call civilization only in +so far as we affirm that the world and life possess +some sort of meaning, or, which is the same thing, +only in so far as we think optimistically.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexi">[pg xi]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxi"></a></p> + +<p>Civilization originates when men become inspired +by a strong and clear determination to attain progress, +and consecrate themselves, as a result of this +determination, to the service of life and of the world. +It is only in ethics that we can find the driving force +for such action, transcending, as it does, the limits +of our own existence.</p> + +<p>Nothing of real value in the world is ever accomplished +without enthusiasm and self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p>But it is impossible to convince men of the truth +of world- and life-affirmation and of the real value +of ethics by mere declamation. The affirmative and +ethical mentality which characterizes these beliefs +must originate in man himself as the result of an +inner spiritual relation to the world. Only then +will they accompany him as strong, clear, and constant +convictions, and condition his every thought +and action.</p> + +<p>To put it in another way: world- and +life-affirmation must be the products of thought about +the world and life. Only as the majority of individuals +attain to this result of thought and continue +under its influence will a true and enduring civilization +make progress in the world. Should the mental +disposition towards world- and life-affirmation and +towards ethics begin to wane, or become dim and +obscured, we shall be incapable of working for true +civilization, nay, more, we shall be unable even to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexii">[pg xii]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxii"></a> +form a correct concept of what such civilization +ought to be.</p> + +<p>And this is the fate which has befallen us. We +are bereft of any theory of the universe. Therefore, +instead of being inspired by a profound and powerful +spirit of affirmation of the world and of life, we +allow ourselves, both as individuals and as nations, +to be driven hither and thither by a type of such +affirmation which is both confused and superficial. +Instead of adopting a determined ethical attitude, +we exist in an atmosphere of mere ethical phrases +or declare ourselves ethical sceptics.</p> + +<p>How is it that we have got into this state of lacking +a theory of the universe? It is because hitherto +the world- and life-affirming and ethical theory of +the universe had no convincing and permanent +foundation in thought. We thought again and again +that we had found such a basis for it; but it lost +power again and again without our being aware that +it was doing so, until, finally, we have been obliged, +for more than a generation past, to resign ourselves +more and more to a complete lack of any world-theory +at all.</p> + +<p>Thus, in this introductory part of my work, I +proclaim two truths and conclude with a great note +of interrogation. The truths are the following: +The basic ethical character of civilization, and the +connection between civilization and our theories of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexiii">[pg xiii]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxiii"></a> +the universe. The question with which I conclude +is this: Is it at all possible to find a real and permanent +foundation in thought for a theory of the +universe which shall be both ethical and affirmative +of the world and of life?</p> + +<p>The future of civilization depends on our overcoming +the meaninglessness and hopelessness which +characterize the thoughts and convictions of men +to-day, and reaching a state of fresh hope and fresh +determination. We shall be capable of this, however, +only when the majority of individuals discover +for themselves both an ethic and a profound +and steadfast attitude of world- and life-affirmation, +in a theory of the universe at once convincing and +based on reflection.</p> + +<p>Without such a general spiritual experience there +is no possibility of holding our world back from the +ruin and disintegration towards which it is being +hastened. It is our duty then to rouse ourselves to +fresh reflection about the world and life.</p> + +<p>In “Civilization and Ethics”, the second part of +this philosophy of civilization, I describe the road +along which thought has led me to world- and +life-affirmation and to ethics. The root-idea of my +theory of the universe is that my relation to my +own being and to the objective world is determined +by reverence for life. This reverence for life is given +as an element of my will-to-live, and becomes clearly +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexiv">[pg xiv]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxiv"></a> +conscious of itself as I reflect about my life and about +the world. In the mental attitude of reverence for +life which should characterize my contact with all +forms of life, both ethics and world- and life-affirmation +are involved. It is not any kind of insight into +the essential nature of the world which determines +my relation to my own existence and to the existence +which I encounter in the world, but rather +only and solely my own will-to-live which has +developed the power of reflection about itself and +the world.</p> + +<p>The theory of the universe characterized by +reverence for life is a type of mysticism arrived at +by self-consistent thought when persisted in to its +ultimate conclusion. Surrendering himself to the +guidance of this mysticism, man finds a meaning +for his life in that he strives to accomplish his own +spiritual and ethical self-fulfilment, and, simultaneously +and in the same act, helps forward all the +processes of spiritual and material progress which +have to be actualized in the world.</p> + +<p>I do not know how many, or how few, will allow +themselves to be persuaded to travel with me on +the road indicated above. What I desire above all +things—and this is the crux of the whole affair—is +that we should all recognize fully that our present +entire lack of any theory of the universe is the ultimate +source of all the catastrophes and misery of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexv">[pg xv]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxv"></a> +our times, and that we should toil in concert for a +theory of the universe and of life, in order that thus +we may arrive at a mental disposition which shall +make us really and truly civilized men.</p> + +<p>It was a great joy to me to be afforded the opportunity +of putting forward, in the <i>Dale Lectures</i>, +delivered in Oxford, the views on which this philosophy +of civilization is based.</p> + +<p>I would tender my deepest thanks to my friends, +Mr. C. T. Campion, M.A., now of Grahamstown, +South Africa, and Dr. J. P. Naish, of Oxford. Mr. +Campion is the translator of this first part of the +“Philosophy of Civilization”. Dr. Naish has seen +the book through the press and translated this +preface.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right">ALBERT SCHWEITZER.</p> + +<p>Strasbourg, Alsace.</p> + +<p><i>February</i>, 1923.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexvi">[pg xvi]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxvi"></a></p> + +<hr class="page"> +<p class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"> +<span style="font-size: 173%; text-align: center">CONTENTS</span></p> +<ul class="tei tei-index"> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-top: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_1" style="font-size: 130%">CHAPTER I</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_1" style="font-size: 100%">How Philosophy is Responsible for the Collapse of Civilization [1]</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-top: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_2" style="font-size: 130%">CHAPTER II</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_2" style="font-size: 100%">Hindrances to Civilization in our Economic and Spiritual Life [15]</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-top: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_3" style="font-size: 130%">CHAPTER III</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_3" style="font-size: 100%">Civilization essentially Ethical in Character [35]</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-top: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_4" style="font-size: 130%">CHAPTER IV</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_4" style="font-size: 100%">The Way to the Restoration of Civilization [62]</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-top: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_5" style="font-size: 130%">CHAPTER V</a></li> +<li style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1em"><a href="#mbp_toc_5" style="font-size: 100%">Civilization and Theories of the Universe [80]</a></li> +</ul> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="pagexvii">[pg xvii]</span><a class="tei" id="Pgxvii"></a></p> + +<p><hr class="page"> +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h1 style="font-size: 150%; text-align: center">THE DECAY AND THE<br> +RESTORATION OF<br> +CIVILIZATION</h1> + +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_1">CHAPTER I</h2> +<h4>HOW PHILOSOPHY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE +COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION</h4> + +<p class="summary">Our self-deception as to the real conditions of our civilization. The +collapse of the theory of the universe on which our ideals were based. +The superficial character of modern philosophizing.</p> + +<p class="drop">We are living to-day under the sign of the +collapse of civilization. The situation has not been +produced by the war; the latter is only a manifestation +of it. The spiritual atmosphere has +solidified into actual facts, which again react +on it with disastrous results in every respect. +This interaction of material and spiritual has +assumed a most unhealthy character. Just below +a mighty cataract we are driving along in a +current full of formidable eddies, and it will need the +most gigantic efforts to rescue the vessel of our fate +from the dangerous side channel into which we have +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page002">[pg 002]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg001"></a> +allowed it to drift, and bring it back into the main +stream, if, indeed, we can hope to do so at all.</p> + +<p>We have drifted out of the stream of civilization +because there was amongst us no real reflection upon +what civilization is. It is true that at the end of the +last century and the beginning of this there appeared +a number of works on civilization with the most +varied titles; but, as though in obedience to some +secret order, they made no attempt to settle and +make clear the conditions of our intellectual life, but +devoted themselves exclusively to its origin and +history. They gave us a relief map of civilization +marked with roads which men had observed or +invented, and which led us over hill and dale +through the fields of history from the Renaissance +to the twentieth century. It was a triumph for the +historical sense of the authors. The crowds whom +these works instructed were filled with satisfied +contentment when they understood that their +civilization was the organic product of so many +centuries of the working of spiritual and social forces, +but no one worked out and described the content of +our spiritual life. No one tested its value from the +point of view of the nobility of its ideas, and its +ability to produce real progress.</p> + +<p>Thus we crossed the threshold of the twentieth +century with an unshakable conceit of ourselves, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page003">[pg 003]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg003"></a> +and whatever was written at that time about our +civilization only confirmed us in our ingenuous belief +in its high value. Anyone who expressed doubt was +regarded with astonishment. Many, indeed, who +were on the road to error, stopped and returned to +the main road again because they were afraid of the +path which led off to the side. Others continued +along the main road, but in silence; the understanding +and insight which were at work in them +only condemned them to isolation.</p> + +<p>It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of +civilization is in progress. What yet remains of it +is no longer safe. It is still standing, indeed, +because it was not exposed to the destructive pressure +which overwhelmed the rest, but, like the rest, +is built upon rubble, and the next landslide will +very likely carry it away.</p> + +<p>But what was it that preceded and led +up to this loss of power in the innate forces of +civilization?</p> + +<p>The age of the Illuminati and of rationalism had +put forward ethical ideals, based on reason, concerning +the development of the individual to true +manhood, his position in society, the material and +spiritual problems which arose out of society, the +relations of the different nations to each other, and +their issue in a humanity which should be united in +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page004">[pg 004]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg004"></a> +the pursuit of the highest moral and spiritual +objects. These ideals had begun, both in philosophy +and in general thought, to get into contact with +reality and to alter the general environment. In +the course of three or four generations there had +been such progress made, both in the ideas underlying +civilization and in their material embodiment, +that the age of true civilization seemed to have +dawned upon the world and to be assured of an +uninterrupted development.</p> + +<p>But about the middle of the nineteenth century +this mutual understanding and co-operation between +ethical ideals and reality began to break down, and +in the course of the next few decades it disappeared +more and more completely. Without resistance, +without complaint, civilization abdicated. Its ideas +lagged behind, as though they were too exhausted +to keep pace with it. How did this come about?</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>The decisive element in the production of this +result was philosophy’s renunciation of her duty.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century and the early part of the +nineteenth it was philosophy which led and guided +thought in general. She had busied herself with +the questions which presented themselves to mankind +at each successive period, and had kept the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page005">[pg 005]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg005"></a> +thought of civilized man actively reflecting upon +them. Philosophy at that time included within +herself an elementary philosophizing about man, +society, race, humanity and civilization, which produced +in a perfectly natural way a living popular +philosophy that controlled the general thought, and +maintained the enthusiasm for civilization.</p> + +<p>But that ethical, and at the same time optimistic, +view of things in which the Illuminati and +rationalism had laid the foundations of this healthy +popular philosophy, was unable in the long run to +meet the criticism levelled at it by pure thought. +Its naïve dogmatism raised more and more prejudice +against it. Kant tried to provide the tottering +building with new foundations, undertaking to alter +the rationalistic view of things in accordance with +the demands of a deeper theory of knowledge, without, +however, making any change in its essential +spiritual elements. Goethe, Schiller and other +intellectual giants of the age, showed, by means of +criticism both kindly and malicious, that rationalism +was rather popular philosophy than real philosophy, +but they were not in a position to put into the place +of what they destroyed anything new which could +give the same effective support to the ideas about +civilization which were current in the general +thought of the time.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page006">[pg 006]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg006"></a></p> + +<p>Fichte, Hegel, and other philosophers, who, for all +their criticism of rationalism, paid homage to its +ethical ideals, attempted to establish a similar +ethical and optimistic view of things by speculative +methods, that is by logical and metaphysical discussion +of pure being and its development into a +universe. For three or four decades they succeeded +in deceiving themselves and others with this +supposedly creative and inspiring illusion, and in +doing violence to reality in the interests of their +theory of the universe. But at last the natural +sciences, which all this time had been growing +stronger and stronger, rose up against them, and, +with a plebeian enthusiasm for the truth of reality, +reduced to ruins the magnificent creations of their +imagination.</p> + +<p>Since that time the ethical ideas on which civilization +rests have been wandering about the world, +poverty-stricken and homeless. No theory of the +universe has been advanced which can give them a +solid foundation; in fact, not one has made its +appearance which can claim for itself solidity and +inner consistency. The age of philosophic dogmatism +had come definitely to an end, and after that +nothing was recognized as truth except the science +which described reality. General theories of the +universe no longer appeared as fixed stars; they +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page007">[pg 007]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg007"></a> +were regarded as resting on hypothesis, and ranked +no higher than comets.</p> + +<p>The same weapon which struck down the dogmatism +of knowledge about the universe struck down +also the dogmatic enunciation of spiritual ideas. +The early simple rationalism, the critical rationalism +of Kant, and the speculative rationalism of the great +philosophers of the nineteenth century had all alike +done violence to reality in two ways. They had +given a position above that of the facts of science to +the views which they had arrived at by pure thought, +and they had also preached a series of ethical ideals +which were meant to replace by new ones the various +existing relations in the ideas and the material +environment of mankind. When the first of these +two forms of violence was proved to be a mistaken +one, it became questionable whether the second +could still be allowed the justification which it had +hitherto enjoyed. The doctrinaire methods of +thought which made the existing world nothing but +material for the production of a purely theoretical +sketch of a better future were replaced by sympathetic +attempts to understand the historical origin +of existing things for which Hegel’s philosophy had +prepared the way.</p> + +<p>With a general mentality of this description, a real +combination of ethical ideals with reality was no +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page008">[pg 008]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg008"></a> +longer possible; there was not the freedom from +prejudice which that required, and so there came a +weakening of the convictions which were the driving +power of civilization. So, too, an end was put to +that justifiable violence to human convictions and +circumstances without which the reforming work of +civilization can make no advance, because it was +bound up with that other unjustifiable violence to +reality. That is the tragic element in the psychological +development of our spiritual life during the +latter half of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Rationalism, then, had been dismissed; but with +it went also the optimistic convictions as to the +moral meaning of the universe and of humanity, of +society and of man, to which it had given birth, +though the conviction still exerted so much influence +that no attention was paid to the catastrophe which +had really begun.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>Philosophy did not realize that the power of the +ideas about civilization which had been entrusted +to it was becoming a doubtful quantity. At the end +of one of the most brilliant works on the history of +philosophy which appeared at the close of the nineteenth +century philosophy is defined as the process +“by which there comes to completion, step by step, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page009">[pg 009]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg009"></a> +and with ever clearer and surer consciousness, that +conviction about the value of civilization the +universal validity of which it is the object of +philosophy itself to affirm.” But the author has +forgotten the essential point, viz., that there was a +time when philosophy did not merely convince itself +of the value of civilization, but also let its convictions +go forth as fruitful ideas destined to influence the +general thought, while from the middle of the nineteenth +century onwards these convictions had +become more and more of the nature of hoarded and +unproductive capital.</p> + +<p>Once philosophy had been an active worker +producing universal convictions about civilization. +Now, after the collapse in the middle of the nineteenth +century, this same philosophy had become a +mere drawer of dividends, concentrating her activities +far from the world on what she had managed to +save. She had become a mere science, which sifted +the results of the historical and natural sciences, and +collected from them material for a future theory of +the universe, carrying on with this object in view a +learned activity in all branches of knowledge. At +the same time she became more and more absorbed +in the study of her own past. Philosophy came to +mean practically the history of philosophy, but the +creative spirit had left her. She became more and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page010">[pg 010]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg010"></a> +more a philosophy which contained no real thought. +She reflected, indeed, on the results achieved by the +individual sciences, but she lost the power of +thought about fundamental problems.</p> + +<p>She looked back with condescending pity on the +rationalism which she had outstripped. She prided +herself on being able to trace her descent through +Kant, on having been shown by Hegel the inner +meaning of history, and on being at work to-day in +close sympathy with the natural sciences. But for +all that she was poorer than the poorest rationalism, +because she now carried on in imagination only, and +not in reality, the recognized work of philosophy, +which the latter had practised so zealously. +Rationalism, for all its simplicity, had been a +working philosophy, but philosophy herself had +now become, for all her insight, merely a pedantic +philosophy of degenerates. She still played, indeed, +some sort of <i>rôle</i> in schools and universities, but she +had no longer any message for the great world.</p> + +<p>In spite of all her learning, she had become a +stranger to the world, and the problems of life which +occupied men and the whole thought of the age had +no part in her activities. Her way lay apart from +the general spiritual life, and just as she derived no +stimulus from the latter, so she gave none back. +Refusing to concern herself with fundamental +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page011">[pg 011]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg011"></a> +problems, she contained no fundamental philosophy +which could become a philosophy of the +people.</p> + +<p>From this impotence came the aversion to all +generally intelligible philosophizing which is so +characteristic of her. Popular philosophy was for +her merely a review, prepared for the use of the +crowd, simplified, and therefore rendered inferior, +of the results given by the individual sciences which +she had herself sifted and put together in view of a +future theory of the universe. She was wholly +unconscious of several things, viz., that there is a +popular philosophy which arises out of such a +review; that it is just the province of philosophy to +deal with the primary, deeper questions about which +individuals and the crowd are thinking, or ought to +be thinking, to apply to them more comprehensive +and more thorough methods of thought, and then +restore them to general currency; and, finally, that +the value of any philosophy is in the last resort to be +measured by its capacity, or incapacity, to transform +itself into a living philosophy of the people.</p> + +<p>Whatever is deep is also simple, and can be +reproduced as such, if only its relation to the whole +of reality is preserved. It is then something +abstract, which secures for itself a many-sided life +as soon as it comes into contact with facts.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page012">[pg 012]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg012"></a></p> + +<p>Whatever of inquiring thought there was among +the general public was therefore compelled to +languish, because our philosophy refused either to +acknowledge or to help it. It found in front of it a +deep chasm which it could not cross.</p> + +<p>Of gold coinage, minted in the past, philosophy +had abundance; hypotheses about a soon to be +developed theological theory of the universe filled +her vaults like unminted bullion; but food with +which to appease the spiritual hunger of the present +she did not possess. Deceived by her own riches, +she had neglected to plant any ground with nourishing +crops, and therefore, ignoring the hunger of the +age, she left the latter to its fate.</p> + +<p>That pure thought never managed to construct +a theory of the universe of an optimistic, ethical +character, and to build up on that for a foundation +the ideals which go to produce civilization, was not +the fault of philosophy; it was a fact which became +evident as thought developed. But philosophy was +guilty of a wrong to our age in that it did not admit +the fact, but remained wrapped up in its illusion, +as though this were really a help to the progress of +civilization.</p> + +<p>The ultimate vocation of philosophy is to be the +guide and guardian of the general reason, and it was +her duty, in the circumstances of the time, to confess +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page013">[pg 013]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg013"></a> +to our world that ethical ideals were no longer +supported by any general theory of the universe, +but were, till further notice, left to themselves, and +must make their way in the world by their own +innate power. She ought to have shown us that +we have to fight on behalf of the ideals on which our +civilization rests. She ought to have tried to give +these ideals an independent existence by virtue of +their own inner value and inner truth, and so to keep +them alive and active without any extraneous help +from a corresponding theory of the universe. No +effort should have been spared to direct the attention +of the cultured and the uncultured alike to the +problem of the ideals of civilization.</p> + +<p>But philosophy philosophized about everything +except civilization. She went on working undeviatingly +at the establishment of a theoretical view of +the universe, as though by means of it everything +could be restored, and did not reflect that this theory, +even if it were completed, would be constructed only +out of history and science, and would accordingly +be unoptimistic and unethical, and would remain for +ever an “impotent theory of the universe,” which +could never call forth the energies needed for the +establishment and maintenance of the ideals of +civilization.</p> + +<p>So little did philosophy philosophize about +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page014">[pg 014]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg014"></a> +civilization that she did not even notice that she +herself and the age along with her were losing more +and more of it. In the hour of peril the watchman +who ought to have kept us awake was +himself asleep, and the result was that we put up no +fight at all on behalf of our civilization.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page015">[pg 015]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg015"></a></p> + +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_2">CHAPTER II</h2> +<h4>HINDRANCES TO CIVILIZATION IN OUR ECONOMIC +AND SPIRITUAL LIFE</h4> + +<p class="summary">The unfree economic position of the modern man. The undeveloped +condition of the modern man. The modern man’s want of humanity. +The lack of spiritual independence in the man of to-day.</p> + +<p class="drop">Even if the abdication of thought has been, as we +have seen, the decisive factor in the collapse of our +civilization, there are yet a number of other causes +which combine with it to hinder our progress in this +regard. They are to be found in the field of +spiritual as well as in that of economic activity, and +depend, above all, on the interaction between the +two, an interaction which is unsatisfactory and +continually becoming more so.</p> + +<p>The capacity of the modern man for progress +in civilization is diminished because the circumstances +in which he finds himself placed injure him +psychically and stunt his personality.</p> + +<p>The development of civilization comes about—to +put it quite generally—by individual men thinking +out ideals which aim at the progress of the whole, +and then so fitting them to the realities of life that +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page016">[pg 016]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg016"></a> +they assume the shape in which they can influence +most effectively the circumstances of the time. A +man’s ability to be a pioneer of progress, that is, to +understand what civilization is and to work for it, +depends, therefore, on his being a thinker and on his +being free. He must be the former if he is to be +capable of comprehending his ideals and putting +them into shape. He must be free in order to be in +a position to launch his ideals out into the general +life. The more completely his activities are taken +up in any way by the struggle for existence, the more +strongly will the impulse to improve his own condition +find expression in the ideals of his thought. +Ideals of self-interest then get mixed up with and +spoil his ideals of civilization.</p> + +<p>Material and spiritual freedom are closely bound +up with one another. Civilization presupposes free +men, for only by free men can it be thought out and +brought to realization.</p> + +<p>But among mankind to-day both freedom and the +capacity for thought have been sadly diminished.</p> + +<p>If society had so developed that a continually +widening circle of the population could enjoy a +modest, but well-assured, condition of comfort, +civilization would have been much more helped +than it has been by all the material conquests which +are lauded in its name. These do, indeed, make +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page017">[pg 017]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg017"></a> +mankind as a whole less dependent upon nature, +but at the same time they diminish the number of +free and independent lives. The artisan who was +his own master becomes the factory hand through +the compulsion of machinery. Because in the +complicated business world of to-day only undertakings +with abundant capital behind them can +maintain their existence, the place of the small, +independent dealer is being taken more and more +completely by the employee. Even the classes +which still possess a larger or smaller amount of +property or maintain a more or less independent +activity get drawn more and more completely into +the struggle for existence because of the insecurity +of present conditions under the economic system of +to-day.</p> + +<p>The lack of freedom which results is made worse +still because the factory system creates continually +growing agglomerations of people who are thereby +compulsorily separated from the soil which feeds +them, from their own homes and from nature. +Hence comes serious psychical injury. There is +only too much truth in the paradoxical saying that +abnormal life begins with the loss of one’s own +field and dwelling-place.</p> + +<p>Civilization is, it is true, furthered to a certain +extent by the self-regarding ideals produced by the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page018">[pg 018]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg018"></a> +groups of people who unite and co-operate in defence +of their similarly threatened interests in so far as +they seek to obtain an improvement in their material, +and thereby also in their spiritual, environment. +But these ideals are a danger to the idea of civilization +as such, because the form which they assume +is either not at all, or very imperfectly, determined +by the really universal interests of the community. +The consideration of civilization as such is held +back by the competition between the various +self-regarding ideals which go under its name.</p> + +<p>To the want of freedom we have to add the evil +of overwork. For two or three generations numbers +of individuals have been living as workers merely, +not as human beings. Whatever can be said in a +general way about the moral and spiritual significance +of labour has no bearing on what they have +to do. An excessive amount of labour is the rule +to-day in every department of industry, with the +result that the labourer’s spiritual element cannot +possibly thrive. This overwork hits him indirectly +even in his childhood, for his parents, caught in the +inexorable toils of work, cannot devote themselves +to his up-bringing as they should. Thus his +development is robbed of something which can +never be made good, and later in life, when he himself +is the slave of over-long hours, he feels more and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page019">[pg 019]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg019"></a> +more the need of external distractions. To spend +the time left to him for leisure in self-cultivation, or +in serious intercourse with his fellows or with books, +requires a mental collectedness and a self-control +which he finds very difficult. Complete idleness, +forgetfulness, and diversion from his usual activities +are a physical necessity. He does not want to +think, and seeks not self-improvement, but entertainment, +that kind of entertainment, moreover, +which makes least demand upon his spiritual +faculties.</p> + +<p>The mentality of this mass of individuals, +spiritually relaxed and incapable of self-collectedness, +reacts upon all those institutions which ought +to serve the cause of culture, and therewith of +civilization. The theatre takes a second place +behind the pleasure resort or the picture show, and +the instructive book behind the diverting one. An +ever increasing proportion of periodicals and newspapers +have to accommodate themselves to the +necessity of putting their matter before their +readers in the shape which lets it be assimilated +most easily. A comparison of the average newspapers +of to-day with those of fifty or sixty years +ago shows how thoroughly such publications have +had to change their methods in this respect.</p> + +<p>When once the spirit of superficiality has penetrated +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page020">[pg 020]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg020"></a> +into the institutions which ought to sustain +the spiritual life, these exercise on their part a +reflex influence on the society which they have +brought to this condition, and force on all alike this +state of mental vacuity.</p> + +<p>How completely this want of thinking power has +become a second nature in men to-day is shown by +the kind of sociability which it produces. When +two of them meet for a conversation each is careful +to see that their talk does not go beyond generalities +or develop into a real exchange of ideas. No one +has anything of his own to give out, and everyone +is haunted by a sort of terror lest anything original +should be demanded from him.</p> + +<p>The spirit produced in such a society of +never-concentrated minds is rising among us as an ever +growing force, and it results in a lowered conception +of what man should be. In ourselves, as in others +we look for nothing but vigour in productive work +and resign ourselves to the abandonment of any +higher ideal.</p> + +<p>When we consider this want of freedom and of +mental concentration, we see that the conditions of +life for the inhabitants of our big cities are as +unfavourable as they could be. Naturally, then, +those inhabitants are in most danger on their +spiritual side. It is doubtful whether big cities +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page021">[pg 021]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg021"></a> +have ever been foci of civilization in the sense that +in them there has arisen the ideal of a man well and +truly developed as a spiritual personality; to-day, +at any rate, the condition of things is such that true +civilization needs to be rescued from the spirit that +issues from them and their inhabitants.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + + +<p>But, besides the hindrance caused to civilization +by the modern man’s lack of freedom and of the +power of mental concentration, there is a further +hindrance caused by his imperfect development. +The enormous increase of human knowledge and +power, in specialized thoroughness as well as in extent, +necessarily leads to individual activities being +limited more and more to well-defined departments. +Human labour is organized and co-ordinated so +that specialization may enable individuals to make +the highest and most effective possible contribution. +The results obtained are amazing, but the spiritual +significance of the work for the worker suffers. +There is no call upon the whole man, only upon some +of his faculties, and this has a reflex effect upon his +nature as a whole. The faculties which build up +personality and are called out by comprehensive +and varied tasks are ousted by the less comprehensive +ones, which from this point of view are, in the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page022">[pg 022]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg022"></a> +general sense of the word, less spiritual. The artisan +of to-day does not understand his trade as a whole +in the way in which his predecessor did. He no +longer learns, like the latter, to work the wood or the +metal through all the stages of manufacture; many +of these stages have already been carried out by +men and machines before the material comes into +his hands. Consequently his reflectiveness, his +imagination, and his skill are no longer called out +by ever varying difficulties in the work, and his +creative and artistic powers are atrophied. In +place of the normal self-consciousness which is +promoted by work into the doing of which he must +put his whole power of thought and his whole +personality, there comes a self-satisfaction which is +content with a fragmentary ability which, it may be +admitted, is perfect, and this self-satisfaction is +persuaded by its perfection in mastering details to +overlook its imperfection in dealing with the whole.</p> + +<p>In all professions, most clearly perhaps in the +pursuit of science, we can recognize the spiritual +danger with which specialization threatens not only +individuals, but the spiritual life of the community. +It is already noticeable, too, that education is +carried on now by teachers who have not a wide +enough outlook to make their scholars understand +the interconnection of the individual sciences, and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page023">[pg 023]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg023"></a> +to be able to give them a mental horizon as wide as +it should be.</p> + +<p>Then, as if specialization and the organization of +work, where it is unavoidable, were not already +injurious enough to the soul of the modern man, it +is pursued and built up where it could be dispensed +with. In administration, in education, and in every +kind of calling the natural sphere of activity is +narrowed as far as possible by rules and superintendence. +How much less free in many countries +is the elementary school teacher of to-day compared +with what he was once! How lifeless and impersonal +has his teaching become as a result of all these +limitations!</p> + +<p>Thus through our methods of work we have +suffered loss spiritually and as individuals just in +proportion as the material output of our collective +activity has increased. Here, too, is an illustration +of that tragic law which says that every gain brings +with it, somehow or other, a corresponding loss.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>But man to-day is in danger not only through +his lack of freedom, of the power of mental concentration, +and of the opportunity for all-round +development: he is in danger of losing his humanity.</p> + +<p>The normal attitude of man to man is made very +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page024">[pg 024]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg024"></a> +difficult for us. Owing to the hurry in which we +live, to the increased facilities for intercourse, and +to the necessity for living and working with many +others in an overcrowded locality, we meet each +other continually, and in the most varied relations, +as strangers. Our circumstances do not allow us to +deal with each other as man to man, for the limitations +placed upon the activities of the natural man +are so general and so unbroken that we get accustomed +to them, and no longer feel our mechanical, +impersonal intercourse to be something that is +unnatural. We no longer feel uncomfortable that +in such a number of situations we can no longer be +men among men, and at last we give up trying to be +so, even when it would be possible and proper.</p> + +<p>In this respect, too, the soul of the townsman is +influenced most unfavourably by his circumstances, +and that influence, in its turn, works most +unfavourably on the mentality of society.</p> + +<p>Thus we tend to forget our relationship with our +fellows, and are on the path towards inhumanity. +Wherever there is lost the consciousness that every +man is an object of concern for us just because he is +man, civilization and morals are shaken, and the +advance to fully developed inhumanity is only a +question of time.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the most utterly inhuman +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page025">[pg 025]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg025"></a> +thoughts have been current among us for two +generations past in all the ugly clearness of language +and with the authority of logical principles. There +has been created a social mentality which discourages +humanity in individuals. The courtesy +produced by natural feeling disappears, and in its +place comes a behaviour which shows entire +indifference, even though it is decked out more or +less thoroughly in a code of manners. The standoffishness +and want of sympathy which are shown so +clearly in every way to strangers are no longer felt as +being really rudeness, but pass for the behaviour +of the man of the world. Our society has also ceased +to allow to all men, as such, a human value and a +human dignity; many sections of the human race +have become merely raw material and property in +human form. We have talked for decades with +ever increasing light-mindedness about war and +conquest, as if these were merely operations on a +chess-board; how was this possible save as the result +of a tone of mind which no longer pictured to itself +the fate of individuals, but thought of them only as +figures or objects belonging to the material world? +When the war broke out the inhumanity within us +had a free course. And what an amount of insulting +stuff, some decently veiled, some openly coarse, +about the coloured races, has made its appearance +during the last decades, and passed for truth and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page026">[pg 026]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg026"></a> +reason, in our colonial literature and our parliaments, +and so become an element in general public +opinion! Twenty years ago there was a discussion +in one of our Continental parliaments about some +deported negroes who had been allowed to die of +hunger and thirst; and there was no protest or +comment when, in a statement from the tribune, it +was said that they “had been lost” (“<i>eingegangen</i>” +or “<i>crêvé</i>”), as though it were a question of cattle!</p> + +<p>In the education and the school books of to-day +the duty of humanity is relegated to an obscure +corner, as though it were no longer true that it is the +first thing necessary in the training of personality, +and as if it were not a matter of great importance +to maintain it as a strong influence in our human +race against the influence of outer circumstances. +It has not been so always. There was a time when +it was a ruling influence not only in schools, but in +literature, even down to the book of adventures. +Defoe’s hero, Robinson Crusoe, is continually +reflecting on the subject of humane conduct, and he +feels himself so responsible for loyalty to this duty +that when defending himself he is continually +thinking how he can sacrifice the smallest number +of human lives; he is so faithful, indeed, to this duty +of humanity, that the story of his adventures +acquires thereby quite a peculiar character. Is +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page027">[pg 027]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg027"></a> +there among works of this kind to-day a single one +in which we shall find anything like it?</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + + +<p>Another hindrance to civilization to-day is the +over-organization of our public life.</p> + +<p>While it is certain that a properly ordered +environment is the condition and, at the same time, +the result of civilization, it is also undeniable that, +after a certain point has been reached, external +organization is developed at the expense of spiritual +life. Personality and ideas are then subordinated +to institutions, when it is really these which ought to +influence the latter and keep them inwardly alive.</p> + +<p>If a comprehensive organization is established in +any department of social life, the results are at first +magnificent, but after a time they fall off. It is the +already existing resources which are realized at the +start, but later on the destructive influence of such +organization on what is living and original is clearly +seen in its natural results, and the more consistently +the organization is enlarged, the more strongly its +effect is felt in the repression of creative and spiritual +activity. There are modern States which cannot +recover either economically or spiritually from the +paralysing effects of a concentration which dates +from a very early period of their history.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page028">[pg 028]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg028"></a></p> + +<p>The conversion of a wood into a park and its +maintenance as such may be a step towards carrying +out several different objects, but it is all over then +with the rich vegetation which would assure its +future condition in nature’s own way.</p> + +<p>Political, religious and economic associations aim +to-day at forming themselves in such a way as will +combine the greatest possible inner cohesion with +the highest possible degree of external activity. +Constitution, discipline, and everything that belongs +to administration are brought to a perfection +hitherto unknown. They attain their object, but +just in proportion as they do so these centres of +activity cease to work as living organizations, and +come more and more to resemble perfected machines. +Their inner life loses in richness and variety because +the personalities of which they are composed must +needs decay in character.</p> + +<p>Our whole spiritual life nowadays has its course +within organizations. From childhood up the man +of to-day has his mind so full of the thought of +discipline that he loses the sense of his own individuality +and can only see himself as thinking in the +spirit of some group or other of his fellows. A +thorough discussion between one idea and another +or between one man and another, such as constituted +the greatness of the eighteenth century, is never met +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page029">[pg 029]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg029"></a> +with now. But at that time fear of public opinion +was a thing unknown. All ideas had then to justify +themselves to the individual reason. To-day it is +the rule—and no one questions it—always to take +into account the views which prevail in organized +society. The individual starts by taking it for +granted that both for himself and his neighbours +there are certain views already established which they +cannot hope to alter, views which are determined +by nationality, creed, political party, social position, +and other elements in one’s surroundings. These +views are protected by a kind of taboo, and are not +only kept sacred from criticism, but are not a +legitimate subject of conversation. This kind of +intercourse, in which we mutually abjure our +natural quality as thinking beings, is euphemistically +described as respect for other people’s convictions, +as if there could be any convictions at all where +there is no thought.</p> + +<p>The modern man is lost in the mass in a way +which is without precedent in history, and this is +perhaps the most characteristic trait in him. His +diminished concern about his own nature makes +him as it is susceptible, to an extent that is almost +pathological, to the views which society and its +organs of expression have put, ready made, into +circulation. Since, over and above this, society, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page030">[pg 030]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg030"></a> +with its well-constructed organization, has become +a power of as yet unknown strength in the spiritual +life, man’s want of independence in the face of it +has become so serious that he is almost ceasing to +claim a spiritual existence of his own. He is like +a rubber ball which has lost its elasticity, and preserves +indefinitely every impression that is made +upon it. He is under the thumb of the mass, and he +draws from it the opinions on which he lives, +whether the question at issue is national or political +or one of his own belief or unbelief.</p> + +<p>Yet this abnormal subjection to external influences +does not strike him as being a weakness. He +looks upon it as an achievement, and in his unlimited +spiritual devotion to the interests of the community +he thinks he is preserving the greatness of the modern +man. He intentionally exaggerates our natural +social instincts into something fantastically great.</p> + +<p>It is just because we thus renounce the indefeasible +rights of the individual that our race can +neither produce new ideas nor make current ones +serviceable for new objects; its only experience is +that prevailing ideas obtain more and more authority, +take on a more and more one-sided development, +and live on till they have produced their last +and most dangerous consequences.</p> + +<p>Thus we have entered on a new mediæval period. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page031">[pg 031]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg031"></a> +The general determination of society has put freedom +of thought out of fashion, because the majority +renounce the privilege of thinking as free personalities, +and let themselves be guided in everything +by those who belong to the various groups and +cliques.</p> + +<p>Spiritual freedom, then, we shall recover only +when the majority of individuals become once more +spiritually independent and self-reliant, and discover +their natural and proper relation to those +organizations in which their souls have been +entangled. But liberation from the Middle Ages +of to-day will be a much more difficult process than +that which freed the peoples of Europe from the +first Middle Ages. The struggle then was against +external authority established in the course of +history. To-day the task is to get the mass of +individuals to work themselves out of the condition +of spiritual weakness and dependence to which they +have brought themselves. Could there be a harder +task?</p> + +<p>Moreover, no one as yet clearly perceives what a +condition of spiritual poverty is ours to-day. Every +year the spread of opinions which have no thought +behind them is carried further by the masses, and +the methods of this process have been so perfected, +and have met with such a ready welcome, that our +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page032">[pg 032]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg032"></a> +confidence in being able to raise to the dignity of +public opinion the silliest of statements, wherever +it seems necessary to get them currently accepted, +has no need to justify itself before acting.</p> + +<p>During the war the control of thought was made +complete. Propaganda definitely took the place of +truth.</p> + +<p>With independence of thought thrown overboard, +we have, as was inevitable, lost our faith in truth. +Our spiritual life is disorganized, for the +over-organization of our external environment leads to +the organization of our absence of thought.</p> + +<p>Not only in the intellectual sphere, but in the +moral also, the relation between the individual +and the community has been upset. With the +surrender of his own personal opinion the modern +man surrenders also his personal moral judgment.</p> + +<p>In order that he may find good what the mass +declares to be such, whether in word or deed, and +may condemn what it declares to be bad, he suppresses +the scruples which stir in him. He does not +allow them to find utterance either with others or +with himself. There are no stumbling-blocks which +his feeling of unity with the herd does not enable +him to surmount, and thus he loses his judgment in +that of the mass, and his own morality in theirs.</p> + +<p>Above all, he is thus made capable of excusing +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page033">[pg 033]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg033"></a> +everything that is meaningless, cruel, unjust, or bad +in the behaviour of his nation. Unconsciously to +themselves, the majority of the members of our +barbarian civilised States give less and less time to +reflection as moral personalities, so that they may +not be continually coming into inner conflict with +their fellows as a body, and continually having to +get over things which they feel to be wrong.</p> + +<p>Public opinion helps them by popularizing the +idea that the actions of the community are not to be +judged so much by the standards of morality as by +those of expediency, but they suffer injury to their +souls. If we find among men of to-day only too +few whose human and moral sensibility is still +undamaged, the chief reason is that the majority +have offered up their personal morality on the altar +of their country, instead of remaining at variance +with the mass and acting as a force which impels +the latter along the road to perfection.</p> + +<p>Not only between the economic and the spiritual, +then, but also between the mass of men and +individuals, there has developed a condition of +unfavourable action and reaction. In the days of +rationalism and serious philosophy the individual +got help and support from society through the +general confidence in the victory of the rational and +moral, which society never failed to acknowledge +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page034">[pg 034]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg034"></a> +as something which explained and justified itself. +Individuals were then carried along by the mass; +we are stifled by it. The bankruptcy of the civilized +State, which becomes more manifest every +decade, is ruining the man of to-day. The demoralization +of the individual by the mass is in full swing.</p> + +<p>The man of to-day pursues his dark journey in a +time of darkness, as one who has no freedom, no +mental collectedness, no all-round development, as +one who loses himself in an atmosphere of inhumanity, +who surrenders his spiritual independence +and his moral judgment to the organized society in +which he lives, and who finds himself in every direction +up against hindrances to the temper of true civilization. +Of the dangerous position in which he is placed +philosophy has no understanding, and therefore +makes no attempt to help him. She does not even +urge him to reflection on what is happening to himself.</p> + +<p>The terrible truth that with the progress of +history and the economic development of the world +it is becoming not easier, but harder, to develop true +civilization, has never found utterance.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page035">[pg 035]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg035"></a></p> + +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_3">CHAPTER III</h2> +<h4>CIVILIZATION ESSENTIALLY ETHICAL IN CHARACTER</h4> + +<p class="summary">What is civilization? Origin of the unethical conception of civilization. +Our sense of reality. Our historical sense. Nationalism. National +civilization. Our misleading trust in facts and organization. The true +sense for reality.</p> + +<p class="drop">This question ought to have been pressing itself +on the attention of all men who consider themselves +civilized, but it is remarkable that in the world’s +literature generally one hardly finds that it has +been put at all until to-day, and still more rarely +is any answer given. It was supposed that there +was no need for a definition of civilization, since +we already possessed the thing itself. If the +question was ever touched upon, it was considered +to be sufficiently settled with references to history +and the present day. But now, when events are +bringing us inexorably to the consciousness that we +live in a dangerous medley of civilization and +barbarism, we must, whether we wish to or not, +try to determine the nature of true civilization.</p> + +<p>For a quite general definition we may say that +civilization is progress, material and spiritual +progress, on the part of individuals as of the mass.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page036">[pg 036]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg036"></a></p> + +<p>In what does it consist? First of all in a lessening +of the strain imposed on individuals and on the mass +by the struggle for existence. The establishment of +as favourable conditions of living as possible for all +is a demand which must be made partly for its own +sake, partly with a view to the spiritual and moral +perfecting of individuals, which is the ultimate +object of civilization.</p> + +<p>The struggle for existence is a double one: man has +to assert himself in nature and against nature, and +similarly also among his fellow-men and against them.</p> + +<p>A diminution of the struggle is secured by strengthening +the supremacy of reason over both external +nature and human nature, and making it subserve +as accurately as possible the ends proposed.</p> + +<p>Civilization is then twofold in its nature: it realizes +itself in the supremacy of reason, first, over the forces +of nature, and, secondly, over the dispositions of men.</p> + +<p>Which of these kinds of progress is most truly +progress in civilization? The latter, though it is the +least open to observation. Why? For two reasons. +First, the supremacy which we secure by reason over +external nature represents not unqualified progress, +but a progress which brings with its advantages also +disadvantages which may work in the direction of +barbarism. The reason why the economic circumstances +of our time endanger our civilization is to be +sought for partly in the fact that we have pressed +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page037">[pg 037]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg037"></a> +into our service natural forces which can be +embodied in machines. But with that there must +be such a supremacy of reason over the dispositions +of men that they, and the nations which they form, +will not use against one another the power which the +control of these forces gives them, and thus plunge +one another into a struggle for existence which is +far more terrible than that between men in a state +of nature.</p> + +<p>A normal claim to be civilized can, then, only be +reckoned as valid when it recognizes this distinction +between what is essential in civilization and what is +not.</p> + +<p>Both kinds of progress can, indeed, be called +spiritual in the sense that they both rest upon a +spiritual activity in man, yet we may call the +supremacy over natural forces material progress +because in it material objects are mastered and +turned to man’s use. The supremacy of reason over +human dispositions, on the other hand, is a spiritual +achievement in another sense, in that it means the +working of spirit upon spirit, <i>i.e.</i>, of one section +of the power of reflexion upon another section of it.</p> + +<p>And what is meant by the supremacy of the +reason over human dispositions? It means that +both individuals and the mass let their willing be +determined by the material and spiritual good of +the whole and the individuals that compose it; that +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page038">[pg 038]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg038"></a> +is to say, their actions are ethical. Ethical progress +is, then, that which is truly of the essence of civilization, +and has only one significance; material +progress is that which is not of the essential at all, +and may have a twofold effect on the development of +civilization. This moral conception of civilization +will strike some people as rationalistic and old-fashioned. +It accords better with the spirit of our +times to conceive of civilization as a natural manifestation +of life in the course of human evolution, but +one with most interesting complications. We are +concerned, however, not with what is ingenious, but +with what is true. In this case the simple is the +true—the inconvenient truth with which it is our +laborious task to deal.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + + +<p>The attempts to distinguish between civilization +as what the Germans call “Kultur” and civilization +as mere material progress aim at making the +world familiar with the idea of an unethical form +of civilization side by side with the ethical, and at +clothing the former with a word of historical +meaning. But nothing in the history of the word +“civilization” justifies such attempts. The word, +as commonly used hitherto, means the same as the +German “Kultur”, viz., the development of man +to a state of higher organization and a higher +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page039">[pg 039]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg039"></a> +moral standard. Some languages prefer one word; +others prefer the other. The German usually +speaks of “Kultur”, the Frenchman usually of +“civilisation”, but the establishment of a difference +between them is justified neither philologically nor +historically. We can speak of ethical and unethical +“Kultur” or of ethical and unethical “civilisation”, +but not of “Kultur” and “civilisation”.</p> + +<p>But how did it come about that we lost the idea +that the ethical has a decisive meaning and value +as part of civilization?</p> + +<p>All attempts at civilization hitherto have been a +matter of processes in which the forces of progress +were at work in almost every department of life. +Great achievements in art, architecture, administration, +economics, industry, commerce, and colonization +succeeded each other with a spiritual impetus +which produced a higher conception of the universe. +Any ebb of the tide of civilization made itself felt +in the material sphere as well as in the ethical and +spiritual, earlier, as a rule, in the former than in the +latter. Thus in Greek civilization there set in as +early as the time of Aristotle an incomprehensible +arrest of science and political achievement, whereas +the ethical movement only reached its completion +in the following centuries in that great work of +education which was undertaken in the ancient +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page040">[pg 040]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg040"></a> +world by the Stoic philosophy. In the Chinese, +Indian and Jewish civilizations ability in dealing +with material things was from the start, and always +remained, at a lower level than the spiritual and +ethical efforts of these races.</p> + +<p>In the movement of civilization which began with +the Renaissance, there were both material and +spiritual-ethical forces of progress at work side by +side, as though in rivalry with each other, and this +continued down to the beginning of the nineteenth +century. Then, however, something unprecedented +happened: man’s ethical energy died away, while +the conquests achieved by his spirit in the material +sphere increased by leaps and bounds. Thus for +several decades our civilization enjoyed the great +advantages of its material progress while as yet it +hardly felt the consequences of the dying down of +the ethical movement. People lived on in the +conditions produced. By that movement without +seeing clearly that their position was no longer a +tenable one and preparing to face the storm that +was brewing in the relations between the nations +and within the nations themselves. In this way +our own age, having never taken the trouble to +reflect, arrived at the opinion that civilization +consists primarily in scientific, technical and artistic +achievements, and that it can reach its goal without +ethics, or, at any rate, with a minimum of them.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page041">[pg 041]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg041"></a></p> + +<p>Public opinion bowed down before this merely +external conception of civilization because it was +exclusively represented by persons whose position in +society and scientific culture seemed to show them to +be competent to judge in matters of the spiritual life.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>What was the result of our giving up the +ethical conception of civilization, and therewith +all attempts to bring reasoned ethical ideals into +effective relation with reality? It was that instead +of using thought to produce ideals which fitted +in with reality, we left reality without any ideals +at all. Instead of discussing together the essential +elements, such as population, State, Church, +society, progress, which decide the character of our +social development and that of mankind generally, +we contented ourselves with starting from what is +given by experience. Only forces and tendencies +which were already at work were to be considered. +Fundamental truths and convictions which ought +to produce logical or ethical compulsion we would +no longer acknowledge. We refused to believe that +any ideas could be applicable to reality except those +derived from experience. Thus ideals which had +been knowingly and intentionally lowered dominated +our spiritual life and the whole world.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page042">[pg 042]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg042"></a></p> + +<p>How we glorified our practical common-sense, +which was to give us such power in dealing with the +world! Yet we were behaving, really, like boys who +give themselves up exultingly to the forces of nature +and whizz down a hill on their toboggan without +asking themselves whether they will be able to steer +their vehicle successfully when they come to the +next bend or the next unexpected obstacle.</p> + +<p>It is only a conviction which is based upon +reasoned ethical ideals that is capable of producing +free activity, <i>i.e.</i>, activity deliberately planned with +a view to its object. In proportion as ideals taken +from the workaday world are combined with it, +reality influences reality. But then the human +soul acts merely as an agent of debasing change.</p> + +<p>Events which are to produce practical results +within us are worked upon and moulded by our +mentality. This mentality has a certain character, +and on that character depends the nature of those +value-judgments which rule our relation to facts.</p> + +<p>Normally this character is to be found in the +reasoned ideas which our reflection upon reality +brings into existence. If these disappear there is +not left a void in which “events in themselves” can +affect us, but the control of our mentality passes now +to the opinions and feelings which hitherto have +been ruled and kept under by our reasoned ideas. +When the virgin forest is cut down, brushwood +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page043">[pg 043]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg043"></a> +springs up where the big trees were formerly. +Whenever our great convictions are destroyed their +place is taken by smaller ones which carry out in +inferior fashion the functions of the former.</p> + +<p>With the giving up of ethical ideals which accompanies +our passion for reality our practical efficiency +is not, therefore, improved, but diminished. It does +not make the man of to-day a cool observer and +calculator such as he supposes himself to be, for he is +under the influence of opinions and emotions which +are created in him by facts. All unconsciously he +mixes with what is the work of his reason so much of +what is emotional that the one spoils the other. +Within this circle move the judgments and impulses +of our society, whether we deal with the largest questions +or the smallest. Individuals and nations alike, +we deal indiscriminately with real and imaginary +values, and it is just this confused medley of real and +unreal, of sober thought and capacity for enthusiasm +for the unmeaning, that makes the mentality of the +modern man so puzzling and so dangerous.</p> + +<p>Our sense of reality, then, means this, that, as a +result of emotional and short-sighted calculations +of advantage, we let one fact issue immediately in +another, and so on indefinitely. As we are not +consciously aiming at any definitely planned goal, +our activity may really be described as a kind of +natural happening.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page044">[pg 044]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg044"></a></p> + +<p>We react to facts in the most irrational way. +Without plan or foundations we build our future +into the circumstances of the time and leave it +exposed to the destructive effects of the chaotic +jostling that goes on amongst them. “Firm ground +at last”! we cry, and sink helpless in the stream +of events.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>The blindness with which we endure this fate is +made worse by our belief in our historical sense, +which, in this connection, is nothing else than our +sense of reality prolonged backwards. We believe +ourselves to be a critical generation which, thanks +to its thorough knowledge of the past, is in a +position to understand the direction which events +are destined to take from the present to the future. +We add to the ideals which have been taken from +existing reality others which we borrow from history.</p> + +<p>The achievements of historical science reached by +the nineteenth century do, indeed, deserve our +admiration, but it is another question whether our +generation, for all its possession of an historical +science, possesses a true historical sense.</p> + +<p>Historical sense, in the full meaning of the term, +implies a critical objectivity in the face of far-off and +recent events alike. To keep this faculty free from +the bias of opinions and interests when we are +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page045">[pg 045]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg045"></a> +estimating facts is a power which even our +historians do not possess. As long as they are +dealing with a period so remote that it has no bearing +on the present they are critical so far as the views +of the school to which they belong allow it. But +if the past stands in any real connection with +“to-day”, we can perceive at once in their estimate +the influence of their particular standpoint, rational, +religious, social or economic.</p> + +<p>It is significant that while during the last few +decades the learning of our historians has, no doubt, +increased, their critical objectivity has not. Previous +investigators kept this ideal before their eyes in +much greater purity than have those of to-day; we +have gone so far that we no longer seriously make +the demand that in scientific dealings with the past +there shall be a suppression of all prejudices which +spring from nationality or creed. It is quite +common nowadays to see the greatest learning +bound up with the strongest bias. In our historical +literature the highest positions are occupied by +works written with propagandist aims.</p> + +<p>So little educative influence has science had on +our historians that they have often espoused as +passionately as anyone the opinions of their own +people instead of calling the latter to a thoughtful +estimate of the facts, as was their duty to their +profession; they have remained nothing but men +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page046">[pg 046]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg046"></a> +of learning. They have not even started on the task +for which they entered the service of civilization, and +the hopes of civilization, which in the middle of the +nineteenth century rested on the rise of a science of +history, have been as little fulfilled as those which +were bound up with the demand for national States +and democratic forms of government.</p> + +<p>The generation that has been brought up by +teachers such as these has naturally not much idea +of an elevated or active conception of events. +Accurately viewed, its characteristic feature is not +so much that we understand our past better than +earlier generations understood theirs, but rather that +we attribute to the past an extraordinarily increased +meaning for the present. Now and again we +actually substitute it for the latter. It is not enough +for us that what has been is present in its results in +what now is; we want to have it always with us, +and to feel ourselves determined by it.</p> + +<p>In this effort to be continually experiencing our +historical process of becoming, and to acknowledge +it, we replace our normal relation to the past by an +artificial one, and wishing to find within the past the +whole of our present, we misuse it in order to deduce +from it, and to legitimize by an appeal to it, our +claims, our opinions, our feelings and our passions. +Under the very eyes of our historical learning there +springs up a manufactured history for popular use, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page047">[pg 047]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg047"></a> +in which the current national and confessional ideas +are unreservedly approved and upheld, and our +school history books become regular culture beds of +historical lies.</p> + +<p>The misuse of history is a necessity for us. The +ideas and dispositions which rule us cannot be +justified by reason; nothing is left for us but to give +them foundations in history.</p> + +<p>It is significant that we have no real interest in +what is valuable in the past. Its great spiritual +achievements are mechanically registered, but we do +not let ourselves be touched by them. Still less do +we accept them as a heritage; nothing has any +value for us except what can be squared with our +plans, passions, feelings, and æsthetic moods of +to-day. With these we live ourselves by lies into +the past, and then assert with unshaken assurance +that we have our roots in it.</p> + +<p>This is the character of the reverence we pay to +history. Blinded by what we consider or declare +to be past and done with, we lose all sense for what +is to happen, so that of nothing can we say: “It is +finished,” nothing now gets accomplished. Again +and again we let what is past rise up artificially in +what is present, and endow bygone facts with a +persistence of being which makes wholly impossible +the normal development of our peoples. Just as +our sense of reality makes us lose ourselves in +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page048">[pg 048]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg048"></a> +present-day events, so does our historical +compel us to do the same in those of the past.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>From these two things, our sense of reality and +our historical sense, is born the nationalism to +which we must refer the external catastrophe in +which the decadence of our civilization finds its +completion.</p> + +<p>What is nationalism? It is an ignoble patriotism, +exaggerated till it has lost all meaning, which bears +the same relation to the noble and healthy kind as +the fixed idea of an imbecile does to normal +conviction.</p> + +<p>How does it develop among us?</p> + +<p>About the beginning of the nineteenth century +the course of thought gave the national State its +rightful position, starting for this from the axiom +that it, as a natural and homogeneous organism, was +better calculated than any other to make the ideal +of the civilized State a working reality. In Fichte’s +addresses to the German nation the nation-State is +summoned to the bar of the moral reason and learns +that it has to submit in all things to the latter. It +gives the necessary promise and straightway receives +a commission to bring the civilized State into +existence. It is given emphatically to understand +that it must recognize as its highest task the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page049">[pg 049]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg049"></a> +continuous and steady development of the purely +human element in the nation’s life. It is to seek +greatness by representing the ideas which can bring +healing to the nations. Its citizens are urged to +show their membership of it not through the lower, +but through the higher, patriotism, that is, not to +overvalue its external greatness and power, but to +be careful to take for their aim “the unfolding of +what is eternal and Godlike in the world,” and to see +that their objects coincide with the highest aims of +humanity. Thus national feeling is placed under +the guardianship of reason, morality and civilization. +The cult of patriotism as such is to be considered as +barbarism; it does, indeed, announce itself to be +such by the purposeless wars which it necessarily +brings in its train.</p> + +<p>In this way the idea of nationality was raised to +the level of a valuable ideal of civilization. When +civilization began to decline, its other ideals all fell +also, but the idea of nationality maintained itself +because it had transferred itself to the sphere of +reality. It incorporated henceforward all that +remained of civilization, and became the ideal +which summed up all others. Here, then, we have +the explanation of the mentality of our age, which +concentrates all the enthusiasm of which it is capable +on the idea of nationality, and believes itself to +possess in that all moral and spiritual good things.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page050">[pg 050]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg050"></a></p> + +<p>But with the decay of civilization the character +of the idea of nationality changed. The guardianship +exercised over it by the other moral ideals to +which it had hitherto been subordinate now ceased, +since these were themselves on trial, and the +nationalist idea began a career of independence. +It asserted, of course, that it was working in the +service of civilization, but it was, in truth, only an +idea of reality with a halo of civilization round it, +and it was guided by no ethical ideals, but only by +the instincts which deal with reality.</p> + +<p>That reason and morality shall not be allowed to +contribute a word to the formation of nationalist +ideas and aspirations is demanded by the mass +of men to-day as a sparing of their holiest +feelings.</p> + +<p>If in earlier times the decay of civilization did not +produce any such confusion in the sentiments of the +various nations, this was because the idea of +nationality had not then been raised in the same +way to be the ideal of civilization. It was, therefore, +impossible that it should insinuate itself into +the place of the true ideals of civilization, and +through abnormal nationalist conceptions and dispositions +bring into active existence an elaborate +system of uncivilization.</p> + +<p>That in nationalism we have to do not so much +with things as with the unhealthy way in which they +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page051">[pg 051]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg051"></a> +are dealt with in the imagination of the crowd, is +clear from its whole behaviour. It claims to be +following a policy of practical results (Realpolitik); +in reality it by no means represents the uncompromisingly +businesslike view of all the questions +of home and foreign policy, but side by side with +its egoism displays a certain amount of enthusiasm. +Its practical policy is an over-valuation of certain +questions of territorial economic interests, an +over-valuation which has been elevated to a dogma and +idealized, and is now supported by popular sentiment. +It fights for its demands without having +established any properly thought-out calculation of +their real value. In order to be able to dispute the +possession of millions of value, the modern State +loaded itself with armaments costing hundreds of +millions. Meaning to care for the protection and +extension of its trade, it loaded the latter with +imposts which imperilled its power of competing +with its rivals much more than did any of the +measures taken by those rivals.</p> + +<p>Its practical politics were, therefore, in truth +impracticable politics, because they allowed popular +sentiment to come in, and thereby made the simplest +questions insoluble. This style of politics put +economic interests in the shop window, while it kept +in the warehouse the ideas about greatness and +conquest which belong to nationalism.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page052">[pg 052]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg052"></a></p> + +<p>Every civilized State, in order to increase its +power, gathered allies wherever it could. Thus +half-civilized and uncivilized races were summoned +by civilized ones to fight against the civilized neighbours +of the latter, and these helpers were not +content with the subordinate <i>rôle</i> which had been +assigned to them. They acquired more and more +influence on the course of events, till they were at +last in a position to decide when the civilized nations +of Europe should begin to fight each other about +them. Thus has Nemesis come upon us for abandoning +our wishes and betraying to the uncivilized +world all that we still possessed of things that were +of universal value.</p> + +<p>It was significant of the unhealthy character of +nationalism’s “practical” politics that it tried in +every possible way to deck itself out with a tinsel +imitation of idealism. The struggle for power +became one for right and civilization; the alliances +for the promotion of their selfish interests which +various nations made with one another against all +the rest were made to appear to be friendships and +spiritual affinities. As such they were dated back +into the past, even though history had a great deal +more to say about hereditary quarrels than about +spiritual relationships.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page053">[pg 053]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg053"></a></p> + +<p>Finally, nationalism was not content with putting +aside, in the sphere of politics generally, all attempts +to bring into existence a really civilized humanity; +it distorted the very idea of civilization itself and +talked of national civilization.</p> + +<p>Once there was what was known just simply as +civilization, and every civilized nation strove to +possess it in its purest and most fully developed +form. In this respect nationality had in the idea +of civilization at that time something much more +original and less spoilt than it has in the same idea +to-day. If, in spite of this, there was no impulse +among the nations to separate the spiritual life of +each from that of its neighbours, we have a proof +that nationality is not in itself the strong element +in the people that demanded this. Such a claim as +is made to-day to have a <i>national civilization</i> is an +unhealthy phenomenon. It presupposes that the +civilized peoples of to-day have lost their healthy +nature, and no longer follow instincts, but theories. +They percuss and sound their souls to such an +extent that these are no longer capable of any +natural action. They analyse and describe them +so continuously that in thinking of what they ought +to be they forget what they actually are. Questions +of spiritual differences between races are discussed +so subtly, and with such obstinacy and dogmatism, +that the talk works like an obsession, and the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page054">[pg 054]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg054"></a> +peculiarities that are said to exist make their +appearance like imaginary diseases.</p> + +<p>In every department of life more and more effort +is devoted to making clearly visible in the results +which follow from them the emotions, the ideas, and +the reasonings of the mass of the people. Any +peculiarity preserved and fostered in this way shows +that its natural counterpart has perished. The +individual element in the personality of a people +no longer, as something unconscious or half conscious, +plays with varying lights on the totality of the +nation’s spiritual life. It becomes an artifice, a +fashion, a self-advertisement, a mania. There is bred +in the nation a mass of thought, the serious results +of which in every department become more evident +year by year. The spiritual life of some of the +leading civilized nations has already, in comparison +with earlier days, taken on a monotonous tone such +as makes an observer feel anxious.</p> + +<p>The unnatural character of this development +shows itself not only in its results, but in the part +which it allows to be played by conceit, +self-importance, and self-deception. Anything valuable +in a personality or a successful undertaking is +attributed to some special excellence in the national +character. Foreign soil is assumed to be incapable +of producing the same or anything similar, and in +most countries this vanity has grown to such a +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page055">[pg 055]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg055"></a> +height that the greatest follies are no longer beyond +its reach.</p> + +<p>It goes without saying that there follows a serious +decline in the spiritual element in the national +civilization. The spirituality is, moreover, only a +kind of disguise; it has in reality an avowedly +materialist character. It is a distillation from all +the external achievements of the nation in question +and appears in partnership with its economic and +political demands. While alleged to be grounded +in the national peculiarities, nationalist civilization +will not, as we should normally expect, remain +limited to the nation itself; it feels called upon to +impose itself upon others and make them happy! +Modern nations seek markets for their civilization, +as they do for their manufactures!</p> + +<p>National civilization, therefore, is matter for +propaganda and for export, and the necessary +publicity is secured by liberal expenditure. The +necessary phrases can be obtained ready-made and +need only be strung together. Thus the world has +inflicted on it a competition between national +civilizations, and between these civilization itself +comes off badly.</p> + +<p>The nations of Europe entered the Middle Ages +side by side as the heirs of the Greco-Roman world, +and lived side by side with the freest mutual intercourse +through the Renaissance, the period of the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page056">[pg 056]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg056"></a> +Illuminati, and of the philosophy of more recent +times. But we no longer believe that they, with +their offshoots in the other continents, form an +indivisible unit of civilization. If, however, in this +latest age, the differences in their spiritual life have +begun to stand out more distinctly, the cause of it is +that the level of civilization has sunk. When the +tide ebbs, shallows which separate bodies of deep +water become visible; while the tide is flowing they +are out of sight.</p> + +<p>How closely the nations which form the great +body of civilized humanity are still interrelated +spiritually is shown by the fact that they have all +side by side suffered the same decadence.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>With our sense of reality is bound up, further, the +false confidence which we have in facts. We live in +an atmosphere of optimism, as if the contradictions +which show themselves in the world arranged themselves +automatically so as to promote well-thought-out +progress, and reconciled themselves in syntheses +in which the valuable parts of the thesis and the +antithesis coalesced.</p> + +<p>In justification of this optimism appeal is made, +both rightly and wrongly, to Hegel. It cannot be +denied that he is the spiritual father of our sense of +reality; he is the first thinker who tried to be just +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page057">[pg 057]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg057"></a> +to things as they exist. We have been trained by +him to realize the method of progress in thesis, antithesis, +and synthesis as they show themselves in the +course of events. But his optimism was not a +simple optimism about facts, as ours is. He lived +still in the spiritual world of rationalism, and believed +in the power of ethical ideas worked out by reason; +that was why he believed also in the certainty of +uninterrupted spiritual progress. And it was because +this was something upon which he could rely that +he undertook to show how it was to be seen in the +successive phases of events, and at the same time +how it made itself a reality in the stream of outward +facts. By emphasizing, however, the progressive +purpose, which he finds immanent in the course of +events, so strongly that it is possible to forget the +ethical-spiritual presuppositions of his belief in +progress, he is preparing the way for the despiritualized +optimism about reality which has for decades +been misleading us. Between the facts themselves +there is nothing but an endless series of contradictions. +The fresh mediating fact in which they +counteract each other so as to make progress +possible they cannot of themselves produce. This +fact can only assert itself if the contradictions +resolve themselves in a reasoned view in which there +are ethical ideas about the condition of things which +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page058">[pg 058]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg058"></a> +it is sought to realize. These are the formative +principles for the new element which is to arise out +of the contradictories, and it is only in this reasoned +ethical view that the latter cease to be blind, leading +to no issue.</p> + +<p>It was because we assumed the existence of +principles, of progress, in the facts, that we viewed +the advance of history, in which our future was +being prepared, as progress in civilization, even +though evolution condemned our optimism. And +even now, when facts of the most terrible character +cry out loudly against it, we shrink from giving +up our creed. It no longer, indeed, gives us +any real enlightenment, but the alternative, +which bases optimism on belief in the ethical +spirit, means such a revolution in our mode of +thought that we find it difficult to take it into +consideration.</p> + +<p>With our reliance upon facts is bound up our +reliance on organizations. The activities and the +aims of our time are penetrated by a kind of obsession +that if we could only succeed in perfecting or +reforming in one direction or another the institutions +of our public and social life, the progress demanded +by civilization would begin of itself. We are, +indeed, far enough from unanimity as to the plan +needed for the reform of our arrangements: one +section sketches out an anti-democratic plan; +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page059">[pg 059]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg059"></a> +others believe that our mistake lies in the fact that +democratic principles have not yet been applied +consistently; others, again, see salvation only in a +Socialist or Communist organization of society. +But all agree in attributing our present condition, +with its absence of true civilization, to a failure of +our institutions; all look for the attainment of such +civilization to a new organization of society; all +unite in thinking that with new institutions there +would arise a new spirit.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>In this terrible confusion are entangled not +only the unreflecting masses, but also many of +the most earnest amongst us. The materialism +of our age has reversed the relation between the +spiritual and the actual. It believes that something +with spiritual value can result from the +working of facts. It was even expected that the +war would bring us a spiritual regeneration! In +reality, however, the relation between them works in +the opposite direction. A spiritual element of real +value can, if it is present, influence the moulding of +reality so as to bring about desired results, and can +thus produce facts in support of itself. All institutions +and organizations have only a relative significance. +With the most diverse social and political +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page060">[pg 060]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg060"></a> +arrangements, the various civilized nations have all +sunk to the same depth of barbarism. What we +have experienced, and are still experiencing, must +surely convince us that the spirit is everything and +that institutions count for very little. Our institutions +are a failure because the spirit of barbarism +is at work in them. The best planned improvements +in the organization of our society (though we +are quite right in trying to secure them) cannot help +us at all until we become at the same time capable +of imparting a new spirit to our age.</p> + +<p>The difficult problems with which we have to deal, +even those which lie entirely in the material and +economic sphere, are in the last resort only to be +solved by an inner change of character. The wisest +reforms in organization can only carry them a little +nearer solution, never to the goal. The only +conceivable way of bringing about a reconstruction +of our world on new lines is first of all to become new +men ourselves under the old circumstances, and then +as a society in a new frame of mind so to smooth out +the opposition between nations that a condition of +true civilization may again become possible. Everything +else is more or less wasted labour, because we +are thereby building not on the spirit, but on what +is merely external.</p> + +<p>In the sphere of human events which decide the +future of mankind reality consists in an inner +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page061">[pg 061]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg061"></a> +conviction, not in given outward facts. Firm +ground for our feet we find in reasoned ethical +ideals. Are we going to draw from the spirit +strength to create new conditions and turn our +faces again to civilization, or are we going to continue +to draw our spirit from our surroundings and +go down with it to ruin? That is the fateful question +with which we are confronted.</p> + +<p>The true sense for reality is that insight which tells +us that only through ethical ideas about things can +we arrive at a normal relation to reality. Only so +can man and society win all the power over events +that they are able to use. Without that power we +are, whatever we may choose to do, delivered over +into bondage to them.</p> + +<p>What is going on to-day between nations and +within them throws a glaring illumination upon this +truth. The history of our time is characterized by +a lack of reason which has no parallel in the past. +Future historians will one day analyse this history +in detail, and test by means of it their learning +and their freedom from prejudice. But for all +future times there will be, as there is for to-day, +only one explanation, viz., that we sought to live +and to carry on with a civilization which had no +ethical principle behind it.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page062">[pg 062]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg062"></a></p> + +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_4">CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h4>THE WAY TO THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION</h4> + +<p class="summary">Civilization-ideals have become powerless. Evolution and decay in +the history of civilization. The reform of institutions and the reform +of convictions. The individual as the sole agent of the restoration of +civilization. The difficulties which beset the restoration of civilization.</p> + +<p class="drop">The ethical conception of civilization, then, is +the only one that can be justified.</p> + +<p>But where is the road that can bring us back from +barbarism to civilization? Is there such a road at +all?</p> + +<p>The unethical conception of civilization answers: +“No.” To it all symptoms of decay are symptoms +of old age, and civilization, just like any other natural +process of growth, must after a certain period of +time reach its final end. There is nothing, therefore, +for us to do, so it says, but to take the causes of this +as quite natural, and do our best at any rate to find +interesting the unedifying phenomena of its senility, +which testify to the gradual loss of the ethical +character of civilization.</p> + +<p>In the thinking then which surrenders itself to +our sense of reality, optimism and pessimism are +inextricably intermingled. If our optimism about +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page063">[pg 063]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg063"></a> +reality is proved untenable, the optimism which +thinks that continuous progress evolves itself among +the facts as such, then the spirit which from above +contemplates and analyses the situation turns without +much concern to the mild pessimistic supposition +that civilization has reached its Indian summer.</p> + +<p>The ethical spirit cannot join in this little game of +“Optimism or pessimism?” It sees the symptoms +of decay as what they really are, viz., something +terrible. It asks itself with a shudder what will +become of the world if this dying process really goes +on unchecked. The condition of civilization is a +source of pain to it, for civilization is not an +object which it is interesting to analyse, but the +hope on which its thoughts fly out over the future +existence of the race. Belief in the possibility of a +renewal of civilization is an actual part of its life; +that is why it can no longer quiet itself with what +contents the sense of reality as it hovers between +optimism and pessimism.</p> + +<p>Those who regard the decay of civilization as +something quite normal and natural console themselves +with the thought that it is not civilization, +but a civilization, which is falling a prey to dissolution; +that there will be a new age and a new race in +which there will blossom a new civilization. But +that is a mistake. The earth no longer has in +reserve, as it had once, gifted peoples as yet unused, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page064">[pg 064]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg064"></a> +who can relieve us and take our place in some +distant future as leaders of the spiritual life. We +already know all those which the earth has to dispose +of. There is not one among them which is not +already taking such a part in our civilization that +its spiritual fate is determined by our own. All of +them, the gifted and the ungifted, the distant and +the near, have felt the influence of those forces of +barbarism which are at work among us. All of +them are, like ourselves, diseased, and only as we +recover can they recover.</p> + +<p>It is not the civilization of a race, but that of +mankind, present and future alike, that we must +give up as lost, if belief in a rebirth of our civilization +is a vain thing.</p> + +<p>But it need not be so given up. If the ethical is +the essential element in civilization, decadence +changes into renaissance as soon as ethical activities +are set to work again in our convictions and in the +ideas which we undertake to stamp upon reality. +The attempt to bring this about is well worth +making, and it should be world-wide.</p> + +<p>It is true that the difficulties that have to be +reckoned with in this undertaking are so great that +only the strongest faith in the power of the ethical +spirit will let us venture on it.</p> + +<p>First among them towers up the inability of our +generation to understand what is and must be. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page065">[pg 065]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg065"></a> +The men of the Renaissance and the Illuminati of +the eighteenth century drew courage to desire the +renewal of the world through ideas from their conviction +of the absolute indefensibility of the material +and spiritual conditions under which they lived. +Unless with us, too, the many come to some such +conviction, we must continue incapable of taking in +hand this work, in which we must imitate them. +But the many obstinately refuse to see things as they +are, and hold with all their might to the most +optimistic view of them that is possible. For this +power, however, of idealizing with continually +lowering ideals the reality which is felt to be ever +less and less satisfying, pessimism also is partly +responsible. Our generation, though so proud of +its many achievements, no longer believes in the +one thing which is all-essential: the spiritual +advance of mankind. Having given up the expectation +of this, it can put up with the present age +without feeling such suffering as would compel it, +for very pain, to long for a new one. What a task +it will be to break the fetters of unthinking optimism +and unthinking pessimism which hold us prisoners, +and so to do what will pave the way for the renewal +of civilization!</p> + +<p>A second difficulty besetting the work which lies +before us is that it is a piece of reconstruction. The +ideas of civilization which our age needs are not new +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page066">[pg 066]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg066"></a> +and strange to it. They have been in the possession +of mankind already, and are to be found in many an +antiquated formula. We have fundamentally nothing +else to do than to restore to them the respect +in which they were once held, and again regard them +seriously as we bring them into relation with the +reality which lies before us for treatment.</p> + +<p>To make what is used up usable—is there a +harder task? “It is an impossible one,” says +history. “Never hitherto have worn-out ideas risen +to new power among the peoples who have worn +them out. Their disappearance has always been +a final one.”</p> + +<p>That is true. In the history of civilization we +find nothing but discouragement for our task. Anyone +who finds history speaking optimistically lends +her a language which is not her own.</p> + +<p>Yet from the history of the past we can infer only +what has been, not what will be. Even if it proves +that no single people has ever lived through the +decay of its civilization and a rebirth of it, we know +at once that this, which has never happened yet, +must happen with us, and therefore we cannot be +content to say that the reasoned ethical ideas on +which civilization rests get worn out in the course +of history, and console ourselves with the reflection +that this is exactly in accordance with the ordinary +processes of nature. We require to know why it has +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page067">[pg 067]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg067"></a> +so happened hitherto, and to draw an explanation, +not from the analogy of nature, but from the laws of +spiritual life. We want to get into our hands the +key of the secret, so that we may with it unlock the +new age, the age in which the worn out becomes +again unworn and the spiritual and ethical can no +longer get worn out. We must study the history +of civilization otherwise than as our predecessors +did, or we shall be finally lost.</p> + +<p>Why do not thoughts which contribute to +civilization retain the convincing power which they +once had, and which they deserve on account of +their content? Why do they lose the evidential +force of their moral and rational character? Why +do traditional truths cease to be realities and pass +from mouth to mouth as mere phrases?</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>Is this an unavoidable fate, or is the well drying +up because our thinking did not go down to the +permanent level of the water?</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is not merely that the past survives +among us as something valueless; it may cast a +poisonous shade over us. There are thoughts on +which we have never let our minds work directly +because we found them ready formulated in history. +Ideas which we have inherited do not let the truth +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page068">[pg 068]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg068"></a> +which is in them come out into active service, but +show it through a kind of dead mask. The worn +out achievements which pass over from a decadent +civilization into the current of a new age often +become like rejected products of metabolism, and +act as poisons.</p> + +<p>Granted that the Teutonic nations received a +powerful stimulus to civilization at the Renaissance +by reverting to the ideas of Greco-Roman thinkers, +not less true is it that for many centuries they had +been kept by that same Greco-Roman civilization in +a condition of spiritual dependence which was wholly +in contradiction to their native character. They +took over from it decadent ideas which were for a +long time a hindrance to their normal spiritual life, +and thence came that strange mixture of strength +and weakness which is the chief characteristic of the +Middle Ages. The dangerous elements in the +Greco-Roman civilization of the past still show +themselves in our spiritual life. It is because +Oriental and Greek conceptions which have had +their day are still current among us that we bleed +to death over problems which otherwise would have +no existence for us. How much we suffer from the +one fact that to-day and for several centuries past +our thoughts about religion have been under the +hereditary foreign domination of Jewish transcendentalism +and Greek metaphysics, and, instead of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page069">[pg 069]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg069"></a> +being able to express themselves naturally, have +suffered continual distortion!</p> + +<p>Because ideas get worn out in this way, and in +this condition hinder the thinking of later generations, +there is no continuity in the spiritual progress +of mankind, but only a confused succession of ups +and downs. The threads get broken, or knotted, +or lost, or when tied up again get tied wrongly. +Hitherto it has been thought possible to interpret +this up-and-down movement optimistically because +it was universally held that the Renaissance and +the age of the Illuminati were quite natural +successors of the Greco-Roman civilization, and it +was assumed further that, as a permanent result of +this, renewed civilizations would spring up in the +place of exhausted ones, and thus continual progress +be assured. But this generalization cannot justifiably +be drawn from such observations. It was +because new peoples came on the scene, who had +been only superficially touched by the decadent +civilizations and now produced others of their +own, that it was possible to see this succession of +ups and downs ending in an ascent. As a matter +of fact, however, our newer civilization was not +in any organic connection with the Greco-Roman, +even if it did take its first steps with the help of the +crutches which the latter provided; it may be +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page070">[pg 070]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg070"></a> +described more truly as the reaction of a healthy +spirit against the worn out ideas which were thus +offered to it. The essential element in the process +was the contact of what was worn out with the fresh +thought of young peoples.</p> + +<p>To-day, however, all our thought is losing its +power in its contact with the worn-out ideas of our +expiring civilization, or—in the case of the Hindus +and the Chinese—of our own and other expiring +civilizations. The up-and-down movement will end, +therefore, not in slow progress, but in unbroken +descent—unless we can succeed in giving the worn +out ideas a renewal of their youth.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>Another great difficulty in the way of the regeneration +of our civilization lies in the fact that it +must be an internal process, and not an external +as well, and that, therefore, there is no place for +healthy co-operation between the material and the +spiritual. From the Renaissance to the middle +of the nineteenth century the men who carried +on the work of civilization could expect help +towards spiritual progress from achievements in the +sphere of external organization. Demands in each +of these spheres stood side by side in their +programme and were pushed on simultaneously. +They were convinced that while working to transform +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page071">[pg 071]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg071"></a> +the institutions of public life they were +producing results which would call forth the +development of the new spiritual life. Success in +one sphere strengthened at once the hopes and the +energies that were at work in the other. They +laboured for the progressive democratization of the +State with the idea of thereby spreading through the +world the rule of grace and justice.</p> + +<p>We, who have lived to see the spiritual bankruptcy +of all the institutions which they created, can +no longer work in this way simultaneously at the +reform of institutions and the revival of the spiritual +element. The help which such co-operation would +give is denied us. We cannot even reckon any +longer on the old co-operation between knowledge +and thought. Once these two were allies. The +latter fought for freedom and in so doing made a +road for the former, and, on the other hand, all +the results attained by knowledge worked for the +general good of the spiritual life in that the reign +of law in nature was more and more clearly +demonstrated, and the reign of prejudice was +becoming continually more restricted. The alliance +also strengthened the thought that the well-being of +mankind must be based upon spiritual laws. Thus +knowledge and thought joined in establishing the +authority of reason and the rational tone of mind.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page072">[pg 072]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg072"></a></p> + +<p>To-day thought gets no help from science, and the +latter stands facing it independent and unconcerned. +The newest scientific knowledge may be allied with +an entirely unreflecting view of the universe. It +maintains that it is concerned only with the establishment +of individual facts, since it is only by means +of these that scientific knowledge can maintain its +practical character; the co-ordination of the +different branches of knowledge and the utilization +of the results to form a theory of the universe are, +it says, not its business. Once every man of science +was also a thinker who counted for something in the +general spiritual life of his generation. Our age has +discovered how to divorce knowledge from thought, +with the result that we have, indeed, a science which +is free, but hardly any science left which reflects.</p> + +<p>Thus we no longer have available for the renewal +of our spiritual life any of the natural external helps +which we used to have. We are called upon for a +single kind of effort only, and have to work like men +who are rebuilding the damaged foundations of a +cathedral under the weight of the massive building. +There is no progress in the world of phenomena to +encourage us to persevere; an immense revolution +has to be brought about without the aid of any +collateral revolutionary activities.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page073">[pg 073]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg073"></a></p> + +<p>Again, the renewal of civilization is hindered by +the fact that it is so exclusively the individual +personality which must be looked to as the agent +in the new movement.</p> + +<p>The renewal of civilization has nothing to do with +movements which bear the character of experiences +of the crowd; there are never anything but reactions +to external happenings. But civilization can +only revive when there shall come into being in a +number of individuals a new tone of mind independent +of the one prevalent among the crowd and +in opposition to it, a tone of mind which will +gradually win influence over the collective one, +and in the end determine its character. It is only +an ethical movement which can rescue us from +the slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into +existence only in individuals.</p> + +<p>The final decision as to what the future of a +society shall be depends not on how near its +organization is to perfection, but on the degrees of +worthiness in its individual members. The most +important, and yet the least easily determinable, +element in history is the series of unobtrusive general +changes which take place in the individual dispositions +of the many. These are what precede and +cause the happenings, and this is why it is so +difficult to understand thoroughly the men and the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page074">[pg 074]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg074"></a> +events of past times. The character and worth of +individuals among the mass and the way they +work themselves into membership of the whole +body, receiving influences from it and giving others +back, we can even to-day only partially and +uncertainly understand.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, is clear. Where the collective +body works more strongly on the individual +than the latter does upon it, the result is deterioration, +because the noble element on which everything +depends, viz., the spiritual and moral worthiness of +the individual, is thereby necessarily constricted +and hampered. Decay of the spiritual and moral +life then sets in, which renders society incapable of +understanding and solving the problems which it has +to face. Thereupon, sooner or later, it is involved +in catastrophe.</p> + +<p>That is the condition in which we are now, and +that is why it is the duty of individuals to rise to a +higher conception of their capabilities and undertake +again the function which only the individual can +perform, that of producing new spiritual-ethical +ideas. If this does not come about in a multitude +of cases nothing can save us.</p> + +<p>A new public opinion must be created privately +and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained +by the Press, by propaganda, by organization, and +by financial and other influences which are at its +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page075">[pg 075]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg075"></a> +disposal. This unnatural way of spreading ideas +must be opposed by the natural one, which goes +from man to man and relies solely on the truth of +the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for +new truth. Unarmed, and following the human +spirit’s primitive and natural fighting method, +it must attack the other, which faces it, as +Goliath faced David, in the mighty armour of +the age.</p> + +<p>About the struggle which must needs ensue no +historical analogy can tell us much. The past has, +no doubt, seen the struggle of the free-thinking +individual against the fettered spirit of a whole +society, but the problem has never presented itself +on the scale on which it does to-day, because the +fettering of the collective spirit as it is fettered +to-day by modern organizations, modern unreflectiveness, +and modern popular passions, is a +phenomenon without precedent in history.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>Will the man of to-day have strength to carry +out what the spirit demands from him, and what the +age would like to make impossible?</p> + +<p>In the over-organized societies which in a hundred +ways have him in their power, is he destined to +become once more an independent personality and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page076">[pg 076]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg076"></a> +to exert influence back upon them? They will +use every means to keep him in that condition +of impersonality which suits them. They fear +personality because the spirit and the truth, which +they would like to muzzle, find in it a means of +expressing themselves. And their power is, unfortunately, +as great as their fear.</p> + +<p>There is a tragic alliance between society as a +whole and its economic conditions. With a grim +relentlessness those conditions tend to bring up the +man of to-day as a being without freedom, without +self-collectedness, without independence, in short +as a human being so full of deficiencies that he lacks +the qualities of humanity. And they are the last +things that we can change. Even if it should be +granted us that the spirit should begin its work, we +shall only slowly and incompletely gain power over +these forces. There is, in fact, being demanded from +the will that which our conditions of life refuse to +allow.</p> + +<p>And how heavy the tasks that the spirit has to +take in hand! It has to create the power of understanding +the truth that is really true where at +present nothing is current but propagandist truth. +It has to depose ignoble patriotism, and enthrone +the noble kind of patriotism which aims at ends +that are worthy of the whole of mankind, in circles +where the hopeless issues of past and present +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page077">[pg 077]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg077"></a> +political activities keep nationalist passions aglow +even among those who in their hearts would fain be +free from them. It has to get the fact that civilization +is an interest of all men and of humanity as a +whole recognized again in places where national +civilization is to-day worshipped as an idol, and +the notion of a humanity with a common civilization +lies broken to fragments. It has to maintain +our faith in the civilized State, even though our +modern States, spiritually and economically ruined +by the war, have no time to think about the +tasks of civilization, and dare not devote their +attention to anything but how to use every +possible means, even those which undermine the +conception of justice, to collect money with which +to prolong their own existence. It has to unite +us by giving us a single ideal of civilized man, +and this in a world where one nation has robbed +its neighbour of all faith in humanity, idealism, +righteousness, reasonableness, and truthfulness, and +all alike have come under the domination of powers +which are plunging us ever deeper into barbarism. +It has to get attention concentrated on civilization +while the growing difficulty of making a living +absorbs the masses more and more in material cares, +and makes all other things seem to them to be mere +shadows. It has to give us faith in the possibility of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page078">[pg 078]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg078"></a> +progress while the reaction of the economic on the +spiritual becomes more pernicious every day and +contributes to an ever growing demoralization. It +has to provide us with a capacity for hope at a time +when not only secular and religious institutions and +associations, but the men, too, who are looked upon +as leaders, continually fail us, when artists and men +of learning show themselves as supporters of +barbarism, and notabilities who pass for thinkers, +and behave outwardly as such, are revealed, when +crises come, as being nothing more than writers and +members of academies.</p> + +<p>All these hindrances stand in the path of the will +to civilization. A dull despair hovers about us. +How well we now understand the men of the +Greco-Roman decadence, who stood before events +incapable of resistance, and, leaving the world to its +fate, withdrew upon their inner selves! Like them, +we are bewildered by our experience of life. Like +them, we hear enticing voices which say to us that +the one thing which can still make life tolerable is to +live for the day. We must, we are told, renounce +every wish to think or hope about anything beyond +our own fate. We must find rest in resignation.</p> + +<p>The recognition that civilization is founded on +some sort of theory of the universe, and can be +restored only through a spiritual awakening and a +will for ethical good in the mass of mankind, compels +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page079">[pg 079]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg079"></a> +us to make clear to ourselves those difficulties in the +way of a rebirth of civilization which ordinary +reflection would overlook. But at the same time +it raises us above all considerations of possibility or +impossibility. If the ethical spirit provides a +sufficient standing ground in the sphere of events +for making civilization a reality, then we shall get +civilization, provided that we return to a suitable +theory of the universe and the convictions to which +this properly gives birth.</p> + +<p>The history of our decadence preaches the truth +that when hope is dead the spirit becomes the +deciding court of appeal, and this truth will in +the future find in us a sublime and noble fulfilment.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page080">[pg 080]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg080"></a></p> + +<p class="chapter"></p> +<h2 id="mbp_toc_5">CHAPTER V</h2> +<h4>CIVILIZATION AND THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE</h4> + +<p class="summary">The regeneration of our theory of the universe and the restoration of +civilization. A reflective theory of the universe; rationalism and +mysticism. The optimistic-ethical theory as a theory of civilization. +The regeneration of our ideas by reflection about the meaning of life.</p> + +<p class="drop">The greatest of all the spirit’s tasks is to produce +a theory of the universe (<i>Weltanschauung</i><a id="in2-ref" href="#in2">*</a>), for in +such a theory all the ideas, convictions and activities +of an age have their roots, and it is only when we +have arrived at one which is compatible with civilization +that we are capable of holding the ideas and +convictions which are the conditions of civilization +in general.</p> + +<p>What is meant by a theory of the universe? It +is the content of the thoughts of society and the +individuals which compose it about the nature and +object of the world in which they live, and the +position and the destiny of mankind and of individual +men within it. What significance have the +society in which I live and I myself in the world? +What do we want to do in the world, what do we +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page081">[pg 081]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg081"></a> +hope to get from it, and what is our duty to it? +The answer given by the majority to these fundamental +questions about existence decides what the +spirit is in which they and their age live.</p> + +<p>Is not this putting too high the value of a theory +of the universe?</p> + +<p>At present, certainly, the majority do not, as a +rule, attain to any properly thought-out theory, nor +do they feel the need of deriving their ideas and +convictions from such a source. They are in tune, +more or less, with all the tones which pervade the +age in which they live.</p> + +<p>But who are the musicians who have produced +these tones? They are the personalities who have +thought out theories of the universe, and drawn +from them the ideas, more or less valuable, which +are current amongst us to-day. In this way all +thoughts, whether those of individuals or those of +society, go back ultimately, in some way or other, +to a theory of the universe. Every age lives in the +consciousness of what has been provided for it by +the thinkers under whose influence it stands.</p> + +<p>Plato was wrong in holding that the philosophers +of a State should also be its governors. Their +supremacy is a different and a higher one than that +which consists in taking cognizance of laws and +ordinances and giving effect to official authority. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page082">[pg 082]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg082"></a> +They are the officers of the general staff who sit in +the background thinking out, with more or less +clearness of vision, the details of the battle which is +to be fought. Those who play their part in the +public eye are the subordinate officers who, for their +variously sized units, convert the general directions +of the staff into orders of the day: namely, that the +forces will start at such and such a time, move in +this or that direction, and occupy this or that point. +Kant and Hegel have commanded millions who had +never read a line of their writings, and who did not +even know that they were obeying their orders.</p> + +<p>Those who command, whether it be in a large or +a small sphere, can only carry out what is already +in the thought of the age. They do not build the +instrument on which they have to play, but are +merely given a seat at it. Nor do they compose the +piece they have to play; it is simply put before +them, and they cannot alter it; they can only +reproduce it with more or less skill and success. +If it is meaningless, they cannot do much to improve +it, but neither, if it is good, can they damage it +seriously.</p> + +<p>To the question, then, whether it is personalities +or ideas which decide the fate of an age, the answer +is that the age gets its ideas from personalities. If +the thinkers of a certain period produce a worthy +theory of the universe, then ideas pass into currency +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page083">[pg 083]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg083"></a> +which guarantee progress; if they are not +capable of such production, then decadence sets in +in some form or other. Every theory of the universe +draws after it its own special results in history.</p> + +<p>The fall of the Roman Empire in spite of that +empire’s having over it so many rulers of conspicuous +ability, may be traced ultimately to the +fact that ancient philosophy produced no theory of +the universe with ideas which tended to that +empire’s preservation. With the rise of Stoicism, +as the definitive answer of the philosophic thought +of antiquity, the fate of the world down to the +Middle Ages was decided. The idea of resignation, +noble idea as it is, could not ensure progress in a +world-wide empire. The efforts of its strongest +emperors were useless. The yarn with which they +had to weave was rotten.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century, under the rule, in most +places, of insignificant rococo-sovereigns and +rococo-ministers, a progressive movement began among +the nations of Europe which was unique in the +history of the world. Why? The thinkers of the +Illuminati and of rationalism produced a worthy +theory of the universe from which worthy ideas +were spread among mankind.</p> + +<p>But when history began to shape itself in accordance +with these ideas, the thought which had +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page084">[pg 084]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg084"></a> +produced the progress came to a halt, and we have +now a generation which is squandering the precious +heritage it has received from the past, and is living +in a world of ruins, because it cannot complete the +building which that past began. Even had our +rulers and statesmen been less short-sighted than +they actually were, they would not in the long run +have been able to avert the catastrophe which +burst upon us. Both the inner and the outer +collapse of civilization were latent in the circumstances +produced by the prevalent view of the +universe. The rulers, small and great alike, did [nothing but] +act in accordance with the spirit of the age.</p> + +<p>With the disappearance of the influence exerted +by the <i>Aufklärung</i>, rationalism, and the serious +philosophy of the early nineteenth century, the seeds +were sown of the world-war to come. Then began +to disappear also the ideas and convictions which +would have made possible a solution on right lines +of the controversies which arise between nations.</p> + +<p>Thus the course of events brought us into a +position in which we had to get along without any +real theory of the universe. The collapse of +philosophy and the rise and influence of scientific +modes of thought made it impossible to arrive at +an idealist theory which should satisfy thought. +Moreover, our age is poorer in deep thinkers than +perhaps any preceding one. There were a few +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page085">[pg 085]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg085"></a> +strong spirits who, with varied knowledge, and with +devoted efforts, offered the world some patchwork +thought; there were some dazzling comets; but +that was all that was granted us. Their products +in the way of world theories were good enough to +interest a circle of academic culture, or to delight a +few believing followers, but the people as a whole +were entirely untouched.</p> + +<p>We began, therefore, to persuade ourselves that +it was, after all, possible to get through without any +theory of the universe. The feeling that we needed +to stir ourselves up to ask questions about the world +and life, and to come to a decision upon them, +gradually died away. In the unreflective condition +to which we had surrendered ourselves, we took, to +meet the claims of our own life and the nation’s life, +the chance ideas provided by our feeling for reality. +During more than a generation and a half we +had proof enough and to spare that the theory +which is the result of absence of theory is the most +worthless of all, involving not only ruin to the +spiritual life, but ruin universal. For where there +is no general staff to think out its plan of campaign +for any generation its subordinate officers lead it, +as in actual warfare so in the sphere of ideas, from +one profitless adventure to another.</p> + +<p>The reconstruction of our age, then, can begin +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page086">[pg 086]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg086"></a> +only with a reconstruction of a theory of the +universe. There is hardly anything more urgent +in its claim on us than this which seems to be so far +off and abstract. Only when we have made ourselves +at home again in the solid thought-building +of a theory which can support a civilization, and +when we take from it, all of us in co-operation, ideas +which can stimulate our life and work, only then +can there again arise a society which shall possess +ideals with magnificent aims and be able to bring +these into effective agreement with reality. It is +from new ideas that we must build history anew.</p> + +<p>For individuals as for the community, life without +a theory of things is a pathological disturbance of +the higher capacity for self-direction.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>What conditions must a theory of the universe +fulfil to enable it to create a civilization?</p> + +<p>First, and defined generally, it must be the +product of thought. Nothing but what is born of +thought and addresses itself to thought can be a +spiritual power affecting the whole of mankind. +Only what has been well turned over in the thought +of the many, and thus recognized as truth, possesses +a natural power of conviction which will work on +other minds and will continue to be effective. +Only where there is a constant appeal to the need +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page087">[pg 087]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg087"></a> +of a reflective view of things are all man’s spiritual +capacities called into activity.</p> + +<p>Our age has a kind of artistic prejudice against a +reflective theory of the universe. We are still +children of the Romantic movement to a greater +extent than we realize. What that movement +produced in opposition to the <i>Aufklärung</i> and to +rationalism seems to us valid for all ages against +any theory that would found itself solely on thought. +In such a theory of the universe we can see beforehand +the world dominated by a barren intellectualism, +convictions governed by mere utility, and +a shallow optimism, which together throw a wet +blanket over all human genius and enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>In a great deal of the opposition which it offered +to rationalism the reaction of the early nineteenth +century was right. Nevertheless it remains true +that it despised and distorted what was, in spite of +all its imperfections, the greatest and most valuable +manifestation of the spiritual life of man that the +world has yet seen. Down through all circles of +cultured and uncultured alike there prevailed at +that time a belief in thought and a reverence for +truth. For that reason alone that age stands +higher than any which preceded it, and much +higher than our own.</p> + +<p>At no price must the feelings and phrases of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page088">[pg 088]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg088"></a> +Romanticism be allowed to prevent our generation +from forming a clear conception of what reason +really is. It is no dry intellectualism which would +suppress all the manifold movements of our inner +life, but the totality of all the functions of our spirit +in their living action and interaction. In it our +intellect and our will hold that mysterious intercourse +which determines the character of our +spiritual being. These fundamental ideas which it +produces contain all that we can feel or imagine +about our destiny and that of mankind, and give our +whole being its direction and its value. The +enthusiasm which comes from thought has the same +relation to that which rises from the cauldron of +feeling as the wind which sweeps the heights has to +that which eddies about between the hills. If we +venture once more to seek help from the light of +reason, we shall no longer keep ourselves down at +the level of a generation which has ceased to be +capable of enthusiasm, but shall follow the deep and +noble passion inspired by great and sublime ideals. +This will so fill and expand our being that that by +which we now live will seem to be merely a petty +kind of excitement, and will disappear.</p> + +<p>Rationalism is more than a movement of thought +which realized itself at the end of the eighteenth and +the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. It is a +necessary phenomenon in all normal spiritual life. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page089">[pg 089]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg089"></a> +All real progress in the world is in the last analysis +produced by rationalism.</p> + +<p>It is true that the intellectual productions of the +period which we designate historically as the +rationalistic are incomplete and unsatisfactory, but +the principle, which was then established, of basing +our views of the universe on thought and thought +alone, is valid for all time. Even if the tree’s earliest +fruit did not ripen perfectly, the tree itself remains, +nevertheless, the tree of life for the life of our spirit.</p> + +<p>All the movements that have claimed to take the +place of rationalism stand far below it in the matter +of achievement. From speculative thought, from +history, from feeling, from æsthetics, from science, +they tried to construct a theory of the universe, +grubbing at haphazard in the world around them +instead of excavating scientifically. Rationalism +alone chose the right place for its digging, and dug +systematically, according to plan. If it found only +metal of small value, that was because, with the +means at its disposal, it could not go deep enough. +Impoverished and ruined as we are because we +sought as mere adventurers, we must make up our +minds to sink another shaft in the ground where +rationalism worked, and to go down through all +the strata to see whether we cannot find the gold +which must certainly be there.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page090">[pg 090]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg090"></a></p> + +<p>To think out to the end a theory of the universe +which has been produced by thought—that is the +only possible way of finding our bearings amid the +confusion of the world of thought to-day.</p> + +<p>Philosophical, historical, and scientific questions +with which it was not capable of dealing overwhelmed +the earlier rationalism like an avalanche, +and buried it in the middle of its journey. The new +rational theory of the universe must work its way +out of this chaos. Leaving itself freely open to the +whole influence of the world of fact, it must explore +every path offered by reflection and knowledge in its +effort to reach the ultimate meaning of being and +life, and to see whether it can solve some of the +riddles which they present.</p> + +<p>The ultimate knowledge, in which man recognizes +his own being as a part of the All, belongs, they say, +to the realm of mysticism, by which is meant that +he does not reach it by the method of ordinary +reflection, but somehow or other lives himself +into it.</p> + +<p>But why assume that the road of thought must +suddenly stop at the frontier of mysticism? It is +true that pure reason has hitherto called a halt +whenever it came into this neighbourhood, for it +was unwilling to go beyond the point at which it +could still exhibit everything as part of a smooth, +logical plan. Mysticism, on its side, always depreciated +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page091">[pg 091]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg091"></a> +pure reason as much as it could, to prevent +at all costs the idea from gaining currency that it +was in any way bound to give an account to reason. +And yet, although they refuse to recognize each +other, the two belong to each other.</p> + +<p>It is in reason that intellect and will, which in our +nature are mysteriously bound up together, seek +to come to a mutual understanding. The ultimate +knowledge that we strive to acquire is knowledge of +life, which intellect looks at from without, will from +within. Since life is the ultimate object of knowledge, +our ultimate knowledge is necessarily our +thinking experience of life, but this does not lie +outside the sphere of reason, but within reason itself. +Only when the will has thought out its relation to +the intellect, has come, as far as it can, into line +with it, has penetrated it, and in it become logical, +is it in a position to comprehend itself, so far as its +nature allows this, as a part of the universal will-to-live +and a part of being in general. If it merely +leaves the intellect on one side, it loses itself in +confused imaginings, while the intellect, which, like +the rationalism of the past, will not allow that in +order to understand life it must finally lose itself in +thinking experience, renounces all hope of constructing +a deep and firmly based theory of the +universe.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page092">[pg 092]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg092"></a></p> + +<p>Thus reflection, when pursued to the end, lead +somewhere and somehow to a living mysticism +which is for all men everywhere a necessary element +of thought.</p> + +<p>Doubts whether the mass of men can ever attain +to that level of reflection about themselves and the +world which is demanded by a reflective theory of +the universe, are quite justifiable if the man of to-day +is taken as an example of the race. But he, with +his diminished need of thought, is a pathological +phenomenon.</p> + +<p>In reality there is given in the mental endowment +of the average man a capacity for thought which to +the individual makes the creation of a reflective +theory of things of his own not only possible, but +under normal conditions even a necessity. The +great movements of illumination in ancient and +modern times help to maintain the confident belief +that there is in the mass of mankind a power of +thought on fundamentals which can be roused to +activity. This belief is strengthened by observation +of mankind and intercourse with the young. +A fundamental impulse to reflect about the universe +stirs us during those years in which we begin to think +independently. Later on we let it languish, even +though feeling clearly that we thereby impoverish +ourselves and become less capable of what is good. +We are like springs of water which no longer run +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page093">[pg 093]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg093"></a> +because they have not been watched and have +gradually become choked with rubbish.</p> + +<p>More than any other age has our own neglected +to watch the thousand springs of thought; hence +the drought in which we are pining. But if we only +go on to remove the rubbish which conceals the +water, the sands will be irrigated again, and life will +spring up where hitherto there has been only a +desert.</p> + +<p>Certainly there are guides and the guided in the +department of world-theories, as in others. So far +the independence of the mass of men remains a +relative one. The question is only whether the +influence of the guides leads to dependence or +independence. The latter brings with it a development +in the direction of truthfulness; the former +means the death of that virtue.</p> + +<p>Every being who calls himself a man is meant +to develop into a real personality within a reflective +theory of the universe which he has created for +himself.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>But of what character must the theory be if ideas +and convictions about civilization are to be based +on it?</p> + +<p>That theory of the universe is optimistic which +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page094">[pg 094]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg094"></a> +gives existence the preference as against +non-existence and thus affirms life as something possessing +value in itself. From this attitude to the +universe and to life results the impulse to raise +existence, in so far as our influence can affect it, +to its highest level of value. Thence originates +activity directed to the improvement of the living +conditions of individuals, of society, of nations and of +humanity, from which spring the external achievements +of civilization, the lordship of spirit over +the powers of nature, and the higher social +organization.</p> + +<p>Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the +inner perfection of his own personality. In itself +it is quite independent of whether the theory of the +universe is pessimistic or optimistic. But its sphere +of action is contracted or widened according as it +appears in connection with a theory of the first or +the second type.</p> + +<p>In the determinist-pessimistic theory of the +universe, as we have it in the thought of the Brāhmans +or of Schopenhauer, ethics has nothing +whatever to do with the objective world. It aims +solely at securing the self-perfection of the individual +as this comes to pass in inner freedom and disconnection +from the world and the spirit of the +world.</p> + +<p>But the scope of ethics is extended in proportion +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page095">[pg 095]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg095"></a> +as it develops and strengthens a connection with a +theory of the universe which is affirmative toward +the world and life. Its aim is now the inner perfection +of the individual and at the same time the +direction of his activity so as to take effect on other +men and on the objective world. It is true that in +face of the objective world and its spirit ethics +no longer holds itself up to man as an aim in itself. +By its means man is to become capable of acting +among men and in the world as a higher and purer +force, and thus to do his part towards the actualization +of the ideal of general progress.</p> + +<p>Thus the optimistic-ethical theory of the universe +works in partnership with ethics to produce civilization. +Neither is capable of doing so by itself. +Optimism supplies confidence that the world-process +has somehow or other a spiritual-sensible aim, and +that the improvement of the general relations of the +world and of society promotes the spiritual-moral +perfection of the individual. From ethics is derived +ability to develop the purposive state of mind +necessary to produce action on the world and society +and to cause the co-operation of all our achievements +to secure the spiritual and moral perfection of the +individual which is the final end of civilization.</p> + +<p>Once we have recognized that the energies which +spring out of a theory of the universe, and impel us to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page096">[pg 096]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg096"></a> +create a civilization, are rooted in the ethical and the +optimistic, we get light on the question why and how +our ideals of civilization got worn out. This question +is not to be answered by good or bad analogies from +nature. The decisive answer is that they got worn +out because we had not succeeded in establishing the +ethical and optimistic elements on a sufficiently firm +foundation.</p> + +<p>If we should analyse the process in which the +ideas and convictions that produce civilization +reveal themselves, it would be found that whenever +an advance has been registered, either the optimist +or the ethical element in the theory of the universe +has proved more attractive than usual, and has +had as its consequence a progressive development. +When civilization is decaying there is the same chain +of causation, but it works negatively. The building +is damaged or falls in because the optimist element +or the ethical, or both, give way like a weak foundation. +No amount of inquiry will give any other +reason for the changes. All imaginable ideas and +convictions of that character spring from optimism +and the ethical impulse. If these two pillars are +strong enough, we need have no fears about the +building.</p> + +<p>The future of civilization depends, therefore, on +whether it is possible for thought to reach a theory +of the universe which will have a more secure and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page097">[pg 097]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg097"></a> +fundamental hold on optimism and the ethical +impulse than its predecessors have had.</p> + +<div class="tei" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0em"> +<img alt="sigla" src="images/sigla.jpg" width="128" height="33"> +</div> + +<p>We Westerners dream of a theory of the +universe which corresponds to our impulse to +action and at the same time justifies it. We +have not been able to formulate such a theory +definitely. At present we are in the state of possessing +merely an impulse without any definite orientation. +The spirit of the age drives us into action +without allowing us to attain any clear view of the +objective world and of life. It claims our toil +inexorably in the service of this or that end, this or +that achievement. It keeps us in a sort of intoxication +of activity so that we may never have time +to reflect and to ask ourselves what this restless +sacrifice of ourselves to ends and achievements really +has to do with the meaning of the world and of our +lives. And so we wander hither and thither in the +gathering dusk formed by lack of any definite theory +of the universe like homeless, drunken mercenaries, +and enlist indifferently in the service of the common +and the great without distinguishing between them. +And the more hopeless becomes the condition of the +world in which this adventurous impulse to action +and progress ranges to and fro, the more bewildered +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page098">[pg 098]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg098"></a> +becomes our whole conception of things and the more +purposeless and irrational the doings of those who +have enlisted under the banner of such an impulse.</p> + +<p>How little reflection is present in the Western +impulse to action becomes evident when this tries to +square its ideas with those of the Far East. For +thought in the Far East has been constantly occupied +in its search for the meaning of life, and forces +us to consider the problem of the meaning of our +own restlessness, the problem which we Westerners +burke so persistently. We are utterly at a loss when +we contemplate the ideas which are presented to us +in Indian thought. We turn away from the +intellectual presumption which we find there. We +are conscious of the unsatisfying and incomplete +elements in the ideal of cessation from action. We +feel instinctively that the will-to-progress is justified +not only in its aspect as directed to the spiritual +perfection of personality, but also in that which looks +towards the general and material.</p> + +<p>For ourselves we dare to allege that we adventurers, +who take up an affirmative attitude toward +the world and toward life, however great and even +ghastly our mistakes may be, can yet show not only +greater material, but also greater spiritual and +ethical, contributions than can those who lie under +the ban of a theory of the universe characterized by +cessation from action.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page099">[pg 099]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg099"></a></p> + +<p>And yet, all the same, we cannot feel ourselves +completely justified in the face of these strange +Eastern theories. They have in them something full +of nobility which retains its hold on us, even fascinates +us. This tinge of nobility comes from the fact +that these convictions are born of a search for a +theory of the universe and for the meaning of life. +With us, on the other hand, activist instincts and +impulses take the place of a theory of the universe. +We have no theory affirming the world and life to +oppose to the negative theory of these thinkers, no +thought which has found a basis for an optimistic +conception of existence to oppose to this other, +which has arrived at a pessimistic conception.</p> + +<p>The reawakening of the Western spirit must thus +begin by our people, educated and simple alike, +becoming conscious of their lack of a theory of the +universe and feeling the horror of their consequent +position. We can no longer be satisfied to make +shift with substitutes for such a theory. What is +the basis of the will-to-activity and progress which +impels both to great actions and to terrible deeds, +and which tries to keep us from reflection? We +must bend all our energies to the solution of this +problem.</p> + +<p>There is only one way in which we can hope to +emerge from the meaningless state in which we are +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100">[pg 100]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg100"></a> +now held captive into one informed with meaning. +Each one of us must turn to contemplate his own +being, and we must all give ourselves to co-operative +reflection so as to discover how our will to action and +to progress may be intellectually based on the way +in which we interpret our own lives and the life +around us, and the meaning which we give to these.</p> + +<p>The great revision of the convictions and ideals +in which and for which we live will only take place +when, by constantly proclaiming them, we have +given currency among our contemporaries to ideas +and thoughts other and better than those by which +they are dominated at the moment. Only thus will +the many come to reflect about the meaning of life +and to reorientate, revise and make over again their +ideals of action and of progress, asking themselves +whether these have a meaning in accord with that +which we attribute to our life itself. This personal +reflection about final and elemental things is the one +and only reliable way of measuring values. My +willing and doing have real meaning and value only +in proportion as the aims which action sets before +itself can be justified as being in direct accord with +my interpretation of my own and of other life. +All else, however much it may pass current as +approved by tradition, usage, and public opinion, +is vain and dangerous.</p> + +<p>It seems, indeed, a matter for scorn and derision +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101">[pg 101]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg101"></a> +that we should urge men to anything so remote as +a return to reflection about the meaning of life at a +time when the sufferings and the follies of the +nations have become so intense and so extended, +when unemployment and poverty and starvation +are rife, when power is being dissipated on all sides +in the most shameless and senseless way, and when +organized human life is dislocated in every direction. +But only when the general population begins to +reflect in this way will forces come into being which +will be able to effect something to counterbalance +all this ruin and misery. Whatever other measures +it is attempted to carry out will have doubtful and +altogether inadequate results.</p> + +<p>When in the spring the withered grey of the +pastures gives place to green, this is due to the +millions of young shoots which sprout up freshly +from the old roots. In like manner the revival of +thought which is essential for our time can only +come through a transformation of the opinions and +ideals of the many brought about by individual and +universal reflection about the meaning of life and of +the world.</p> + +<p>But are we sure of being able to think out that +affirmation of the world and of life, which is such +a powerful impulse in us, into a theory of the world +and of life from which a stream of energy productive +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg102"></a> +of intelligible life and action may convincingly and +constantly proceed? How are we to succeed in +doing what the spirit of the Western world during +past generations has in vain toiled to accomplish?</p> + +<p>Even if thought, once more awakened, should only +attain to an incomplete and unsatisfying theory of +the universe, yet this, as the truth to which we have +ourselves worked through, would be of more value +than a complete lack of any theory at all, or, alternatively, +than any sort of authoritative theory to +which, neglecting the demands of true thought, we +cling on account of its supposed intrinsic value +without having any real and thorough belief in it.</p> + +<p>The beginning of all spiritual life of any real value +is courageous faith in truth and open confession of +the same. The most profound religious experience, +too, is not alien to thought, but must be capable of +derivation from this if it is to be given a true and +deep basis. Mere reflection about the meaning of +life has already value in itself. If such reflection +should again come into being amongst us, the ideals, +born of vanity and of suffering, which now flourish +in rank profusion like evil weeds among the convictions +of the generality of people, would infallibly +wither away and die. How much would already be +accomplished towards our salvation from our present +circumstances if only we would all give up three +minutes every evening to gazing up into the infinite +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103">[pg 103]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg103"></a> +world of the starry heavens and meditating on it, +or if in taking part in a funeral procession we would +reflect on the enigma of life and death, instead of +engaging in thoughtless conversation as we follow +behind the coffin! The ideals, born of folly and +suffering, of those who make public opinion and +direct public events, would have no more power over +men if they once began to reflect about eternity and +mortality, existence and dissolution, and thus learnt +to distinguish between true and false standards, +between those which possess real value and those +which do not. The old-time rabbis used to teach +that the kingdom of God would come if only the +whole of Israel would really keep a single Sabbath +simultaneously! How much more is it true that +the injustice and violence and untruth, which are +now bringing so much disaster on the human race, +would lose their power if only a single real trace of +reflection about the meaning of the world and of life +should appear amongst us!</p> + +<p>But is there not a danger in challenging men with +this question about the meaning of life and in +demanding that our impulse to action should justify +and clarify itself in such reflection as that of which +we have spoken? Shall we not lose, in acceding to +this demand, some irreplaceable element of naïve +enthusiasm?</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg104"></a></p> + +<p>We need not thus be anxious as to how strong or +how weak our impulse to action will prove to be +when it shall have arrived, as the result of intellectual +reflection, at an interpretation of life. Only +that has real meaning for life which is given as an +element of our interpretation of life. It is not the +quantity, but the quality, of activity that really +matters. What is needed is that our will-to-action +should become conscious of itself and should cease +to work blindly.</p> + +<p>But perhaps, it may be objected, we shall end +in the resignation of agnosticism, and shall be +obliged to confess that we cannot discover any +meaning in the universe or in life.</p> + +<p>If thought is to set out on its journey unhampered, +it must be prepared for anything, even for arrival at +intellectual agnosticism. But even if our will-to-action +is destined to wrestle endlessly and unavailingly +with an agnostic view of the universe and of +life, still this painful disenchantment is better for it +than persistent refusal to think out its position at +all. For this disenchantment does, at any rate, mean +that we are clear as to what we are doing.</p> + +<p>There is, however, no necessity whatever for such +an attitude of resignation. We feel that a position +of affirmation regarding the world and life is something +which is in itself both necessary and valuable. +Therefore it is at least likely that a foundation can be +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg105"></a> +found for it in thought. Since it is an innate +element of our will-to-live, it must be possible to +comprehend it as a necessary corollary to our interpretation +of life. Perhaps we shall have to look +elsewhere than we have done hitherto for the real +basis of that theory of the universe which carries +with it affirmation of the world and of life. Previous +thought imagined that it could deduce the meaning +of life from its interpretation of the universe. It +may be that we shall be obliged to resign ourselves +to abandon the problem of the interpretation of the +universe and to find the meaning of our life in the +will-to-live as this exists in ourselves.</p> + +<p>The ways along which we have to struggle toward +the goal may be veiled in darkness, yet the direction +in which we must travel is clear. We must reflect +together about the meaning of life; we must strive +together to attain to a theory of the universe +affirmative of the world and of life, in which the +impulse to action which we experience as a necessary +and valuable element of our being may find justification, +orientation, clarity and depth, may receive a +fresh access of moral strength, and be retempered, +and thus become capable of formulating, and of +acting on, definite ideals of civilization, inspired by +the spirit of true humanitarianism.</p> + +<p><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page106">[pg 106]</span><a class="tei" id="Pg106"></a> + +<h2 id="mbp_toc_12">FOOTNOTES</h2> + + +<p><a href="#in1-ref" id="in1">*</a> <i>Weltanschauung</i>. Translated ‘theory +of the universe’ throughout the first part and elsewhere in this preface. +</p> + +<p><a href="#in2-ref" id="in2">*</a> Translated “world-view” throughout the second +part of these Lectures.</p> + +<h2>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h2> + +<p>The formatting of both the .htm and .txt files followed that of two +similar books, The Quest of the Historical Jesus and The Mystery of the Kingdom of +God, already in Project Gutenberg.</p> + +<p>I made several hyphenation choices, mostly forced by de-hyphenation at the ends +of lines:</p> + +<ul> + <li>1. world-theory</li> + <li>2. overcoming</li> + <li>3. self-regarding</li> + <li>4. never-concentrated</li> + <li>5. over-organization</li> + <li>6. over-valuation</li> + <li>7. self-importance</li> + <li>8. rococo-ministers</li> + <li>9. non-existence</li> +</ul> + +<p>In addition, on page 5 of the .pdf file on Internet Archive, the display of +this page was corrupted in my copy. As pointed out by an editor, this has been +corrected in the current version at Internet Archive.</p> + +<p>On page 84 the word "not" in the sentence: + +"The rulers, small and great alike, did not act in accordance with the spirit of the age."" + +was changed to "[nothing but]". The original German is: + +"Die kleinen und die großen Regierenden taten nichts anderes, als daß sie im Geiste der Zeit handelten." + +Google Translate (4/25/2025) renders this as: + +"The small and the big rulers did nothing other than act in the spirit of the times." + +The printed sentence in the book is either a typo or a mis-translation. It does not fit +the sense of the author who means that the rulers themselves are not to blame for the collapse +of civilization but rather it is the fault of the "spirit of the age".</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75958 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/75958-h/images/cover.jpg b/75958-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a85d6a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/75958-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75958-h/images/sigla.jpg b/75958-h/images/sigla.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d4d1a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/75958-h/images/sigla.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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