,,german ,,philosophy ,,and ,,politics ,,by ,,john ,,dewey ,professor of ,philosophy in ,columbia ,university ,,new ,,york ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company #aiae ,,copyright1 #aiae1 ,,by ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,the ,,quinn ,,boden ,,co4 ,,press ,,rahway1 ,n4 ,j4 ,,preface ,the will of ,john ,calvin ,mc,nair established a ,foundation at the ,university of ,north ,carolina upon which public lectures are to be given from time to time to the members of the ,university4 ,this book contains three lectures which were given in ,february of this year upon this ,foundation4 ,it is a pleasure to acknowledge the many courtesies enjoyed during my brief stay at ,chapel ,hill1 the seat of the ,university4 ,j4 ,d4 ,columbia ,university1 ,new ,york ,city1 ,april1 #aiae4 ,,contents ,,page ,i ,,german ,,philosophy3 ,,the ,,two ,,worlds #c ,,ii ,,german ,,moral ,,and ,,political ,,philosophy #dg ,,iii ,,the ,,germanic ,,philosophy ,,of ,,history #ia ,,index #acc ,,german ,,philosophy ,,and ,,politics ,i ,,german ,,philosophy3 ,,the ,,two ,,worlds ,the nature of the influence of general ideas upon practical affairs is a troubled question4 ,mind dislikes to find itself a pilgrim in an alien world4 ,a discovery that the belief in the influence of thought upon action is an illusion would leave men profoundly saddened with themselves and with the world4 ,were it not that the doctrine forbids any discovery influencing affairs--since the discovery would be an idea--we should say that the discovery of the wholly ex post facto and idle character of ideas would profoundly influence subsequent affairs4 ,the strange thing is that when men had least control over nature and their own affairs1 they were most sure of the efficacy of thought4 ,the doctrine that nature does nothing in vain1 that it is directed by purpose1 was not engrafted by scholasticism upon science2 it formulates an instinctive tendency4 ,and if the doctrine be fallacious1 its pathos has a noble quality4 ,it testifies to the longing of human thought for a world of its own texture4 ,yet just in the degree in which men1 by means of inventions and political arrangements1 have found ways of making their thoughts effective1 they have come to question whether any thinking is efficacious4 ,our notions in physical science tend to reduce mind to a bare spectator of a machine-like nature grinding its unrelenting way4 ,the vogue of evolutionary ideas has led many to regard intelligence as a deposit from history1 not as a force in its making4 ,we look backward rather than forward2 and when we look forward we seem to see but a further unrolling of a panorama long ago rolled up on a cosmic reel4 ,even ,bergson1 who1 to a casual reader1 appears to reveal vast unexplored vistas of genuinely novel possibilities1 turns out1 upon careful study1 to regard intellect 7everything which in the past has gone by the name of observation and reflection7 as but an evolutionary deposit whose importance is confined to the conservation of a life already achieved1 and bids us trust to instinct1 or something akin to instinct1 for the future3--as if there were hope and consolation in bidding us trust to that which1 in any case1 we cannot intelligently direct or control4 ,i do not see that the school of history which finds ,bergson mystic and romantic1 which prides itself upon its hard-headed and scientific character1 comes out at a different place4 ,i refer to the doctrine of the economic interpretation of history in its extreme form--which1 so its adherents tell us1 is its only logical form4 ,it is easy to follow them when they tell us that past historians have ignored the great part played by economic forces1 and that descriptions and explanations have been correspondingly superficial4 ,when one reflects that the great problems of the present day are those attending economic reorganization1 one might even take the doctrine as a half-hearted confession that historians are really engaged in construing the past in terms of the problems and interests of an impending future1 instead of reporting a past in order to discover some mathematical curve which future events are bound to describe4 ,but no2 our strictly scientific economic interpreters will have it that economic forces present an inevitable evolution1 of which state and church1 art and literature1 science and philosophy are by-products4 ,it is useless to suggest that while modern industry has given an immense stimulus to scientific inquiry1 yet nevertheless the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century comes after the scientific revolution of the seventeenth4 ,the dogma forbids any connection4 ,but when we note that ,marx gave it away that his materialistic interpretation of history was but the ,hegelian idealistic dialectic turned upside down1 we may grow wary4 ,is it1 after all1 history we are dealing with or another philosophy of history8 ,and when we discover that the great importance of the doctrine is urged upon us1 when we find that we are told that the general recognition of its truth helps us out of our present troubles and indicates a path for future effort1 we positively take heart4 ,these writers do not seem to mean just what they say4 ,like the rest of us1 they are human1 and infected with a belief that ideas1 even highly abstract theories1 are of efficacy in the conduct of human affairs influencing the history which is yet to be4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i have1 however1 no intention of entering upon this controversy1 much less of trying to settle it4 ,these remarks are but preliminary to a consideration of some of the practical affiliations of portions of the modern history of philosophical thought with practical social affairs4 ,and if ,i set forth my own position in the controversy in question1 the statement is frankly a personal one1 intended to make known the prepossessions with which ,i approach the discussion of the political bearings of one phase of modern philosophy4 ,i do not believe1 then1 that pure ideas1 or pure thought1 ever exercised any influence upon human action4 ,i believe that very much of what has been presented as philosophic reflection is in effect simply an idealization1 for the sake of emotional satisfaction1 of the brutely given state of affairs1 and is not a genuine discovery of the practical influence of ideas4 ,in other words1 ,i believe it to be esthetic in type even when sadly lacking in esthetic form4 ,and ,i believe it is easy to exaggerate the practical influence of even the more vital and genuine ideas of which ,i am about to speak4 ,but ,i also believe that there are no such things as pure ideas or pure reason4 ,every living thought represents a gesture made toward the world1 an attitude taken to some practical situation in which we are implicated4 ,most of these gestures are ephemeral2 they reveal the state of him who makes them rather than effect a significant alteration of conditions4 ,but at some times they are congenial to a situation in which men in masses are acting and suffering4 ,they supply a model for the attitudes of others2 they condense into a dramatic type of action4 ,they then form what we call the great systems of thought4 ,not all ideas perish with the momentary response4 ,they are voiced and others hear2 they are written and others read4 ,education1 formal and informal1 embodies them not so much in other men's minds as in their permanent dispositions of action4 ,they are in the blood1 and afford sustenance to conduct2 they are in the muscles and men strike or retire4 ,even emotional and esthetic systems may breed a disposition toward the world and take overt effect4 ,the reactions thus engendered are1 indeed1 superficial as compared with those in which more primitive instincts are embodied4 ,the business of eating and drinking1 buying and selling1 marrying and being given in marriage1 making war and peace1 gets somehow carried on along with any and every system of ideas which the world has known4 ,but how1 and when and where and for what men do even these things is tremendously affected by the abstract ideas which get into circulation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i take it that ,i may seem to be engaged in an emphatic urging of the obvious4 ,however it may be with a few specialized schools of men1 almost everybody takes it as a matter of course that ideas influence action and help determine the subsequent course of events4 ,yet there is a purpose in this insistence4 ,most persons draw the line at a certain kind of general ideas4 ,they are especially prone to regard the ideas which constitute philosophic theories as practically innocuous--as more or less amiable speculations significant at the most for moments of leisure1 in moments of relief from preoccupation with affairs4 ,above all1 men take the particular general ideas which happen to affect their own conduct of life as normal and inevitable4 ,pray what other ideas would any sensible man have8 ,they forget the extent to which these ideas originated as parts of a remote and technical theoretical system1 which by multitudes of non-reflective channels has infiltrated into their habits of imagination and behavior4 ,an expert intellectual anatomist1 my friends1 might dissect you and find ,platonic and ,aristotelian tissues1 organs from ,st4 ,augustine and ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas1 ,locke and ,descartes1 in the make-up of the ideas by which you are habitually swayed1 and find1 indeed1 that they and other thinkers of whose names you have never heard constitute a larger part of your mental structure than does the ,calvin or ,kant1 ,darwin or ,spencer1 ,hegel or ,emerson1 ,bergson or ,browning to whom you yield conscious allegiance4 ,philosophers themselves are naturally chiefly responsible for the ordinary estimate of their own influence1 or lack of influence4 ,they have been taken mostly at their own word as to what they were doing1 and what for the most part they have pretended to do is radically different from what they have actually done4 ,they are quite negligible as seers and reporters of ultimate reality1 or the essential natures of things4 ,and it is in this aspect that they have mostly fancied seeing themselves4 ,their actual office has been quite other4 ,they have told about nature and life and society in terms of collective human desire and aspiration as these were determined by contemporary difficulties and struggles4 ,i have spoken thus far as if the influence of general ideas upon action were likely to be beneficial4 ,it goes against the grain to attribute evil to the workings of intelligence4 ,but we might as well face the dilemma4 ,what is called pure thought1 thought freed from the empirical contingencies of life1 would1 even if it existed1 be irrelevant to the guidance of action4 ,for the latter always operates amid the circumstance of contingencies4 ,and thinking which is colored by time and place must always be of a mixed quality4 ,in part1 it will detect and hold fast to more permanent tendencies and arrangements2 in part1 it will take the limitations of its own period as necessary and universal--even as intrinsically desirable4 ,the traits which give thinking effectiveness for the good give it also potency for harm4 ,a physical catastrophe1 an earthquake or conflagration1 acts only where it happens4 ,while its effects endure1 it passes away4 ,but it is of the nature of ideas to be abstract3 that is to say1 severed from the circumstances of their origin1 and through embodiment in language capable of operating in remote climes and alien situations4 ,time heals physical ravages1 but it may only accentuate the evils of an intellectual catastrophe--for by no lesser name can we call a systematic intellectual error4 ,to one who is professionally preoccupied with philosophy there is much in its history which is profoundly depressing4 ,he sees ideas which were not only natural but useful in their native time and place1 figuring in foreign contexts so as to formulate defects as virtues and to give rational sanction to brute facts1 and to oppose alleged eternal truths to progress4 ,he sees movements which might have passed away with change of circumstance as casually as they arose1 acquire persistence and dignity because thought has taken cognizance of them and given them intellectual names4 ,the witness of history is that to think in general and abstract terms is dangerous2 it elevates ideas beyond the situations in which they were born and charges them with we know not what menace for the future4 ,and in the past the danger has been the greater because philosophers have so largely purported to be concerned not with contemporary problems of living1 but with essential ,truth and ,reality viewed under the form of eternity4 ,in bringing these general considerations to a close1 ,i face an embarrassment4 ,i must choose some particular period of intellectual history for more concrete illustration of the mutual relationship of philosophy and practical social affairs--which latter1 for the sake of brevity1 ,i term ,politics4 ,one is tempted to choose ,plato4 ,for in spite of the mystic and transcendental coloring of his thought1 it was he who defined philosophy as the science of the ,state1 or the most complete and organized whole known to man2 it is no accident that his chief work is termed the ,republic4 ,in modern times1 we are struck by the fact that ,english philosophy from ,bacon to ,john ,stuart ,mill has been cultivated by men of affairs rather than by professors1 and with a direct outlook upon social interests4 ,in ,france1 the great period of philosophy1 the period of les philosophes1 was the time in which were forged the ideas which connect in particular with the ,french ,revolution and in general with the conceptions which spread so rapidly through the civilized world1 of the indefinite perfectibility of humanity1 the rights of man1 and the promotion of a society as wide as humanity1 based upon allegiance to reason4 ,somewhat arbitrarily ,i have1 however1 selected some aspects of classic ,german thought for my illustrative material4 ,partly1 ,i suppose1 because one is piqued by the apparent challenge which its highly technical1 professorial and predominantly a priori character offers to the proposition that there is close connection between abstract thought and the tendencies of collective life4 ,more to the point1 probably1 is the fact that the heroic age of ,german thought lies almost within the last century1 while the creative period of continental thought lies largely in the eighteenth century1 and that of ,british thought still earlier4 ,it was ,taine1 the ,frenchman1 who said that all the leading ideas of the present day were produced in ,germany between #aghj and #ahcj4 ,above all1 the ,germans1 as we say1 have philosophy in their blood4 ,such phrases generally mean something not about hereditary qualities1 but about the social conditions under which ideas propagate and circulate4 ,now ,germany is the modern state which provides the greatest facilities for general ideas to take effect through social inculcation4 ,its system of education is adapted to that end4 ,higher schools and universities in ,germany are really1 not just nominally1 under the control of the state and part of the state life4 ,in spite of freedom of academic instruction when once a teacher is installed in office1 the political authorities have always taken a hand1 at critical junctures1 in determining the selection of teachers in subjects that had a direct bearing upon political policies4 ,moreover1 one of the chief functions of the universities is the preparation of future state officials4 ,legislative activity is distinctly subordinate to that of administration conducted by a trained civil service1 or1 if you please1 bureaucracy4 ,membership in this bureaucracy is dependent upon university training4 ,philosophy1 both directly and indirectly1 plays an unusually large role in the training4 ,the faculty of law does not chiefly aim at the preparation of practicing lawyers4 ,philosophies of jurisprudence are essential parts of the law teaching2 and every one of the classic philosophers took a hand in writing a philosophy of ,law and of the ,state4 ,moreover1 in the theological faculties1 which are also organic parts of state-controlled institutions1 the theology and higher criticism of ,protestant ,germany have been developed1 and developed also in close connection with philosophical systems--like those of ,kant1 ,schleiermacher and ,hegel4 ,in short1 the educational and administrative agencies of ,germany provide ready-made channels through which philosophic ideas may flow on their way to practical affairs4 ,political public opinion hardly exists in ,germany in the sense in which it obtains in ,france1 ,great ,britain or this country4 ,so far as it exists1 the universities may be said to be its chief organs4 ,they1 rather than the newspapers1 crystallize it and give it articulate expression4 ,instead of expressing surprise at the characteristic utterances of university men with reference to the great war1 we should then rather turn to the past history in which the ideas now uttered were generated4 ,in an account of ,german intellectual history sufficiently extensive we should have to go back at least to ,luther4 ,fortunately1 for our purposes1 what he actually did and taught is not so important as the more recent tradition concerning his peculiarly ,germanic status and office4 ,all peoples are proud of all their great men4 ,germany is proud of ,luther as its greatest national hero4 ,but while most nations are proud of their great men1 ,germany is proud of itself rather for producing ,luther4 ,it finds him as a ,germanic product quite natural--nay1 inevitable4 ,a belief in the universal character of his genius thus naturally is converted into a belief of the essentially universal quality of the people who produced him4 ,heine was not disposed by birth or temperament to overestimate the significance of ,luther4 ,but here is what he said3 ,luther is not only the greatest but the most ,german man in our history4 4 4 4 ,he possessed qualities that we seldom see associated--nay1 that we usually find in the most hostile antagonism4 ,he was at once a dreamy mystic and a practical man of action4 4 4 4 ,he was both a cold scholastic word-sifter and an inspired ,god-drunk prophet4 4 4 4 ,he was full of the awful reverence of ,god1 full of self-sacrificing devotion to the ,holy ,spirit1 he could lose himself entirely in pure spirituality4 ,yet he was fully acquainted with the glories of this earth2 he knew how estimable they are2 it was his lips that uttered the famous maxim-- ',who loves not woman1 wine and song1 ,remains a fool his whole life long4' ,he was a complete man1 ,i might say an absolute man1 in whom there was no discord between matter and spirit4 ,to call him a spiritualist would be as erroneous as to call him a sensualist4 4 4 4 ,eternal praise to the man whom we have to thank for the deliverance of our most precious possessions4 ,and again speaking of ,luther's work3 ,thus was established in ,germany spiritual freedom1 or as it is called1 freedom of thought4 ,thought became a right and the decisions of reason legitimate4 ,the specific correctness of the above is of slight importance as compared with the universality of the tradition which made these ideas peculiarly ,germanic1 and ,luther1 therefore1 a genuine national hero and type4 ,it is1 however1 with ,kant that ,i commence4 ,in ,protestant ,germany his name is almost always associated with that of ,luther4 ,that he brought to consciousness the true meaning of the ,lutheran reformation is a commonplace of the ,german historian4 ,one can hardly convey a sense of the unique position he occupies in the ,german thought of the last two generations4 ,it is not that every philosopher is a ,kantian1 or that the professed ,kantians stick literally to his text4 ,far from it4 ,but ,kant must always be reckoned with4 ,no position unlike his should be taken up till ,kant has been reverently disposed of1 and the new position evaluated in his terms4 ,to scoff at him is fair sacrilege4 ,in a genuine sense1 he marks the end of the older age4 ,he is the transition to distinctively modern thought4 ,one shrinks at the attempt to compress even his leading ideas into an hour4 ,fortunately for me1 few who read my attempt will have sufficient acquaintance with the tomes of ,kantian interpretation and exposition to appreciate the full enormity of my offense4 ,for ,i cannot avoid the effort to seize from out his highly technical writings a single idea and to label that his germinal idea4 ,for only in this way can we get a clew to those general ideas with which ,germany characteristically prefers to connect the aspirations and convictions that animate its deeds4 ,adventuring without further preface into this field1 ,i find that ,kant's decisive contribution is the idea of a dual legislation of reason by which are marked off two distinct realms--that of science and that of morals4 ,each of these two realms has its own final and authoritative constitution3 ,on one hand1 there is the world of sense1 the world of phenomena in space and time in which science is at home2 on the other hand1 is the supersensible1 the noumenal world1 the world of moral duty and moral freedom4 ,every cultivated man is familiar with the conflict of science and religion1 brute fact and ideal purpose1 what is and what ought to be1 necessity and freedom4 ,in the domain of science causal dependence is sovereign2 while freedom is lord of moral action4 ,it is the proud boast of those who are ,kantian in spirit that ,kant discovered laws deep in the very nature of things and of human experience whose recognition puts an end forever to all possibility of conflict4 ,in principle1 the discovery is as simple as its application is far-reaching4 ,both science and moral obligation exist4 ,analysis shows that each is based upon laws supplied by one and the same reason 7of which1 as he is fond of saying1 reason is the legislator72 but laws of such a nature that their respective jurisdictions can never compete4 ,the material for the legislation of reason in the natural world is sense4 ,in this sensible world of space and time1 causal necessity reigns3 such is the decree of reason itself4 ,every attempt to find freedom1 to locate ideals1 to draw support for man's moral aspirations in nature1 is predoomed to failure4 ,the effort of reason to do these things is contrary to the very nature of reason itself3 it is self-contradictory1 suicidal4 ,when one considers the extent in which religion has been bound up with belief in miracles1 or departures from the order of nature2 when one notes how support for morals has been sought in natural law2 how morals have been tied up with man's natural tendencies to seek happiness and with consequences in the way of reward of virtue and punishment of vice2 how history has been explained as a play of moral forces--in short1 the extent to which both the grounds and the sanctions for morality have been sought within the time and space world1 one realizes the scope of the revolution wrought by ,kant1 provided his philosophy be true4 ,add to this the fact that men in the past have not taken seriously the idea that every existence in space1 every event in time1 is connected by bonds of causal necessity with other existences and events1 and consequently have had no motive for the systematic pursuit of science4 ,how is the late appearance of science in human history to be accounted for8 ,how are we to understand the comparatively slight influence which science still has upon the conduct of life8 ,men1 when they have not consciously looked upon nature as a scene of caprice1 have failed to bring home to themselves that nature is a scene of the legislative activity of reason in the material of sense4 ,this fact the ,kantian philosophy brings home to man once for all2 it brings it home not as a pious wish1 nor as a precarious hope confirmed empirically here and there by victories won by a ,galileo or a ,newton1 but as an indubitable fact necessary to the existence of any cognitive experience at all4 ,the reign of law in nature is the work of the same reason which proceeds empirically and haltingly to the discovery of law here and there4 ,thus the acceptance of the ,kantian philosophy not only frees man at a single stroke from superstition1 sentimentalism and moral and theological romanticism1 but gives at the same stroke authorization and stimulation to the detailed efforts of man to wrest from nature her secrets of causal law4 ,what sparse groups of men of natural science had been doing for the three preceding centuries1 ,kant proclaimed to be the manifestation of the essential constitution of man as a knowing being4 ,for those who accept the ,kantian philosophy1 it is accordingly the magna charta of scientific work3 the adequate formulation of the constitution which directs and justifies their scientific inquiries4 ,it is a truism to say that among the ,germans as nowhere else has developed a positive reverence for science4 ,in what other land does one find in the organic law mention of ,science1 and read in its constitution an express provision that ,science and its teaching are free8 ,but this expresses only half of ,kant's work4 ,reason is itself supersensible4 ,giving law to the material of sense and so constituting nature1 it is in itself above sense and nature1 as a sovereign is above his subjects4 ,the supersensible world is thus a more congenial field for its legislative activity than the physical world of space and time4 ,but is any such field open to human experience8 ,has not ,kant himself closed and locked the gates in his assertion that the entire operation of man's knowing powers is confined to the realm of sense in which causal necessity dominates8 ,yes1 as far as knowledge is concerned4 ,no1 as far as moral obligation is concerned4 ,the fact of duty1 the existence of a categorical command to act thus and so1 no matter what the pressure of physical surroundings or the incitation of animal inclinations1 is as much a fact as the existence of knowledge of the physical world4 ,such a command cannot proceed from nature4 ,what is cannot introduce man to what ought to be1 and thus impose its own opposite upon him4 ,nature only enmeshes men in its relentless machine-like movement4 ,the very existence of a command in man to act for the sake of what ought to be--no matter what actually is--is thus of itself final proof of the operation of supersensible reason within human experience3 not1 indeed1 within theoretical or cognitive experience1 but within moral experience4 ,the moral law1 the law of obligation1 thus proceeds from a source in man above reason4 ,it is token of his membership as a moral being in a kingdom of absolute ends above nature4 ,but it is also directed to something in man which is equally above nature3 it appeals to and demands freedom4 ,reason is incapable of anything so irrational1 so self-contradictory1 as imposing a law of action to which no faculty of action corresponds4 ,the freedom of the moral will is the answer to the unqualified demand of duty4 ,it is not open to man to accept or reject this truth as he may see fit4 ,it is a principle of reason which is involved in every exercise of reason4 ,in denying it in name1 man none the less acknowledges it in fact4 ,only men already sophisticated by vice who are seeking an excuse for their viciousness ever try to deny1 even in words1 the response which freedom makes to the voice of duty4 ,since1 however1 freedom is an absolute stranger to the natural and sensible world1 man's possession of moral freedom is the final sign and seal of his membership in a supersensible world4 ,the existence of an ideal or spiritual realm with its own laws is thus certified to by the fact of man's own citizenship within it4 ,but1 once more1 this citizenship and this certification are solely moral4 ,scientific or intellectual warrant for it is impossible or self-contradictory1 for science works by the law of causal necessity with respect to what is1 ignorant of any law of freedom referring to what should be4 ,with the doors to the supersensible world now open1 it is but a short step to religion4 ,of the negative traits of true religion we may be sure in advance4 ,it will not be based upon intellectual grounds4 ,proofs of the existence of ,god1 of the creation of nature1 of the existence of an immaterial soul from the standpoint of knowledge are all of them impossible4 ,they transgress the limits of knowledge1 since that is confined to the sensible world of time and space4 ,neither will true religion be based upon historic facts such as those of ,jewish history or the life of ,jesus or the authority of a historic institution like a church4 ,for all historic facts as such fall within the realm of time which is sensibly conditioned4 ,from the points of view of natural theology and historic religions ,kant was greeted by his contemporaries as the all-shattering4 ,quite otherwise is it1 however1 as to moral proofs of religious ideas and ideals4 ,in ,kant's own words3 ,i have found it necessary to deny knowledge of ,god1 freedom and immortality in order to find a place for faith--faith being a moral act4 ,then he proceeds to reinterpret in terms of the sensuous natural principle and the ideal rational principle the main doctrines of ,lutheran ,protestantism4 ,the doctrines of incarnation1 original sin1 atonement1 justification by faith and sanctification1 while baseless literally and historically1 are symbols of the dual nature of man1 as phenomenal and noumenal4 ,and while ,kant scourges ecclesiastical religions so far as they have relied upon ceremonies and external authority1 upon external rewards and punishments1 yet he ascribes transitional value to them in that they have symbolized ultimate moral truths4 ,although dogmas are but the external vesture of inner truths1 yet it may be good for us to continue to pay reverence to the outward vesture since that has served to bring to general acceptance a doctrine which really rests upon an authority within the soul of man1 and which1 therefore1 needs no miracle to commend it4 ,it is a precarious undertaking to single out some one thing in ,german philosophy as of typical importance in understanding ,german national life4 ,yet ,i am committed to the venture4 ,my conviction is that we have its root idea in the doctrine of ,kant concerning the two realms1 one outer1 physical and necessary1 the other inner1 ideal and free4 ,to this we must add that1 in spite of their separateness and independence1 the primacy always lies with the inner4 ,as compared with this1 the philosophy of a ,nietzsche1 to which so many resort at the present time for explanation of what seems to them otherwise inexplicable1 is but a superficial and transitory wave of opinion4 ,surely the chief mark of distinctively ,german civilization is its combination of self-conscious idealism with unsurpassed technical efficiency and organization in the varied fields of action4 ,if this is not a realization in fact of what is found in ,kant1 ,i am totally at loss for a name by which to characterize it4 ,i do not mean that conscious adherence to the philosophy of ,kant has been the cause of the marvelous advances made in ,germany in the natural sciences and in the systematic application of the fruits of intelligence to industry1 trade1 commerce1 military affairs1 education1 civic administration and industrial organization4 ,such a claim would be absurd4 ,but ,i do mean1 primarily1 that ,kant detected and formulated the direction in which the ,german genius was moving1 so that his philosophy is of immense prophetic significance2 and1 secondarily1 that his formulation has furnished a banner and a conscious creed which in solid and definite fashion has intensified and deepened the work actually undertaken4 ,in bringing to an imaginative synthesis what might have remained an immense diversity of enterprises1 ,kantianism has helped formulate a sense of a national mission and destiny4 ,over and above this1 his formulation and its influence aids us to understand why the ,german consciousness has never been swamped by its technical efficiency and devotion1 but has remained self-consciously1 not to say self-righteously1 idealistic4 ,such a work as ,germany has undertaken might well seem calculated to generate attachment to a positivistic or even materialistic philosophy and to a utilitarian ethics4 ,but no2 the teaching of ,kant had put mechanism forever in its subordinate place at the very time it inculcated devotion to mechanism in its place4 ,above and beyond as an end1 for the sake of which all technical achievements1 all promotion of health1 wealth and happiness1 exist1 lies the realm of inner freedom1 of the ideal and the supersensible4 ,the more the ,germans accomplish in the way of material conquest1 the more they are conscious of fulfilling an ideal mission2 every external conquest affords the greater warrant for dwelling in an inner region where mechanism does not intrude4 ,thus it turns out that while the ,germans have been1 to employ a catchword of recent thought1 the most technically pragmatic of all peoples in their actual conduct of affairs1 there is no people so hostile to the spirit of a pragmatic philosophy4 ,the combination of devotion to mechanism and organization in outward affairs and of loyalty to freedom and consciousness in the inner realm has its obvious attractions4 ,realized in the common temper of a people it might well seem invincible4 ,ended is the paralysis of action arising from the split between science and useful achievements on one side and spiritual and ideal aspirations on the other4 ,each feeds and reinforces the other4 ,freedom of soul and subordination of action dwell in harmony4 ,obedience1 definite subjection and control1 detailed organization is the lesson enforced by the rule of causal necessity in the outer world of space and time in which action takes place4 ,unlimited freedom1 the heightening of consciousness for its own sake1 sheer reveling in noble ideals1 the law of the inner world4 ,what more can mortal man ask8 ,it would not be difficult1 ,i imagine1 to fill the three hours devoted to these lectures with quotations from representative ,german authors to the effect that supreme regard for the inner meaning of things1 reverence for inner truth in disregard of external consequences of advantage or disadvantage1 is the distinguishing mark of the ,german spirit as against1 say1 the externality of the ,latin spirit or the utilitarianism of ,anglo-,saxondom4 ,i content myself with one quotation1 a quotation which also indicates the same inclination to treat historic facts as symbolic of great truths which is found in ,kant's treatment of church dogmas4 ,speaking of the ,germanic languages1 an historian of ,german civilization says3 ,while all other ,indo-,european languages allow a wide liberty in placing the accent and make external considerations1 such as the quantity of the syllables and euphony1 of deciding influence1 the ,germanic tribes show a remarkable and intentional transition to an internal principle of accentuation4 4 4 4 ,of all related peoples the ,germanic alone puts the accent on the root syllable of the word1 that is1 on the part that gives it its meaning4 ,there is hardly an ethnological fact extant which gives so much food for thought as this4 ,what leads these people to give up a habit which must have been so old that it had become instinctive1 and to evolve out of their own minds a principle which indicates a power of discrimination far in advance of anything we are used to attribute to the lower stages of civilization8 ,circumstances of which we are not now aware must have compelled them to distinguish the inner essence of things from their external form1 and must have taught them to appreciate the former as of higher1 indeed as of sole1 importance4 ,it is this accentuation of the real substance of things1 the ever-powerful desire to discover this real substance1 and the ever-present impulse to give expression to this inner reality which has become the controlling trait of the ,germanic soul4 ,hence the conviction gained by countless unfruitful efforts1 that reason alone will never get at the true foundation of things2 hence the thoroughness of ,german science2 hence a great many of the qualities that explain ,germanic successes and failures2 hence1 perhaps1 a certain stubbornness and obstinacy1 the unwillingness to give up a conviction once formed2 hence the tendency to mysticism2 hence that continuous struggle which marks the history of ,german art1--the struggle to give to the contents powerful and adequate expression1 and to satisfy at the same time the requirements of esthetic elegance and beauty1 a struggle in which the victory is ever on the side of truth1 though it be homely1 over beauty of form whenever it appears deceitful2 hence the part played by music as the only expression of those imponderable vibrations of the soul for which language seems to have no words2 hence the faith of the ,german in his mission among the nations as a bringer of truth1 as a recognizer of the real value of things as against the hollow shell of beautiful form1 as the doer of right deeds for their own sake and not for any reward beyond the natural outcome of the deed itself4 ,the division established between the outer realm1 in which of course acts fall1 and the inner realm of consciousness explains what is otherwise so paradoxical to a foreigner in ,german writings3 ,the constant assertion that ,germany brought to the world the conscious recognition of the principle of freedom coupled with the assertion of the relative incompetency of the ,german folk en masse for political self-direction4 ,to one saturated by the ,english tradition which identifies freedom with power to act upon one's ideas1 to make one's purposes effective in regulation of public affairs1 the combination seems self-contradictory4 ,to the ,german it is natural4 ,readers who have been led by newspaper quotations to regard ,bernhardi as preaching simply a gospel of superior force will find in his writings a continual assertion that the ,german spirit is the spirit of freedom1 of complete intellectual self-determination2 that the ,germans have always been the standard bearers of free thought4 ,we find him supporting his teachings not by appeal to ,nietzsche1 but by the ,kantian distinction between the empirical and rational ego4 ,it is ,bernhardi who says3 ,two great movements were born from the ,german intellectual life1 on which1 henceforth1 all the intellectual and moral progress of mankind must rest3--,the ,reformation and the critical philosophy4 ,the ,reformation that broke the intellectual yoke imposed by the ,church1 which checked all free progress2 and the ,critique of ,pure ,reason which put a stop to the caprice of philosophic speculation by defining for the human mind the limitations of its capacities for knowledge1 and at the same time pointed out the way in which knowledge is really possible4 ,on this substructure was developed the intellectual life of our time1 whose deepest significance consists in the attempt to reconcile the result of free inquiry with the religious needs of the heart1 and thus to lay a foundation for the harmonious organization of mankind4 4 4 4 ,the ,german nation not only laid the foundations of this great struggle for a harmonious development of humanity but took the lead in it4 ,we are thus incurring an obligation for the future from which we cannot shrink4 ,we must be prepared to be the leader in this campaign which is being fought for the highest stake that has been offered to human efforts4 4 4 4 ,to no nation except the ,german has it been given to enjoy in its inner self 'that which is given to mankind as a whole4' 4 4 4 ,it is this quality which especially fits us for leadership in the intellectual domain and imposes upon us the obligation to maintain that position4#ce3;,a #ce3;,a ,bernhardi1 ,germany and the ,next ,war1 pp4 #gc-gd4 ,italics not in the original text4 ,more significant than the words themselves are their occasion and the occupation of the one who utters them4 ,outside of ,germany1 cavalry generals who employ philosophy to bring home practical lessons are1 ,i think1 rare4 ,outside of ,germany1 it would be hard to find an audience where an appeal for military preparedness would be reinforced by allusions to the ,critique of ,pure ,reason4 ,yet only by taking such statements seriously can one understand the temper in which opinion in ,germany meets a national crisis4 ,when the philosopher ,eucken 7who received a ,nobel prize for contributing to the idealistic literature of the world7 justifies the part taken by ,germany in a world war because the ,germans alone do not represent a particularistic and nationalistic spirit1 but embody the universalism of humanity itself1 he utters a conviction bred in ,german thought by the ruling interpretation of ,german philosophic idealism4 ,by the side of this motif the glorification of war as a biologic necessity1 forced by increase of population1 is a secondary detail1 giving a totally false impression when isolated from its context4 ,the main thing is that ,germany1 more than any other nation1 in a sense alone of all nations1 embodies the essential principle of humanity3 freedom of spirit1 combined with thorough and detailed work in the outer sphere where reigns causal law1 where obedience1 discipline and subordination are the necessities of successful organization4 ,it is perhaps worth while to recall that ,kant lived1 taught and died in ,koenigsberg2 and that ,koenigsberg was the chief city of east ,prussia1 an island still cut off in his early years from western ,prussia1 a titular capital for the ,prussian kings where they went for their coronations4 ,his lifework in philosophy coincides essentially with the political work of ,frederick the ,great1 the king who combined a regime of freedom of thought and complete religious toleration with the most extraordinary display known in history of administrative and military efficiency4 ,fortunately for our present purposes1 ,kant1 in one of his minor essays1 has touched upon this combination and stated its philosophy in terms of his own thought4 ,the essay in question is that entitled ,what is the ,enlightenment8 ,his reply in substance is that it is the coming of age on the part of humanity3 the transition from a state of minority or infancy wherein man does not dare to think freely to that period of majority or maturity in which mankind dares to use its own power of understanding4 ,the growth of this power of free use of reason is the sole hope of progress in human affairs4 ,external revolutions which are not the natural expression of an inner or intellectual revolution are of little significance4 ,genuine growth is found in the slow growth of science and philosophy and in the gradual diffusion throughout the mass of the discoveries and conclusions of those who are superior in intelligence4 ,true freedom is inner freedom1 freedom of thought together with the liberty consequent upon it of teaching and publication4 ,to check this rational freedom is a sin against the very nature of man1 the primary law of which consists in just the advance in rational enlightenment4 ,in contrast with this realm of inner freedom stands that of civil and political action1 the principle of which is obedience or subordination to constituted authority4 ,kant illustrates the nature of the two by the position of a military subordinate who is given an order to execute which his reason tells him is unwise4 ,his sole duty in the realm of practice is to obey--to do his duty4 ,but as a member not of the ,state but of the kingdom of science1 he has the right of free inquiry and publication4 ,later he might write upon the campaign in which this event took place and point out1 upon intellectual grounds1 the mistake involved in the order4 ,no wonder that ,kant proclaims that the age of the enlightenment is the age of ,frederick the ,great4 ,yet we should do injustice to ,kant if we inferred that he expected this dualism of spheres of action1 with its twofold moral law of freedom and obedience1 to endure forever4 ,by the exercise of freedom of thought1 and by its publication and the education which should make its results permeate the whole state1 the habits of a nation will finally become elevated to rationality1 and the spread of reason will make it possible for the government to treat men1 not as cogs in a machine1 but in accord with the dignity of rational creatures4 ,before leaving this theme1 ,i must point out one aspect of the work of reason thus far passed over4 ,nature1 the sensible world of space and time1 is1 as a knowable object1 constituted by the legislative work of reason1 although constituted out of a non-rational sensible stuff4 ,this determining work of reason forms not merely the ,idealism of the ,kantian philosophy but determines its emphasis upon the a priori4 ,the functions of reason through which nature is rendered a knowable object cannot be derived from experience1 for they are necessary to the existence of experience4 ,the details of this a priori apparatus lie far outside our present concern4 ,suffice it to say that as compared with some of his successors1 ,kant was an economical soul and got along with only two a priori forms and twelve a priori categories4 ,the mental habitudes generated by attachment to a priori categories cannot however be entirely neglected in even such a cursory discussion as the present4 ,if one were to follow the suggestion involved in the lately quoted passage as to the significant symbolism of the place of the accent in ,german speech1 one might discourse upon the deep meaning of the ,capitalization of ,nouns in the written form of the ,german language1 together with the richness of the language in abstract nouns4 ,one might fancy that the dignity of the common noun substantive1 expressing as it does the universal or generic1 has bred an intellectual deference4 ,one may fancy a whole nation of readers reverently bowing their heads at each successively capitalized word4 ,in such fashion one might arrive at a picture1 not without its truth1 of what it means to be devoted to a priori rational principles4 ,a number of times during the course of the world war ,i have heard someone remark that he would not so much mind what the ,germans did if it were not for the reasons assigned in its justification4 ,but to rationalize such a tangled skein as human experience is a difficult task4 ,if one is in possession of antecedent rational concepts which are legislative for experience1 the task is much simplified4 ,it only remains to subsume each empirical event under its proper category4 ,if the outsider does not see the applicability of the concept to the event1 it may be argued that his blindness shows his ineptness for truly universal thinking4 ,he is probably a crass empiric who thinks in terms of material consequences instead of upon the basis of antecedent informing principles of reason4 ,thus it has come about that no moral1 social or political question is adequately discussed in ,germany until the matter in hand has been properly deduced from an exhaustive determination of its fundamental ,begriff or ,wesen4 ,or if the material is too obviously empirical to allow of such deduction1 it must at least be placed under its appropriate rational form4 ,what a convenience1 what a resource1 nay1 what a weapon is the ,kantian distinction of a priori rational form and a posteriori empirical matter4 ,let the latter be as brutely diversified1 as chaotic as you please4 ,there always exists a form of unity under which it may be brought4 ,if the empirical facts are recalcitrant1 so much the worse for them4 ,it only shows how empirical they are4 ,to put them under a rational form is but to subdue their irrational opposition to reason1 or to invade their lukewarm neutrality4 ,any violence done them is more than indemnified by the favor of bringing them under the sway of a priori reason1 the incarnation of the ,absolute on earth4 ,yet there are certain disadvantages attached to a priori categories4 ,they have a certain rigidity1 appalling to those who have not learned to identify stiffness with force4 ,empirical matters are subject to revision4 ,the strongest belief that claims the support of experience is subject to modification when experience testifies against it4 ,but an a priori conception is not open to adverse evidence4 ,there is no court having jurisdiction4 ,if1 then1 an unfortunate mortal should happen to be imposed upon so that he was led to regard a prejudice or predilection as an a priori truth1 contrary experience would have a tendency to make him the more obstinate in his belief4 ,history proves what a dangerous thing it has been for men1 when they try to impose their will upon other men1 to think of themselves as special instruments and organs of ,deity4 ,the danger is equally great when an a priori ,reason is substituted for a ,divine ,providence4 ,empirically grounded truths do not have a wide scope2 they do not inspire such violent loyalty to themselves as ideas supposed to proceed directly from reason itself4 ,but they are discussable2 they have a humane and social quality1 while truths of pure reason have a paradoxical way1 in the end1 of escaping from the arbitrament of reasoning4 ,they evade the logic of experience1 only to become1 in the phrase of a recent writer1 the spoil of a logic of fanaticism4 ,weapons forged in the smithy of the ,absolute become brutal and cruel when confronted by merely human resistance4 ,the stiffly constrained character of an a priori ,reason manifests itself in another way4 ,a category of pure reason is suspiciously like a pigeonhole4 ,an ,american writer1 speaking before the present war1 remarked with witty exaggeration that ,germany is a monstrous set of pigeonholes1 and every mother's son of a ,german is pigeoned in his respective hole--tagged1 labeled and ticketed4 ,germany is a huge human check-room1 and the government carries the checks in its pocket4 ,john ,locke's deepest objection to the older form of the a priori philosophy1 the doctrine of innate ideas1 was the readiness with which such ideas become strongholds behind which authority shelters itself from questioning4 ,and ,john ,morley pointed out long ago the undoubted historic fact that the whole modern liberal social and political movement has allied itself with philosophic empiricism4 ,it is hard here1 as everywhere1 to disentangle cause and effect4 ,but one can at least say with considerable assurance that a hierarchically ordered and subordered ,state will feel an affinity for a philosophy of fixed categories1 while a flexible democratic society will1 in its crude empiricism1 exhibit loose ends4 ,there is a story to the effect that the good townspeople of ,koenigsberg were accustomed to their watches by the time at which ,kant passed upon his walks--so uniform was he4 ,yielding to the ,teutonic temptation to find an inner meaning in the outer event1 one may wonder whether ,german thought has not since ,kant's time set its intellectual and spiritual clocks by the ,kantian standard3 the separation of the inner and the outer1 with its lesson of freedom and idealism in one realm1 and of mechanism1 efficiency and organization in the other4 ,a ,german professor of philosophy has said that while the ,latins live in the present moment1 the ,germans live in the infinite and ineffable4 ,his accusation 7though ,i am not sure he meant it as such7 is not completely justified4 ,but it does seem to be true that the ,germans1 more readily than other peoples1 can withdraw themselves from the exigencies and contingencies of life into a region of ,innerlichkeit which at least seems boundless2 and which can rarely be successfully uttered save through music1 and a frail and tender poetry1 sometimes domestic1 sometimes lyric1 but always full of mysterious charm4 ,but technical ideas1 ideas about means and instruments1 can readily be externalized because the outer world is in truth their abiding home4 ,,ii ,,german ,,moral ,,and ,,political ,,philosophy ,it is difficult to select sentences from ,kant which are intelligible to those not trained in his vocabulary1 unless the selection is accompanied by an almost word-by-word commentary4 ,his writings have proved an admirable terrain for the display of ,german ,gruendlichkeit4 ,but ,i venture upon the quotation of one sentence which may serve the purpose of at once recalling the main lesson of the previous lecture and furnishing a transition to the theme of the present hour4 ,even if an immeasurable gulf is fixed between the sensible realm of the concept of nature and the supersensible realm of the concept of freedom1 so that it is not possible to go from the first to the second 7at least by means of the theoretical use of reason7 any more than if they were two separate worlds of which the first could have no influence upon the second1--yet the second is meant to have an influence upon the first4 ,the concept of freedom is meant to actualize in the world of sense the purpose proposed by its laws4 4 4 4 ,that is1 the relation between the world of space and time where physical causality reigns and the moral world of freedom and duty is not a symmetrical one4 ,the former cannot intrude into the latter4 ,but it is the very nature of moral legislation that it is meant to influence the world of sense2 its object is to realize the purposes of free rational action within the sense world4 ,this fact fixes the chief features of ,kant's philosophy of ,morals and of the ,state4 ,it is a claim of the admirers of ,kant that he first brought to recognition the true and infinite nature of the principle of ,personality4 ,on one side1 the individual is homo phenomenon--a part of the scheme of nature1 governed by its laws as much as any stone or plant4 ,but in virtue of his citizenship in the kingdom of supersensible ,laws and ,ends1 he is elevated to true universality4 ,he is no longer a mere occurrence4 ,he is a ,person--one in whom the purpose of ,humanity is incarnate4 ,in ,english and ,american writings the terms subjective and subjectivism usually carry with them a disparaging color4 ,quite otherwise is it in ,german literature4 ,this sets the age of subjectivism1 whose commencement1 roughly speaking1 coincides with the influence of ,kantian thought1 in sharp opposition to the age of individualism1 as well as to a prior period of subordination to external authority4 ,individualism means isolation2 it means external relations of human beings with one another and with the world2 it looks at things quantitatively1 in terms of wholes and parts4 ,subjectivism means recognition of the principle of free personality3 the self as creative1 occupied not with an external world which limits it from without1 but1 through its own self-consciousness1 finding a world within itself2 and having found the universal within itself1 setting to work to recreate itself in what had been the external world1 and by its own creative expansion in industry1 art and politics to transform what had been mere limiting material into a work of its own4 ,free as was ,kant from the sentimental1 the mystic and the romantic phases of this ,subjectivism1 we shall do well to bear it in mind in thinking of his ethical theory4 ,personality means that man as a rational being does not receive the end which forms the law of his action from without1 whether from ,nature1 the ,state or from ,god1 but from his own self4 ,morality is autonomous2 man1 humanity1 is an end in itself4 ,obedience to the self-imposed law will transform the sensible world 7within which falls all social ties so far as they spring from natural instinct desire7 into a form appropriate to universal reason4 ,thus we may paraphrase the sentence quoted from ,kant4 ,the gospel of duty has an invigorating ring4 ,it is easy to present it as the most noble and sublime of all moral doctrines4 ,what is more worthy of humanity1 what better marks the separation of man from brute1 than the will to subordinate selfish desire and individual inclination to the commands of stern and lofty duty8 ,and if the idea of command 7which inevitably goes with the notion of duty7 carries a sinister suggestion of legal authority1 pains and penalties and of subservience to an external authority who issues the commands1 ,kant seems to have provided a final corrective in insisting that duty is self-imposed4 ,moral commands are imposed by the higher1 supranatural self upon the lower empirical self1 by the rational self upon the self of passions and inclinations4 ,german philosophy is attached to antitheses and their reconciliation in a higher synthesis4 ,the ,kantian principle of ,duty is a striking case of the reconciliation of the seemingly conflicting ideas of freedom and authority4 ,unfortunately1 however1 the balance cannot be maintained in practice4 ,kant's faithful logic compels him to insist that the concept of duty is empty and formal4 ,it tells men that to do their duty is their supreme law of action1 but is silent as to what men's duties specifically are4 ,kant1 moreover1 insists1 as he is in logic bound to do1 that the motive which measures duty is wholly inner2 it is purely a matter of inner consciousness4 ,to admit that consequences can be taken into account in deciding what duty is in a particular case would be to make concessions to the empirical and sensible world which are fatal to the scheme4 ,the combination of these two features of pure internality and pure formalism leads1 in a world where men's acts take place wholly in the external and empirical region1 to serious consequences4 ,the dangerous character of these consequences may perhaps be best gathered indirectly by means of a quotation4 ,while the ,french people in savage revolt against spiritual and secular despotism had broken their chains and proclaimed their rights1 another quite different revolution was working in ,prussia--the revolution of duty4 ,the assertion of the rights of the individual leads ultimately to individual irresponsibility and to a repudiation of the ,state4 ,immanuel ,kant1 the founder of the critical philosophy1 taught1 in opposition to this view1 the gospel of moral duty1 and ,scharnhorst grasped the idea of universal military service4 ,by calling upon which individual to sacrifice property and life for the good of the community1 he gave the clearest expression to the idea of the ,state1 and created a sound basis on which the claims to individual rights might rest4#eb3;,a #eb3;,a ,bernhardi1 ,germany and the ,next ,war1 pp4 #fc-fd4 ,the sudden jump1 by means of only a comma1 from the gospel of moral duty to universal military service is much more logical than the shock which it gives to an ,american reader would indicate4 ,i do not mean1 of course1 that ,kant's teaching was the cause of ,prussia's adoption of universal military service and of the thoroughgoing subordination of individual happiness and liberty of action to that capitalized entity1 the ,state4 ,but ,i do mean that when the practical political situation called for universal military service in order to support and expand the existing state1 the gospel of a ,duty devoid of content naturally lent itself to the consecration and idealization of such specific duties as the existing national order might prescribe4 ,the sense of duty must get its subject-matter somewhere1 and unless subjectivism was to revert to anarchic or romantic individualism 7which is hardly in the spirit of obedience to authoritative law7 its appropriate subject-matter lies in the commands of a superior4 ,concretely what the ,state commands is the congenial outer filling of a purely inner sense of duty4 ,that the despotism of ,frederick the ,great and of the ,hohenzollerns who remained true to his policy was at least that hitherto unknown thing1 an enlightened despotism1 made the identification easier4 ,individuals have at all times1 in epochs of stress1 offered their supreme sacrifice to their country's good4 ,in ,germany this sacrifice in times of peace as well as of war has been systematically reinforced by an inner mystic sense of a ,duty elevating men to the plane of the universal and eternal4 ,in short1 the sublime gospel of duty has its defects4 ,outside of the theological and the ,kantian moral traditions1 men have generally agreed that duties are relative to ends4 ,not the obligation1 but some purpose1 some good1 which the fulfillment of duty realizes1 is the principle of morals4 ,the business of reason is to see that the end1 the good1 for which one acts is a reasonable one--that is to say1 as wide and as equitable in its working out as the situation permits4 ,morals which are based upon consideration of good and evil consequences not only allow1 but imperiously demand the exercise of a discriminating intelligence4 ,a gospel of duty separated from empirical purposes and results tends to gag intelligence4 ,it substitutes for the work of reason displayed in a wide and distributed survey of consequences in order to determine where duty lies an inner consciousness1 empty of content1 which clothes with the form of rationality the demands of existing social authorities4 ,a consciousness which is not based upon and checked by consideration of actual results upon human welfare is none the less socially irresponsible because labeled ,reason4 ,professor ,eucken represents a type of idealistic philosophy which is hardly acceptable to strict ,kantians4 ,yet only where the fundamental ,kantian ideas were current would such ethical ideas as the following flourish3 ,when justice is considered as a mere means of securing man's welfare1 and is treated accordingly--whether it be the welfare of individuals or of society as a whole makes no essential difference--it loses all its characteristic features4 ,no longer can it compel us to see life from its own standpoint2 no longer can it change the existing condition of things2 no longer can it sway our hearts with the force of a primitive passion1 and oppose to all consideration of consequences an irresistible spiritual compulsion4 ,it degenerates rather into the complaisant servant of utility2 it adopts herself to her demands1 and in so doing suffers inward annihilation4 ,it can maintain itself only when it comes as a unique revelation of the ,spiritual ,life within our human world1 as a lofty ,presence transcending all considerations of expediency4#ee3;,a #ee3;,a ,eucken1 ,the ,meaning and ,value of ,life1 translated by ,gibson1 p4 #ajd4 ,such writing is capable of arousing emotional reverberations in the breasts of many persons4 ,but they are emotions which1 if given headway1 smother intelligence1 and undermine its responsibility for promoting the actual goods of life4 ,if justice loses all its characteristic features when regarded as a means 7the word mere inserted before means speaks volumes7 of the welfare of society as a whole1 then there is no objective and responsible criterion for justice at all4 ,a justice which1 irrespective of the determination of social well-being1 proclaims itself as an irresistible spiritual impulsion possessed of the force of a primitive passion1 is nothing but a primitive passion clothed with a spiritual title so that it is protected from having to render an account of itself4 ,during an ordinary course of things1 it passes for but an emotional indulgence2 in a time of stress and strain1 it exhibits itself as surrender of intelligence to passion4 ,the passage 7from ,bernhardi7 quoted earlier puts the ,german principle of duty in opposition to the ,french principle of rights--a favorite contrast in ,german thought4 ,men like ,jeremy ,bentham also found the ,revolutionary ,rights of ,man doctrinaire and conducing to tyranny rather than to freedom4 ,these ,rights were a priori1 like ,duty1 being derived from the supposed nature or essence of man1 instead of being adopted as empirical expedients to further progress and happiness4 ,but the conception of duty is one-sided1 expressing command on one side and obedience on the other1 while rights are at least reciprocal4 ,rights are social and sociable in accord with the spirit of ,french philosophy4 ,put in a less abstract form than the revolutionary theory stated them1 they are things to be discussed and measured4 ,they admit of more and less1 of compromise and adjustment4 ,so also does the characteristic moral contribution of ,english thought--intelligent self-interest4 ,this is hardly an ultimate idea4 ,but at least it evokes a picture of merchants bargaining1 while the categorical imperative calls up the drill sergeant4 ,trafficking ethics1 in which each gives up something which he wants to get something which he wants more1 is not the noblest kind of morals1 but at least it is socially responsible as far as it goes4 ,give so that it may be given to you in return has at least some tendency to bring men together2 it promotes agreement4 ,it requires deliberation and discussion4 ,this is just what the authoritative voice of a superior will not tolerate2 it is the one unforgiveable sin4 ,the morals of bargaining1 exchange1 the mutual satisfaction of wants may be outlived in some remote future1 but up to the present they play an important part in life4 ,to me there is something uncanny in the scorn which ,german ethics1 in behalf of an unsullied moral idealism1 pours upon a theory which takes cognizance of practical motives4 ,in a highly esthetic people one might understand the display of contempt4 ,but when an aggressive and commercial nation carries on commerce and war simply from the motive of obedience to duty1 there is awakened an unpleasant suspicion of a suppressed psychic complex4 ,when ,nietzsche says1 ,man does not desire happiness2 only the ,englishman does that1 we laugh at the fair hit4 ,but persons who profess no regard for happiness as a test of action have an unfortunate way of living up to their principle by making others unhappy4 ,i should entertain some suspicion of the complete sincerity of those who profess disregard for their own happiness1 but ,i should be quite certain of their sincerity when it comes to a question of my happiness4 ,within the ,kantian philosophy of morals there is an idea which conducts necessarily to a philosophy of society and the ,state4 ,leibniz was the great ,german source of the philosophy of the enlightenment4 ,harmony was the dominant thought of this philosophy2 the harmony of nature with itself and with intelligence2 the harmony of nature with the moral ends of humanity4 ,although ,kant was a true son of the enlightenment1 his doctrine of the radically dual nature of the legislation of ,reason put an end to its complacent optimism4 ,according to ,kant1 morality is in no way a work of nature4 ,it is the achievement of the self-conscious reason of man through conquest of nature4 ,the ideal of a final harmony remains1 but it is an ideal to be won through a battle with the natural forces of man4 ,his breach with the enlightenment is nowhere as marked as in his denial that man is by nature good4 ,on the contrary1 man is by nature evil--that is1 his philosophical rendering of the doctrine of original sin4 ,not that the passions1 appetites and senses are of themselves evil1 but they tend to usurp the sovereignty of duty as the motivating force of human action4 ,hence morality is a ceaseless battle to transform all the natural desires of man into willing servants of the law and purpose of reason4 ,even the kindly and sociable instincts of man1 in which so many have sought the basis of both morality and organized society1 fall under ,kant's condemnation4 ,as natural desires1 they aspire to an illegitimate control in man's motives4 ,they are parts of human self-love3 the unlawful tendency to make happiness the controlling purpose of action4 ,the natural relations of man to man are those of an unsocial sociableness4 ,on the one hand1 men are forced together by natural ties4 ,only in social relations can individuals develop their capacities4 ,but no sooner do they come together than disintegrating tendencies set in4 ,union with his fellows give a stimulus to vanity1 avarice and gaining power over others--traits which cannot show in themselves in individuals when they are isolated4 ,this mutual antagonism is1 however1 more of a force in evolving man from savagery to civilization than are the kindly and sociable instincts4 ,without these unlovely qualities which set man over against man in strife1 individuals would have lived on in perfect harmony1 contentment and mutual love1 with all their distinctive abilities latent and undeveloped4 ,in short1 they would have remained in ,rousseau's paradise of a state of nature1 and perhaps ,rousseau was right when he preferred the savage state to the state of civilization provided we leave out of account the last stage to which our species is yet destined to rise4 ,but since the condition of civilization is but an intermediary between the natural state and the truly or rational moral condition to which man is to rise1 ,rousseau was wrong4 ,thanks then be to nature for the unsociableness1 the spiteful competition of vanity1 the insatiate desires for power and gain4 ,these quotations1 selected from ,kant's little essay on an ,idea for a ,universal ,history1 are precious for understanding two of the most characteristic traits of subsequent ,german thought1 the distinctions made between ,society and the ,state and between ,civilization and ,culture4 ,much of the trouble which has been experienced in respect to the recent use of ,kultur might have been allayed by a knowledge that ,kultur has little in common with the ,english word culture save a likeness in sound4 ,kultur is sharply antithetical to civilization in its meaning4 ,civilization is a natural and largely unconscious or involuntary growth4 ,it is1 so to speak1 a by-product of the needs engendered when people live close together4 ,it is external1 in short4 ,culture1 on the other1 is deliberate and conscious4 ,it is a fruit not of men's natural motives1 but of natural motives which have been transformed by the inner spirit4 ,kant made the distinction when he said that ,rousseau was not so far wrong in preferring savagery to civilization1 since civilization meant simply social decencies and elegancies and outward proprieties1 while morality1 that is1 the rule of the end of ,reason1 is necessary to culture4 ,and the real significance of the term culture becomes more obvious when he adds that it involves the slow toil of education of the ,inner ,life1 and that the attainment of culture on the part of an individual depends upon long effort by the community to which he belongs4 ,it is not primarily an individual trait or possession1 but a conquest of the community won through devotion to duty4 ,in recent ,german literature1 ,culture has been given even a more sharply technical distinction from ,civilization and one which emphasizes even more its collective and nationalistic character4 ,civilization as external and uncontrolled by self-conscious purpose includes such things as language in its more spontaneous colloquial expression1 trade1 conventional manners or etiquette1 and the police activities of government4 ,kultur comprises language used for purposes of higher literature2 commerce pursued not as means of enriching individuals but as a condition of the development of national life2 art1 philosophy 7especially in that untranslatable thing1 the ,welt-,anschauung72 science1 religion1 and the activities of the state in the nurture and expansion of the other forms of national genius1 that is1 its activities in education and the army4 ,the legislation of ,bismarck with reference to certain ,roman ,catholic orders is nicknamed ,kultur-kampf1 for it was conceived as embodying a struggle between two radically different philosophies of life1 the ,roman1 or ,italian1 and the true ,germanic1 not simply as a measure of political expediency4 ,thus it is that a trading and military post like ,kiao-,chou is officially spoken of as a monument of ,teutonic ,kultur4 ,the war now raging is conceived of as an outer manifestation of a great spiritual struggle1 in which what is really at stake is the supreme value of the ,germanic attitude in philosophy1 science and social questions generally1 the specifically ,german habits of feeling and thinking4 ,very similar motives are at work in the distinction between society and the ,state1 which is almost a commonplace of ,german thought4 ,in ,english and ,american writings the ,state is almost always used to denote society in its more organized aspects1 or it may be identified with government as a special agency operating for the collective interests of men in association4 ,but in ,german literature society is a technical term and means something empirical and1 so to speak1 external2 while the ,state1 if not avowedly something mystic and transcendental1 is at least a moral entity1 the creation of self-conscious reason operating in behalf of the spiritual and ideal interests of its members4 ,its function is cultural1 educative4 ,even when it intervenes in material interests1 as it does in regulating lawsuits1 poor laws1 protective tariffs1 etc41 etc41 its action has ultimately an ethical significance3 its purpose is the furthering of an ideal community4 ,the same thing is to be said of wars when they are really national wars1 and not merely dynastic or accidental4 ,society is an expression of man's egoistic nature2 his natural seeking for personal advantage and profit4 ,its typical manifestation is in competitive economic struggle and in the struggle for honor and recognized social status4 ,these have their proper place2 but with respect even to them it is the duty of the ,state to intervene so that the struggle may contribute to ideal ends which alone are universal4 ,hence the significance of the force or power of the ,state4 ,unlike other forms of force1 it has a sort of sacred import1 for it represents force consecrated to the assertion and expansion of final goods which are spiritual1 moral1 rational4 ,these absolute ends can be maintained only in struggle against man's individualistic ends4 ,conquest through conflict is the law of morals everywhere4 ,in ,kant we find only the beginnings of this political philosophy4 ,he is still held back by the individualism of the eighteenth century4 ,everything legal and political is conceived by him as external and hence outside the strictly moral realm of inner motivation4 ,yet he is not content to leave the ,state and its law as a wholly unmoral matter4 ,the natural motives of man are1 according to ,kant 7evidently following ,hobbes71 love of power1 love of gain1 love of glory4 ,these motives are egoistic2 they issue in strife--in the war of all against all4 ,while such a state of affairs does not and cannot invade the inner realm of duty1 the realm of the moral motive1 it evidently presents a regime in which the conquest of the world of sense by the law of reason cannot be effected4 ,man in his rational or universal capacity must1 therefore1 will an outward order of harmony in which it is at least possible for acts dictated by rational freedom to get a footing4 ,such an outer order is the ,state4 ,its province is not to promote moral freedom directly--only the moral will can do that4 ,but its business is to hinder the hindrances to freedom3 to establish a social condition of outward order in which truly moral acts may gradually evolve a kingdom of humanity4 ,thus while the ,state does not have a directly moral scope of action 7since the coercion of motive is a moral absurdity71 it does have a moral basis and an ultimate moral function4 ,it is the law of reason1 holy and inviolable1 which impels man to the institution of the ,state1 not natural sociability1 much less considerations of expediency4 ,and so necessary is the ,state to humanity's realization of its moral purpose that there can be no right of revolution4 ,the overthrow and execution of the sovereign 7,kant evidently had the ,french ,revolution and ,louis ,,xvi in mind7 is an immortal and inexpiable sin like the sin against the ,holy ,ghost spoken of by theologians1 which can never be forgiven in this world or in the next4 ,kant was enough of a child of the eighteenth century to be cosmopolitan1 not nationalistic1 in his feeling4 ,since humanity as a whole1 in its universality1 alone truly corresponds to the universality of reason1 he upheld the ideal of an ultimate republican federation of states2 he was one of the first to proclaim the possibility of enduring peace among nations on the basis of such a federated union of mankind4 ,the threatened domination of ,europe by ,napoleon following on the wars waged by republican ,france put an end1 however1 to cosmopolitanism4 ,since ,germany was the greatest sufferer from these wars1 and since it was obvious that the lack of national unity1 the division of ,germany into a multitude of petty states1 was the great source of her weakness2 since it was equally obvious that ,prussia1 the one strong and centralized power among the ,german states1 was the only thing which saved them all from national extinction1 subsequent political philosophy in ,germany rescued the idea of the ,state from the somewhat ambiguous moral position in which ,kant had left it4 ,since a state which is an absolute moral necessity and whose actions are nevertheless lacking in inherent moral quality is an anomaly1 the doctrine almost calls for a theory which shall make the ,state the supreme moral entity4 ,fichte marks the beginning of the transformation2 and1 in his writings1 it is easy to detect a marked difference of attitude toward the nationalistic state before and after #ahjf1 when in the battle of ,jena ,germany went down to inglorious defeat4 ,from the time of ,fichte1 the ,german philosophy of the ,state blends with its philosophy of history1 so that my reservation of the latter topic for the next section is somewhat arbitrary1 and ,i shall not try rigidly to maintain the division of themes4 ,i have already mentioned the fact that ,kant relaxes the separation of the moral realm of freedom from the sensuous realm of nature sufficiently to assert that the former is meant to influence the latter and finally to subjugate it4 ,by means of the little crack thus introduced into nature1 ,fichte rewrites the ,kantian philosophy4 ,the world of sense must be regarded from the very start as material which the free1 rational1 moral ,ego has created in order to have material for its own adequate realization of will4 ,fichte had a longing for an absolute unity which did not afflict ,kant1 to whom1 save for the concession just referred to1 a complete separation of the two operations of legislative reason sufficed4 ,fichte was also an ardently active soul1 whose very temperament assured him of the subordination of theoretical knowledge to moral action4 ,it would be as difficult to give1 in short space1 an adequate sketch of ,fichte's philosophy as of ,kant's4 ,to him1 however1 reason was the expression of the will1 not 7as with ,kant7 the will an application of reason to action4 ,im ,anfang war die ,that is good ,fichteanism4 ,while ,kant continued the usual significance of the term ,reason 7with only such modifications as the rationalism of his century had made current71 ,fichte began the transformation which consummated in later ,german idealism4 ,if the world of nature and of human relations is an expression of reason1 then reason must be the sort of thing1 and have the sort of attributes by means of which the world may be construed1 no matter how far away this conception of reason takes us from the usual meaning of the term4 ,to ,fichte the formula which best described such aspects of the world and of life as he was interested in was effort at self-realization through struggle with difficulties and overcoming opposition4 ,hence his formula for reason was a ,will which1 having posited itself1 then posited its antithesis in order1 through further action subjugating this opposite1 to conquer its own freedom4 ,the doctrine of the primacy of the ,deed1 and of the ,duty to achieve freedom through moral self-assertion against obstacles 7which1 after all1 are there only to further this self-assertion7 was one which could1 with more or less plausibility1 be derived from ,kant4 ,more to our present point1 it was a doctrine which could be preached with noble moral fervor in connection with the difficulties and needs of a divided and conquered ,germany4 ,fichte saw himself as the continuator of the work of ,luther and ,kant4 ,his final science of knowledge brought the ,german people alone of the peoples of the world into the possession of the idea and ideal of absolute freedom4 ,hence the peculiar destiny of the ,german scholar and the ,german ,state4 ,it was the duty and mission of ,german science and philosophy to contribute to the cause of the spiritual emancipation of humanity4 ,kant had already taught that the acts of men were to become gradually permeated by a spirit of rationality till there should be an equation of inner freedom of mind and outer freedom of action4 ,fichte's doctrine demanded an acceleration of the process4 ,men who have attained to a consciousness of the absolute freedom and self-activity must necessarily desire to see around them similar free beings4 ,the scholar who is truly a scholar not merely knows1 but he knows the nature of knowledge--its place and function as a manifestation of the ,absolute4 ,hence he is1 in a peculiar sense1 the direct manifestation of ,god in the world--the true priest4 ,and his priestly function consists in bringing other men to recognize moral freedom in its creative operation4 ,such is the dignity of education as conducted by those who have attained true philosophic insight4 ,fichte made a specific application of this idea to his own country and time4 ,the humiliating condition of contemporary ,germany was due to the prevalence of egoism1 selfishness and particularism3 to the fact that men had lowered themselves to the plane of sensuous life4 ,the fall was the worse because the ,germans1 more than any other people1 were by nature and history conscious of the ideal and spiritual principle1 the principle of freedom1 lying at the very basis of all things4 ,the key to the political regeneration of ,germany was to be found in a moral and spiritual regeneration effected by means of education4 ,the key1 amid political division1 to political unity was to be sought in devotion to moral unity4 ,in this spirit ,fichte preached his ,addresses to the ,german ,nation4 ,in this spirit he collaborated in the foundation of the ,university of ,berlin1 and zealously promoted all the educational reforms introduced by ,stein and ,humboldt into ,prussian life4 ,the conception of the ,state as an essential moral ,being charged with an indispensable moral function lay close to these ideas4 ,education is the means of the advancement of humanity toward realization of its divine perfection4 ,education is the work of the ,state4 ,the syllogism completes itself4 ,but in order that the ,state may carry on its educational or moral mission it must not only possess organization and commensurate power1 but it must also control the conditions which secure the possibility offered to the individuals composing it4 ,to adopt ,aristotle's phrase1 men must live before they can live nobly4 ,the primary condition of a secure life is that everyone be able to live by his own labor4 ,without this1 moral self-determination is a mockery4 ,the business of the ,state1 outside of its educational mission1 is concerned with property1 and this business means insuring property to everyone as well as protecting him in what he already possesses4 ,moreover1 property is not mere physical possession4 ,it has a profound moral significance1 for it means the subjugation of physical things to will4 ,it is a necessary part of the realization of moral personality3 the conquest of the non-ego by the ego4 ,since property does not mean mere appropriation1 but is a right recognized and validated by society itself1 property has a social basis and aim4 ,it is an expression not of individual egotism but of the universal will4 ,hence it is essential to the very idea of property and of the ,state that all the members of society have an equal opportunity for property4 ,hence it is the duty of the ,state to secure to its every member the right to work and the reward of his work4 ,the outcome1 as expressed in his essay on ,the ,closed ,industrial ,state1 is ,state ,socialism1 based on moral and idealistic grounds1 not on economic considerations4 ,in order that men may have a real opportunity to develop their moral personalities1 their right to labor and to adequate living1 in return for their labor must be assured4 ,this cannot happen in a competitive society4 ,industry must be completely regulated by the ,state if these indispensable rights to labor and resulting comfort and security of life as means to moral volition are to be achieved4 ,but a state engaged in unrestricted foreign trade will leave its workingmen at the mercy of foreign conditions4 ,it must therefore regulate or even eliminate foreign commerce so far as is necessary to secure its own citizens4 ,the ultimate goal is a universal state as wide as humanity1 and a state in which each individual will act freely1 without state-secured rights and state-imposed obligations4 ,but before this cosmopolitan and philosophically anarchic condition can be reached1 we must pass through a period of the nationalistic closed state4 ,thus at the end a wide gulf separates ,fichte from ,kant4 ,the moral individualism of the latter has become an ethical socialism4 ,only in and by means of a circle of egos or personalities does a human being attain the moral reason and freedom which ,kant bestowed upon him as his birthright4 ,only through the educational activities of the ,state and its complete regulation of the industrial activities of its members does the potential moral freedom of individuals become an established reality4 ,if ,i have devoted so much space to ,fichte it is not because of his direct influence upon affairs or even upon thought4 ,he did not found a school4 ,his system was at once too personal and too formal4 ,nevertheless1 he expressed ideas which1 removed from their special context in his system1 were taken up into the thought of cultivated ,germany4 ,heine1 speaking of the vogue of systems of thought1 says with profound truth that nations have an instinctive presentiment of what they require to fulfill their mission4 ,and ,fichte's thought infiltrated through many crevices4 ,rodbertus and ,lasalle1 the socialists1 were1 for example1 profoundly affected by him4 ,when the latter was prosecuted in a criminal suit for his ,programme of ,workingmen1 his reply was that his programme was a distinctively philosophic utterance1 and hence protected by the constitutional provision for freedom of science and its teaching4 ,and this is his philosophy of the ,state3 ,the ,state is the unity and cooperation of individuals in a moral whole4 4 4 4 ,the ultimate and intrinsic end of the ,state is1 therefore1 to further the positive unfolding1 the progressive development of human life4 ,its function is to work out the true end of man2 that is to say1 the full degree of culture of which human nature is capable4 ,and he quotes with approval the words3 ,the concept of the ,state must be broadened so as to make the ,state the contrivance whereby all human virtue is to be realized to the full4 ,and if he differs from ,fichte1 it is but in the assertion that since the laboring class is the one to whom the need most directly appeals1 it is workingmen who must take the lead in the development of the true functions of the ,state4 ,pantheism is a philosophic nickname which should be sparingly employed2 so also should the term ,monism4 ,to call ,fichte's system an ethical pantheism and monism is not to say much that is enlightening4 ,but with free interpretation the designation may be highly significant in reference to the spiritual temper of the ,germany of the first part of the nineteenth century4 ,for it gives a key to the presentiment of what ,germany needed to fulfill its mission4 ,it is a commonplace of ,german historians that its unity and expansion to a great state powerful externally1 prosperous internally1 was wrought1 unlike that of any other people1 from within outward4 ,in ,lange's words1 our national development started from the most ideal and approximated more and more to the real4 ,hegel and ,heine agree that in ,germany the ,french ,revolution and the ,napoleonic career were paralleled by a philosophic revolution and an intellectual empire4 ,you recall the bitter word that1 when ,napoleon was finally conquered and ,europe partitioned1 to ,germany was assigned the kingdom of the clouds4 ,but this aerial and tenuous kingdom became a mighty power1 working with and in the statesmen of ,prussia and the scholars of ,germany to found a kingdom on the solid earth4 ,spiritual and ideal ,germany made common cause with realistic and practical ,prussia4 ,as says ,von ,sybel1 the historian of the ,founding of the ,german ,empire3 ,germany had been ruined through its own disintegration and had dragged ,prussia with it into the abyss4 ,it was well known that the wild fancies of the ,conqueror hovered about the utter annihilation of ,prussia2 if this should take place1 then east as well as west of the ,elbe1 not only political independence1 but every trace of a ,german spirit1 the ,german language and customs1 ,german art and learning--everything would be wiped out by the foreigners4 ,but this fatal danger was perceived just at the time when everybody had been looking up to ,kant and ,schiller1 had been admiring ,faust1 the world-embracing masterpiece of ,goethe's1 and had recognized that ,alexander von ,humboldt's cosmological studies and ,niebuhr's ,roman ,history had created a new era in ,european science and learning4 ,in such intellectual attainments the ,germans felt that they were far superior to the vanquisher of the world and his great nation2 and so the political interests of ,prussia and the salvation of the ,german nationality exactly coincided4 ,schleiermacher's patriotic sermons1 ,fichte's stirring addresses to the ,german people1 ,humboldt's glorious founding of the ,berlin ,university1 served to augment the resisting power of ,prussia1 while ,scharnhorst's recruits and militia were devoted to the defense of ,german honor and ,german customs4 ,everyone felt that ,german nationality was lost if ,prussia did not come to its rescue1 and that1 too1 there was no safety possible for ,prussia unless all ,germany was free4 ,what a remarkable providence it was that brought together1 as in the ,middle ,ages1 on this ancient colonial ground1 a throng of the most energetic men from all districts of ,germany4 ,for neither ,stein nor his follower1 ,hardenberg1 nor the generals ,scharnhorst1 ,bluecher and ,gneisenau1 nor the authors1 ,niebuhr1 ,fichte and ,k4 ,f4 ,eichorn1 nor many others who might be mentioned1 were born in ,prussia2 yet because their thoughts centered in ,germany1 they had become loyal ,prussians4 ,the name ,germany had been blotted from the political map of ,europe1 but never had so many hearts thrilled at the thought of being ,german4 ,thus on the most eastern frontier of ,german life1 in the midst of troubles which seemed hopeless1 the idea of ,german unity1 which had lain dormant for centuries1 now sprang up in a new birth4 ,at first this idea was held exclusively by the great men of the times and remained the invaluable possession of the cultivated classes2 but once started it spread far and wide among the younger generation4 4 4 4 ,but it was easier to defeat the mighty ,napoleon than to bend the ,german sentiments of dualism and individualism to the spirit of national unity4 ,what ,i have called the ethical pantheism and monistic idealism of ,fichte 7a type of philosophy reigning almost unchallenged in ,germany till almost the middle of the century7 was an effective weapon in fighting and winning this more difficult battle4 ,in his volume on the ,romantic ,school in ,germany1 ,brandes quotes from the diary of ,hoffman a passage written in #ahji4 ,seized by a strange fancy at the ball on the #fth1 ,i imagine myself looking at my own ,ego through a kaleidoscope4 ,all the forms moving around me are ,egos and annoy me by what they do and leave undone4 ,it is a temptation to find in this passage a symbol both of ,german philosophy and of the temper of ,germany at the time4 ,its outer defeats1 its weakness in the world of action1 had developed an exasperated introspection4 ,this outer weakness1 coinciding1 as ,von ,sybel points out1 with the bloom of ,germany in art1 philosophy1 history1 philology and philosophy1 made the ,ego of ,germany the noblest contemporary object of contemplation1 yet one surrounded with other national ,egos who offended by what they did and what they did not do4 ,patriotism1 national feeling1 national consciousness are common enough facts4 ,but nowhere save in ,germany1 in the earlier nineteenth century1 have these sentiments and impulses been transformed by deliberate nurture into a mystic cult4 ,this was the time when the idea of the ,volks-seele1 the ,volks-geist1 was born2 and the idea lost no time in becoming a fact4 ,not merely poetry was affected by it1 but philology1 history and jurisprudence4 ,the so-called historic school is its offspring4 ,the science of social psychology derives from it at one remove4 ,the soul1 however1 needed a body1 and 7quite in accord with ,german idealism7 it formed a body for itself--the ,german ,state as a unified ,empire4 ,while the idealistic period came first1 it is important to bear in mind the kind of idealism it was4 ,at this point the pantheistic allusion becomes significant4 ,the idealism in question was not an idealism of another world but of this world1 and especially of the ,state4 ,the embodiment of the divine and absolute will and ideal is the existing world of nature and of men4 ,especially is the human ego the authorized and creative agent of absolute purpose4 ,the significance of ,german philosophy was precisely to make men aware of their nature and destiny as the direct and active representatives of absolute and creative purpose4 ,if ,i again quote ,heine1 it is because1 with his contempt for technical philosophy1 he had an intimate sense of its human meaning4 ,of ,german pantheistic idealism1 he wrote in #ahcc while it was still in its prime3 ,god is identical with the world4 4 4 4 ,but he manifests himself most gloriously in man1 who feels and thinks at the same time1 who is capable of distinguishing his own individuality from objective nature1 whose intellect already bears within itself the ideas that present themselves to him in the phenomenal world4 ,in man ,deity reaches self-consciousness1 and this self-consciousness ,god again reveals through man4 ,but this revelation does not take place in and through individual man1 but in and through collective humanity 4 4 4 which comprehends and represents in idea and in reality the whole ,god-universe4 4 4 4 ,it is an error to suppose that this religion leads men to indifference4 ,on the contrary1 the consciousness of his divinity will inspire man with enthusiasm for its manifestation1 and from this moment the really noble achievements of true heroism glorify the earth4 ,in one respect1 ,heine was a false prophet4 ,he thought that this philosophy would in the end accrue to the profit of the radical1 the republican and revolutionary party in ,germany4 ,the history of ,german liberalism is a complicated matter4 ,suffice it in general to say that the honey the libertarians hived was appropriated in the end by the party of authority4 ,in ,heine's assurance that these ideas would in due time issue in action he was profoundly right4 ,his essay closes with burning words1 from which ,i extract the following3 ,it seems to me that a methodical people1 such as we1 must begin with the reformation1 must then occupy ourselves with systems of philosophy1 and only after their completion pass to the political revolution4 4 4 4 ,then will appear ,kantians1 as little tolerant of piety in the world of deeds as in the world of ideas1 who will mercilessly upturn with sword and axe the soil of our ,european life to extirpate the last remnants of the past4 ,then will come upon the scene armed ,fichteans1 whose fanaticism of will is to be restrained neither by fear nor self-interest1 for they live in the spirit4 4 4 4 ,most of all to be feared would be the philosophers of nature1#hd3;,a were they actively to mingle4 4 4 4 ,for if the hand of the ,kantian strikes with strong unerring blow2 if the ,fichtean courageously defies every danger1 since for him danger has in reality no existence2--the ,philosopher of ,nature will be terrible in that he has allied himself with the primitive powers of nature1 in that he can conjure up the demoniac forces of old ,german pantheism2 and having done so1 aroused in him that ancient ,germanic eagerness which combats for the joy of the combat itself4 4 4 4 ,smile not at my counsel as at the counsel of a dreamer4 4 4 4 ,the thought precedes the deed as the lightning the thunder4 4 4 4 ,the hour will come4 ,as on the steps of an amphitheater1 the nations will group themselves around ,germany to witness the terrible combat4 #hd3;,a ,he refers to the followers of ,schelling1 who as matter of fact had little vogue4 ,but his words may not unjustly be transferred to the naturalistic schools1 which have since affected ,german thought4 ,in my preoccupation with ,heine1 ,i seem to have wandered somewhat from our immediate topic3 the connection of the idealistic philosophy with the development and organization of the national state of ,germany4 ,but the necessity of the organized ,state to care for the moral interests of mankind was an inherent part of ,fichte's thought4 ,at first1 what state was a matter of indifference4 ,in fact his sympathies were largely ,french and republican4 ,before ,jena1 he writes3 ,what is the nation for a truly civilized ,christian ,european8 ,in a general way1 ,europe itself4 ,more particularly at any time the ,state which is at the head of civilization4 4 4 4 ,with this cosmopolitan sense1 we can be tranquil before the vicissitudes and catastrophes of history4 ,in #ahjg he writes3 ,the distinction between ,prussia and the rest of ,germany is external1 arbitrary and fortuitous4 ,the distinction between ,germany and the rest of ,europe is founded in nature4 ,the seeming gulf between the two ideas is easily bridged4 ,the ,addresses on the ,fundamental ,features of the ,present ,age had taught that the end of humanity on earth is the establishment of a kingdom in which all relations of humanity are determined with freedom or according to ,reason--according to ,reason as conceived by the ,fichtean formula4 ,in his ,addresses to the ,german ,nation1 in #ahjg-jh1 the unique mission of ,germany in the establishment of this kingdom is urged as a motive for securing national unity and the overthrow of the conqueror4 ,the ,germans are the sole people who recognize the principles of spiritual freedom1 of freedom won by action in accord with reason4 ,faithfulness to this mission will elevate the ,german name to that of the most glorious among all the peoples1 making this ,nation the regenerator and restorer of the world4 ,he personifies their ancestors speaking to them1 and saying3 ,we in our time saved ,germany from the ,roman ,world ,empire4 ,but yours is the greater fortune4 ,you may establish once for all the ,kingdom of the ,spirit and of ,reason1 bringing to naught corporeal might as the ruling thing in the world4 ,and this antithesis of the ,germanic and the ,roman principles has become a commonplace in the ,german imagination4 ,moreover1 for ,germany to win is no selfish gain4 ,it is an advantage to all nations4 ,the great promise of a kingdom of right reason and truth on earth must not become a vain and empty phantom2 the present iron age is but a transition to a better estate4 ,hence the concluding words3 ,there is no middle road3 ,if you sink1 so sinks humanity entire with you1 without hope of future restoration4 ,the premises of the historic syllogism are plain4 ,first1 the ,german ,luther who saved for mankind the principle of spiritual freedom against ,latin externalism2 then ,kant and ,fichte1 who wrought out the principle into a final philosophy of science1 morals and the ,state2 as conclusion1 the ,german nation organized in order to win the world to recognition of the principle1 and thereby to establish the rule of freedom and science in humanity as a whole4 ,the ,germans are patient2 they have a long memory4 ,ideas produced when ,germany was divided and broken were retained and cherished after it became a unified ,state of supreme military power1 and one yielding to no other people in industrial and commercial prosperity4 ,in the grosser sense of the words1 ,germany has not held that might makes right4 ,but it has been instructed by a long line of philosophers that it is the business of ideal right to gather might to itself in order that it may cease to be merely ideal4 ,the ,state represents exactly this incarnation of ideal law and right in effective might4 ,the military arm is part of this moral embodiment4 ,let sentimentalists sing the praises of an ideal to which no actual force corresponds4 ,prussian faith in the reality and enforcement among men of the ideal is of a more solid character4 ,as past history is the record of the gradual realization in the ,germanic ,state of the divine idea1 future history must uphold and expand what has been accomplished4 ,diplomacy is the veiled display of law clothed with force in behalf of this realization1 and war is its overt manifestation4 ,that war demands self-sacrifice is but the more convincing proof of its profound morality4 ,it is the final seal of devotion to the extension of the kingdom of the ,absolute on earth4 ,for the philosophy stands or falls with the conception of an ,absolute4 ,whether a philosophy of absolutes is theoretically sound or unsound is none of my present concern4 ,but that philosophical absolutism may be practically as dangerous as matter of fact political absolutism history testifies4 ,the situation puts in relief what finally is at issue between a theory which is pinned to a belief in an ,absolute beyond history and behind experience1 and one which is frankly experimental4 ,for any philosophy which is not consistently experimental will always traffic in absolutes no matter in how disguised a form4 ,in ,german political philosophy1 the traffic is without mask4 ,,iii ,,the ,,germanic ,,philosophy ,,of ,,history ,the unity of the ,german people longed for and dreamed of after #ahjg became an established fact through the war of #ahgj with ,france4 ,it is easy to assign symbolic significance to this fact4 ,ever since the time of the ,french ,revolution--if not before--,german thought has taken shape in conflict with ideas that were characteristically ,french and in sharp and conscious antithesis to them4 ,rousseau's deification of ,nature was the occasion for the development of the conception of ,culture4 ,his condemnation of science and art as socially corrupting and socially divisive worked across the ,rhine to produce the notion that science and art are the forces which moralize and unify humanity4 ,the cosmopolitanism of the ,french ,enlightenment was transformed by ,german thinkers into a self-conscious assertion of nationalism4 ,the abstract ,rights of ,man of the ,french ,revolution were set in antithesis to the principle of the rights of the citizen secured to him solely by the power of the politically organized nation4 ,the deliberate breach of the revolutionary philosophy with the past1 the attempt 7foreshadowed in the philosophy of ,descartes7 to make a tabula rasa of the fortuitous assemblage of traditions and institutions which history offers1 in order to substitute a social structure built upon ,reason1 was envisaged as the fons et origo of all evil4 ,that history is itself incarnate reason2 that history is infinitely more rational than the formal abstracting and generalizing reason of individuals2 that individual mind becomes rational only through the absorption and assimilation of the universal reason embodied in historic institutions and historic development1 became the articles of faith of the ,german intellectual creed4 ,it is hardly an exaggeration to say that for almost a century the characteristic philosophy of ,germany has been a philosophy of history even when not such in apparent form4 ,yet the meaning of this appeal to history is lost unless we bear in mind that the ,enlightenment after all transmitted to ,germany1 from medieval thought1 its foundation principle4 ,the appeal was not from reason to experience1 but from analytic thought 7henceforth condemned to be merely ,understanding--,verstand7 to an absolute and universal ,reason 7,vernunft7 partially revealed in nature and more adequately manifested in human history as an organic process4 ,recourse to history was required because not of any empirical lessons it has to teach1 nor yet because history bequeathes to us stubborn institutions which must be reckoned with1 but because history is the dynamic and evolving realization of immanent reason4 ,the contrast of the ,german attitude with that of ,edmund ,burke is instructive4 ,the latter had the same profound hostility to cutting loose from the past4 ,but his objection was not that the past is an embodiment of transcendent reason1 but that its institutions are an inheritance bequeathed to us from the collected wisdom of our forefathers4 ,the continuity of political life centers not about an inner evolving ,idea1 but about our hearths1 our sepulchers and our altars4 ,he has the same suspicion of abstract rights of man4 ,but his appeal is to experience and to practical consequences4 ,since circumstances give in reality to every principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect1 there is no soundness in any principle when it stands stripped of every relation in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction4 ,according to the ,german view1 the ,english protested because of interference with empirically established rights and privileges2 the ,germans1 because they perceived in the ,revolution a radical error as to the nature and work of reason4 ,in point of fact1 the ,germans never made that break with tradition1 political or religious1 of which the ,french ,revolution is an emphatic symbol4 ,i have already referred to ,kant's disposition to regard church dogmas 7of which1 as dogmas1 he disapproved7 as vehicles of eternal spiritual truths--husks to preserve an inner grain4 ,all of the great ,german idealists gave further expression to this disposition4 ,to ,hegel1 for example1 the substance of the doctrines of ,protestant ,christianity is identical with the truths of absolute philosophy1 except that in religion they are expressed in a form not adequate to their meaning1 the form1 namely1 of imaginative thought in which most men live4 ,the disposition to philosophize ,christianity is too widely shown in ,germany to be dismissed as a cowardly desire at accommodation with things established4 ,it shows rather an intellectual piety among a people where freedom of thought and conscience had been achieved without a violent political upheaval4 ,hegel finds that the characteristic weakness of ,romance thought was an inner split1 an inability to reconcile the spiritual and absolute essence of reality with which religion deals with the detailed work of intelligence in science and politics4 ,the ,germans1 on the contrary1 were predestined to be the bearers of the ,christian principle and to carry out the ,idea as the absolutely ,rational end4 ,they accomplished this1 not by a flight away from the secular world1 but by realizing that the ,christian principle is in itself that of the unity of the subjective and the objective1 the spiritual and the worldly4 ,the spirit finds the goal of its struggle1 its harmony1 in that very sphere which it made the object of its resistance1--it finds that secular pursuits are a spiritual occupation2--a discovery1 surely1 which unites simplicity with comprehensiveness and one which does not lead to criticism of the secular pursuits carried on4 ,whatever is to be said of this as philosophy1 it expresses1 in a way1 the quality of ,german life and thought4 ,more than other countries1 ,germany has had the fortune to preserve as food for its imaginative life and as emotional sanction the great ideas of the past4 ,it has carried over their reinforcement into the pursuit of science and into politics--into the very things which in other countries1 notably in the ,latin countries1 have been used as weapons of attack upon tradition4 ,political development tells a somewhat similar tale4 ,the painful transition from feudalism to the modern era was1 for the most part1 accomplished recently in ,germany1 and accomplished under the guidance of established political authorities instead of by revolt against them4 ,under their supervision1 and mainly at their initiative1 ,germany has passed in less than a century to the regime of modern capitalistic competitive enterprise1 moderated by the ,state1 out of the dominion of those local and guild restrictions which so long held economic activity in corporate bonds4 ,the governing powers themselves secured to members of the ,state what seems1 at least to ,germans1 to be a satisfying degree of political freedom4 ,along with this absence of internal disturbance and revolution1 we must put the fact that every step in the development of ,germany as a unified political power has been effected by war with some of the neighbors by which it is hemmed in4 ,there stands the unfolding sequence3 #ahae 7not to go back to ,frederick the ,great71 #ahfd1 #ahff1 #ahgj4 ,and the significant thing about these wars is not that external territory was annexed as their consequence1 but the rebound of external struggle upon the achieving of internal unity4 ,no wonder the ,german imagination has been impressed with the idea of an organic evolution from within1 which takes the form of a unity achieved through conflict and the conquest of an opposing principle4 ,such scattering comments as these prove nothing4 ,but they suggest why ,german thought has been peculiarly sensitive to the idea of historic continuity2 why it has been prone to seek for an original implicit essence which has progressively unfolded itself in a single development4 ,it would take much more than an hour to give even a superficial account of the growth of the historical sciences and historic methods of ,germany during the first half of the eighteenth century4 ,it would involve an account of the creation of philology1 and the philological methods which go by the name of higher criticism2 of their extension to archeology2 of the historic schools of jurisprudence and political economy1 as well as of the ways in which such men as ,niebuhr1 ,mommsen and ,ranke remade the methods of studying the past4 ,i can only say here that ,germany developed such an effective historical technique that even mediocre men achieved respectable results2 and1 much more significantly1 that when ,taine made the remark 7quoted earlier7 that we owe to the ,germany of the half century before #ahcj all our distinctively modern ideas1 his remarks apply above all to the disciplines concerned with the historical development of mankind4 ,the bases of this philosophy are already before us4 ,even in ,kant we find the idea of a single continuous development of humanity1 as a progress from a reign of natural instinct to a final freedom won through adherence to the law of reason4 ,fichte sketched the stages already traversed on this road and located the point at which mankind now stands4 ,in his later writings1 the significance of history as the realization of the absolute purpose is increasingly emphasized4 ,history is the continuous life of a divine ,ego by which it realizes in fact what it is in idea or destiny4 ,its phases are successive stages in the founding of the ,kingdom of ,god on earth4 ,it and it only is the revelation of the ,absolute4 ,along with this growing deification of history is the increased significance attached to nationalism in general and the ,german nation in particular4 ,the ,state is the concrete individual interposed between generic humanity and particular beings4 ,in his words1 the national folk is the channel of divine life as it pours into particular finite human beings4 ,he says3 ,while cosmopolitanism is the dominant will that the purpose of the existence of humanity be actually realized in humanity1 patriotism is the will that this end be first realized in the particular nation to which we ourselves belong1 and that this achievement thence spread over the entire race4 ,since the ,state is an organ of divinity1 patriotism is religion4 ,as the ,germans are the only truly religious people1 they alone are truly capable of patriotism4 ,other peoples are products of external causes2 they have no self-formed ,self1 but only an acquired self due to general convention4 ,in ,germany there is a self which is self-wrought and self-owned4 ,the very fact that ,germany for centuries has had no external unity proves that its selfhood is metaphysical1 not a gift of circumstance4 ,this conception of the ,german mission has been combined with a kind of anthropological metaphysics which has become the rage in ,germany4 ,the ,germans alone of all existing ,european nations are a pure race4 ,they alone have preserved unalloyed the original divine deposit4 ,language is the expression of the national soul1 and only the ,germans have kept their native speech in its purity4 ,in like vein1 ,hegel attributes the inner disharmony characteristic of ,romance peoples to the fact that they are of mixed ,germanic and ,latin blood4 ,a purely artificial cult of race has so flourished in ,germany that many social movements--like anti-,semitism--and some of ,germany's political ambitions cannot be understood apart from the mystic identification of ,race1 ,culture and the ,state4 ,in the light of actual science1 this is so mythological that the remark of an ,american periodical that race means a number of people reading the same newspapers is sober scientific fact compared with it4#aja3;,a #aja3;,a ,chamberlain1 for example1 holds that ,jesus must have been of ,teutonic birth--a perfect logical conclusion from the received philosophy of the ,state and religion4 ,quite aware that there is much ,slav blood in northern ,germany and ,romance blood in southern ,germany1 he explains that while with other peoples crossing produces a mongrel race1 the potency of the ,german blood is such that cross-breeding strengthens it4 ,while at one time he explains the historic strength of the ,jew on the ground that he has kept his race pure1 another place he allows his indignation at the ,jews to lead him to include them among the most mongrel of all peoples4 ,to one thing he remains consistent3 ,by the very essence of race1 the ,semites represent a metaphysical principle inherently hostile to the grand ,germanic principle4 ,it perhaps seems absurd to dignify the vagaries of this garrulous writer1 but according to all report the volumes in which such expressions occur1 ,the ,foundations of the ,nineteenth ,century1 has had august approval and much vogue4 ,at the beginning of history ,fichte placed an ,urvolk4 ,his account of it seems an attempt to rationalize at one stroke the legends of the ,golden ,age1 the ,biblical account of man before the ,fall and ,rousseau's primitive state of nature4 ,the ,urvolk lived in a paradise of innocence1 a paradise without knowledge1 labor or art4 ,the philosophy which demands such a ,folk is comparatively simple4 ,except as a manifestation of ,absolute ,reason1 humanity could not exist at all4 ,yet in the first stage of the manifestation1 ,reason could not have been appropriated by the self-conscious effort of man4 ,it existed without consciousness of itself1 for it was given1 not1 like all true self-consciousness1 won by morally creative struggle4 ,rational in substance1 in form it was but feeling or instinct4 ,in a sense1 all subsequent history is but a return to this primitive condition4 ,but humanity must make the journey on its own feet2 by its own strength it must bring itself back to that state in which it was once without its own cooperating labor4 4 4 4 ,if humanity does not recreate its own true being1 it has no real life4 ,while philosophy compels us to assume a ,normal ,people who1 by the mere fact of their existence1 without science and art1 found themselves in a state of perfectly developed reason1 there is no ground for not admitting the existence at the same time of timid and rude earth-born savages4 ,thus the original state of humanity would have been one of the greatest possible inequality1 being divided between the ,normal ,folk existing as a manifestation of ,reason and the wild and savage races of barbarism4 ,in his later period of inflamed patriotism this innocuous speculation grew a sting4 ,he had determined that the present age--the ,europe of the ,enlightenment and the ,french ,revolution--is the age of liberation from the external authority in which ,reason had presented itself in the second age4 ,hence it is inherently negative3 an age of absolute indifference toward the ,truth1 an age of entire and unrestrained licentiousness4 ,but the further evolution of the ,divine ,idea demands a ,folk which has retained the primitive principle of ,reason1 which may redeem1 therefore1 the corrupt and rebellious modes of humanity elsewhere existing4 ,since the ,germans are this saving remnant1 they are the ,urvolk1 the ,normal ,nation1 of the modern period4 ,from this point on1 idealization of past ,germanic history and appeal to the nation to realize its unique calling by victory over ,napoleon blend4 ,the ,fichtean scaffolding tumbled1 but these ideas persisted4 ,i doubt if it is possible to exaggerate the extent to which ,german history has been systematically idealized for the last hundred years4 ,technically speaking1 the ,romantic movement may have passed away and an age of scientific history dawned4 ,actually the detailed facts have been depicted by use of the palette of ,romanticism4 ,space permits but one illustration which would be but a literary curiosity were it not fairly typical4 ,tacitus called his account of the northern barbarians ,germania--an unfortunate title in view of later developments4 ,the characteristics assigned by him to the ,german tribes are such as any anthropologist could duplicate from any warlike barbaric tribe4 ,yet over and over again these traits 7which ,tacitus idealized as ,cooper1 say1 idealized the ,north ,american ,indian traits7 are made the basis of the philosophic history of the ,german people4 ,the ,germans1 for example1 had that psychological experience now known as mana1 manitou1 tabu1 etc4 ,they identified their gods1 in ,tacitus' phrase1 with that mystery which they perceive by experiencing sacred fear4 ,this turns out to be the germinal deposit of spiritual-mindedness which later showed itself in ,luther and in the peculiar genius of the ,germans for religious experience4 ,the following words are from no less an authority than ,pfleiderer3 ,cannot we recognize in this point that truly ,german characteristic of ,innerlichkeit which scorns to fix for sensuous perception the divine something which makes itself felt in the depths of the sensitive soul1 which scorns to drag down the sublime mystery of the unknowable to the vulgar distinctness of earthly things8 ,the fact that the ,germans attached but little importance to religious ceremonies accords with this view4 ,to others1 this sense of mystery is a prophetic anticipation of the ,kantian thing-in-itself4 ,a similar treatment has been accorded to the personal and voluntary bond by which individuals attached themselves to a chieftain4 ,thus early was marked out the fidelity or loyalty1 ,treue1 which is uniquely ,germanic--although some warlike tribes among our ,indians carried the system still further4 ,i can allow myself but one more example of the way in which the philosophic sophistication of history has worked4 ,no historian can be unconscious of the extent to which ,european culture has been genuinely ,european--the extent to which it derives itself from a common heritage of the ancient world and the extent to which intermixtures and borrowings of culture have gone on ever since4 ,as to ,germany1 however1 these obvious facts have to be accommodated to the doctrine of an original racial deposit steadily evolving from within4 ,the method is simple4 ,as respects ,germany1 these cultural borrowings and crosses represent the intrinsic universality of its genius4 ,through this universality1 the ,german spirit finds itself at home everywhere4 ,consequently1 it consciously appropriates and assimilates what other peoples have produced by a kind of blind unconscious instinct4 ,thus it was ,german thought which revealed the truth of ,hellenic culture1 and rescued essential ,christianity from its ,romanized petrifaction4 ,the principle of ,reason which ,french enlightenment laid hold of only in its negative and destructive aspect1 the ,german spirit grasped in its positive and constructive form4 ,shakespeare happened to be born in ,england1 but only the ,germans have apprehended him in his spiritual universality so that he is now more his own than he is ,england's--and so on4 ,but with respect to other peoples1 similar borrowings reveal only their lack of inner and essential selfhood4 ,while ,luther is universal because he is ,german1 ,shakespeare is universal because he is not ,english4 ,i have intimated that ,fichte's actual influence was limited4 ,but his basic ideas of the ,state and of history were absorbed in the philosophy of ,hegel1 and ,hegel for a considerable period absolutely dominated ,german thinking4 ,to set forth the ground principles of his absolute idealism would be only to repeat what has already been said4 ,its chief difference1 aside from ,hegel's encyclopedic knowledge1 his greater concrete historic interest and his more conservative temperament1 is his bottomless scorn for an ,idea1 an ,absolute1 which merely ought to be and which is only going to be realized after a period of time4 ,the ,actual is the ,rational and the ,rational is the ,actual--and the actual means the actuating force and movement of things4 ,it is customary to call him an ,idealist4 ,in one sense of much abused terms1 he is the greatest realist known to philosophy4 ,he might be called a ,brutalist4 ,in the inquiry ,bourdon carried on in ,germany a few years ago 7published under the title of the ,german ,enigma71 he records a conversation with a ,german who deplores the tendency of the ,germans to forsake the solid bone of things in behalf of a romantic shadow4 ,as against this he appeals to the realistic sense of ,hegel1 who1 in opposition to the idealism which had lifted ,germany on wings1 arrayed and marshaled the maxims of an unflinching realism4 ,he had formulae for the justification of facts whatever they might be4 ,that which is1 he would say1 is reason realized4 ,and what did he teach8 ,that the hour has sounded for the third act in the drama of humanity1 and that the ,german opportunity is not far off4 4 4 4 ,i could show you throughout the nineteenth century the torrent of political and social ideas which had their source here4 ,i have said that the essential points of the ,fichtean philosophy of history were taken up into the ,hegelian system4 ,this assimilation involved1 however1 a rectification of an inconsistency between the earlier and the later moral theories of ,fichte4 ,in his earlier ethical writings1 emphasis fell upon conscious moral personality--upon the deliberate identification by the individual will of its career and destiny with the purpose of the ,absolute4 ,in his later patriotic philosophy1 he asserts that the organized nation is the channel by which a finite ego acquires moral personality1 since the nation alone transmits to individuals the generic principle of ,god working in humanity4 ,at the same time he appeals to the resolute will and consciously chosen self-sacrifice of individuals to overthrow the enemy and re-establish the ,prussian state4 ,when ,hegel writes that victory has been obtained1 the war of ,independence has been successfully waged4 ,the necessity of emphasizing individual self-assertion had given way to the need of subordinating the individual to the established state in order to check the disintegrating tendencies of liberalism4 ,haym has said that ,hegel's ,philosophy of ,law had for its task the exhibition as the perfect work of ,absolute ,reason up to date of the practical and political condition existing in ,prussia in #ahba4 ,this was meant as a hostile attack4 ,but ,hegel himself should have been the last to object4 ,with his scorn for an ,ideal so impotent that its realization must depend upon the effort of private selves1 an ,absolute so inconsequential that it must wait upon the accidents of future time for manifestation1 he sticks in politics more than elsewhere to the conviction that the actual is the rational4 ,the task of philosophy is to comprehend that which is1 for that which is1 is ,reason4 ,alleged philosophies which try to tell what the ,state should be or even what a state ought in the future to come to be1 are idle fantasies4 ,such attempts come too late4 ,human wisdom is like the bird of ,minerva which takes its flight only at the close of day4#aaj3;,a ,it comes1 after the issue1 to acknowledge what has happened4 ,the ,state is the rational in itself and for itself4 ,its substantial unity is an absolute end in itself4 ,to it belongs supreme right in respect to individuals whose first duty is--just to be members of the ,state4 4 4 4 ,the ,state is the absolute reality and the individual himself has objective existence1 truth and morality only in his capacity as a member of the ,state4 ,it is a commonplace of idealistic theism that nature is a manifestation of ,god4 ,but ,hegel says that nature is only an externalized1 unconscious and so incomplete expression4 ,the ,state has more1 not less1 objective reality than physical nature1 for it is a realization of ,absolute spirit in the realm of consciousness4 ,the doctrine presents an extreme form of the idea1 not of the divine right of kings1 but of the divine right of ,states4 ,the march of ,god in history is the cause of the existence of states2 their foundation is the power of reason realizing itself as will4 ,every state1 whatever it be1 participates in the divine essence4 ,the ,state is not the work of human art2 only ,reason could produce it4 ,the ,state is ,god on earth4 #aaj3;,a ,marx said of the historic schools of politics1 law and economics that to them1 as ,jehovah to ,moses on ,mt4 ,sinai1 the divine showed but its posterior side4 ,his depreciation of the individual as an individual appears in every theme of his ,philosophy of ,right and ,history4 ,at first sight1 his theory of great world heroes seems inconsistent with his disregard of individuals4 ,while the morality of most men consists simply in assimilating into their own habits the customs already found in the institutions about them1 great men initiate new historic epochs4 ,they derive their purposes and their calling not from the calm regular course of things sanctioned by the existing order1 but from a concealed fount1 from that inner spirit hidden beneath the surface1 which1 striking the outer world as a shell1 bursts it to pieces4 ,the heroes are thus the exception which proves the rule4 ,they are world characters2 while they seem to be seeking personal interests they are really acting as organs of a universal will1 of ,god in his further march4 ,in his identification with the ,absolute1 the world-hero can have but one aim to which he is devoted regardless of all else4 ,such men may even treat other great and sacred interests inconsiderately4 4 4 4 ,but so mighty a form must trample down many an innocent flower--crush to pieces many an object in its path4 ,we are not surprised to see that ,alexander1 ,caesar and ,napoleon are the characters he prefers to cite4 ,one can only regret that he died before his contemplative piety could behold ,bismarck4 ,a large part of the intellectual machinery by which ,hegel overcame the remnants of individualism found in prior philosophy came from the idea of organic development which had been active in ,german thought since the time of ,herder4 ,in his chief work 7,ideas for a ,philosophy of the ,history of ,humanity71 written in the closing decades of the eighteenth century1 ,herder holds that history is a progressive education of humanity4 ,this idea1 had from ,lessing1 is combined with the idea of ,leibniz that change is evolution1 by means of an internal force1 of powers originally implicit in existence1 and with the idea of ,spinoza of an all-comprehensive substance4 ,this idea of organic growth was then applied to language1 literature and institutions4 ,it soon obtained reinforcement from the rising science of biology4 ,long before the days of ,darwin or ,spencer1 the idea of evolution had been a commonplace of ,german thought with respect to everything concerning the history of humanity4 ,the notion was set in sharp antithesis to the conception of making or manufacturing institutions and constitutions1 which was treated as one of the fallacies of the ,french philosophy of the ,enlightenment4 ,a combination of this notion of universal organic growth with the technique of prior idealism may fairly be said to have determined ,hegel's whole philosophy4 ,while ,leibniz and ,herder had emphasized the notion of harmony as an essential factor of the working of organic forces1 ,hegel took from ,fichte the notion of a unity or synthesis arrived at by positing1 and overcoming an opposite4 ,struggle for existence 7or realization7 was thus an organic part of ,german thinking long before the teaching of ,darwin1 who1 in fact1 is usually treated by ,german writers as giving a rather superficial empirical expression to an idea which they had already grasped in its universal speculative form4 ,it is characteristic of the extent in which ,hegel thought in terms of struggle and overcoming that after stating why it was as yet impossible to include the ,americas in his philosophy of history1 and after saying that in the future the burden of world history will reveal itself there1 he surmises that it may take the form of a contest between ,north and ,south ,america4 ,no philosopher has ever thought so consistently and so wholly in terms of strife and overcoming as ,hegel4 ,when he says the world history is the world judgment he means judgment in the sense of assize1 and judgment as victory of one and defeat of another--victory being the final proof that the world spirit has now passed from one nation to take up its residence in another4 ,to be defeated in a way which causes the nation to take a secondary position among nations is a sign that divine judgment has been passed upon it4 ,when a recent ,german writer argues that for ,germany to surrender any territory which it has conquered during the present war would be sacrilegious1 since it would be to refuse to acknowledge the workings of ,god in human history1 he speaks quite in the ,hegelian vein4 ,although the phenomenon of nationalism was very recent when ,hegel wrote1 indeed practically contemporary with his own day1 he writes in nationalistic terms the entire history of humanity4 ,the ,state is the ,individual of history3 it is to history what a given man is to biography4 ,history gives us the progressive realization or evolution of the ,absolute1 moving from one ,national ,individual to another4 ,it is law1 the universal1 which makes the ,state a ,state1 for law is reason1 not as mere subjective reflection1 but in its manifestation as supreme over and in particulars4 ,on this account1 ,hegel's statement that the fundamental principle of history is the progressive realization of freedom does not mean what an uninstructed ,english reader would naturally take it to mean4 ,freedom is always understood in terms of ,reason4 ,its expression in history means that ,thought has progressively become conscious of itself2 that is1 has made itself its own object4 ,freedom is the consciousness of freedom4 ,liberty of action has little to do with it4 ,obviously it is only in the ,german idealistic system--particularly in the system of ,hegel himself--that this has fully taken place4 ,meantime1 when citizens of a state 7especially of the state in which this philosophic insight has been achieved7 take the laws of their state as their own ends and motives of action1 they attain the best possible substitute for a reason which is its own object4 ,they appropriate as their own personal reason the objective and absolute ,reason embodied perforce in law and custom4 ,after this detour1 we are led back to the fact that the ,germans possess the greatest freedom yet attained by humanity1 for the ,prussian political organization most fully exemplifies ,law1 or the ,universal1 organizing under and within itself all particular arrangements of social and personal life4 ,some other peoples--particularly the ,latin--have thought they could make constitutions1 or at least that the form of their constitution was a matter of choice4 ,but this is merely setting up the private conceit of individuals against the work of ,absolute ,reason1 and thus marks the disintegration of a state rather than its existence4 ,other peoples have tried to found the government on the consent of the governed1 unwitting of the fact that it is the government1 the specific realization of ,reason1 which makes a state out of what is otherwise an anarchic mass of individuals4 ,other peoples have made a parliament or representative body the essential thing in government2 in philosophic reality this is only a consultative body1 having as its main function communication between classes 7which are indispensable to an organic state7 and the real government4 ,the chief function of parliament is to give the opinion of the social classes an opportunity to feel it is being considered and to enable the real government to take advantage of whatever wisdom may chance to be expressed4 ,hegel seems quite prophetic when he says3 ,by virtue of this participation subjective liberty and conceit1 with their general opinion1 can show themselves palpably efficacious and enjoy the satisfaction of feeling themselves to count for something4 ,finally1 the ,state becomes wholly and completely an organized ,individual only in its external relations1 its relations to other states4 ,as his philosophy of history ignores the past in seizing upon the national state as the unit and focus of history1 so it ignores all future possibility of a genuinely international federation to which isolated nationalism shall be subordinated4 ,bernhardi writes wholly in the ,hegelian sense when he says that to expand the idea of the ,state into the idea of humanity is a ,utopian error1 for it would exclude the essential principle of life1 struggle4 ,philosophical justification of war follows inevitably from a philosophy of history composed in nationalistic terms4 ,history is the movement1 the march of ,god on earth through time4 ,only one nation at a time can be the latest and hence the fullest realization of ,god4 ,the movement of ,god in history is thus particularly manifest in those changes by which unique place passes from one nation to another4 ,war is the signally visible occurrence of such a flight of the divine spirit in its onward movement4 ,the idea that friendly intercourse among all the peoples of the earth is a legitimate aim of human effort is in basic contradiction of such a philosophy4 ,war is explicit realization of dialectic1 of the negation by which a higher synthesis of reason is assured4 ,it effectively displays the irony of the divine ,idea4 ,it is to national life what the winds are to the sea1 preserving mankind from the corruption engendered by immobility4 ,war is the most effective preacher of the vanity of all merely finite interests2 it puts an end to that selfish egoism of the individual by which he would claim his life and his property as his own or as his family's4 ,international law is not properly law2 it expresses simply certain usages which are accepted so long as they do not come into conflict with the purpose of a state--a purpose which always gives the supreme law of national life4 ,particularly against the absolute right of the present bearer of the world spirit1 the spirits of the other nations are absolutely without right4 ,the latter1 just like the nations whose epochs have passed1 count no longer in universal history4 ,since they are already passed over from the standpoint of the divine idea1 war can do no more than exhibit the fact that their day has come and gone4 ,world history is the world's judgment seat4 ,for a period ,hegelian thought was almost supreme in ,germany4 ,then its rule passed away almost as rapidly as it had been achieved4 ,after various shiftings1 the trend of philosophic thought was definitely ,back to ,kant4 ,kant's greater sobriety1 the sharp distinction he drew between the realm of phenomena and science and the ideal noumenal world1 commended him after the unbridled pretensions of ,hegelian absolutism4 ,for more than a generation ,hegel was spoken of with almost universal contempt4 ,nevertheless his ideas1 loosed from the technical apparatus with which he surrounded them1 persisted4 ,upon the historical disciplines his influence was peculiarly deep and abiding4 ,he fixed the ideas of ,fichte and fastened them together with the pin of evolution4 ,since his day1 histories of philosophy1 or religion1 or institutions have all been treated as developments through necessary stages of an inner implicit idea or purpose according to an indwelling law4 ,and the idea of a peculiar mission and destiny of ,german history has lost nothing in the operation4 ,expressions which a bewildered world has sought since the beginning of the war to explain through the influence of a ,darwinian struggle for existence and survival of the fittest1 or through the influence of a ,nietzschean philosophy of power1 have their roots in the classic idealistic philosophy culminating in ,hegel4 ,kant still remains the philosopher of ,germany4 ,the division of life between the world of sense and of mechanism and the world of the supersensible and purpose1 the world of necessity and the world of freedom1 is more congenial than a complete monism4 ,the attempts of his successors to bridge the gap and set up a wholly unified philosophy failed1 historically speaking4 ,but1 nevertheless1 they contributed an indispensable ingredient to the contemporary ,german spirit2 they helped people the ,kantian void of the supersensible with the substantial figures of the ,state and its ,historical ,evolution and ,mission4 ,kant bequeathed to the world an intellect devoted to the congenial task of discovering causal law in external nature1 and an inner intuition which1 in spite of its sublimity1 had nothing to look at except the bare form of an empty law of duty4 ,kant was kept busy in proving the existence of this supernal but empty region4 ,consequently he was not troubled by being obliged to engage in the unremunerative task of spending his time gazing into a blank void4 ,his successors were not so fortunate4 ,the existence of this ideal realm in which reason1 purpose and freedom are one was axiomatic to them2 they could no longer busy themselves with proving its existence4 ,some of them1 called the ,romanticists1 filled it with visions1 more or less poetic1 which frankly drew their substance from an imagination inflamed by emotional aspiration in revolt at the limitations of outward action4 ,others1 called the idealistic philosophers1 filled in the void1 dark because of excess of light1 with less ghostly forms of ,law and the unfolding in ,history of ,absolute ,value and ,purpose4 ,the two worlds of ,kant were too far away from each other4 ,the later idealistic world constructions crumbled2 but their debris supplied material with which to fill in the middle regions between the ,kantian worlds of sense and of reason4 ,this1 ,i repeat1 is their lasting contribution to present ,german culture4 ,where ,kantianism has not received a filling in from the philosophy of history and the ,state1 it has remained in ,germany1 as elsewhere1 a critique of the methodology of science2 its importance has been professional rather than human4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the first lecture we set out with the suggestion of an inquiry into the influence of general ideas upon practical affairs1 upon those larger practical affairs called politics4 ,we appear to have concluded with a conviction that 7in the instance before us at least7 politics has rather been the controlling factor in the formation of philosophic ideas and in deciding their vogue4 ,yet we are well within limits when we say that ideas which were evoked in correspondence with concrete social conditions served to articulate and consolidate the latter4 ,even if we went so far as to say that reigning philosophies simply reflect as in a mirror contemporary social struggles1 we should have to add that seeing one's self in a mirror is a definite practical aid in carrying on one's undertaking to its completion4 ,when what a people sees in its intellectual looking glass is its own organization and its own historic evolution as an organic instrument of the accomplishment of an ,absolute ,will and ,law1 the articulating and consolidating efficacy of the reflection is immensely intensified4 ,outside of ,germany1 the career of the ,german idealistic philosophy has been mainly professional and literary4 ,it has exercised considerable influence upon the teaching of philosophy in ,france1 ,england and this country4 ,beyond professorial circles1 its influence has been considerable in theological directions4 ,without doubt1 it has modulated for many persons the transition from a supernatural to a spiritual religion2 it has enabled them to give up historical and miraculous elements as indifferent accretions and to retain the moral substance and emotional values of ,christianity4 ,but the ,germans are quite right in feeling that only in ,germany is this form of idealistic thinking both indigenous and widely applied4 ,a crisis like the present forces upon thoughtful persons a consideration of the value for the general aims of civilization of a philosophy of the a priori1 the ,absolute1 and of their immanent evolution through the medium of an experience which as just experience is only a superficial and negligible vehicle of transcendent ,laws and ,ends4 ,it forces a consideration of what type of general ideas is available for the articulation and guidance of our own life in case we find ourselves looking upon the present world scene as an a priori and an absolutistic philosophy gone into bankruptcy4 ,in ,europe1 speaking generally1 ,americanism is a synonym for crude empiricism and a materialistic utilitarianism4 ,it is no part of my present task to try to show how largely this accusation is due to misunderstanding4 ,it is simpler to inquire how far the charge points to the problem which ,american life1 and therefore philosophy in ,america1 must meet4 ,it is difficult to see how any a priori philosophy1 or any systematic absolutism1 is to get a footing among us1 at least beyond narrow and professorial circles4 ,psychologists talk about learning by the method of trial and error or success4 ,our social organization commits us to this philosophy of life4 ,our working principle is to try3 to find out by trying1 and to measure the worth of the ideas and theories tried by the success with which they meet the test of application in practice4 ,concrete consequences rather than a priori rules supply our guiding principles4 ,hegel found it superficial and absurd to regard as objects of choice social constitutions2 to him they were necessary structures in the path of development4 ,to us they are the cumulative result of a multitude of daily and ever-renewed choices4 ,that such an experimental philosophy of life means a dangerous experiment goes without saying4 ,it permits1 sooner or later it may require1 every alleged sacrosanct principle to submit to ordeal by fire--to trial by service rendered4 ,from the standpoint of a priorism1 it is hopelessly anarchic2 it is doomed1 a priori1 to failure4 ,from its own standpoint1 it is itself a theory to be tested by experience4 ,now experiments are of all kinds1 varying from those generated by blind impulse and appetite to those guided by intelligently formed ideas4 ,they are as diverse as the attempt of a savage to get rain by sprinkling water and scattering thistledown1 and that control of electricity in the laboratory from which issue wireless telegraphy and rapid traction4 ,is it not likely that in this distinction we have the key to the failure or success of the experimental method generalized into a philosophy of life1 that is to say1 of social matters--the only application which procures complete generalization8 ,an experimental philosophy differs from empirical philosophy as empiricism has been previously formulated4 ,historical empiricisms have been stated in terms of precedents2 their generalizations have been summaries of what has previously happened4 ,the truth and falsity of these generalizations depended then upon the accuracy with which they catalogued1 under appropriate heads1 a multiplicity of past occurrences4 ,they were perforce lacking in directive power except so far as the future might be a routine repetition of the past4 ,in an experimental philosophy of life1 the question of the past1 of precedents1 of origins1 is quite subordinate to prevision1 to guidance and control amid future possibilities4 ,consequences rather than antecedents measure the worth of theories4 ,any scheme or project may have a fair hearing provided it promise amelioration in the future2 and no theory or standard is so sacred that it may be accepted simply on the basis of past performance4 ,but this difference between a radically experimental philosophy and an empiristic philosophy only emphasizes the demand for careful and comprehensive reflection with respect to the ideas which are to be tested in practice4 ,if an a priori philosophy has worked at all in ,germany it is because it has been based on an a priori social constitution--that is to say1 on a state whose organization is such as to determine in advance the main activities of classes of individuals1 and to utilize their particular activities by linking them up with one another in definite ways4 ,it is a commonplace to say that ,germany is a monument to what can be done by means of conscious method and organization4 ,an experimental philosophy of life in order to succeed must not set less store upon methodic and organized intelligence1 but more4 ,we must learn from ,germany what methodic and organized work means4 ,but instead of confining intelligence to the technical means of realizing ends which are predetermined by the ,state 7or by something called the historic ,evolution of the ,idea71 intelligence must1 with us1 devote itself as well to construction of the ends to be acted upon4 ,the method of trial and error or success is likely1 if not directed by a trained and informed imagination1 to score an undue proportion of failures4 ,there is no possibility of disguising the fact that an experimental philosophy of life means a hit-and-miss philosophy in the end4 ,but it means missing rather than hitting1 if the aiming is done in a happy-go-lucky way instead of by bringing to bear all the resources of inquiry upon locating the target1 constructing propulsive machinery and figuring out the curve of trajectory4 ,that this work is1 after all1 but hypothetical and tentative till it issue from thought into action does not mean that it might as well be random guesswork2 it means that we can do still better next time if we are sufficiently attentive to the causes of success and failure this time4 ,america is too new to afford a foundation for an a priori philosophy2 we have not the requisite background of law1 institutions and achieved social organization4 ,america is too new to render congenial to our imagination an evolutionary philosophy of the ,german type4 ,for our history is too obviously future4 ,our country is too big and too unformed1 however1 to enable us to trust to an empirical philosophy of muddling along1 patching up here and there some old piece of machinery which has broken down by reason of its antiquity4 ,we must have system1 constructive method1 springing from a widely inventive imagination1 a method checked up at each turn by results achieved4 ,we have said long enough that ,america means opportunity2 we must now begin to ask3 ,opportunity for what1 and how shall the opportunity be achieved8 ,i can but think that the present ,european situation forces home upon us the need for constructive planning4 ,i can but think that while it gives no reason for supposing that creative power attaches ex officio to general ideas1 it does encourage us to believe that a philosophy which should articulate and consolidate the ideas to which our social practice commits us would clarify and guide our future endeavor4 ,time permits of but one illustration4 ,the present situation presents the spectacle of the breakdown of the whole philosophy of ,nationalism1 political1 racial and cultural4 ,it is by the accident of position rather than any virtue of our own that we are not sharers in the present demonstration of failure4 ,we have borrowed the older philosophy of isolated national sovereignty and have lived upon it in a more or less half-hearted way4 ,in our internal constitution we are actually interracial and international4 ,it remains to see whether we have the courage to face this fact and the wisdom to think out the plan of action which it indicates4 ,arbitration treaties1 international judicial councils1 schemes of international disarmament1 peace funds and peace movements1 are all well in their way4 ,but the situation calls for more radical thinking than that which terminates in such proposals4 ,we have to recognize that furtherance of the depth and width of human intercourse is the measure of civilization2 and we have to apply this fact without as well as within our national life4 ,we must make the accident of our internal composition into an idea1 an idea upon which we may conduct our foreign as well as our domestic policy4 ,an international judicial tribunal will break in the end upon the principle of national sovereignty4 ,we have no right to cast stones at any warring nation till we have asked ourselves whether we are willing to forego this principle and to submit affairs which limited imagination and sense have led us to consider strictly national to an international legislature4 ,in and of itself1 the idea of peace is a negative idea2 it is a police idea4 ,there are things more important than keeping one's body whole and one's property intact4 ,disturbing the peace is bad1 not because peace is disturbed1 but because the fruitful processes of cooperation in the great experiment of living together are disturbed4 ,it is futile to work for the negative end of peace unless we are committed to the positive ideal which it cloaks3 ,promoting the efficacy of human intercourse irrespective of class1 racial1 geographical and national limits4 ,any philosophy which should penetrate and particulate our present social practice would find at work the forces which unify human intercourse4 ,an intelligent and courageous philosophy of practice would devise means by which the operation of these forces would be extended and assured in the future4 ,an ,american philosophy of history must perforce be a philosophy for its future1 a future in which freedom and fullness of human companionship is the aim1 and intelligent cooperative experimentation the method4 ,,the ,,end ,,index ,absolutism1 #hi1 #aab1 #aae1 #abd ,america1 philosophy in1 #abc-acb ,americanism1 #abd ,anti-,semitism1 #ajj-aja4 ,a priori1 #ci-dd1 #abf1 #abi ,authority1 #eb-ed ,bentham1 #ef ,bergson1 #d ,bernhardi1 #cd-ce1 #eb1 #aah ,bourdon1 #ajg-ajh ,burke1 #ic-id ,chamberlain1 #aja n4 ,cosmopolitanism1 #fg1 #ge1 #he1 #ii ,culture1 #ia ,descartes1 #ib ,despotism enlightened1 #ec ,dialectic1 #gj1 #aah ,duty1 #bd1 #ej-eg ,education1 #ad1 #gb1 #gc ,empiricism1 #da1 #dc1 #abf-abi ,enlightenment1 the1 #cg-ci1 #ei1 #ib1 #ajc ,eucken1 #cf1 #ee ,evolution1 #aab ,fichte1 #fh-hj1 #he-hg ,formalism1 #ea ,freedom1 #ah1 #be1 #cj1 #cc-ce1 #dg1 #ea1 #ga1 #aae4 ,french ,revolution1 #eg1 #id1 #ajc ,french thought1 #eb1 #ia-id1 #ie1 #ajj ,germania1 #ajd ,germany1 #ad-af1 #bh1 #bi-ca1 #cb-cc1 #cf1 #ga1 #gh-ha1 #hd-he1 #hh1 #ia-ic1 #id-ih1 #ajf-ajg ,haym1 #ajg ,hegel1 #id-ie1 #ajg-abj1 #abe ,heine1 #ag1 #ah1 #gf1 #hc1 #hd-he ,herder1 #aab ,history1 #e-f1 #ei-fg1 #ih-ajb1 #ajg-aai1 #aba ,hoffman1 #ha ,idealism1 #bh1 #ci1 #gj1 #hb1 #ajg1 #abc1 #acj ,ideas and action1 #c-ae1 #abc-acb ,individualism1 #di1 #gb ,intelligence1 #ed-ef1 #abf-abh ,jena1 #fh ,kant1 #ai-dj1 #dg-eh1 #ei-fg1 #aai-aba ,kultur1 #fb-fd ,lange1 #gh ,lasalle1 #gg ,law1 #bj-be1 #aaf ,leibniz1 #ei1 #aab ,luther1 #af1 #bg1 #ga1 #hg ,marx1 #f1 #aaj n4 ,militarism1 #eb ,napoleon1 #fg1 #gh-gi ,nationalism1 #fg1 #ha1 #hf1 #hg1 #aae ,nietzsche1 #bh1 #cd1 #eh ,pantheism1 #gg1 #hb ,parliaments1 #aag ,personality1 #dh ,pfleiderer1 #aje ,philosophy1 #g-ah1 #abc-acb ,property1 #gd ,psychology1 ,social1 #hb ,race1 #ajj-aja ,religion1 #bj-ba1 #bf-bg1 #ie ,rights1 #eb1 #eg ,romanticism1 #ha1 #ajd1 #abb ,rousseau1 #fa1 #ia ,schelling1 #hb n4 ,scholar1 #gb ,science1 #ba-bc1 #bh ,socialism1 #gd-ge ,social motives1 #fj-fa ,society1 #fd-fe ,state1 #fd-fe1 #ff-fg1 #gc-gg1 #aaj-aah ,subjectivism1 #di1 #ha ,supersensible1 #bc-be v4 ,sybel1 #gh-hj ,tacitus1 #ajd ,taine1 #ad ,universalism of ,germany1 #cf1 #ajf-ajg ,urvolk1 #aja-ajb ,utilitarianism1 #eg-eh ,volks-seele1 #hb ,war1 #ce-cf1 #hi1 #ig1 #aah-abj ,world-heroes1 #aab ,,dewey ,,and ,,tufts',s ,,ethics ,by ,,john ,,dewey1 ,professor in ,columbia ,university1 and ,,james ,h4 ,,tufts1 ,professor in the ,university of ,chicago4 7,american ,science ,series47 #fah pp4 #hvo4 #b4jj4 ,g4 ,h4 ,,palmer1 ,professor in ,harvard ,university3 ,it is a scholarly and stimulating production1 the best1 ,i think1 for college use that has yet appeared4 ,indeed1 from no other book would a general reader obtain in so brief a compass so wide a view of the moral work of to-day1 set forth in so positive1 lucid and interesting a fashion4 ,twenty years ago the book could not have been written1 for into it have gone the spoils of all the ethical battles of our time4 ,while ,i often find myself in dissent from its opinions1 ,i see that whoever wishes to comprehend the deeper social tendencies of recent years will do well to study this book1 and that he will carry away from his reading as much enjoyment as instruction4 ,,professor ,,norman ,,wilde of the ,university of ,minnesota in ,journal of ,philosophy1 ,psychology and ,scientific ,methods3 ,if this is not the ideal text-book in ethics for which we have been waiting so many years1 it is1 at least1 a very good substitute for it4 ,certainly no more valuable fruit of the recent ethical revival has been produced than this1 nor one which will itself produce more future good1 for it is bound to be but the first of a new type of texts4 ,it marks the end of the abstract1 speculative treatises and the beginning of the positive studies of established human values4 ,the moral life is presented as a reality about which there can be no more question than about the reality of the physical life1 and1 indeed1 as that in which the latter finds its completion and explanation4 ,theories and systems are strictly subordinated to the facts and are not presented until the facts are clearly given4 ,no student can rise from the study of this book feeling that he has been engaged with questions of purely academic interest4 ,on the contrary1 he can not but realize that it is the origin and solution of the problems of his own life with which he is here concerned4 ,reality is the dominant note of the book4 ,,the ,,outlook3 ,in several respects this work1 among the many of its kind appearing in recent years1 is eminently valuable1 especially for the ample treatment given to ethics in the world of action in civil society1 admidst the relations of political1 economic1 and family life4 ,to trace the growth of morality1 and to discover its laws and principles1 with a view to their application to present social conditions and problems for progressive moral development1 is the proper aim of ethical science as here unfolded4 4 4 4 ,the many ethical questions raised by present economic conditions are treated with admirable fulness and perspicacity4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,new ,,york ,,bergson',s ,,creative ,,evolution ,translated from the ,french by ,dr4 ,arthur ,mitchell #c4jj net1 by mail #c4ag ,bergson's resources in the way of erudition are remarkable1 and in the way of expression they are simply phenomenal4 4 4 4 ,if anything can make hard things easy to follow it is a style like ,bergson's4 ,it is a miracle and he a real magician4 ,open ,bergson and new horizons open on every page you read4 ,it tells of reality itself instead of reiterating what dusty-minded professors have written about what other previous professors have thought4 ,nothing in ,bergson is shopworn or at second-hand4--,william ,james4 ,a distinctive and trenchant piece of dialectic4 4 4 4 ,than its entrance upon the field as a well-armed and militant philosophy there have been not many more memorable occurences in the history of ideas4--,nation4 ,to bring out in an adequate manner the effect which ,bergson's philsophy has on those who are attracted by it let us try to imagine what it would have been like to have lived when ,kant produced his ',critique of ,pure ,reason4'--,hibbert ,journal4 ,creative ,evolution is destined1 ,i believe1 to mark an epoch in the history of modern thought4 ,the work has its root in modern physical science1 but it blooms and bears fruit in the spirit to a degree quite unprecedented4 4 4 4 ,bergson is a new star in the intellectual firmament of our day4 ,he is a philosopher upon whom the spirits of both literature and science have descended4 ,in his great work he touches the materialism of science to finer issues4 ,probably no other writer of our time has possessed in the same measure the three gifts1 the literary1 the scientific1 and the philosophical4 ,bergson is a kind of chastened and spiritualized ,herbert ,spencer4--,john ,burroughs in the ,atlantic ,monthly4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,publishers ,,new ,,york ,,by ,,walter ,,lippmann ,,drift ,,and ,,mastery #bnd ,printing1 #a4ej ,net ,,theodore ,,roosevelt in ,the ,outlook3 ,no man who wishes seriously to study our present social1 industrial and political life can afford not to read it through and through and to ponder and digest it4 ,,william ,,marion ,,reedy in ,the ,st4 ,louis ,mirror3 ,when ',a ,preface to ,politics' was published1 ,i ventured the opinion that it was the best book on politics since ,walter ,bagehot's ',physics and ,politics4' ,now he has followed it with ',drift and ,mastery1' an even more brilliant performance4 ,a ,,preface ,,to ,,politics #crd ,printing1 #a4ej ,net ,the ,boston ,transcript3 ',a ,preface to ,politics' is its own complete and sufficient justification4 ,in many respects it is the ablest brief book of its kind published during the last ten years4 ,it has the supreme virtue of clearness aided by a style that is incisive and compelling4 ,,the ,,stakes ,,of ,,diplomacy #dth ,printing1 cloth1 #a4ce ,net2 paper1 #fj cts4 ,net ,j4 ,b4 ,,kerfoot in ,life3 ,it is a real joy to find it of the same order as ',a ,preface to ,politics4' ,it deals with human nature involved in international human relations impersonally1 yet brings significances personally home to us4 ,a book that widens horizons and quickens consciousness4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,publishers ,,new ,,york ,,transcriber',s ,,notes ,ellipses match the original4 ,a row of asterisks represents a thought break4 ,words in italics in the original are surrounded with underscores4 ,the following corrections have been made to the text3 ,page #ec3 duty must getoriginal has gets its subject-matter somewhere ,page #aaj3 wisdom is like quotation mark missing in the originalthe bird of ,minerva ,page #acd3 ,volks-seeleoriginal has ,volk-seele1 #hb ,typographical errors in the book reviews have been retained as printed4