{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_75958/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_75958","id":"gutenberg_75958","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75958","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Civilization -- History"],"text":"The Dale Memorial Lectures, 1922.\n\nTHE DECAY AND THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHY OF CIVILIZATION\n\nPART I\n\nBY\n\nALBERT SCHWEITZER\n\nD.THEOL.; D.PHIL.; D.MED. (STRASSBURG)\n\nTRANSLATED BY\n\nC. T. CAMPION M.A. (OXON.) (SOMETIME OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD)\n\nA. & C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 1923\n\n\n\n\n\n_Printed in Great Britain by_ THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS,LTD., LONDON AND\nTONBRIDGE.\n\n\n\n\n\nTo ANNIE FISCHER IN DEEPEST GRATITUDE\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR\u2019S PREFACE\n\n\u201cThe Decay and the Restoration of Civilization\u201d is the first part of a\ncomplete philosophy of civilization with which I have been occupied\nsince the year 1900.\n\nThe second part, entitled \u201cCivilization and Ethics\u201d, will appear\nimmediately. The third is called \u201cThe World-View_(_*_)_ of Reverence\nfor Life\u201d. The fourth has to do with the civilized State.\n\nThat over which I have toiled since 1900 has been finally ripened in\nthe stillness of the primeval forest of Equatorial Africa. There,\nduring the years 1914-17, the clear and definite lines of this\nphilosophy of civilization have been developed.\n\nThe first part, \u201cThe Decay and the Restoration of Civilization\u201d, is a\nkind of introduction to the philosophy of civilization. It states the\nproblem of civilization.\n\nEntering on the question as to what is the real essential nature of\ncivilization, I come to the pronouncement that this is ultimately\nethical. I know that in thus stating the problem as a moral one I [pg\nviii] shall surprise and even disgust the spirit of our times, which\nis accustomed to move amidst \u00e6sthetic, historical and material\nconsiderations. I imagine, however, that I am myself enough of an\nartist and also of an historian to be able to comprehend the \u00e6sthetic\nand historical elements in civilization, and that, as a modern\nphysician and surgeon, I am sufficiently modern to appreciate the\nglamour of the technical and material attainments of our age.\n\nNotwithstanding this, I have come to the conviction that the \u00e6sthetic\nand the historical elements, and the magnificent extension of our\nmaterial knowledge and power, do not themselves form the essence of\ncivilization, but that this depends on the mental disposition of the\nindividuals and nations who exist in the world. All other things are\nmerely accompanying circumstances of civilization, which have nothing\nto do with its real essence.\n\nCreative, artistic, intellectual, and material attainments can only\nshow their full and true effects when the continued existence and\ndevelopment of civilization have been secured by founding civilization\nitself on a mental disposition which is truly ethical. It is only in\nhis struggle to become ethical that man comes to possess real value as\na personality; it is only under the influence of ethical convictions\nthat the various relations of human society are formed in such a way\nthat individuals and peoples can [pg ix] develop in an ideal manner.\nIf the ethical foundation is lacking, then civilization collapses,\neven when in other directions creative and intellectual forces of the\nstrongest nature are at work.\n\nThis moral conception of civilization, which makes me almost a\nstranger amidst the intellectual life of my time, I express clearly\nand unhesitatingly, in order to arouse amongst my contemporaries\nreflection as to what civilization really is. We shall not succeed in\nre-establishing our civilization on an enduring basis until we rid\nourselves completely of the superficial concept of civilization which\nnow holds us in thrall, and give ourselves up again to the ethical\nview which obtained in the eighteenth century.\n\nThe second point which I desire should obtain currency is that of the\nconnection between civilization and our theory of the universe. At the\npresent time no regard is paid to this connection. In fact, the period\nin which we are living altogether misses the significance of having a\ntheory of the universe. It is the common conviction nowadays, of\neducated and uneducated alike, that humanity will progress quite\nsatisfactorily without any theory of the universe at all.\n\nThe real fact is that all human progress depends on progress in its\ntheory of the universe, whilst, conversely, decadence is conditioned\nby a similar [pg x] decadence in this theory. Our loss of real\ncivilization is due to our lack of a theory of the universe.\n\nOnly as we again succeed in attaining a strong and worthy theory of\nthe universe, and find in it strong and worthy convictions, shall we\nagain become capable of producing a new civilization. It is this\napparently abstract and paradoxical truth of which I proclaim myself\nthe champion.\n\nCivilization, put quite simply, consists in our giving ourselves, as\nhuman beings, to the effort to attain the perfecting of the human race\nand the actualization of progress of every sort in the circumstances\nof humanity and of the objective world. This mental attitude, however,\ninvolves a double predisposition: firstly, we must be prepared to act\naffirmatively toward the world and life; secondly, we must become\nethical.\n\nOnly when we are able to attribute a real meaning to the world and to\nlife shall we be able also to give ourselves to such action as will\nproduce results of real value. As long as we look on our existence in\nthe world as meaningless, there is no point whatever in desiring to\neffect anything in the world. We become workers for that universal\nspiritual and material progress which we call civilization only in so\nfar as we affirm that the world and life possess some sort of meaning,\nor, which is the same thing, only in so far as we think\noptimistically.\n\n[pg xi]\n\nCivilization originates when men become inspired by a strong and clear\ndetermination to attain progress, and consecrate themselves, as a\nresult of this determination, to the service of life and of the world.\nIt is only in ethics that we can find the driving force for such\naction, transcending, as it does, the limits of our own existence.\n\nNothing of real value in the world is ever accomplished without\nenthusiasm and self-sacrifice.\n\nBut it is impossible to convince men of the truth of world- and\nlife-affirmation and of the real value of ethics by mere declamation.\nThe affirmative and ethical mentality which characterizes these\nbeliefs must originate in man himself as the result of an inner\nspiritual relation to the world. Only then will they accompany him as\nstrong, clear, and constant convictions, and condition his every\nthought and action.\n\nTo put it in another way: world- and life-affirmation must be the\nproducts of thought about the world and life. Only as the majority of\nindividuals attain to this result of thought and continue under its\ninfluence will a true and enduring civilization make progress in the\nworld. Should the mental disposition towards world- and\nlife-affirmation and towards ethics begin to wane, or become dim and\nobscured, we shall be incapable of working for true civilization, nay,\nmore, we shall be unable even to [pg xii] form a correct concept of\nwhat such civilization ought to be.\n\nAnd this is the fate which has befallen us. We are bereft of any\ntheory of the universe. Therefore, instead of being inspired by a\nprofound and powerful spirit of affirmation of the world and of life,\nwe allow ourselves, both as individuals and as nations, to be driven\nhither and thither by a type of such affirmation which is both\nconfused and superficial. Instead of adopting a determined ethical\nattitude, we exist in an atmosphere of mere ethical phrases or declare\nourselves ethical sceptics.\n\nHow is it that we have got into this state of lacking a theory of the\nuniverse? It is because hitherto the world- and life-affirming and\nethical theory of the universe had no convincing and permanent\nfoundation in thought. We thought again and again that we had found\nsuch a basis for it; but it lost power again and again without our\nbeing aware that it was doing so, until, finally, we have been\nobliged, for more than a generation past, to resign ourselves more and\nmore to a complete lack of any world-theory at all.\n\nThus, in this introductory part of my work, I proclaim two truths and\nconclude with a great note of interrogation. The truths are the\nfollowing: The basic ethical character of civilization, and the\nconnection between civilization and our theories of [pg xiii] the\nuniverse. The question with which I conclude is this: Is it at all\npossible to find a real and permanent foundation in thought for a\ntheory of the universe which shall be both ethical and affirmative of\nthe world and of life?\n\nThe future of civilization depends on our overcoming the\nmeaninglessness and hopelessness which characterize the thoughts and\nconvictions of men to-day, and reaching a state of fresh hope and\nfresh determination. We shall be capable of this, however, only when\nthe majority of individuals discover for themselves both an ethic and\na profound and steadfast attitude of world- and life-affirmation, in a\ntheory of the universe at once convincing and based on reflection.\n\nWithout such a general spiritual experience there is no possibility of\nholding our world back from the ruin and disintegration towards which\nit is being hastened. It is our duty then to rouse ourselves to fresh\nreflection about the world and life.\n\nIn \u201cCivilization and Ethics\u201d, the second part of this philosophy of\ncivilization, I describe the road along which thought has led me to\nworld- and life-affirmation and to ethics. The root-idea of my theory\nof the universe is that my relation to my own being and to the\nobjective world is determined by reverence for life. This reverence\nfor life is given as an element of my will-to-live, and becomes\nclearly [pg xiv] conscious of itself as I reflect about my life and\nabout the world. In the mental attitude of reverence for life which\nshould characterize my contact with all forms of life, both ethics and\nworld- and life-affirmation are involved. It is not any kind of\ninsight into the essential nature of the world which determines my\nrelation to my own existence and to the existence which I encounter in\nthe world, but rather only and solely my own will-to-live which has\ndeveloped the power of reflection about itself and the world.\n\nThe theory of the universe characterized by reverence for life is a\ntype of mysticism arrived at by self-consistent thought when persisted\nin to its ultimate conclusion. Surrendering himself to the guidance of\nthis mysticism, man finds a meaning for his life in that he strives to\naccomplish his own spiritual and ethical self-fulfilment, and,\nsimultaneously and in the same act, helps forward all the processes of\nspiritual and material progress which have to be actualized in the\nworld.\n\nI do not know how many, or how few, will allow themselves to be\npersuaded to travel with me on the road indicated above. What I desire\nabove all things\u2014and this is the crux of the whole affair\u2014is that we\nshould all recognize fully that our present entire lack of any theory\nof the universe is the ultimate source of all the catastrophes and\nmisery of [pg xv] our times, and that we should toil in concert for a\ntheory of the universe and of life, in order that thus we may arrive\nat a mental disposition which shall make us really and truly civilized\nmen.\n\nIt was a great joy to me to be afforded the opportunity of putting\nforward, in the _Dale Lectures_, delivered in Oxford, the views on\nwhich this philosophy of civilization is based.\n\nI would tender my deepest thanks to my friends, Mr. C. T. Campion,\nM.A., now of Grahamstown, South Africa, and Dr. J. P. Naish, of\nOxford. Mr. Campion is the translator of this first part of the\n\u201cPhilosophy of Civilization\u201d. Dr. Naish has seen the book through the\npress and translated this preface.\n\nALBERT SCHWEITZER.\n\nStrasbourg, Alsace.\n\n_February_, 1923.\n\n\n\n\n[pg xvi]\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I How Philosophy is Responsible for the Collapse of\nCivilization [1]\n\nCHAPTER II Hindrances to Civilization in our Economic and Spiritual\nLife [15]\n\nCHAPTER III Civilization essentially Ethical in Character [35]\n\nCHAPTER IV The Way to the Restoration of Civilization [62]\n\nCHAPTER V Civilization and Theories of the Universe [80]\n\n\n[pg xvii]\n\n\n\n\nTHE DECAY AND THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nHOW PHILOSOPHY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION\n\n\nOur self-deception as to the real conditions of our civilization. The\ncollapse of the theory of the universe on which our ideals were based.\nThe superficial character of modern philosophizing.\n\nWe are living to-day under the sign of the collapse of civilization.\nThe situation has not been produced by the war; the latter is only a\nmanifestation of it. The spiritual atmosphere has solidified into\nactual facts, which again react on it with disastrous results in every\nrespect. This interaction of material and spiritual has assumed a most\nunhealthy character. Just below a mighty cataract we are driving along\nin a current full of formidable eddies, and it will need the most\ngigantic efforts to rescue the vessel of our fate from the dangerous\nside channel into which we have [pg 002] allowed it to drift, and\nbring it back into the main stream, if, indeed, we can hope to do so\nat all.\n\nWe have drifted out of the stream of civilization because there was\namongst us no real reflection upon what civilization is. It is true\nthat at the end of the last century and the beginning of this there\nappeared a number of works on civilization with the most varied\ntitles; but, as though in obedience to some secret order, they made no\nattempt to settle and make clear the conditions of our intellectual\nlife, but devoted themselves exclusively to its origin and history.\nThey gave us a relief map of civilization marked with roads which men\nhad observed or invented, and which led us over hill and dale through\nthe fields of history from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.\nIt was a triumph for the historical sense of the authors. The crowds\nwhom these works instructed were filled with satisfied contentment\nwhen they understood that their civilization was the organic product\nof so many centuries of the working of spiritual and social forces,\nbut no one worked out and described the content of our spiritual life.\nNo one tested its value from the point of view of the nobility of its\nideas, and its ability to produce real progress.\n\nThus we crossed the threshold of the twentieth century with an\nunshakable conceit of ourselves, [pg 003] and whatever was written at\nthat time about our civilization only confirmed us in our ingenuous\nbelief in its high value. Anyone who expressed doubt was regarded with\nastonishment. Many, indeed, who were on the road to error, stopped and\nreturned to the main road again because they were afraid of the path\nwhich led off to the side. Others continued along the main road, but\nin silence; the understanding and insight which were at work in them\nonly condemned them to isolation.\n\nIt is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in\nprogress. What yet remains of it is no longer safe. It is still\nstanding, indeed, because it was not exposed to the destructive\npressure which overwhelmed the rest, but, like the rest, is built upon\nrubble, and the next landslide will very likely carry it away.\n\nBut what was it that preceded and led up to this loss of power in the\ninnate forces of civilization?\n\nThe age of the Illuminati and of rationalism had put forward ethical\nideals, based on reason, concerning the development of the individual\nto true manhood, his position in society, the material and spiritual\nproblems which arose out of society, the relations of the different\nnations to each other, and their issue in a humanity which should be\nunited in [pg 004] the pursuit of the highest moral and spiritual\nobjects. These ideals had begun, both in philosophy and in general\nthought, to get into contact with reality and to alter the general\nenvironment. In the course of three or four generations there had been\nsuch progress made, both in the ideas underlying civilization and in\ntheir material embodiment, that the age of true civilization seemed to\nhave dawned upon the world and to be assured of an uninterrupted\ndevelopment.\n\nBut about the middle of the nineteenth century this mutual\nunderstanding and co-operation between ethical ideals and reality\nbegan to break down, and in the course of the next few decades it\ndisappeared more and more completely. Without resistance, without\ncomplaint, civilization abdicated. Its ideas lagged behind, as though\nthey were too exhausted to keep pace with it. How did this come about?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe decisive element in the production of this result was philosophy\u2019s\nrenunciation of her duty.\n\nIn the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth it was\nphilosophy which led and guided thought in general. She had busied\nherself with the questions which presented themselves to mankind at\neach successive period, and had kept the [pg 005] thought of civilized\nman actively reflecting upon them. Philosophy at that time included\nwithin herself an elementary philosophizing about man, society, race,\nhumanity and civilization, which produced in a perfectly natural way a\nliving popular philosophy that controlled the general thought, and\nmaintained the enthusiasm for civilization.\n\nBut that ethical, and at the same time optimistic, view of things in\nwhich the Illuminati and rationalism had laid the foundations of this\nhealthy popular philosophy, was unable in the long run to meet the\ncriticism levelled at it by pure thought. Its na\u00efve dogmatism raised\nmore and more prejudice against it. Kant tried to provide the\ntottering building with new foundations, undertaking to alter the\nrationalistic view of things in accordance with the demands of a\ndeeper theory of knowledge, without, however, making any change in its\nessential spiritual elements. Goethe, Schiller and other intellectual\ngiants of the age, showed, by means of criticism both kindly and\nmalicious, that rationalism was rather popular philosophy than real\nphilosophy, but they were not in a position to put into the place of\nwhat they destroyed anything new which could give the same effective\nsupport to the ideas about civilization which were current in the\ngeneral thought of the time.\n\n[pg 006]\n\nFichte, Hegel, and other philosophers, who, for all their criticism of\nrationalism, paid homage to its ethical ideals, attempted to establish\na similar ethical and optimistic view of things by speculative\nmethods, that is by logical and metaphysical discussion of pure being\nand its development into a universe. For three or four decades they\nsucceeded in deceiving themselves and others with this supposedly\ncreative and inspiring illusion, and in doing violence to reality in\nthe interests of their theory of the universe. But at last the natural\nsciences, which all this time had been growing stronger and stronger,\nrose up against them, and, with a plebeian enthusiasm for the truth of\nreality, reduced to ruins the magnificent creations of their\nimagination.\n\nSince that time the ethical ideas on which civilization rests have\nbeen wandering about the world, poverty-stricken and homeless. No\ntheory of the universe has been advanced which can give them a solid\nfoundation; in fact, not one has made its appearance which can claim\nfor itself solidity and inner consistency. The age of philosophic\ndogmatism had come definitely to an end, and after that nothing was\nrecognized as truth except the science which described reality.\nGeneral theories of the universe no longer appeared as fixed stars;\nthey [pg 007] were regarded as resting on hypothesis, and ranked no\nhigher than comets.\n\nThe same weapon which struck down the dogmatism of knowledge about the\nuniverse struck down also the dogmatic enunciation of spiritual ideas.\nThe early simple rationalism, the critical rationalism of Kant, and\nthe speculative rationalism of the great philosophers of the\nnineteenth century had all alike done violence to reality in two ways.\nThey had given a position above that of the facts of science to the\nviews which they had arrived at by pure thought, and they had also\npreached a series of ethical ideals which were meant to replace by new\nones the various existing relations in the ideas and the material\nenvironment of mankind. When the first of these two forms of violence\nwas proved to be a mistaken one, it became questionable whether the\nsecond could still be allowed the justification which it had hitherto\nenjoyed. The doctrinaire methods of thought which made the existing\nworld nothing but material for the production of a purely theoretical\nsketch of a better future were replaced by sympathetic attempts to\nunderstand the historical origin of existing things for which Hegel\u2019s\nphilosophy had prepared the way.\n\nWith a general mentality of this description, a real combination of\nethical ideals with reality was no [pg 008] longer possible; there was\nnot the freedom from prejudice which that required, and so there came\na weakening of the convictions which were the driving power of\ncivilization. So, too, an end was put to that justifiable violence to\nhuman convictions and circumstances without which the reforming work\nof civilization can make no advance, because it was bound up with that\nother unjustifiable violence to reality. That is the tragic element in\nthe psychological development of our spiritual life during the latter\nhalf of the nineteenth century.\n\nRationalism, then, had been dismissed; but with it went also the\noptimistic convictions as to the moral meaning of the universe and of\nhumanity, of society and of man, to which it had given birth, though\nthe conviction still exerted so much influence that no attention was\npaid to the catastrophe which had really begun.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPhilosophy did not realize that the power of the ideas about\ncivilization which had been entrusted to it was becoming a doubtful\nquantity. At the end of one of the most brilliant works on the history\nof philosophy which appeared at the close of the nineteenth century\nphilosophy is defined as the process \u201cby which there comes to\ncompletion, step by step, [pg 009] and with ever clearer and surer\nconsciousness, that conviction about the value of civilization the\nuniversal validity of which it is the object of philosophy itself to\naffirm.\u201d But the author has forgotten the essential point, viz., that\nthere was a time when philosophy did not merely convince itself of the\nvalue of civilization, but also let its convictions go forth as\nfruitful ideas destined to influence the general thought, while from\nthe middle of the nineteenth century onwards these convictions had\nbecome more and more of the nature of hoarded and unproductive\ncapital.\n\nOnce philosophy had been an active worker producing universal\nconvictions about civilization. Now, after the collapse in the middle\nof the nineteenth century, this same philosophy had become a mere\ndrawer of dividends, concentrating her activities far from the world\non what she had managed to save. She had become a mere science, which\nsifted the results of the historical and natural sciences, and\ncollected from them material for a future theory of the universe,\ncarrying on with this object in view a learned activity in all\nbranches of knowledge. At the same time she became more and more\nabsorbed in the study of her own past. Philosophy came to mean\npractically the history of philosophy, but the creative spirit had\nleft her. She became more and [pg 010] more a philosophy which\ncontained no real thought. She reflected, indeed, on the results\nachieved by the individual sciences, but she lost the power of thought\nabout fundamental problems.\n\nShe looked back with condescending pity on the rationalism which she\nhad outstripped. She prided herself on being able to trace her descent\nthrough Kant, on having been shown by Hegel the inner meaning of\nhistory, and on being at work to-day in close sympathy with the\nnatural sciences. But for all that she was poorer than the poorest\nrationalism, because she now carried on in imagination only, and not\nin reality, the recognized work of philosophy, which the latter had\npractised so zealously. Rationalism, for all its simplicity, had been\na working philosophy, but philosophy herself had now become, for all\nher insight, merely a pedantic philosophy of degenerates. She still\nplayed, indeed, some sort of _r\u00f4le_ in schools and universities, but\nshe had no longer any message for the great world.\n\nIn spite of all her learning, she had become a stranger to the world,\nand the problems of life which occupied men and the whole thought of\nthe age had no part in her activities. Her way lay apart from the\ngeneral spiritual life, and just as she derived no stimulus from the\nlatter, so she gave none back. Refusing to concern herself with\nfundamental [pg 011] problems, she contained no fundamental philosophy\nwhich could become a philosophy of the people.\n\nFrom this impotence came the aversion to all generally intelligible\nphilosophizing which is so characteristic of her. Popular philosophy\nwas for her merely a review, prepared for the use of the crowd,\nsimplified, and therefore rendered inferior, of the results given by\nthe individual sciences which she had herself sifted and put together\nin view of a future theory of the universe. She was wholly unconscious\nof several things, viz., that there is a popular philosophy which\narises out of such a review; that it is just the province of\nphilosophy to deal with the primary, deeper questions about which\nindividuals and the crowd are thinking, or ought to be thinking, to\napply to them more comprehensive and more thorough methods of thought,\nand then restore them to general currency; and, finally, that the\nvalue of any philosophy is in the last resort to be measured by its\ncapacity, or incapacity, to transform itself into a living philosophy\nof the people.\n\nWhatever is deep is also simple, and can be reproduced as such, if\nonly its relation to the whole of reality is preserved. It is then\nsomething abstract, which secures for itself a many-sided life as soon\nas it comes into contact with facts.\n\n[pg 012]\n\nWhatever of inquiring thought there was among the general public was\ntherefore compelled to languish, because our philosophy refused either\nto acknowledge or to help it. It found in front of it a deep chasm\nwhich it could not cross.\n\nOf gold coinage, minted in the past, philosophy had abundance;\nhypotheses about a soon to be developed theological theory of the\nuniverse filled her vaults like unminted bullion; but food with which\nto appease the spiritual hunger of the present she did not possess.\nDeceived by her own riches, she had neglected to plant any ground with\nnourishing crops, and therefore, ignoring the hunger of the age, she\nleft the latter to its fate.\n\nThat pure thought never managed to construct a theory of the universe\nof an optimistic, ethical character, and to build up on that for a\nfoundation the ideals which go to produce civilization, was not the\nfault of philosophy; it was a fact which became evident as thought\ndeveloped. But philosophy was guilty of a wrong to our age in that it\ndid not admit the fact, but remained wrapped up in its illusion, as\nthough this were really a help to the progress of civilization.\n\nThe ultimate vocation of philosophy is to be the guide and guardian of\nthe general reason, and it was her duty, in the circumstances of the\ntime, to confess [pg 013] to our world that ethical ideals were no\nlonger supported by any general theory of the universe, but were, till\nfurther notice, left to themselves, and must make their way in the\nworld by their own innate power. She ought to have shown us that we\nhave to fight on behalf of the ideals on which our civilization rests.\nShe ought to have tried to give these ideals an independent existence\nby virtue of their own inner value and inner truth, and so to keep\nthem alive and active without any extraneous help from a corresponding\ntheory of the universe. No effort should have been spared to direct\nthe attention of the cultured and the uncultured alike to the problem\nof the ideals of civilization.\n\nBut philosophy philosophized about everything except civilization. She\nwent on working undeviatingly at the establishment of a theoretical\nview of the universe, as though by means of it everything could be\nrestored, and did not reflect that this theory, even if it were\ncompleted, would be constructed only out of history and science, and\nwould accordingly be unoptimistic and unethical, and would remain for\never an \u201cimpotent theory of the universe,\u201d which could never call\nforth the energies needed for the establishment and maintenance of the\nideals of civilization.\n\nSo little did philosophy philosophize about [pg 014] civilization that\nshe did not even notice that she herself and the age along with her\nwere losing more and more of it. In the hour of peril the watchman who\nought to have kept us awake was himself asleep, and the result was\nthat we put up no fight at all on behalf of our civilization.\n\n\n\n\n\n[pg 015]\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nHINDRANCES TO CIVILIZATION IN OUR ECONOMIC AND SPIRITUAL LIFE\n\n\nThe unfree economic position of the modern man. The undeveloped\ncondition of the modern man. The modern man\u2019s want of humanity. The\nlack of spiritual independence in the man of to-day.\n\nEven if the abdication of thought has been, as we have seen, the\ndecisive factor in the collapse of our civilization, there are yet a\nnumber of other causes which combine with it to hinder our progress in\nthis regard. They are to be found in the field of spiritual as well as\nin that of economic activity, and depend, above all, on the\ninteraction between the two, an interaction which is unsatisfactory\nand continually becoming more so.\n\nThe capacity of the modern man for progress in civilization is\ndiminished because the circumstances in which he finds himself placed\ninjure him psychically and stunt his personality.\n\nThe development of civilization comes about\u2014to put it quite\ngenerally\u2014by individual men thinking out ideals which aim at the\nprogress of the whole, and then so fitting them to the realities of\nlife that [pg 016] they assume the shape in which they can influence\nmost effectively the circumstances of the time. A man\u2019s ability to be\na pioneer of progress, that is, to understand what civilization is and\nto work for it, depends, therefore, on his being a thinker and on his\nbeing free. He must be the former if he is to be capable of\ncomprehending his ideals and putting them into shape. He must be free\nin order to be in a position to launch his ideals out into the general\nlife. The more completely his activities are taken up in any way by\nthe struggle for existence, the more strongly will the impulse to\nimprove his own condition find expression in the ideals of his\nthought. Ideals of self-interest then get mixed up with and spoil his\nideals of civilization.\n\nMaterial and spiritual freedom are closely bound up with one another.\nCivilization presupposes free men, for only by free men can it be\nthought out and brought to realization.\n\nBut among mankind to-day both freedom and the capacity for thought\nhave been sadly diminished.\n\nIf society had so developed that a continually widening circle of the\npopulation could enjoy a modest, but well-assured, condition of\ncomfort, civilization would have been much more helped than it has\nbeen by all the material conquests which are lauded in its name. These\ndo, indeed, make [pg 017] mankind as a whole less dependent upon\nnature, but at the same time they diminish the number of free and\nindependent lives. The artisan who was his own master becomes the\nfactory hand through the compulsion of machinery. Because in the\ncomplicated business world of to-day only undertakings with abundant\ncapital behind them can maintain their existence, the place of the\nsmall, independent dealer is being taken more and more completely by\nthe employee. Even the classes which still possess a larger or smaller\namount of property or maintain a more or less independent activity get\ndrawn more and more completely into the struggle for existence because\nof the insecurity of present conditions under the economic system of\nto-day.\n\nThe lack of freedom which results is made worse still because the\nfactory system creates continually growing agglomerations of people\nwho are thereby compulsorily separated from the soil which feeds them,\nfrom their own homes and from nature. Hence comes serious psychical\ninjury. There is only too much truth in the paradoxical saying that\nabnormal life begins with the loss of one\u2019s own field and\ndwelling-place.\n\nCivilization is, it is true, furthered to a certain extent by the\nself-regarding ideals produced by the [pg 018] groups of people who\nunite and co-operate in defence of their similarly threatened\ninterests in so far as they seek to obtain an improvement in their\nmaterial, and thereby also in their spiritual, environment. But these\nideals are a danger to the idea of civilization as such, because the\nform which they assume is either not at all, or very imperfectly,\ndetermined by the really universal interests of the community. The\nconsideration of civilization as such is held back by the competition\nbetween the various self-regarding ideals which go under its name.\n\nTo the want of freedom we have to add the evil of overwork. For two or\nthree generations numbers of individuals have been living as workers\nmerely, not as human beings. Whatever can be said in a general way\nabout the moral and spiritual significance of labour has no bearing on\nwhat they have to do. An excessive amount of labour is the rule to-day\nin every department of industry, with the result that the labourer\u2019s\nspiritual element cannot possibly thrive. This overwork hits him\nindirectly even in his childhood, for his parents, caught in the\ninexorable toils of work, cannot devote themselves to his up-bringing\nas they should. Thus his development is robbed of something which can\nnever be made good, and later in life, when he himself is the slave of\nover-long hours, he feels more and [pg 019] more the need of external\ndistractions. To spend the time left to him for leisure in\nself-cultivation, or in serious intercourse with his fellows or with\nbooks, requires a mental collectedness and a self-control which he\nfinds very difficult. Complete idleness, forgetfulness, and diversion\nfrom his usual activities are a physical necessity. He does not want\nto think, and seeks not self-improvement, but entertainment, that kind\nof entertainment, moreover, which makes least demand upon his\nspiritual faculties.\n\nThe mentality of this mass of individuals, spiritually relaxed and\nincapable of self-collectedness, reacts upon all those institutions\nwhich ought to serve the cause of culture, and therewith of\ncivilization. The theatre takes a second place behind the pleasure\nresort or the picture show, and the instructive book behind the\ndiverting one. An ever increasing proportion of periodicals and\nnewspapers have to accommodate themselves to the necessity of putting\ntheir matter before their readers in the shape which lets it be\nassimilated most easily. A comparison of the average newspapers of\nto-day with those of fifty or sixty years ago shows how thoroughly\nsuch publications have had to change their methods in this respect.\n\nWhen once the spirit of superficiality has penetrated [pg 020] into\nthe institutions which ought to sustain the spiritual life, these\nexercise on their part a reflex influence on the society which they\nhave brought to this condition, and force on all alike this state of\nmental vacuity.\n\nHow completely this want of thinking power has become a second nature\nin men to-day is shown by the kind of sociability which it produces.\nWhen two of them meet for a conversation each is careful to see that\ntheir talk does not go beyond generalities or develop into a real\nexchange of ideas. No one has anything of his own to give out, and\neveryone is haunted by a sort of terror lest anything original should\nbe demanded from him.\n\nThe spirit produced in such a society of never-concentrated minds is\nrising among us as an ever growing force, and it results in a lowered\nconception of what man should be. In ourselves, as in others we look\nfor nothing but vigour in productive work and resign ourselves to the\nabandonment of any higher ideal.\n\nWhen we consider this want of freedom and of mental concentration, we\nsee that the conditions of life for the inhabitants of our big cities\nare as unfavourable as they could be. Naturally, then, those\ninhabitants are in most danger on their spiritual side. It is doubtful\nwhether big cities [pg 021] have ever been foci of civilization in the\nsense that in them there has arisen the ideal of a man well and truly\ndeveloped as a spiritual personality; to-day, at any rate, the\ncondition of things is such that true civilization needs to be rescued\nfrom the spirit that issues from them and their inhabitants.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut, besides the hindrance caused to civilization by the modern man\u2019s\nlack of freedom and of the power of mental concentration, there is a\nfurther hindrance caused by his imperfect development. The enormous\nincrease of human knowledge and power, in specialized thoroughness as\nwell as in extent, necessarily leads to individual activities being\nlimited more and more to well-defined departments. Human labour is\norganized and co-ordinated so that specialization may enable\nindividuals to make the highest and most effective possible\ncontribution. The results obtained are amazing, but the spiritual\nsignificance of the work for the worker suffers. There is no call upon\nthe whole man, only upon some of his faculties, and this has a reflex\neffect upon his nature as a whole. The faculties which build up\npersonality and are called out by comprehensive and varied tasks are\nousted by the less comprehensive ones, which from this point of view\nare, in the [pg 022] general sense of the word, less spiritual. The\nartisan of to-day does not understand his trade as a whole in the way\nin which his predecessor did. He no longer learns, like the latter, to\nwork the wood or the metal through all the stages of manufacture; many\nof these stages have already been carried out by men and machines\nbefore the material comes into his hands. Consequently his\nreflectiveness, his imagination, and his skill are no longer called\nout by ever varying difficulties in the work, and his creative and\nartistic powers are atrophied. In place of the normal\nself-consciousness which is promoted by work into the doing of which\nhe must put his whole power of thought and his whole personality,\nthere comes a self-satisfaction which is content with a fragmentary\nability which, it may be admitted, is perfect, and this\nself-satisfaction is persuaded by its perfection in mastering details\nto overlook its imperfection in dealing with the whole.\n\nIn all professions, most clearly perhaps in the pursuit of science, we\ncan recognize the spiritual danger with which specialization threatens\nnot only individuals, but the spiritual life of the community. It is\nalready noticeable, too, that education is carried on now by teachers\nwho have not a wide enough outlook to make their scholars understand\nthe interconnection of the individual sciences, and [pg 023] to be\nable to give them a mental horizon as wide as it should be.\n\nThen, as if specialization and the organization of work, where it is\nunavoidable, were not already injurious enough to the soul of the\nmodern man, it is pursued and built up where it could be dispensed\nwith. In administration, in education, and in every kind of calling\nthe natural sphere of activity is narrowed as far as possible by rules\nand superintendence. How much less free in many countries is the\nelementary school teacher of to-day compared with what he was once!\nHow lifeless and impersonal has his teaching become as a result of all\nthese limitations!\n\nThus through our methods of work we have suffered loss spiritually and\nas individuals just in proportion as the material output of our\ncollective activity has increased. Here, too, is an illustration of\nthat tragic law which says that every gain brings with it, somehow or\nother, a corresponding loss.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut man to-day is in danger not only through his lack of freedom, of\nthe power of mental concentration, and of the opportunity for\nall-round development: he is in danger of losing his humanity.\n\nThe normal attitude of man to man is made very [pg 024] difficult for\nus. Owing to the hurry in which we live, to the increased facilities\nfor intercourse, and to the necessity for living and working with many\nothers in an overcrowded locality, we meet each other continually, and\nin the most varied relations, as strangers. Our circumstances do not\nallow us to deal with each other as man to man, for the limitations\nplaced upon the activities of the natural man are so general and so\nunbroken that we get accustomed to them, and no longer feel our\nmechanical, impersonal intercourse to be something that is unnatural.\nWe no longer feel uncomfortable that in such a number of situations we\ncan no longer be men among men, and at last we give up trying to be\nso, even when it would be possible and proper.\n\nIn this respect, too, the soul of the townsman is influenced most\nunfavourably by his circumstances, and that influence, in its turn,\nworks most unfavourably on the mentality of society.\n\nThus we tend to forget our relationship with our fellows, and are on\nthe path towards inhumanity. Wherever there is lost the consciousness\nthat every man is an object of concern for us just because he is man,\ncivilization and morals are shaken, and the advance to fully developed\ninhumanity is only a question of time.\n\nAs a matter of fact, the most utterly inhuman [pg 025] thoughts have\nbeen current among us for two generations past in all the ugly\nclearness of language and with the authority of logical principles.\nThere has been created a social mentality which discourages humanity\nin individuals. The courtesy produced by natural feeling disappears,\nand in its place comes a behaviour which shows entire indifference,\neven though it is decked out more or less thoroughly in a code of\nmanners. The standoffishness and want of sympathy which are shown so\nclearly in every way to strangers are no longer felt as being really\nrudeness, but pass for the behaviour of the man of the world. Our\nsociety has also ceased to allow to all men, as such, a human value\nand a human dignity; many sections of the human race have become\nmerely raw material and property in human form. We have talked for\ndecades with ever increasing light-mindedness about war and conquest,\nas if these were merely operations on a chess-board; how was this\npossible save as the result of a tone of mind which no longer pictured\nto itself the fate of individuals, but thought of them only as figures\nor objects belonging to the material world? When the war broke out the\ninhumanity within us had a free course. And what an amount of\ninsulting stuff, some decently veiled, some openly coarse, about the\ncoloured races, has made its appearance during the last decades, and\npassed for truth and [pg 026] reason, in our colonial literature and\nour parliaments, and so become an element in general public opinion!\nTwenty years ago there was a discussion in one of our Continental\nparliaments about some deported negroes who had been allowed to die of\nhunger and thirst; and there was no protest or comment when, in a\nstatement from the tribune, it was said that they \u201chad been lost\u201d\n(\u201c_eingegangen_\u201d or \u201c_cr\u00eav\u00e9_\u201d), as though it were a question of\ncattle!\n\nIn the education and the school books of to-day the duty of humanity\nis relegated to an obscure corner, as though it were no longer true\nthat it is the first thing necessary in the training of personality,\nand as if it were not a matter of great importance to maintain it as a\nstrong influence in our human race against the influence of outer\ncircumstances. It has not been so always. There was a time when it was\na ruling influence not only in schools, but in literature, even down\nto the book of adventures. Defoe\u2019s hero, Robinson Crusoe, is\ncontinually reflecting on the subject of humane conduct, and he feels\nhimself so responsible for loyalty to this duty that when defending\nhimself he is continually thinking how he can sacrifice the smallest\nnumber of human lives; he is so faithful, indeed, to this duty of\nhumanity, that the story of his adventures acquires thereby quite a\npeculiar character. Is [pg 027] there among works of this kind to-day\na single one in which we shall find anything like it?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnother hindrance to civilization to-day is the over-organization of\nour public life.\n\nWhile it is certain that a properly ordered environment is the\ncondition and, at the same time, the result of civilization, it is\nalso undeniable that, after a certain point has been reached, external\norganization is developed at the expense of spiritual life.\nPersonality and ideas are then subordinated to institutions, when it\nis really these which ought to influence the latter and keep them\ninwardly alive.\n\nIf a comprehensive organization is established in any department of\nsocial life, the results are at first magnificent, but after a time\nthey fall off. It is the already existing resources which are realized\nat the start, but later on the destructive influence of such\norganization on what is living and original is clearly seen in its\nnatural results, and the more consistently the organization is\nenlarged, the more strongly its effect is felt in the repression of\ncreative and spiritual activity. There are modern States which cannot\nrecover either economically or spiritually from the paralysing effects\nof a concentration which dates from a very early period of their\nhistory.\n\n[pg 028]\n\nThe conversion of a wood into a park and its maintenance as such may\nbe a step towards carrying out several different objects, but it is\nall over then with the rich vegetation which would assure its future\ncondition in nature\u2019s own way.\n\nPolitical, religious and economic associations aim to-day at forming\nthemselves in such a way as will combine the greatest possible inner\ncohesion with the highest possible degree of external activity.\nConstitution, discipline, and everything that belongs to\nadministration are brought to a perfection hitherto unknown. They\nattain their object, but just in proportion as they do so these\ncentres of activity cease to work as living organizations, and come\nmore and more to resemble perfected machines. Their inner life loses\nin richness and variety because the personalities of which they are\ncomposed must needs decay in character.\n\nOur whole spiritual life nowadays has its course within organizations.\nFrom childhood up the man of to-day has his mind so full of the\nthought of discipline that he loses the sense of his own individuality\nand can only see himself as thinking in the spirit of some group or\nother of his fellows. A thorough discussion between one idea and\nanother or between one man and another, such as constituted the\ngreatness of the eighteenth century, is never met [pg 029] with now.\nBut at that time fear of public opinion was a thing unknown. All ideas\nhad then to justify themselves to the individual reason. To-day it is\nthe rule\u2014and no one questions it\u2014always to take into account the views\nwhich prevail in organized society. The individual starts by taking it\nfor granted that both for himself and his neighbours there are certain\nviews already established which they cannot hope to alter, views which\nare determined by nationality, creed, political party, social\nposition, and other elements in one\u2019s surroundings. These views are\nprotected by a kind of taboo, and are not only kept sacred from\ncriticism, but are not a legitimate subject of conversation. This kind\nof intercourse, in which we mutually abjure our natural quality as\nthinking beings, is euphemistically described as respect for other\npeople\u2019s convictions, as if there could be any convictions at all\nwhere there is no thought.\n\nThe modern man is lost in the mass in a way which is without precedent\nin history, and this is perhaps the most characteristic trait in him.\nHis diminished concern about his own nature makes him as it is\nsusceptible, to an extent that is almost pathological, to the views\nwhich society and its organs of expression have put, ready made, into\ncirculation. Since, over and above this, society, [pg 030] with its\nwell-constructed organization, has become a power of as yet unknown\nstrength in the spiritual life, man\u2019s want of independence in the face\nof it has become so serious that he is almost ceasing to claim a\nspiritual existence of his own. He is like a rubber ball which has\nlost its elasticity, and preserves indefinitely every impression that\nis made upon it. He is under the thumb of the mass, and he draws from\nit the opinions on which he lives, whether the question at issue is\nnational or political or one of his own belief or unbelief.\n\nYet this abnormal subjection to external influences does not strike\nhim as being a weakness. He looks upon it as an achievement, and in\nhis unlimited spiritual devotion to the interests of the community he\nthinks he is preserving the greatness of the modern man. He\nintentionally exaggerates our natural social instincts into something\nfantastically great.\n\nIt is just because we thus renounce the indefeasible rights of the\nindividual that our race can neither produce new ideas nor make\ncurrent ones serviceable for new objects; its only experience is that\nprevailing ideas obtain more and more authority, take on a more and\nmore one-sided development, and live on till they have produced their\nlast and most dangerous consequences.\n\nThus we have entered on a new medi\u00e6val period. [pg 031] The general\ndetermination of society has put freedom of thought out of fashion,\nbecause the majority renounce the privilege of thinking as free\npersonalities, and let themselves be guided in everything by those who\nbelong to the various groups and cliques.\n\nSpiritual freedom, then, we shall recover only when the majority of\nindividuals become once more spiritually independent and self-reliant,\nand discover their natural and proper relation to those organizations\nin which their souls have been entangled. But liberation from the\nMiddle Ages of to-day will be a much more difficult process than that\nwhich freed the peoples of Europe from the first Middle Ages. The\nstruggle then was against external authority established in the course\nof history. To-day the task is to get the mass of individuals to work\nthemselves out of the condition of spiritual weakness and dependence\nto which they have brought themselves. Could there be a harder task?\n\nMoreover, no one as yet clearly perceives what a condition of\nspiritual poverty is ours to-day. Every year the spread of opinions\nwhich have no thought behind them is carried further by the masses,\nand the methods of this process have been so perfected, and have met\nwith such a ready welcome, that our [pg 032] confidence in being able\nto raise to the dignity of public opinion the silliest of statements,\nwherever it seems necessary to get them currently accepted, has no\nneed to justify itself before acting.\n\nDuring the war the control of thought was made complete. Propaganda\ndefinitely took the place of truth.\n\nWith independence of thought thrown overboard, we have, as was\ninevitable, lost our faith in truth. Our spiritual life is\ndisorganized, for the over-organization of our external environment\nleads to the organization of our absence of thought.\n\nNot only in the intellectual sphere, but in the moral also, the\nrelation between the individual and the community has been upset. With\nthe surrender of his own personal opinion the modern man surrenders\nalso his personal moral judgment.\n\nIn order that he may find good what the mass declares to be such,\nwhether in word or deed, and may condemn what it declares to be bad,\nhe suppresses the scruples which stir in him. He does not allow them\nto find utterance either with others or with himself. There are no\nstumbling-blocks which his feeling of unity with the herd does not\nenable him to surmount, and thus he loses his judgment in that of the\nmass, and his own morality in theirs.\n\nAbove all, he is thus made capable of excusing [pg 033] everything\nthat is meaningless, cruel, unjust, or bad in the behaviour of his\nnation. Unconsciously to themselves, the majority of the members of\nour barbarian civilised States give less and less time to reflection\nas moral personalities, so that they may not be continually coming\ninto inner conflict with their fellows as a body, and continually\nhaving to get over things which they feel to be wrong.\n\nPublic opinion helps them by popularizing the idea that the actions of\nthe community are not to be judged so much by the standards of\nmorality as by those of expediency, but they suffer injury to their\nsouls. If we find among men of to-day only too few whose human and\nmoral sensibility is still undamaged, the chief reason is that the\nmajority have offered up their personal morality on the altar of their\ncountry, instead of remaining at variance with the mass and acting as\na force which impels the latter along the road to perfection.\n\nNot only between the economic and the spiritual, then, but also\nbetween the mass of men and individuals, there has developed a\ncondition of unfavourable action and reaction. In the days of\nrationalism and serious philosophy the individual got help and support\nfrom society through the general confidence in the victory of the\nrational and moral, which society never failed to acknowledge [pg 034]\nas something which explained and justified itself. Individuals were\nthen carried along by the mass; we are stifled by it. The bankruptcy\nof the civilized State, which becomes more manifest every decade, is\nruining the man of to-day. The demoralization of the individual by the\nmass is in full swing.\n\nThe man of to-day pursues his dark journey in a time of darkness, as\none who has no freedom, no mental collectedness, no all-round\ndevelopment, as one who loses himself in an atmosphere of inhumanity,\nwho surrenders his spiritual independence and his moral judgment to\nthe organized society in which he lives, and who finds himself in\nevery direction up against hindrances to the temper of true\ncivilization. Of the dangerous position in which he is placed\nphilosophy has no understanding, and therefore makes no attempt to\nhelp him. She does not even urge him to reflection on what is\nhappening to himself.\n\nThe terrible truth that with the progress of history and the economic\ndevelopment of the world it is becoming not easier, but harder, to\ndevelop true civilization, has never found utterance.\n\n\n\n\n[pg 035]\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nCIVILIZATION ESSENTIALLY ETHICAL IN CHARACTER\n\n\nWhat is civilization? Origin of the unethical conception of\ncivilization. Our sense of reality. Our historical sense. Nationalism.\nNational civilization. Our misleading trust in facts and organization.\nThe true sense for reality.\n\nThis question ought to have been pressing itself on the attention of\nall men who consider themselves civilized, but it is remarkable that\nin the world\u2019s literature generally one hardly finds that it has been\nput at all until to-day, and still more rarely is any answer given. It\nwas supposed that there was no need for a definition of civilization,\nsince we already possessed the thing itself. If the question was ever\ntouched upon, it was considered to be sufficiently settled with\nreferences to history and the present day. But now, when events are\nbringing us inexorably to the consciousness that we live in a\ndangerous medley of civilization and barbarism, we must, whether we\nwish to or not, try to determine the nature of true civilization.\n\nFor a quite general definition we may say that civilization is\nprogress, material and spiritual progress, on the part of individuals\nas of the mass.\n\n[pg 036]\n\nIn what does it consist? First of all in a lessening of the strain\nimposed on individuals and on the mass by the struggle for existence.\nThe establishment of as favourable conditions of living as possible\nfor all is a demand which must be made partly for its own sake, partly\nwith a view to the spiritual and moral perfecting of individuals,\nwhich is the ultimate object of civilization.\n\nThe struggle for existence is a double one: man has to assert himself\nin nature and against nature, and similarly also among his fellow-men\nand against them.\n\nA diminution of the struggle is secured by strengthening the supremacy\nof reason over both external nature and human nature, and making it\nsubserve as accurately as possible the ends proposed.\n\nCivilization is then twofold in its nature: it realizes itself in the\nsupremacy of reason, first, over the forces of nature, and, secondly,\nover the dispositions of men.\n\nWhich of these kinds of progress is most truly progress in\ncivilization? The latter, though it is the least open to observation.\nWhy? For two reasons. First, the supremacy which we secure by reason\nover external nature represents not unqualified progress, but a\nprogress which brings with its advantages also disadvantages which may\nwork in the direction of barbarism. The reason why the economic\ncircumstances of our time endanger our civilization is to be sought\nfor partly in the fact that we have pressed [pg 037] into our service\nnatural forces which can be embodied in machines. But with that there\nmust be such a supremacy of reason over the dispositions of men that\nthey, and the nations which they form, will not use against one\nanother the power which the control of these forces gives them, and\nthus plunge one another into a struggle for existence which is far\nmore terrible than that between men in a state of nature.\n\nA normal claim to be civilized can, then, only be reckoned as valid\nwhen it recognizes this distinction between what is essential in\ncivilization and what is not.\n\nBoth kinds of progress can, indeed, be called spiritual in the sense\nthat they both rest upon a spiritual activity in man, yet we may call\nthe supremacy over natural forces material progress because in it\nmaterial objects are mastered and turned to man\u2019s use. The supremacy\nof reason over human dispositions, on the other hand, is a spiritual\nachievement in another sense, in that it means the working of spirit\nupon spirit, _i.e._, of one section of the power of reflexion upon\nanother section of it.\n\nAnd what is meant by the supremacy of the reason over human\ndispositions? It means that both individuals and the mass let their\nwilling be determined by the material and spiritual good of the whole\nand the individuals that compose it; that [pg 038] is to say, their\nactions are ethical. Ethical progress is, then, that which is truly of\nthe essence of civilization, and has only one significance; material\nprogress is that which is not of the essential at all, and may have a\ntwofold effect on the development of civilization. This moral\nconception of civilization will strike some people as rationalistic\nand old-fashioned. It accords better with the spirit of our times to\nconceive of civilization as a natural manifestation of life in the\ncourse of human evolution, but one with most interesting\ncomplications. We are concerned, however, not with what is ingenious,\nbut with what is true. In this case the simple is the true\u2014the\ninconvenient truth with which it is our laborious task to deal.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe attempts to distinguish between civilization as what the Germans\ncall \u201cKultur\u201d and civilization as mere material progress aim at making\nthe world familiar with the idea of an unethical form of civilization\nside by side with the ethical, and at clothing the former with a word\nof historical meaning. But nothing in the history of the word\n\u201ccivilization\u201d justifies such attempts. The word, as commonly used\nhitherto, means the same as the German \u201cKultur\u201d, viz., the development\nof man to a state of higher organization and a higher [pg 039] moral\nstandard. Some languages prefer one word; others prefer the other. The\nGerman usually speaks of \u201cKultur\u201d, the Frenchman usually of\n\u201ccivilisation\u201d, but the establishment of a difference between them is\njustified neither philologically nor historically. We can speak of\nethical and unethical \u201cKultur\u201d or of ethical and unethical\n\u201ccivilisation\u201d, but not of \u201cKultur\u201d and \u201ccivilisation\u201d.\n\nBut how did it come about that we lost the idea that the ethical has a\ndecisive meaning and value as part of civilization?\n\nAll attempts at civilization hitherto have been a matter of processes\nin which the forces of progress were at work in almost every\ndepartment of life. Great achievements in art, architecture,\nadministration, economics, industry, commerce, and colonization\nsucceeded each other with a spiritual impetus which produced a higher\nconception of the universe. Any ebb of the tide of civilization made\nitself felt in the material sphere as well as in the ethical and\nspiritual, earlier, as a rule, in the former than in the latter. Thus\nin Greek civilization there set in as early as the time of Aristotle\nan incomprehensible arrest of science and political achievement,\nwhereas the ethical movement only reached its completion in the\nfollowing centuries in that great work of education which was\nundertaken in the ancient [pg 040] world by the Stoic philosophy. In\nthe Chinese, Indian and Jewish civilizations ability in dealing with\nmaterial things was from the start, and always remained, at a lower\nlevel than the spiritual and ethical efforts of these races.\n\nIn the movement of civilization which began with the Renaissance,\nthere were both material and spiritual-ethical forces of progress at\nwork side by side, as though in rivalry with each other, and this\ncontinued down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then,\nhowever, something unprecedented happened: man\u2019s ethical energy died\naway, while the conquests achieved by his spirit in the material\nsphere increased by leaps and bounds. Thus for several decades our\ncivilization enjoyed the great advantages of its material progress\nwhile as yet it hardly felt the consequences of the dying down of the\nethical movement. People lived on in the conditions produced. By that\nmovement without seeing clearly that their position was no longer a\ntenable one and preparing to face the storm that was brewing in the\nrelations between the nations and within the nations themselves. In\nthis way our own age, having never taken the trouble to reflect,\narrived at the opinion that civilization consists primarily in\nscientific, technical and artistic achievements, and that it can reach\nits goal without ethics, or, at any rate, with a minimum of them.\n\n[pg 041]\n\nPublic opinion bowed down before this merely external conception of\ncivilization because it was exclusively represented by persons whose\nposition in society and scientific culture seemed to show them to be\ncompetent to judge in matters of the spiritual life.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat was the result of our giving up the ethical conception of\ncivilization, and therewith all attempts to bring reasoned ethical\nideals into effective relation with reality? It was that instead of\nusing thought to produce ideals which fitted in with reality, we left\nreality without any ideals at all. Instead of discussing together the\nessential elements, such as population, State, Church, society,\nprogress, which decide the character of our social development and\nthat of mankind generally, we contented ourselves with starting from\nwhat is given by experience. Only forces and tendencies which were\nalready at work were to be considered. Fundamental truths and\nconvictions which ought to produce logical or ethical compulsion we\nwould no longer acknowledge. We refused to believe that any ideas\ncould be applicable to reality except those derived from experience.\nThus ideals which had been knowingly and intentionally lowered\ndominated our spiritual life and the whole world.\n\n[pg 042]\n\nHow we glorified our practical common-sense, which was to give us such\npower in dealing with the world! Yet we were behaving, really, like\nboys who give themselves up exultingly to the forces of nature and\nwhizz down a hill on their toboggan without asking themselves whether\nthey will be able to steer their vehicle successfully when they come\nto the next bend or the next unexpected obstacle.\n\nIt is only a conviction which is based upon reasoned ethical ideals\nthat is capable of producing free activity, _i.e._, activity\ndeliberately planned with a view to its object. In proportion as\nideals taken from the workaday world are combined with it, reality\ninfluences reality. But then the human soul acts merely as an agent of\ndebasing change.\n\nEvents which are to produce practical results within us are worked\nupon and moulded by our mentality. This mentality has a certain\ncharacter, and on that character depends the nature of those\nvalue-judgments which rule our relation to facts.\n\nNormally this character is to be found in the reasoned ideas which our\nreflection upon reality brings into existence. If these disappear\nthere is not left a void in which \u201cevents in themselves\u201d can affect\nus, but the control of our mentality passes now to the opinions and\nfeelings which hitherto have been ruled and kept under by our reasoned\nideas. When the virgin forest is cut down, brushwood [pg 043] springs\nup where the big trees were formerly. Whenever our great convictions\nare destroyed their place is taken by smaller ones which carry out in\ninferior fashion the functions of the former.\n\nWith the giving up of ethical ideals which accompanies our passion for\nreality our practical efficiency is not, therefore, improved, but\ndiminished. It does not make the man of to-day a cool observer and\ncalculator such as he supposes himself to be, for he is under the\ninfluence of opinions and emotions which are created in him by facts.\nAll unconsciously he mixes with what is the work of his reason so much\nof what is emotional that the one spoils the other. Within this circle\nmove the judgments and impulses of our society, whether we deal with\nthe largest questions or the smallest. Individuals and nations alike,\nwe deal indiscriminately with real and imaginary values, and it is\njust this confused medley of real and unreal, of sober thought and\ncapacity for enthusiasm for the unmeaning, that makes the mentality of\nthe modern man so puzzling and so dangerous.\n\nOur sense of reality, then, means this, that, as a result of emotional\nand short-sighted calculations of advantage, we let one fact issue\nimmediately in another, and so on indefinitely. As we are not\nconsciously aiming at any definitely planned goal, our activity may\nreally be described as a kind of natural happening.\n\n[pg 044]\n\nWe react to facts in the most irrational way. Without plan or\nfoundations we build our future into the circumstances of the time and\nleave it exposed to the destructive effects of the chaotic jostling\nthat goes on amongst them. \u201cFirm ground at last\u201d! we cry, and sink\nhelpless in the stream of events.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe blindness with which we endure this fate is made worse by our\nbelief in our historical sense, which, in this connection, is nothing\nelse than our sense of reality prolonged backwards. We believe\nourselves to be a critical generation which, thanks to its thorough\nknowledge of the past, is in a position to understand the direction\nwhich events are destined to take from the present to the future. We\nadd to the ideals which have been taken from existing reality others\nwhich we borrow from history.\n\nThe achievements of historical science reached by the nineteenth\ncentury do, indeed, deserve our admiration, but it is another question\nwhether our generation, for all its possession of an historical\nscience, possesses a true historical sense.\n\nHistorical sense, in the full meaning of the term, implies a critical\nobjectivity in the face of far-off and recent events alike. To keep\nthis faculty free from the bias of opinions and interests when we are\n[pg 045] estimating facts is a power which even our historians do not\npossess. As long as they are dealing with a period so remote that it\nhas no bearing on the present they are critical so far as the views of\nthe school to which they belong allow it. But if the past stands in\nany real connection with \u201cto-day\u201d, we can perceive at once in their\nestimate the influence of their particular standpoint, rational,\nreligious, social or economic.\n\nIt is significant that while during the last few decades the learning\nof our historians has, no doubt, increased, their critical objectivity\nhas not. Previous investigators kept this ideal before their eyes in\nmuch greater purity than have those of to-day; we have gone so far\nthat we no longer seriously make the demand that in scientific\ndealings with the past there shall be a suppression of all prejudices\nwhich spring from nationality or creed. It is quite common nowadays to\nsee the greatest learning bound up with the strongest bias. In our\nhistorical literature the highest positions are occupied by works\nwritten with propagandist aims.\n\nSo little educative influence has science had on our historians that\nthey have often espoused as passionately as anyone the opinions of\ntheir own people instead of calling the latter to a thoughtful\nestimate of the facts, as was their duty to their profession; they\nhave remained nothing but men [pg 046] of learning. They have not even\nstarted on the task for which they entered the service of\ncivilization, and the hopes of civilization, which in the middle of\nthe nineteenth century rested on the rise of a science of history,\nhave been as little fulfilled as those which were bound up with the\ndemand for national States and democratic forms of government.\n\nThe generation that has been brought up by teachers such as these has\nnaturally not much idea of an elevated or active conception of events.\nAccurately viewed, its characteristic feature is not so much that we\nunderstand our past better than earlier generations understood theirs,\nbut rather that we attribute to the past an extraordinarily increased\nmeaning for the present. Now and again we actually substitute it for\nthe latter. It is not enough for us that what has been is present in\nits results in what now is; we want to have it always with us, and to\nfeel ourselves determined by it.\n\nIn this effort to be continually experiencing our historical process\nof becoming, and to acknowledge it, we replace our normal relation to\nthe past by an artificial one, and wishing to find within the past the\nwhole of our present, we misuse it in order to deduce from it, and to\nlegitimize by an appeal to it, our claims, our opinions, our feelings\nand our passions. Under the very eyes of our historical learning there\nsprings up a manufactured history for popular use, [pg 047] in which\nthe current national and confessional ideas are unreservedly approved\nand upheld, and our school history books become regular culture beds\nof historical lies.\n\nThe misuse of history is a necessity for us. The ideas and\ndispositions which rule us cannot be justified by reason; nothing is\nleft for us but to give them foundations in history.\n\nIt is significant that we have no real interest in what is valuable in\nthe past. Its great spiritual achievements are mechanically\nregistered, but we do not let ourselves be touched by them. Still less\ndo we accept them as a heritage; nothing has any value for us except\nwhat can be squared with our plans, passions, feelings, and \u00e6sthetic\nmoods of to-day. With these we live ourselves by lies into the past,\nand then assert with unshaken assurance that we have our roots in it.\n\nThis is the character of the reverence we pay to history. Blinded by\nwhat we consider or declare to be past and done with, we lose all\nsense for what is to happen, so that of nothing can we say: \u201cIt is\nfinished,\u201d nothing now gets accomplished. Again and again we let what\nis past rise up artificially in what is present, and endow bygone\nfacts with a persistence of being which makes wholly impossible the\nnormal development of our peoples. Just as our sense of reality makes\nus lose ourselves in [pg 048] present-day events, so does our\nhistorical compel us to do the same in those of the past.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom these two things, our sense of reality and our historical sense,\nis born the nationalism to which we must refer the external\ncatastrophe in which the decadence of our civilization finds its\ncompletion.\n\nWhat is nationalism? It is an ignoble patriotism, exaggerated till it\nhas lost all meaning, which bears the same relation to the noble and\nhealthy kind as the fixed idea of an imbecile does to normal\nconviction.\n\nHow does it develop among us?\n\nAbout the beginning of the nineteenth century the course of thought\ngave the national State its rightful position, starting for this from\nthe axiom that it, as a natural and homogeneous organism, was better\ncalculated than any other to make the ideal of the civilized State a\nworking reality. In Fichte\u2019s addresses to the German nation the\nnation-State is summoned to the bar of the moral reason and learns\nthat it has to submit in all things to the latter. It gives the\nnecessary promise and straightway receives a commission to bring the\ncivilized State into existence. It is given emphatically to understand\nthat it must recognize as its highest task the [pg 049] continuous and\nsteady development of the purely human element in the nation\u2019s life.\nIt is to seek greatness by representing the ideas which can bring\nhealing to the nations. Its citizens are urged to show their\nmembership of it not through the lower, but through the higher,\npatriotism, that is, not to overvalue its external greatness and\npower, but to be careful to take for their aim \u201cthe unfolding of what\nis eternal and Godlike in the world,\u201d and to see that their objects\ncoincide with the highest aims of humanity. Thus national feeling is\nplaced under the guardianship of reason, morality and civilization.\nThe cult of patriotism as such is to be considered as barbarism; it\ndoes, indeed, announce itself to be such by the purposeless wars which\nit necessarily brings in its train.\n\nIn this way the idea of nationality was raised to the level of a\nvaluable ideal of civilization. When civilization began to decline,\nits other ideals all fell also, but the idea of nationality maintained\nitself because it had transferred itself to the sphere of reality. It\nincorporated henceforward all that remained of civilization, and\nbecame the ideal which summed up all others. Here, then, we have the\nexplanation of the mentality of our age, which concentrates all the\nenthusiasm of which it is capable on the idea of nationality, and\nbelieves itself to possess in that all moral and spiritual good\nthings.\n\n[pg 050]\n\nBut with the decay of civilization the character of the idea of\nnationality changed. The guardianship exercised over it by the other\nmoral ideals to which it had hitherto been subordinate now ceased,\nsince these were themselves on trial, and the nationalist idea began a\ncareer of independence. It asserted, of course, that it was working in\nthe service of civilization, but it was, in truth, only an idea of\nreality with a halo of civilization round it, and it was guided by no\nethical ideals, but only by the instincts which deal with reality.\n\nThat reason and morality shall not be allowed to contribute a word to\nthe formation of nationalist ideas and aspirations is demanded by the\nmass of men to-day as a sparing of their holiest feelings.\n\nIf in earlier times the decay of civilization did not produce any such\nconfusion in the sentiments of the various nations, this was because\nthe idea of nationality had not then been raised in the same way to be\nthe ideal of civilization. It was, therefore, impossible that it\nshould insinuate itself into the place of the true ideals of\ncivilization, and through abnormal nationalist conceptions and\ndispositions bring into active existence an elaborate system of\nuncivilization.\n\nThat in nationalism we have to do not so much with things as with the\nunhealthy way in which they [pg 051] are dealt with in the imagination\nof the crowd, is clear from its whole behaviour. It claims to be\nfollowing a policy of practical results (Realpolitik); in reality it\nby no means represents the uncompromisingly businesslike view of all\nthe questions of home and foreign policy, but side by side with its\negoism displays a certain amount of enthusiasm. Its practical policy\nis an over-valuation of certain questions of territorial economic\ninterests, an over-valuation which has been elevated to a dogma and\nidealized, and is now supported by popular sentiment. It fights for\nits demands without having established any properly thought-out\ncalculation of their real value. In order to be able to dispute the\npossession of millions of value, the modern State loaded itself with\narmaments costing hundreds of millions. Meaning to care for the\nprotection and extension of its trade, it loaded the latter with\nimposts which imperilled its power of competing with its rivals much\nmore than did any of the measures taken by those rivals.\n\nIts practical politics were, therefore, in truth impracticable\npolitics, because they allowed popular sentiment to come in, and\nthereby made the simplest questions insoluble. This style of politics\nput economic interests in the shop window, while it kept in the\nwarehouse the ideas about greatness and conquest which belong to\nnationalism.\n\n[pg 052]\n\nEvery civilized State, in order to increase its power, gathered allies\nwherever it could. Thus half-civilized and uncivilized races were\nsummoned by civilized ones to fight against the civilized neighbours\nof the latter, and these helpers were not content with the subordinate\n_r\u00f4le_ which had been assigned to them. They acquired more and more\ninfluence on the course of events, till they were at last in a\nposition to decide when the civilized nations of Europe should begin\nto fight each other about them. Thus has Nemesis come upon us for\nabandoning our wishes and betraying to the uncivilized world all that\nwe still possessed of things that were of universal value.\n\nIt was significant of the unhealthy character of nationalism\u2019s\n\u201cpractical\u201d politics that it tried in every possible way to deck\nitself out with a tinsel imitation of idealism. The struggle for power\nbecame one for right and civilization; the alliances for the promotion\nof their selfish interests which various nations made with one another\nagainst all the rest were made to appear to be friendships and\nspiritual affinities. As such they were dated back into the past, even\nthough history had a great deal more to say about hereditary quarrels\nthan about spiritual relationships.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[pg 053]\n\nFinally, nationalism was not content with putting aside, in the sphere\nof politics generally, all attempts to bring into existence a really\ncivilized humanity; it distorted the very idea of civilization itself\nand talked of national civilization.\n\nOnce there was what was known just simply as civilization, and every\ncivilized nation strove to possess it in its purest and most fully\ndeveloped form. In this respect nationality had in the idea of\ncivilization at that time something much more original and less spoilt\nthan it has in the same idea to-day. If, in spite of this, there was\nno impulse among the nations to separate the spiritual life of each\nfrom that of its neighbours, we have a proof that nationality is not\nin itself the strong element in the people that demanded this. Such a\nclaim as is made to-day to have a _national civilization_ is an\nunhealthy phenomenon. It presupposes that the civilized peoples of\nto-day have lost their healthy nature, and no longer follow instincts,\nbut theories. They percuss and sound their souls to such an extent\nthat these are no longer capable of any natural action. They analyse\nand describe them so continuously that in thinking of what they ought\nto be they forget what they actually are. Questions of spiritual\ndifferences between races are discussed so subtly, and with such\nobstinacy and dogmatism, that the talk works like an obsession, and\nthe [pg 054] peculiarities that are said to exist make their\nappearance like imaginary diseases.\n\nIn every department of life more and more effort is devoted to making\nclearly visible in the results which follow from them the emotions,\nthe ideas, and the reasonings of the mass of the people. Any\npeculiarity preserved and fostered in this way shows that its natural\ncounterpart has perished. The individual element in the personality of\na people no longer, as something unconscious or half conscious, plays\nwith varying lights on the totality of the nation\u2019s spiritual life. It\nbecomes an artifice, a fashion, a self-advertisement, a mania. There\nis bred in the nation a mass of thought, the serious results of which\nin every department become more evident year by year. The spiritual\nlife of some of the leading civilized nations has already, in\ncomparison with earlier days, taken on a monotonous tone such as makes\nan observer feel anxious.\n\nThe unnatural character of this development shows itself not only in\nits results, but in the part which it allows to be played by conceit,\nself-importance, and self-deception. Anything valuable in a\npersonality or a successful undertaking is attributed to some special\nexcellence in the national character. Foreign soil is assumed to be\nincapable of producing the same or anything similar, and in most\ncountries this vanity has grown to such a [pg 055] height that the\ngreatest follies are no longer beyond its reach.\n\nIt goes without saying that there follows a serious decline in the\nspiritual element in the national civilization. The spirituality is,\nmoreover, only a kind of disguise; it has in reality an avowedly\nmaterialist character. It is a distillation from all the external\nachievements of the nation in question and appears in partnership with\nits economic and political demands. While alleged to be grounded in\nthe national peculiarities, nationalist civilization will not, as we\nshould normally expect, remain limited to the nation itself; it feels\ncalled upon to impose itself upon others and make them happy! Modern\nnations seek markets for their civilization, as they do for their\nmanufactures!\n\nNational civilization, therefore, is matter for propaganda and for\nexport, and the necessary publicity is secured by liberal expenditure.\nThe necessary phrases can be obtained ready-made and need only be\nstrung together. Thus the world has inflicted on it a competition\nbetween national civilizations, and between these civilization itself\ncomes off badly.\n\nThe nations of Europe entered the Middle Ages side by side as the\nheirs of the Greco-Roman world, and lived side by side with the freest\nmutual intercourse through the Renaissance, the period of the [pg 056]\nIlluminati, and of the philosophy of more recent times. But we no\nlonger believe that they, with their offshoots in the other\ncontinents, form an indivisible unit of civilization. If, however, in\nthis latest age, the differences in their spiritual life have begun to\nstand out more distinctly, the cause of it is that the level of\ncivilization has sunk. When the tide ebbs, shallows which separate\nbodies of deep water become visible; while the tide is flowing they\nare out of sight.\n\nHow closely the nations which form the great body of civilized\nhumanity are still interrelated spiritually is shown by the fact that\nthey have all side by side suffered the same decadence.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith our sense of reality is bound up, further, the false confidence\nwhich we have in facts. We live in an atmosphere of optimism, as if\nthe contradictions which show themselves in the world arranged\nthemselves automatically so as to promote well-thought-out progress,\nand reconciled themselves in syntheses in which the valuable parts of\nthe thesis and the antithesis coalesced.\n\nIn justification of this optimism appeal is made, both rightly and\nwrongly, to Hegel. It cannot be denied that he is the spiritual father\nof our sense of reality; he is the first thinker who tried to be just\n[pg 057] to things as they exist. We have been trained by him to\nrealize the method of progress in thesis, antithesis, and synthesis as\nthey show themselves in the course of events. But his optimism was not\na simple optimism about facts, as ours is. He lived still in the\nspiritual world of rationalism, and believed in the power of ethical\nideas worked out by reason; that was why he believed also in the\ncertainty of uninterrupted spiritual progress. And it was because this\nwas something upon which he could rely that he undertook to show how\nit was to be seen in the successive phases of events, and at the same\ntime how it made itself a reality in the stream of outward facts. By\nemphasizing, however, the progressive purpose, which he finds immanent\nin the course of events, so strongly that it is possible to forget the\nethical-spiritual presuppositions of his belief in progress, he is\npreparing the way for the despiritualized optimism about reality which\nhas for decades been misleading us. Between the facts themselves there\nis nothing but an endless series of contradictions.The fresh mediating\nfact in which they counteract each other so as to make progress\npossible they cannot of themselves produce. This fact can only assert\nitself if the contradictions resolve themselves in a reasoned view in\nwhich there are ethical ideas about the condition of things which [pg\n058] it is sought to realize. These are the formative principles for\nthe new element which is to arise out of the contradictories, and it\nis only in this reasoned ethical view that the latter cease to be\nblind, leading to no issue.\n\nIt was because we assumed the existence of principles, of progress, in\nthe facts, that we viewed the advance of history, in which our future\nwas being prepared, as progress in civilization, even though evolution\ncondemned our optimism. And even now, when facts of the most terrible\ncharacter cry out loudly against it, we shrink from giving up our\ncreed. It no longer, indeed, gives us any real enlightenment, but the\nalternative, which bases optimism on belief in the ethical spirit,\nmeans such a revolution in our mode of thought that we find it\ndifficult to take it into consideration.\n\nWith our reliance upon facts is bound up our reliance on\norganizations. The activities and the aims of our time are penetrated\nby a kind of obsession that if we could only succeed in perfecting or\nreforming in one direction or another the institutions of our public\nand social life, the progress demanded by civilization would begin of\nitself. We are, indeed, far enough from unanimity as to the plan\nneeded for the reform of our arrangements: one section sketches out an\nanti-democratic plan; [pg 059] others believe that our mistake lies in\nthe fact that democratic principles have not yet been applied\nconsistently; others, again, see salvation only in a Socialist or\nCommunist organization of society. But all agree in attributing our\npresent condition, with its absence of true civilization, to a failure\nof our institutions; all look for the attainment of such civilization\nto a new organization of society; all unite in thinking that with new\ninstitutions there would arise a new spirit.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn this terrible confusion are entangled not only the unreflecting\nmasses, but also many of the most earnest amongst us. The materialism\nof our age has reversed the relation between the spiritual and the\nactual. It believes that something with spiritual value can result\nfrom the working of facts. It was even expected that the war would\nbring us a spiritual regeneration! In reality, however, the relation\nbetween them works in the opposite direction. A spiritual element of\nreal value can, if it is present, influence the moulding of reality so\nas to bring about desired results, and can thus produce facts in\nsupport of itself. All institutions and organizations have only a\nrelative significance. With the most diverse social and political [pg\n060] arrangements, the various civilized nations have all sunk to the\nsame depth of barbarism. What we have experienced, and are still\nexperiencing, must surely convince us that the spirit is everything\nand that institutions count for very little. Our institutions are a\nfailure because the spirit of barbarism is at work in them. The best\nplanned improvements in the organization of our society (though we are\nquite right in trying to secure them) cannot help us at all until we\nbecome at the same time capable of imparting a new spirit to our age.\n\nThe difficult problems with which we have to deal, even those which\nlie entirely in the material and economic sphere, are in the last\nresort only to be solved by an inner change of character. The wisest\nreforms in organization can only carry them a little nearer solution,\nnever to the goal. The only conceivable way of bringing about a\nreconstruction of our world on new lines is first of all to become new\nmen ourselves under the old circumstances, and then as a society in a\nnew frame of mind so to smooth out the opposition between nations that\na condition of true civilization may again become possible. Everything\nelse is more or less wasted labour, because we are thereby building\nnot on the spirit, but on what is merely external.\n\nIn the sphere of human events which decide the future of mankind\nreality consists in an inner [pg 061] conviction, not in given outward\nfacts. Firm ground for our feet we find in reasoned ethical ideals.\nAre we going to draw from the spirit strength to create new conditions\nand turn our faces again to civilization, or are we going to continue\nto draw our spirit from our surroundings and go down with it to ruin?\nThat is the fateful question with which we are confronted.\n\nThe true sense for reality is that insight which tells us that only\nthrough ethical ideas about things can we arrive at a normal relation\nto reality. Only so can man and society win all the power over events\nthat they are able to use. Without that power we are, whatever we may\nchoose to do, delivered over into bondage to them.\n\nWhat is going on to-day between nations and within them throws a\nglaring illumination upon this truth. The history of our time is\ncharacterized by a lack of reason which has no parallel in the past.\nFuture historians will one day analyse this history in detail, and\ntest by means of it their learning and their freedom from prejudice.\nBut for all future times there will be, as there is for to-day, only\none explanation, viz., that we sought to live and to carry on with a\ncivilization which had no ethical principle behind it.\n\n\n\n\n[pg 062]\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE WAY TO THE RESTORATION OF CIVILIZATION\n\n\nCivilization-ideals have become powerless. Evolution and decay in the\nhistory of civilization. The reform of institutions and the reform of\nconvictions. The individual as the sole agent of the restoration of\ncivilization. The difficulties which beset the restoration of\ncivilization.\n\nThe ethical conception of civilization, then, is the only one that can\nbe justified.\n\nBut where is the road that can bring us back from barbarism to\ncivilization? Is there such a road at all?\n\nThe unethical conception of civilization answers: \u201cNo.\u201d To it all\nsymptoms of decay are symptoms of old age, and civilization, just like\nany other natural process of growth, must after a certain period of\ntime reach its final end. There is nothing, therefore, for us to do,\nso it says, but to take the causes of this as quite natural, and do\nour best at any rate to find interesting the unedifying phenomena of\nits senility, which testify to the gradual loss of the ethical\ncharacter of civilization.\n\nIn the thinking then which surrenders itself to our sense of reality,\noptimism and pessimism are inextricably intermingled. If our optimism\nabout [pg 063] reality is proved untenable, the optimism which thinks\nthat continuous progress evolves itself among the facts as such, then\nthe spirit which from above contemplates and analyses the situation\nturns without much concern to the mild pessimistic supposition that\ncivilization has reached its Indian summer.\n\nThe ethical spirit cannot join in this little game of \u201cOptimism or\npessimism?\u201d It sees the symptoms of decay as what they really are,\nviz., something terrible. It asks itself with a shudder what will\nbecome of the world if this dying process really goes on unchecked.\nThe condition of civilization is a source of pain to it, for\ncivilization is not an object which it is interesting to analyse, but\nthe hope on which its thoughts fly out over the future existence of\nthe race. Belief in the possibility of a renewal of civilization is an\nactual part of its life; that is why it can no longer quiet itself\nwith what contents the sense of reality as it hovers between optimism\nand pessimism.\n\nThose who regard the decay of civilization as something quite normal\nand natural console themselves with the thought that it is not\ncivilization, but a civilization, which is falling a prey to\ndissolution; that there will be a new age and a new race in which\nthere will blossom a new civilization. But that is a mistake. The\nearth no longer has in reserve, as it had once, gifted peoples as yet\nunused, [pg 064] who can relieve us and take our place in some distant\nfuture as leaders of the spiritual life. We already know all those\nwhich the earth has to dispose of. There is not one among them which\nis not already taking such a part in our civilization that its\nspiritual fate is determined by our own. All of them, the gifted and\nthe ungifted, the distant and the near, have felt the influence of\nthose forces of barbarism which are at work among us. All of them are,\nlike ourselves, diseased, and only as we recover can they recover.\n\nIt is not the civilization of a race, but that of mankind, present and\nfuture alike, that we must give up as lost, if belief in a rebirth of\nour civilization is a vain thing.\n\nBut it need not be so given up. If the ethical is the essential\nelement in civilization, decadence changes into renaissance as soon as\nethical activities are set to work again in our convictions and in the\nideas which we undertake to stamp upon reality. The attempt to bring\nthis about is well worth making, and it should be world-wide.\n\nIt is true that the difficulties that have to be reckoned with in this\nundertaking are so great that only the strongest faith in the power of\nthe ethical spirit will let us venture on it.\n\nFirst among them towers up the inability of our generation to\nunderstand what is and must be. [pg 065] The men of the Renaissance\nand the Illuminati of the eighteenth century drew courage to desire\nthe renewal of the world through ideas from their conviction of the\nabsolute indefensibility of the material and spiritual conditions\nunder which they lived. Unless with us, too, the many come to some\nsuch conviction, we must continue incapable of taking in hand this\nwork, in which we must imitate them. But the many obstinately refuse\nto see things as they are, and hold with all their might to the most\noptimistic view of them that is possible. For this power, however, of\nidealizing with continually lowering ideals the reality which is felt\nto be ever less and less satisfying, pessimism also is partly\nresponsible. Our generation, though so proud of its many achievements,\nno longer believes in the one thing which is all-essential: the\nspiritual advance of mankind. Having given up the expectation of this,\nit can put up with the present age without feeling such suffering as\nwould compel it, for very pain, to long for a new one. What a task it\nwill be to break the fetters of unthinking optimism and unthinking\npessimism which hold us prisoners, and so to do what will pave the way\nfor the renewal of civilization!\n\nA second difficulty besetting the work which lies before us is that it\nis a piece of reconstruction. The ideas of civilization which our age\nneeds are not new [pg 066] and strange to it. They have been in the\npossession of mankind already, and are to be found in many an\nantiquated formula. We have fundamentally nothing else to do than to\nrestore to them the respect in which they were once held, and again\nregard them seriously as we bring them into relation with the reality\nwhich lies before us for treatment.\n\nTo make what is used up usable\u2014is there a harder task? \u201cIt is an\nimpossible one,\u201d says history. \u201cNever hitherto have worn-out ideas\nrisen to new power among the peoples who have worn them out. Their\ndisappearance has always been a final one.\u201d\n\nThat is true. In the history of civilization we find nothing but\ndiscouragement for our task. Anyone who finds history speaking\noptimistically lends her a language which is not her own.\n\nYet from the history of the past we can infer only what has been, not\nwhat will be. Even if it proves that no single people has ever lived\nthrough the decay of its civilization and a rebirth of it, we know at\nonce that this, which has never happened yet, must happen with us, and\ntherefore we cannot be content to say that the reasoned ethical ideas\non which civilization rests get worn out in the course of history, and\nconsole ourselves with the reflection that this is exactly in\naccordance with the ordinary processes of nature. We require to know\nwhy it has [pg 067] so happened hitherto, and to draw an explanation,\nnot from the analogy of nature, but from the laws of spiritual life.\nWe want to get into our hands the key of the secret, so that we may\nwith it unlock the new age, the age in which the worn out becomes\nagain unworn and the spiritual and ethical can no longer get worn out.\nWe must study the history of civilization otherwise than as our\npredecessors did, or we shall be finally lost.\n\nWhy do not thoughts which contribute to civilization retain the\nconvincing power which they once had, and which they deserve on\naccount of their content? Why do they lose the evidential force of\ntheir moral and rational character? Why do traditional truths cease to\nbe realities and pass from mouth to mouth as mere phrases?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIs this an unavoidable fate, or is the well drying up because our\nthinking did not go down to the permanent level of the water?\n\nMoreover, it is not merely that the past survives among us as\nsomething valueless; it may cast a poisonous shade over us. There are\nthoughts on which we have never let our minds work directly because we\nfound them ready formulated in history. Ideas which we have inherited\ndo not let the truth [pg 068] which is in them come out into active\nservice, but show it through a kind of dead mask. The worn out\nachievements which pass over from a decadent civilization into the\ncurrent of a new age often become like rejected products of\nmetabolism, and act as poisons.\n\nGranted that the Teutonic nations received a powerful stimulus to\ncivilization at the Renaissance by reverting to the ideas of\nGreco-Roman thinkers, not less true is it that for many centuries they\nhad been kept by that same Greco-Roman civilization in a condition of\nspiritual dependence which was wholly in contradiction to their native\ncharacter. They took over from it decadent ideas which were for a long\ntime a hindrance to their normal spiritual life, and thence came that\nstrange mixture of strength and weakness which is the chief\ncharacteristic of the Middle Ages. The dangerous elements in the\nGreco-Roman civilization of the past still show themselves in our\nspiritual life. It is because Oriental and Greek conceptions which\nhave had their day are still current among us that we bleed to death\nover problems which otherwise would have no existence for us. How much\nwe suffer from the one fact that to-day and for several centuries past\nour thoughts about religion have been under the hereditary foreign\ndomination of Jewish transcendentalism and Greek metaphysics, and,\ninstead of [pg 069] being able to express themselves naturally, have\nsuffered continual distortion!\n\nBecause ideas get worn out in this way, and in this condition hinder\nthe thinking of later generations, there is no continuity in the\nspiritual progress of mankind, but only a confused succession of ups\nand downs. The threads get broken, or knotted, or lost, or when tied\nup again get tied wrongly. Hitherto it has been thought possible to\ninterpret this up-and-down movement optimistically because it was\nuniversally held that the Renaissance and the age of the Illuminati\nwere quite natural successors of the Greco-Roman civilization, and it\nwas assumed further that, as a permanent result of this, renewed\ncivilizations would spring up in the place of exhausted ones, and thus\ncontinual progress be assured. But this generalization cannot\njustifiably be drawn from such observations. It was because new\npeoples came on the scene, who had been only superficially touched by\nthe decadent civilizations and now produced others of their own, that\nit was possible to see this succession of ups and downs ending in an\nascent. As a matter of fact, however, our newer civilization was not\nin any organic connection with the Greco-Roman, even if it did take\nits first steps with the help of the crutches which the latter\nprovided; it may be [pg 070] described more truly as the reaction of a\nhealthy spirit against the worn out ideas which were thus offered to\nit. The essential element in the process was the contact of what was\nworn out with the fresh thought of young peoples.\n\nTo-day, however, all our thought is losing its power in its contact\nwith the worn-out ideas of our expiring civilization, or\u2014in the case\nof the Hindus and the Chinese\u2014of our own and other expiring\ncivilizations. The up-and-down movement will end, therefore, not in\nslow progress, but in unbroken descent\u2014unless we can succeed in giving\nthe worn out ideas a renewal of their youth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnother great difficulty in the way of the regeneration of our\ncivilization lies in the fact that it must be an internal process, and\nnot an external as well, and that, therefore, there is no place for\nhealthy co-operation between the material and the spiritual. From the\nRenaissance to the middle of the nineteenth century the men who\ncarried on the work of civilization could expect help towards\nspiritual progress from achievements in the sphere of external\norganization. Demands in each of these spheres stood side by side in\ntheir programme and were pushed on simultaneously. They were convinced\nthat while working to transform [pg 071] the institutions of public\nlife they were producing results which would call forth the\ndevelopment of the new spiritual life. Success in one sphere\nstrengthened at once the hopes and the energies that were at work in\nthe other. They laboured for the progressive democratization of the\nState with the idea of thereby spreading through the world the rule of\ngrace and justice.\n\nWe, who have lived to see the spiritual bankruptcy of all the\ninstitutions which they created, can no longer work in this way\nsimultaneously at the reform of institutions and the revival of the\nspiritual element. The help which such co-operation would give is\ndenied us. We cannot even reckon any longer on the old co-operation\nbetween knowledge and thought. Once these two were allies. The latter\nfought for freedom and in so doing made a road for the former, and, on\nthe other hand, all the results attained by knowledge worked for the\ngeneral good of the spiritual life in that the reign of law in nature\nwas more and more clearly demonstrated, and the reign of prejudice was\nbecoming continually more restricted. The alliance also strengthened\nthe thought that the well-being of mankind must be based upon\nspiritual laws. Thus knowledge and thought joined in establishing the\nauthority of reason and the rational tone of mind.\n\n[pg 072]\n\nTo-day thought gets no help from science, and the latter stands facing\nit independent and unconcerned. The newest scientific knowledge may be\nallied with an entirely unreflecting view of the universe. It\nmaintains that it is concerned only with the establishment of\nindividual facts, since it is only by means of these that scientific\nknowledge can maintain its practical character; the co-ordination of\nthe different branches of knowledge and the utilization of the results\nto form a theory of the universe are, it says, not its business. Once\nevery man of science was also a thinker who counted for something in\nthe general spiritual life of his generation. Our age has discovered\nhow to divorce knowledge from thought, with the result that we have,\nindeed, a science which is free, but hardly any science left which\nreflects.\n\nThus we no longer have available for the renewal of our spiritual life\nany of the natural external helps which we used to have. We are called\nupon for a single kind of effort only, and have to work like men who\nare rebuilding the damaged foundations of a cathedral under the weight\nof the massive building. There is no progress in the world of\nphenomena to encourage us to persevere; an immense revolution has to\nbe brought about without the aid of any collateral revolutionary\nactivities.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[pg 073]\n\nAgain, the renewal of civilization is hindered by the fact that it is\nso exclusively the individual personality which must be looked to as\nthe agent in the new movement.\n\nThe renewal of civilization has nothing to do with movements which\nbear the character of experiences of the crowd; there are never\nanything but reactions to external happenings. But civilization can\nonly revive when there shall come into being in a number of\nindividuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among\nthe crowd and in opposition to it, a tone of mind which will gradually\nwin influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its\ncharacter. It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the\nslough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in\nindividuals.\n\nThe final decision as to what the future of a society shall be depends\nnot on how near its organization is to perfection, but on the degrees\nof worthiness in its individual members. The most important, and yet\nthe least easily determinable, element in history is the series of\nunobtrusive general changes which take place in the individual\ndispositions of the many. These are what precede and cause the\nhappenings, and this is why it is so difficult to understand\nthoroughly the men and the [pg 074] events of past times. The\ncharacter and worth of individuals among the mass and the way they\nwork themselves into membership of the whole body, receiving\ninfluences from it and giving others back, we can even to-day only\npartially and uncertainly understand.\n\nOne thing, however, is clear. Where the collective body works more\nstrongly on the individual than the latter does upon it, the result is\ndeterioration, because the noble element on which everything depends,\nviz., the spiritual and moral worthiness of the individual, is thereby\nnecessarily constricted and hampered. Decay of the spiritual and moral\nlife then sets in, which renders society incapable of understanding\nand solving the problems which it has to face. Thereupon, sooner or\nlater, it is involved in catastrophe.\n\nThat is the condition in which we are now, and that is why it is the\nduty of individuals to rise to a higher conception of their\ncapabilities and undertake again the function which only the\nindividual can perform, that of producing new spiritual-ethical ideas.\nIf this does not come about in a multitude of cases nothing can save\nus.\n\nA new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The\nexisting one is maintained by the Press, by propaganda, by\norganization, and by financial and other influences which are at its\n[pg 075] disposal. This unnatural way of spreading ideas must be\nopposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies\nsolely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer\u2019s receptiveness for\nnew truth. Unarmed, and following the human spirit\u2019s primitive and\nnatural fighting method, it must attack the other, which faces it, as\nGoliath faced David, in the mighty armour of the age.\n\nAbout the struggle which must needs ensue no historical analogy can\ntell us much. The past has, no doubt, seen the struggle of the\nfree-thinking individual against the fettered spirit of a whole\nsociety, but the problem has never presented itself on the scale on\nwhich it does to-day, because the fettering of the collective spirit\nas it is fettered to-day by modern organizations, modern\nunreflectiveness, and modern popular passions, is a phenomenon without\nprecedent in history.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWill the man of to-day have strength to carry out what the spirit\ndemands from him, and what the age would like to make impossible?\n\nIn the over-organized societies which in a hundred ways have him in\ntheir power, is he destined to become once more an independent\npersonality and [pg 076] to exert influence back upon them? They will\nuse every means to keep him in that condition of impersonality which\nsuits them. They fear personality because the spirit and the truth,\nwhich they would like to muzzle, find in it a means of expressing\nthemselves. And their power is, unfortunately, as great as their fear.\n\nThere is a tragic alliance between society as a whole and its economic\nconditions. With a grim relentlessness those conditions tend to bring\nup the man of to-day as a being without freedom, without\nself-collectedness, without independence, in short as a human being so\nfull of deficiencies that he lacks the qualities of humanity. And they\nare the last things that we can change. Even if it should be granted\nus that the spirit should begin its work, we shall only slowly and\nincompletely gain power over these forces. There is, in fact, being\ndemanded from the will that which our conditions of life refuse to\nallow.\n\nAnd how heavy the tasks that the spirit has to take in hand! It has to\ncreate the power of understanding the truth that is really true where\nat present nothing is current but propagandist truth. It has to depose\nignoble patriotism, and enthrone the noble kind of patriotism which\naims at ends that are worthy of the whole of mankind, in circles where\nthe hopeless issues of past and present [pg 077] political activities\nkeep nationalist passions aglow even among those who in their hearts\nwould fain be free from them. It has to get the fact that civilization\nis an interest of all men and of humanity as a whole recognized again\nin places where national civilization is to-day worshipped as an idol,\nand the notion of a humanity with a common civilization lies broken to\nfragments. It has to maintain our faith in the civilized State, even\nthough our modern States, spiritually and economically ruined by the\nwar, have no time to think about the tasks of civilization, and dare\nnot devote their attention to anything but how to use every possible\nmeans, even those which undermine the conception of justice, to\ncollect money with which to prolong their own existence. It has to\nunite us by giving us a single ideal of civilized man, and this in a\nworld where one nation has robbed its neighbour of all faith in\nhumanity, idealism, righteousness, reasonableness, and truthfulness,\nand all alike have come under the domination of powers which are\nplunging us ever deeper into barbarism. It has to get attention\nconcentrated on civilization while the growing difficulty of making a\nliving absorbs the masses more and more in material cares, and makes\nall other things seem to them to be mere shadows. It has to give us\nfaith in the possibility of [pg 078] progress while the reaction of\nthe economic on the spiritual becomes more pernicious every day and\ncontributes to an ever growing demoralization. It has to provide us\nwith a capacity for hope at a time when not only secular and religious\ninstitutions and associations, but the men, too, who are looked upon\nas leaders, continually fail us, when artists and men of learning show\nthemselves as supporters of barbarism, and notabilities who pass for\nthinkers, and behave outwardly as such, are revealed, when crises\ncome, as being nothing more than writers and members of academies.\n\nAll these hindrances stand in the path of the will to civilization. A\ndull despair hovers about us. How well we now understand the men of\nthe Greco-Roman decadence, who stood before events incapable of\nresistance, and, leaving the world to its fate, withdrew upon their\ninner selves! Like them, we are bewildered by our experience of life.\nLike them, we hear enticing voices which say to us that the one thing\nwhich can still make life tolerable is to live for the day. We must,\nwe are told, renounce every wish to think or hope about anything\nbeyond our own fate. We must find rest in resignation.\n\nThe recognition that civilization is founded on some sort of theory of\nthe universe, and can be restored only through a spiritual awakening\nand a will for ethical good in the mass of mankind, compels [pg 079]\nus to make clear to ourselves those difficulties in the way of a\nrebirth of civilization which ordinary reflection would overlook. But\nat the same time it raises us above all considerations of possibility\nor impossibility. If the ethical spirit provides a sufficient standing\nground in the sphere of events for making civilization a reality, then\nwe shall get civilization, provided that we return to a suitable\ntheory of the universe and the convictions to which this properly\ngives birth.\n\nThe history of our decadence preaches the truth that when hope is dead\nthe spirit becomes the deciding court of appeal, and this truth will\nin the future find in us a sublime and noble fulfilment.\n\n\n\n\n[pg 080]\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCIVILIZATION AND THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE\n\n\nThe regeneration of our theory of the universe and the restoration of\ncivilization. A reflective theory of the universe; rationalism and\nmysticism. The optimistic-ethical theory as a theory of civilization.\nThe regeneration of our ideas by reflection about the meaning of life.\n\nThe greatest of all the spirit\u2019s tasks is to produce a theory of the\nuniverse (_Weltanschauung__(_*_)_), for in such a theory all the\nideas, convictions and activities of an age have their roots, and it\nis only when we have arrived at one which is compatible with\ncivilization that we are capable of holding the ideas and convictions\nwhich are the conditions of civilization in general.\n\nWhat is meant by a theory of the universe? It is the content of the\nthoughts of society and the individuals which compose it about the\nnature and object of the world in which they live, and the position\nand the destiny of mankind and of individual men within it. What\nsignificance have the society in which I live and I myself in the\nworld? What do we want to do in the world, what do we [pg 081] hope to\nget from it, and what is our duty to it? The answer given by the\nmajority to these fundamental questions about existence decides what\nthe spirit is in which they and their age live.\n\nIs not this putting too high the value of a theory of the universe?\n\nAt present, certainly, the majority do not, as a rule, attain to any\nproperly thought-out theory, nor do they feel the need of deriving\ntheir ideas and convictions from such a source. They are in tune, more\nor less, with all the tones which pervade the age in which they live.\n\nBut who are the musicians who have produced these tones? They are the\npersonalities who have thought out theories of the universe, and drawn\nfrom them the ideas, more or less valuable, which are current amongst\nus to-day. In this way all thoughts, whether those of individuals or\nthose of society, go back ultimately, in some way or other, to a\ntheory of the universe. Every age lives in the consciousness of what\nhas been provided for it by the thinkers under whose influence it\nstands.\n\nPlato was wrong in holding that the philosophers of a State should\nalso be its governors. Their supremacy is a different and a higher one\nthan that which consists in taking cognizance of laws and ordinances\nand giving effect to official authority. [pg 082] They are the\nofficers of the general staff who sit in the background thinking out,\nwith more or less clearness of vision, the details of the battle which\nis to be fought. Those who play their part in the public eye are the\nsubordinate officers who, for their variously sized units, convert the\ngeneral directions of the staff into orders of the day: namely, that\nthe forces will start at such and such a time, move in this or that\ndirection, and occupy this or that point. Kant and Hegel have\ncommanded millions who had never read a line of their writings, and\nwho did not even know that they were obeying their orders.\n\nThose who command, whether it be in a large or a small sphere, can\nonly carry out what is already in the thought of the age. They do not\nbuild the instrument on which they have to play, but are merely given\na seat at it. Nor do they compose the piece they have to play; it is\nsimply put before them, and they cannot alter it; they can only\nreproduce it with more or less skill and success. If it is\nmeaningless, they cannot do much to improve it, but neither, if it is\ngood, can they damage it seriously.\n\nTo the question, then, whether it is personalities or ideas which\ndecide the fate of an age, the answer is that the age gets its ideas\nfrom personalities. If the thinkers of a certain period produce a\nworthy theory of the universe, then ideas pass into currency [pg 083]\nwhich guarantee progress; if they are not capable of such production,\nthen decadence sets in in some form or other. Every theory of the\nuniverse draws after it its own special results in history.\n\nThe fall of the Roman Empire in spite of that empire\u2019s having over it\nso many rulers of conspicuous ability, may be traced ultimately to the\nfact that ancient philosophy produced no theory of the universe with\nideas which tended to that empire\u2019s preservation. With the rise of\nStoicism, as the definitive answer of the philosophic thought of\nantiquity, the fate of the world down to the Middle Ages was decided.\nThe idea of resignation, noble idea as it is, could not ensure\nprogress in a world-wide empire. The efforts of its strongest emperors\nwere useless. The yarn with which they had to weave was rotten.\n\nIn the eighteenth century, under the rule, in most places, of\ninsignificant rococo-sovereigns and rococo-ministers, a progressive\nmovement began among the nations of Europe which was unique in the\nhistory of the world. Why? The thinkers of the Illuminati and of\nrationalism produced a worthy theory of the universe from which worthy\nideas were spread among mankind.\n\nBut when history began to shape itself in accordance with these ideas,\nthe thought which had [pg 084] produced the progress came to a halt,\nand we have now a generation which is squandering the precious\nheritage it has received from the past, and is living in a world of\nruins, because it cannot complete the building which that past began.\nEven had our rulers and statesmen been less short-sighted than they\nactually were, they would not in the long run have been able to avert\nthe catastrophe which burst upon us. Both the inner and the outer\ncollapse of civilization were latent in the circumstances produced by\nthe prevalent view of the universe. The rulers, small and great alike,\ndid not [nothing but] act in accordance with the spirit of the age.\n\nWith the disappearance of the influence exerted by the _Aufkl\u00e4rung_,\nrationalism, and the serious philosophy of the early nineteenth\ncentury, the seeds were sown of the world-war to come. Then began to\ndisappear also the ideas and convictions which would have made\npossible a solution on right lines of the controversies which arise\nbetween nations.\n\nThus the course of events brought us into a position in which we had\nto get along without any real theory of the universe. The collapse of\nphilosophy and the rise and influence of scientific modes of thought\nmade it impossible to arrive at an idealist theory which should\nsatisfy thought. Moreover, our age is poorer in deep thinkers than\nperhaps any preceding one. There were a few [pg 085] strong spirits\nwho, with varied knowledge, and with devoted efforts, offered the\nworld some patchwork thought; there were some dazzling comets; but\nthat was all that was granted us. Their products in the way of world\ntheories were good enough to interest a circle of academic culture, or\nto delight a few believing followers, but the people as a whole were\nentirely untouched.\n\nWe began, therefore, to persuade ourselves that it was, after all,\npossible to get through without any theory of the universe. The\nfeeling that we needed to stir ourselves up to ask questions about the\nworld and life, and to come to a decision upon them, gradually died\naway. In the unreflective condition to which we had surrendered\nourselves, we took, to meet the claims of our own life and the\nnation\u2019s life, the chance ideas provided by our feeling for reality.\nDuring more than a generation and a half we had proof enough and to\nspare that the theory which is the result of absence of theory is the\nmost worthless of all, involving not only ruin to the spiritual life,\nbut ruin universal. For where there is no general staff to think out\nits plan of campaign for any generation its subordinate officers lead\nit, as in actual warfare so in the sphere of ideas, from one\nprofitless adventure to another.\n\nThe reconstruction of our age, then, can begin [pg 086] only with a\nreconstruction of a theory of the universe. There is hardly anything\nmore urgent in its claim on us than this which seems to be so far off\nand abstract. Only when we have made ourselves at home again in the\nsolid thought-building of a theory which can support a civilization,\nand when we take from it, all of us in co-operation, ideas which can\nstimulate our life and work, only then can there again arise a society\nwhich shall possess ideals with magnificent aims and be able to bring\nthese into effective agreement with reality. It is from new ideas that\nwe must build history anew.\n\nFor individuals as for the community, life without a theory of things\nis a pathological disturbance of the higher capacity for\nself-direction.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat conditions must a theory of the universe fulfil to enable it to\ncreate a civilization?\n\nFirst, and defined generally, it must be the product of thought.\nNothing but what is born of thought and addresses itself to thought\ncan be a spiritual power affecting the whole of mankind. Only what has\nbeen well turned over in the thought of the many, and thus recognized\nas truth, possesses a natural power of conviction which will work on\nother minds and will continue to be effective. Only where there is a\nconstant appeal to the need [pg 087] of a reflective view of things\nare all man\u2019s spiritual capacities called into activity.\n\nOur age has a kind of artistic prejudice against a reflective theory\nof the universe. We are still children of the Romantic movement to a\ngreater extent than we realize. What that movement produced in\nopposition to the _Aufkl\u00e4rung_ and to rationalism seems to us valid\nfor all ages against any theory that would found itself solely on\nthought. In such a theory of the universe we can see beforehand the\nworld dominated by a barren intellectualism, convictions governed by\nmere utility, and a shallow optimism, which together throw a wet\nblanket over all human genius and enthusiasm.\n\nIn a great deal of the opposition which it offered to rationalism the\nreaction of the early nineteenth century was right. Nevertheless it\nremains true that it despised and distorted what was, in spite of all\nits imperfections, the greatest and most valuable manifestation of the\nspiritual life of man that the world has yet seen. Down through all\ncircles of cultured and uncultured alike there prevailed at that time\na belief in thought and a reverence for truth. For that reason alone\nthat age stands higher than any which preceded it, and much higher\nthan our own.\n\nAt no price must the feelings and phrases of [pg 088] Romanticism be\nallowed to prevent our generation from forming a clear conception of\nwhat reason really is. It is no dry intellectualism which would\nsuppress all the manifold movements of our inner life, but the\ntotality of all the functions of our spirit in their living action and\ninteraction. In it our intellect and our will hold that mysterious\nintercourse which determines the character of our spiritual being.\nThese fundamental ideas which it produces contain all that we can feel\nor imagine about our destiny and that of mankind, and give our whole\nbeing its direction and its value. The enthusiasm which comes from\nthought has the same relation to that which rises from the cauldron of\nfeeling as the wind which sweeps the heights has to that which eddies\nabout between the hills. If we venture once more to seek help from the\nlight of reason, we shall no longer keep ourselves down at the level\nof a generation which has ceased to be capable of enthusiasm, but\nshall follow the deep and noble passion inspired by great and sublime\nideals. This will so fill and expand our being that that by which we\nnow live will seem to be merely a petty kind of excitement, and will\ndisappear.\n\nRationalism is more than a movement of thought which realized itself\nat the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth\ncenturies. It is a necessary phenomenon in all normal spiritual life.\n[pg 089] All real progress in the world is in the last analysis\nproduced by rationalism.\n\nIt is true that the intellectual productions of the period which we\ndesignate historically as the rationalistic are incomplete and\nunsatisfactory, but the principle, which was then established, of\nbasing our views of the universe on thought and thought alone, is\nvalid for all time. Even if the tree\u2019s earliest fruit did not ripen\nperfectly, the tree itself remains, nevertheless, the tree of life for\nthe life of our spirit.\n\nAll the movements that have claimed to take the place of rationalism\nstand far below it in the matter of achievement. From speculative\nthought, from history, from feeling, from \u00e6sthetics, from science,\nthey tried to construct a theory of the universe, grubbing at\nhaphazard in the world around them instead of excavating\nscientifically. Rationalism alone chose the right place for its\ndigging, and dug systematically, according to plan. If it found only\nmetal of small value, that was because, with the means at its\ndisposal, it could not go deep enough. Impoverished and ruined as we\nare because we sought as mere adventurers, we must make up our minds\nto sink another shaft in the ground where rationalism worked, and to\ngo down through all the strata to see whether we cannot find the gold\nwhich must certainly be there.\n\n[pg 090]\n\nTo think out to the end a theory of the universe which has been\nproduced by thought\u2014that is the only possible way of finding our\nbearings amid the confusion of the world of thought to-day.\n\nPhilosophical, historical, and scientific questions with which it was\nnot capable of dealing overwhelmed the earlier rationalism like an\navalanche, and buried it in the middle of its journey. The new\nrational theory of the universe must work its way out of this chaos.\nLeaving itself freely open to the whole influence of the world of\nfact, it must explore every path offered by reflection and knowledge\nin its effort to reach the ultimate meaning of being and life, and to\nsee whether it can solve some of the riddles which they present.\n\nThe ultimate knowledge, in which man recognizes his own being as a\npart of the All, belongs, they say, to the realm of mysticism, by\nwhich is meant that he does not reach it by the method of ordinary\nreflection, but somehow or other lives himself into it.\n\nBut why assume that the road of thought must suddenly stop at the\nfrontier of mysticism? It is true that pure reason has hitherto called\na halt whenever it came into this neighbourhood, for it was unwilling\nto go beyond the point at which it could still exhibit everything as\npart of a smooth, logical plan. Mysticism, on its side, always\ndepreciated [pg 091] pure reason as much as it could, to prevent at\nall costs the idea from gaining currency that it was in any way bound\nto give an account to reason. And yet, although they refuse to\nrecognize each other, the two belong to each other.\n\nIt is in reason that intellect and will, which in our nature are\nmysteriously bound up together, seek to come to a mutual\nunderstanding. The ultimate knowledge that we strive to acquire is\nknowledge of life, which intellect looks at from without, will from\nwithin. Since life is the ultimate object of knowledge, our ultimate\nknowledge is necessarily our thinking experience of life, but this\ndoes not lie outside the sphere of reason, but within reason itself.\nOnly when the will has thought out its relation to the intellect, has\ncome, as far as it can, into line with it, has penetrated it, and in\nit become logical, is it in a position to comprehend itself, so far as\nits nature allows this, as a part of the universal will-to-live and a\npart of being in general. If it merely leaves the intellect on one\nside, it loses itself in confused imaginings, while the intellect,\nwhich, like the rationalism of the past, will not allow that in order\nto understand life it must finally lose itself in thinking experience,\nrenounces all hope of constructing a deep and firmly based theory of\nthe universe.\n\n[pg 092]\n\nThus reflection, when pursued to the end, lead somewhere and somehow\nto a living mysticism which is for all men everywhere a necessary\nelement of thought.\n\nDoubts whether the mass of men can ever attain to that level of\nreflection about themselves and the world which is demanded by a\nreflective theory of the universe, are quite justifiable if the man of\nto-day is taken as an example of the race. But he, with his diminished\nneed of thought, is a pathological phenomenon.\n\nIn reality there is given in the mental endowment of the average man a\ncapacity for thought which to the individual makes the creation of a\nreflective theory of things of his own not only possible, but under\nnormal conditions even a necessity. The great movements of\nillumination in ancient and modern times help to maintain the\nconfident belief that there is in the mass of mankind a power of\nthought on fundamentals which can be roused to activity. This belief\nis strengthened by observation of mankind and intercourse with the\nyoung. A fundamental impulse to reflect about the universe stirs us\nduring those years in which we begin to think independently. Later on\nwe let it languish, even though feeling clearly that we thereby\nimpoverish ourselves and become less capable of what is good. We are\nlike springs of water which no longer run [pg 093] because they have\nnot been watched and have gradually become choked with rubbish.\n\nMore than any other age has our own neglected to watch the thousand\nsprings of thought; hence the drought in which we are pining. But if\nwe only go on to remove the rubbish which conceals the water, the\nsands will be irrigated again, and life will spring up where hitherto\nthere has been only a desert.\n\nCertainly there are guides and the guided in the department of\nworld-theories, as in others. So far the independence of the mass of\nmen remains a relative one. The question is only whether the influence\nof the guides leads to dependence or independence. The latter brings\nwith it a development in the direction of truthfulness; the former\nmeans the death of that virtue.\n\nEvery being who calls himself a man is meant to develop into a real\npersonality within a reflective theory of the universe which he has\ncreated for himself.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut of what character must the theory be if ideas and convictions\nabout civilization are to be based on it?\n\nThat theory of the universe is optimistic which [pg 094] gives\nexistence the preference as against non-existence and thus affirms\nlife as something possessing value in itself. From this attitude to\nthe universe and to life results the impulse to raise existence, in so\nfar as our influence can affect it, to its highest level of value.\nThence originates activity directed to the improvement of the living\nconditions of individuals, of society, of nations and of humanity,\nfrom which spring the external achievements of civilization, the\nlordship of spirit over the powers of nature, and the higher social\norganization.\n\nEthics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection\nof his own personality. In itself it is quite independent of whether\nthe theory of the universe is pessimistic or optimistic. But its\nsphere of action is contracted or widened according as it appears in\nconnection with a theory of the first or the second type.\n\nIn the determinist-pessimistic theory of the universe, as we have it\nin the thought of the Br\u0101hmans or of Schopenhauer, ethics has nothing\nwhatever to do with the objective world. It aims solely at securing\nthe self-perfection of the individual as this comes to pass in inner\nfreedom and disconnection from the world and the spirit of the world.\n\nBut the scope of ethics is extended in proportion [pg 095] as it\ndevelops and strengthens a connection with a theory of the universe\nwhich is affirmative toward the world and life. Its aim is now the\ninner perfection of the individual and at the same time the direction\nof his activity so as to take effect on other men and on the objective\nworld. It is true that in face of the objective world and its spirit\nethics no longer holds itself up to man as an aim in itself. By its\nmeans man is to become capable of acting among men and in the world as\na higher and purer force, and thus to do his part towards the\nactualization of the ideal of general progress.\n\nThus the optimistic-ethical theory of the universe works in\npartnership with ethics to produce civilization. Neither is capable of\ndoing so by itself. Optimism supplies confidence that the\nworld-process has somehow or other a spiritual-sensible aim, and that\nthe improvement of the general relations of the world and of society\npromotes the spiritual-moral perfection of the individual. From ethics\nis derived ability to develop the purposive state of mind necessary to\nproduce action on the world and society and to cause the co-operation\nof all our achievements to secure the spiritual and moral perfection\nof the individual which is the final end of civilization.\n\nOnce we have recognized that the energies which spring out of a theory\nof the universe, and impel us to [pg 096] create a civilization, are\nrooted in the ethical and the optimistic, we get light on the question\nwhy and how our ideals of civilization got worn out. This question is\nnot to be answered by good or bad analogies from nature. The decisive\nanswer is that they got worn out because we had not succeeded in\nestablishing the ethical and optimistic elements on a sufficiently\nfirm foundation.\n\nIf we should analyse the process in which the ideas and convictions\nthat produce civilization reveal themselves, it would be found that\nwhenever an advance has been registered, either the optimist or the\nethical element in the theory of the universe has proved more\nattractive than usual, and has had as its consequence a progressive\ndevelopment. When civilization is decaying there is the same chain of\ncausation, but it works negatively. The building is damaged or falls\nin because the optimist element or the ethical, or both, give way like\na weak foundation. No amount of inquiry will give any other reason for\nthe changes. All imaginable ideas and convictions of that character\nspring from optimism and the ethical impulse. If these two pillars are\nstrong enough, we need have no fears about the building.\n\nThe future of civilization depends, therefore, on whether it is\npossible for thought to reach a theory of the universe which will have\na more secure and [pg 097] fundamental hold on optimism and the\nethical impulse than its predecessors have had.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe Westerners dream of a theory of the universe which corresponds to\nour impulse to action and at the same time justifies it. We have not\nbeen able to formulate such a theory definitely. At present we are in\nthe state of possessing merely an impulse without any definite\norientation. The spirit of the age drives us into action without\nallowing us to attain any clear view of the objective world and of\nlife. It claims our toil inexorably in the service of this or that\nend, this or that achievement. It keeps us in a sort of intoxication\nof activity so that we may never have time to reflect and to ask\nourselves what this restless sacrifice of ourselves to ends and\nachievements really has to do with the meaning of the world and of our\nlives. And so we wander hither and thither in the gathering dusk\nformed by lack of any definite theory of the universe like homeless,\ndrunken mercenaries, and enlist indifferently in the service of the\ncommon and the great without distinguishing between them. And the more\nhopeless becomes the condition of the world in which this adventurous\nimpulse to action and progress ranges to and fro, the more bewildered\n[pg 098] becomes our whole conception of things and the more\npurposeless and irrational the doings of those who have enlisted under\nthe banner of such an impulse.\n\nHow little reflection is present in the Western impulse to action\nbecomes evident when this tries to square its ideas with those of the\nFar East. For thought in the Far East has been constantly occupied in\nits search for the meaning of life, and forces us to consider the\nproblem of the meaning of our own restlessness, the problem which we\nWesterners burke so persistently. We are utterly at a loss when we\ncontemplate the ideas which are presented to us in Indian thought. We\nturn away from the intellectual presumption which we find there. We\nare conscious of the unsatisfying and incomplete elements in the ideal\nof cessation from action. We feel instinctively that the\nwill-to-progress is justified not only in its aspect as directed to\nthe spiritual perfection of personality, but also in that which looks\ntowards the general and material.\n\nFor ourselves we dare to allege that we adventurers, who take up an\naffirmative attitude toward the world and toward life, however great\nand even ghastly our mistakes may be, can yet show not only greater\nmaterial, but also greater spiritual and ethical, contributions than\ncan those who lie under the ban of a theory of the universe\ncharacterized by cessation from action.\n\n[pg 099]\n\nAnd yet, all the same, we cannot feel ourselves completely justified\nin the face of these strange Eastern theories. They have in them\nsomething full of nobility which retains its hold on us, even\nfascinates us. This tinge of nobility comes from the fact that these\nconvictions are born of a search for a theory of the universe and for\nthe meaning of life. With us, on the other hand, activist instincts\nand impulses take the place of a theory of the universe. We have no\ntheory affirming the world and life to oppose to the negative theory\nof these thinkers, no thought which has found a basis for an\noptimistic conception of existence to oppose to this other, which has\narrived at a pessimistic conception.\n\nThe reawakening of the Western spirit must thus begin by our people,\neducated and simple alike, becoming conscious of their lack of a\ntheory of the universe and feeling the horror of their consequent\nposition. We can no longer be satisfied to make shift with substitutes\nfor such a theory. What is the basis of the will-to-activity and\nprogress which impels both to great actions and to terrible deeds, and\nwhich tries to keep us from reflection? We must bend all our energies\nto the solution of this problem.\n\nThere is only one way in which we can hope to emerge from the\nmeaningless state in which we are [pg 100] now held captive into one\ninformed with meaning. Each one of us must turn to contemplate his own\nbeing, and we must all give ourselves to co-operative reflection so as\nto discover how our will to action and to progress may be\nintellectually based on the way in which we interpret our own lives\nand the life around us, and the meaning which we give to these.\n\nThe great revision of the convictions and ideals in which and for\nwhich we live will only take place when, by constantly proclaiming\nthem, we have given currency among our contemporaries to ideas and\nthoughts other and better than those by which they are dominated at\nthe moment. Only thus will the many come to reflect about the meaning\nof life and to reorientate, revise and make over again their ideals of\naction and of progress, asking themselves whether these have a meaning\nin accord with that which we attribute to our life itself. This\npersonal reflection about final and elemental things is the one and\nonly reliable way of measuring values. My willing and doing have real\nmeaning and value only in proportion as the aims which action sets\nbefore itself can be justified as being in direct accord with my\ninterpretation of my own and of other life. All else, however much it\nmay pass current as approved by tradition, usage, and public opinion,\nis vain and dangerous.\n\nIt seems, indeed, a matter for scorn and derision [pg 101] that we\nshould urge men to anything so remote as a return to reflection about\nthe meaning of life at a time when the sufferings and the follies of\nthe nations have become so intense and so extended, when unemployment\nand poverty and starvation are rife, when power is being dissipated on\nall sides in the most shameless and senseless way, and when organized\nhuman life is dislocated in every direction. But only when the general\npopulation begins to reflect in this way will forces come into being\nwhich will be able to effect something to counterbalance all this ruin\nand misery. Whatever other measures it is attempted to carry out will\nhave doubtful and altogether inadequate results.\n\nWhen in the spring the withered grey of the pastures gives place to\ngreen, this is due to the millions of young shoots which sprout up\nfreshly from the old roots. In like manner the revival of thought\nwhich is essential for our time can only come through a transformation\nof the opinions and ideals of the many brought about by individual and\nuniversal reflection about the meaning of life and of the world.\n\nBut are we sure of being able to think out that affirmation of the\nworld and of life, which is such a powerful impulse in us, into a\ntheory of the world and of life from which a stream of energy\nproductive [pg 102] of intelligible life and action may convincingly\nand constantly proceed? How are we to succeed in doing what the spirit\nof the Western world during past generations has in vain toiled to\naccomplish?\n\nEven if thought, once more awakened, should only attain to an\nincomplete and unsatisfying theory of the universe, yet this, as the\ntruth to which we have ourselves worked through, would be of more\nvalue than a complete lack of any theory at all, or, alternatively,\nthan any sort of authoritative theory to which, neglecting the demands\nof true thought, we cling on account of its supposed intrinsic value\nwithout having any real and thorough belief in it.\n\nThe beginning of all spiritual life of any real value is courageous\nfaith in truth and open confession of the same. The most profound\nreligious experience, too, is not alien to thought, but must be\ncapable of derivation from this if it is to be given a true and deep\nbasis. Mere reflection about the meaning of life has already value in\nitself. If such reflection should again come into being amongst us,\nthe ideals, born of vanity and of suffering, which now flourish in\nrank profusion like evil weeds among the convictions of the generality\nof people, would infallibly wither away and die. How much would\nalready be accomplished towards our salvation from our present\ncircumstances if only we would all give up three minutes every evening\nto gazing up into the infinite [pg 103] world of the starry heavens\nand meditating on it, or if in taking part in a funeral procession we\nwould reflect on the enigma of life and death, instead of engaging in\nthoughtless conversation as we follow behind the coffin! The ideals,\nborn of folly and suffering, of those who make public opinion and\ndirect public events, would have no more power over men if they once\nbegan to reflect about eternity and mortality, existence and\ndissolution, and thus learnt to distinguish between true and false\nstandards, between those which possess real value and those which do\nnot. The old-time rabbis used to teach that the kingdom of God would\ncome if only the whole of Israel would really keep a single Sabbath\nsimultaneously! How much more is it true that the injustice and\nviolence and untruth, which are now bringing so much disaster on the\nhuman race, would lose their power if only a single real trace of\nreflection about the meaning of the world and of life should appear\namongst us!\n\nBut is there not a danger in challenging men with this question about\nthe meaning of life and in demanding that our impulse to action should\njustify and clarify itself in such reflection as that of which we have\nspoken? Shall we not lose, in acceding to this demand, some\nirreplaceable element of na\u00efve enthusiasm?\n\n[pg 104]\n\nWe need not thus be anxious as to how strong or how weak our impulse\nto action will prove to be when it shall have arrived, as the result\nof intellectual reflection, at an interpretation of life. Only that\nhas real meaning for life which is given as an element of our\ninterpretation of life. It is not the quantity, but the quality, of\nactivity that really matters. What is needed is that our\nwill-to-action should become conscious of itself and should cease to\nwork blindly.\n\nBut perhaps, it may be objected, we shall end in the resignation of\nagnosticism, and shall be obliged to confess that we cannot discover\nany meaning in the universe or in life.\n\nIf thought is to set out on its journey unhampered, it must be\nprepared for anything, even for arrival at intellectual agnosticism.\nBut even if our will-to-action is destined to wrestle endlessly and\nunavailingly with an agnostic view of the universe and of life, still\nthis painful disenchantment is better for it than persistent refusal\nto think out its position at all. For this disenchantment does, at any\nrate, mean that we are clear as to what we are doing.\n\nThere is, however, no necessity whatever for such an attitude of\nresignation. We feel that a position of affirmation regarding the\nworld and life is something which is in itself both necessary and\nvaluable. Therefore it is at least likely that a foundation can be [pg\n105] found for it in thought. Since it is an innate element of our\nwill-to-live, it must be possible to comprehend it as a necessary\ncorollary to our interpretation of life. Perhaps we shall have to look\nelsewhere than we have done hitherto for the real basis of that theory\nof the universe which carries with it affirmation of the world and of\nlife. Previous thought imagined that it could deduce the meaning of\nlife from its interpretation of the universe. It may be that we shall\nbe obliged to resign ourselves to abandon the problem of the\ninterpretation of the universe and to find the meaning of our life in\nthe will-to-live as this exists in ourselves.\n\nThe ways along which we have to struggle toward the goal may be veiled\nin darkness, yet the direction in which we must travel is clear. We\nmust reflect together about the meaning of life; we must strive\ntogether to attain to a theory of the universe affirmative of the\nworld and of life, in which the impulse to action which we experience\nas a necessary and valuable element of our being may find\njustification, orientation, clarity and depth, may receive a fresh\naccess of moral strength, and be retempered, and thus become capable\nof formulating, and of acting on, definite ideals of civilization,\ninspired by the spirit of true humanitarianism.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n* _Weltanschauung_. Translated \u2018theory of the universe\u2019 throughout the\nfirst part and elsewhere in this preface.\n\n* Translated \u201cworld-view\u201d throughout the second part of these\nLectures.\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\nThe formatting of both the .htm and .txt files followed that of two\nsimilar books, The Quest of the Historical Jesus and The Mystery of\nthe Kingdom of God, already in Project Gutenberg.\n\nIn the .txt version I have used utf8 encoding and the following\nmarkers:\n\n1. italic text surrounded by _\n2. footnote references in the form\n_(_number_)_\n\nI have included page numbers in the format [pg xxx] for both .htm and\n.txt.\n\nI made several hyphenation choices, mostly forced by de-hyphenation at\nthe ends of lines:\n\n1. world-theory\n2. overcoming\n3. self-regarding\n4. never-concentrated\n5. over-organization\n6. over-valuation\n7. self-importance\n8. rococo-ministers\n9. non-existence\n\nIn addition, on page 5 of the .pdf file on Internet Archive, the\ndisplay of this page was corrupted in my copy. As pointed out by\nan editor, this has been corrected in the current version at Internet\nArchive.\n\nOn page 84 the word \u201cnot\u201d in the sentence:\n\n\u201cThe rulers, small and great alike, did not act in accordance with\nthe spirit of the age.\u201d\n\nwas changed to \u201c[nothing but]\u201d. The original German is:\n\n\u201cDie kleinen und die gro\u00dfen Regierenden taten nichts anderes, als da\u00df\nsie im Geiste der Zeit handelten.\u201d\n\nGoogle Translate (4/25/2025) renders this as:\n\n\u201cThe small and the big rulers did nothing other than act in the spirit\nof the times.\u201d\n\nThe printed sentence in the book is either a typo or a mis-translation.\nIt does not fit the sense of the author who means that the rulers\nthemselves are not to blame for the collapse of civilization but rather\nit is the fault of the \u201cspirit of the age\u201d.","title":"The decay and the restoration of civilization : $b The philosophy of civilization, part 1","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":25679}