Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

day motives and behaviour of individuals will not be brought about or endure, merely through fear of the renewal of an event which, unthinkable as the suggestion may be to us now, may itself be unthinkable a generation or two hence. For "Green earth forgets,

Only

The hungry generations mask her grief."

"the gods forget not.

By their great memories the gods are known."*

The principles of reconstruction must then have some consideration apart from the international question, and the point of view may be taken from the last paragraph of the second contribution. What will be new after the war, we are told, will be not a new ethic or a new philosophy, but a new practical possibility of realising our ethics and philosophy. Is not this sufficient? Are we in need of finer patterns of the state or visions of the perfect society than philosophy has scattered in profusion over the firmament of thought? Is it only the power to bring them down from heaven to earth which has been lacking, and is no greater idealism needed than the belief that certain social reforms which idealists have demanded will become practical politics? It may be agreed that the revelation of unrealised or forgotten forces in man which has recently been given affords new hope of the practicability of a social regeneration which would mean "a new heaven and a new earth." Proceeding from this starting point, a speculation may be hazarded out of which to draw a hypothesis to go upon, viz., that the present is one of the few scenes of the turning-points of history, when unsuspected forces come into play, and the changeless logic of the human brain works with changed premises. A new religion, as in the beginning of the Christian era or the end of the Middle Ages, when the new comprehension of freedom of thought and spirit worked as a religious passion, is best fitted to usher in such

"Ode to France."-G. Meredith.

new ages. But they may also come unheralded by such discoveries of a universal in relation to which all particulars are transformed. They may be the result of some extraordinary practical experience. It is assumed, then, that the present experience is the beginning of such an epoch, or that the effect of present events on thought, feeling, and will, will set men freer to shape afresh the foundations of social life.

Philosophy would do much if it could show, as it has never shown before, how the principle of the good is to be translated into actuality. There are times when the habitual estimates and measurements of history are seen to have but a partial reality, and we are not so bound down by the axiomata media, which give interpretations sufficient for customary life, as to be blind to evidence that these must be overpassed. philosophic student of history should admit the possibility of rapid changes in the depths as well as on the surface of social life, or that the passage of a people or mankind into a new mental climate is not inconceivable. Whether or not philosophy gives this freedom to the few, history itself may give it to the many, when "ideas have hands and feet." On the hypothesis provisionally adopted, the virtue most demanded for social reconstruction would be courage, intellectual and moralcourage to take the moment offered, and see our dogmas in the light of wider principles, not fearing if in that light we also meet with dogmas supposed to be most hostile to our own. The practical question is how to utilise the force for reform which ex hypothesi exists, without allowing it to be exhausted, or at best diminished, through the efforts of different schools to turn it in diverse directions. What is to be sought is a basis of agreement as to the end desired, on which the various movements may be able to proceed in common. Moreover. if there is such a basis capable of acceptance without sacrifice of essentials by any true reformer, this would in itself be additional confirmation of the postulate that we have arrived at a turning-point in history.

Recognition of The opposition development of

Such a basic principle is to be discovered in almost all the social doctrines and constructive efforts of the present day, as well as in the thoughts of ordinary men. It may be described in one way as a new understanding of the principle of personality, which goes so much deeper than the sixteenth century affirmation of freedom of thought and will, is so much more positive and universal than this, as to mark a new chapter in the spiritual history of humanity. this principle is the keynote of the first paper. in that paper between the scope for the personality under Individualism and under a system of Statecontrol may seem to be supported by a good deal of modern experience. Yet the opportunity for personality cannot be regarded as identical with the opportunities offered under an individualistic social system, since laissez-faire has been shown by experience to be very inadequate to the general attainment of conditions necessary to the unimpeded growth of personality. Respect for the principle of personality is also to be found in the third contribution, especially in the estimate of the relations of Voluntaryism to Communism, and the criterion indicated of a good organisation-that it should "arise out of the spontaneous energy of individuals." In the recognition also in the second paper of "the rights of civilised communities to be governed according to their own lights," there would seem to be logically implied admission of the right of all members of those communities to that complete individual development which is essential to the existence of a real general will. It must be noted, however, that no community of free persons could submit to a system of compulsory labour.

The special character of the present-day demand for freedom is well expressed by Mr. Bertrand Russell in his recent book,* i.e., in the thesis that the cause of social reconstruction depends upon the giving of full scope to the creative

* Principles of Social Reconstruction.

impulses in man. This interpretation brings out the new strength acquired for the principle of personality, both in conception and in practical expression. It involves the demand for conditions which will give true freedom to human energy to work positively in society, a demand now made to a more universal extent than ever before, if in more or less obscure forms. Appreciation of this fact is expressed in the social philosophy both of individualists and of socialists. It is found in the gaining prominence and profounder meaning of the ideal of equality of opportunity in Individualism. In the newer forms of socialism the emphasis is no longer so exclusively on the improvement of material conditions through raising the standard of wages, equalisation of payment, etc., as on the change to a system which would give the worker a positive freedom through the consciousness that he is organising his own activities, "the ideal of enabling men somehow to express in the daily work of their hands some part of that infinite and subtle personality which lives in each one of them."* In the Syndicalist philosophy of M. Sorel, it also appears that the ultimate ground of the advocacy of the class-war, and the "myth" of the General Strike, is the belief that only by these means are the producers to maintain a heroic view of life, and to preserve their own ideal, their class-personality, their real will. Strife is advocated because spiritual vitality is supposed to depend on it. It is the same principle seen through a somewhat distorting medium.

In philosophy something of the same idea is possibly expressed in M. Bergson's doctrine of Free-will, a doctrine. which, compared with that of Kant, is more positive. It is Kant's transcendent will, at last realised and at work in the phenomenal world.

These interpretations of the spirit of the age do not appear strange or fantastic, because we neet with it in simpler

* G. D. T. Cole, World of Labour.
+ Cf. Reflections on Violence, G. Sorel.

expression, or rather we meet in common experience with the data on which which the interpretations are based. A truer psychology or philosophy of human nature will demonstrate the great and almost universal force, when allowed free play, of the motives which arouse the creative energy of man, or appeal to his creative instinct, the transformation brought about in personality when what may be called the real will comes into action. It is not very difficult to conceive a society in which the conditions of life would allow to all a far higher degree of free activity than has hitherto prevailed. As practical illustration of the feeling of present-day society might be taken the attitude of reformers from many standpoints of thought and action towards the problem of Juvenile Employment. It is not the fact that so much attention is being at last concentrated on this problem which is of great significance. Whatever conception of progress is adopted, it is obvious that the years from fourteen to eighteen are the years in which the history of the coming generation is being mainly decided. What is of significance is the consensus of the most thoughtful working-men and employers of labour, educational and social reformers, and Governmental Committees* on the principle that this period of life ought not to be treated mainly from the economic standpoint, but that the human being has at this time a right to the social and educational opportunities which will enable him to put forth his whole moral and intellectual force in after-life.

To sum up. The chief reason for hope that the ethical foundations of social reconstruction after the war will have some stability lies in the fact acknowledged by those who agree on little else that the force necessary for reconstruction exists now, at least in some measure, together with the fact that there is also a very general agreeinent amongst those opposed in other

* Cf. (1) Final Report of the Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in Relation to Employment after the War; (2) Educational Reconstruction-Proposals of the Workers' Educational Association.

« AnteriorContinuar »