Childhood
of Humanity
THE conclusion
of the World War is the closing of the period of the childhood
of humanity. This childhood, as any childhood, can be characterized
as devoid of any real understanding of values, as is that of
a child who uses a priceless chronometer to crack nuts.
This childhood
has been unduly long, but happily we are near to the end of
it, for humanity, shaken by this war, is coming to its senses
and must soon enter its manhood, a period of great achievements
and rewards in the new and real sense of values dawning upon
us.
The sacred dead
will not have died for naught; the "red wine of youth," the
wanton waste of life, has shown us the price of life, and we
will have to keep our oath to make the future worthy of their
sweat and blood.
Early ideas are
not necessarily true ideas.
There are different
kinds of interpretations of history and different schools of
philosophy. All of them have contributed something to human
progress, but none of them has been able to give the world a
basic philosophy embracing the whole progress of science and
establishing the life of man upon the abiding foundation of
Fact.
Our life is bound
to develop according to evident or else concealed laws of nature.
The evident laws of nature were the inspiration of genuine science
in its cradle; and their interpretations or misinterpretations
have from the earliest times formed systems of law, of ethics,
and of philosophy.
Human intellect,
be it that of an individual or that of the race, forms conclusions
which have to be often revised before they correspond approximately
to facts. What we call progress consists in coordinating ideas
with realities. The World War has taught something to everybody.
It was indeed a great reality; it accustomed us to think in
terms of reality and not in those of phantom speculation. Some
unmistakable truths were revealed. Facts and force were the
things that counted. Power had to be produced to destroy hostile
power; it was found that the old political and economic systems
were not adequate to the task put upon them. The world had to
create new economic conditions; it was obliged to supplement
the old systems with special boards for food, coal, railroads,
shipping, labor, etc. The World War emergency compelled the
nations to organize for producing greater power in order to
conquer power already great.
If there is anything
which this war has proved, it is the fact that the most important
asset a nation or an individual can have, is the ability "to
do things."
"In Flanders Fields
the poppies blow . . .," that is too true; they blow and they
are strong and red. But the purpose of this writing is not the
celebration of poetry, but the elucidation and right use of
facts.
Normally, thousands
of rabbits and guinea pigs are used and killed, in scientific
laboratories, for experiments which yield great and tangible
benefits to humanity. This war butchered millions of people
and ruined the health and lives of tens of millions. Is this
climax of the pre-war civilization to be passed unnoticed, except
for the poetry and the manuring of the battle fields, that the
"poppies blow" stronger and better fed? Or is the death of ten
men on the battle field to be of as much worth in knowledge
gained as is the life of one rabbit killed for experiment ?
Is the great sacrifice worth analysing ? There can be only one
answer-yes. But, if truth be desired, the analysis must be scientific.
In science, "opinions"
are tolerated when and only when facts are lacking. In this
case, we have all the facts necessary. We have only to collect
them and analyse them, rejecting mere "opinions" as cheap and
unworthy. Such as understand this lesson will know how to act
for the benefit of all.
At present the
future of mankind is dark. "Stop, look, and listen"-the prudent
caution at railroad crossings-must be amended to read "stop,
look, listen, and THINK"; not for the saving of a few lives
in railroad accidents, but for the preservation of the life
of humanity. Living organisms, of the lower and simpler types,
in which the differentiation and the integration of the vital
organs have not been carried far, can move about for a considerable
time after being deprived of the appliances by which the life
force is accumulated and transferred, but higher organisms are
instantly killed by the removal of such appliances, or even
by the injury of minor parts of them; even more easily destroyed
are the more advanced and complicated social organizations.
The first question
is: what are to be the scientific methods that will eliminate
diverse opinions and creeds from an analysis of facts and ensure
correct deductions based upon them ? A short survey of facts
concerning civilization will help to point the way.
Humanity, in its
cradle, did not have science; it had only the faculties of observation
and speculation. In the early days there was much speculative
thinking, but it was without any sufficient basis of facts.
Theology and philosophy flourished; their speculations were
often very clever, but all their primitive notions about facts-such
as the structure of the heavens, the form of the earth, mechanical
principles, meteorological or physiological phenomena-were almost
all of them wrong.
What is history?
What is its significance for humanity? Dr. J. H. Robinson gives
us a precise answer: "Man's abject dependence on the past gives
rise to the continuity of history. Our convictions, opinions,
prejudices, intellectual tastes; our knowledge, our methods
of learning and of applying for information we owe, with slight
exceptions, to the past-often to the remote past. History is
an expansion of memory, and like memory it alone can explain
the present and in this lies its most unmistakable value."1
The savage regards
every striking phenomenon or group of phenomena as caused by
some personal agent, and from remotest antiquity the mode of
thinking has changed only as fast as the relations among phenomena
have been established.2
Human nature was
always asking "why" ? and not being able to answer why, they
found their answer through another factor "who." The unknown
was called, Gods or God. But with the progress of science the
"why" became more and more evident, and the question came to
be "how." From the early days of humanity, dogmatic theology,
law, ethics, and science in its infancy, were the monopolies
of one class and the source of their power.3
The first to break
this power were the exact sciences. They progressed too rapidly
to be bound and limited by obscure old writings and prejudices;
life and realities were their domain. Science brushed aside
all sophistry and became a reality. Ethics is too fundamentally
important a factor in civilization to depend upon a theological
or a legal excuse; ethics must conform to the natural laws
of human nature.
Laws, legal ideas,
date from the beginning of civilization. Legal speculation was
wonderfully developed in parallel lines with theology and philosophy
before the natural and exact sciences came into existence. Law
was always made by the few and in general for the purpose of
preserving the "existing order," or for the reestablishment
of the old order and the punishment of the offenders against
it.
Dogmatic theology
is, by its very nature, unchangeable. The same can be said in
regard to the spirit of the law. Law was and is to protect the
past and present status of society and, by its very essence,
must be very conservative, if not reactionary. Theology and
law are both of them static by their nature.4
Philosophy, law
and ethics, to be effective in a dynamic world must be dynamic;
they must be made vital enough to keep pace with the progress
of life and science. In recent civilization ethics, because
controlled by theology and law, which are static, could not
duly influence the dynamic, revolutionary progress of technic
and the steadily changing conditions of life; and so we witness
a tremendous downfall of morals in politics and business. Life
progresses faster than our ideas, and so medieval ideas, methods
and judgments are constantly applied to the conditions and problems
of modern life. This discrepancy between facts and ideas is
greatly responsible for the dividing of modern society into
different warring classes, which do not understand each other.
Medieval legalism and medieval morals- the basis of the old
social structure-being by their nature conservative,
reactionary, opposed to change, and thus becoming more and more
unable to support the mighty social burden of the modern world,
must be adjudged responsible in a large measure for the circumstances
which made the World War inevitable.
Under the flash
of explosives some of the workings of those antiquated ideas
were exposed or crushed. The World War has profoundly changed
economic conditions and made it necessary to erect new standards
of values. We are forced to realize that evolution by transformation
is a cosmic process and that reaction, though it may retard
it, can not entirely stop it.5
The idea that
organic species are results of special creation has no scientific
standard whatever. There is not one fact tending to prove special
or separate creation; the evidence, which is overwhelming, is
all of it on the other side. The hypothesis of special creation
is a mere fossil of the past. Evolution is the only theory which
is in harmony with facts and with all branches of science; life
is dynamic, not static.
Philosophy, as
defined by Fichte, is the "science of sciences." Its aim was
to solve the problems of the world. In the past, when all exact
sciences were in their infancy, philosophy had to be purely
speculative, with little or no regard to realities. But if we
regard philosophy as a Mother science, divided into many branches,
we find that those branches have grown so large and various,
that the Mother science looks like a hen with her little ducklings
paddling in a pond, far beyond her reach; she is unable to follow
her growing hatchlings. In the meantime, the progress of life
and science goes on, irrespective of the cackling of metaphysics.
Philosophy does not fulfill her initial aim to bring the results
of experimental and exact sciences together and to solve world
problems. Through endless, scientific specialization scientific
branches multiply, and for want of coordination the great world-problems
suffer. This failure of philosophy to fulfill her boasted mission
of scientific coordination is responsible for the chaos in the
world of general thought. The world has no collective or organized
higher ideals and aims, nor even fixed general purposes. Life
is an accidental game of private or collective ambitions and
greeds.6
Systematic study
of chemical and physical phenomena has been carried on for many
generations and these two sciences now include: (1) knowledge
of an enormous number of facts; (2) a large body of natural
laws; (3) many fertile working hypotheses respecting the causes
and regularities of natural phenomena; and finally (4) many
helpful theories held subject to correction by further testing
of the hypotheses giving rise to them. When a subject is spoken
of as a science, it is understood to include all of the above
mentioned parts. Facts alone do not constitute a science any
more than a pile of stones constitutes a house, not even do
facts and laws alone; there must be facts, hypotheses, theories
and laws before the subject is entitled to the rank of a science.
The primal function
of a science is to enable us to anticipate the future in the
field to which it relates.
Judged by this
standard, neither philosophy nor its kindred-the so-called social
sciences-have in the past been very effective. There was, for
example, no official warning of the coming of the World War-the
greatest of catastrophies. The future was not anticipated because
political philosophers did not possess the necessary basis of
knowledge. To be just we must admit that philosophy has been
but little aided financially because it is commonly regarded
as unnecessary. The technical branches of science have been
strongly backed and generally supported by those to whom they
have brought direct profit; and so they have had better opportunities
for development.
Ethics in the
stifling grip of myth and legalism is not convincing enough
to exercise controlling influence. Such is the situation in
which we find ourselves. Being still in our childhood and thinking
like savages, we looked upon the World War as a personal creation
of a "war-lord," because those interested in it told us so.
We neglected to use our common sense and look deeper into its
origins; to perform for ourselves the duty which political philosophy
did not perform for us-the duty of thinking in terms of facts
and not in terms of metaphysical speculations. Knowledge of
facts would have told us that the war lords were only the representatives
of the ruling classes. A system of social and economic order
built exclusively on selfishness, greed, "survival of the fittest,"
and ruthless competition, must cease to exist, or exist by means
of war. The representatives of this system determined to continue
to exist, and so war was the consequence. The ruling classes
carried the whole system under which they lived to its logical
conclusion and natural issue, which is "grab what you can."
This motto is not peculiar to any one country; it is the motto
of our whole civilization and is the inevitable outcome of our
stupid philosophy regarding the characteristic nature of man
and the proper potentialities of human life. Where are we to
find the true doctrines ? Where the true philosophy? If we go
back over the history of civilization, we find that in all "sciences,"
except the exact ones, private opinions and theories have shaped
our beliefs, colored our mental processes and controlled our
destinies; we see, for example, pessimism opposed to optimism,
materialism to spiritualism, realism to idealism, capitalism
to socialism, and so on endlessly. Each of the disputatious
systems has a large number of followers and each faction looks
upon the others as deprived of truth, common sense and knowledge.
All of them play with the words "natural law" which they ignorantly
presume to have as the basis and content of their own particular
doctrine.
It is the same
in the realm of religions; there are approximately 291 million
Confucianists, or Taoists, 761 million Roman Catholics, 211
million Mohammedans, 209 million Hindus, 177 million Protestants,
157 million Animists, 137 million Buddhists, 115 million Orthodox
Christians-to speak only of the most important religions. Each
group, and they are rather large groups, believes its theory
or its faith to be infallible and all the others to be false.
Bacon seems a
bit remote, but the idols and medieval fetishes which he so
masterfully describes are equally venerated to-day.
(Novum Organum
by Francis Bacon.)
34. "Four species
of idols beset the human mind, to which (for distinction's sake)
we have assigned names, calling the first Idols of the Tribe,
the second Idols of the Den, the third Idols of the Market,
the fourth Idols of the Theatre.
40. "The information
of notions and axioms on the foundation of true induction is
the only fitting remedy by which we can ward off and expel these
idols. It is, however, of great service to point them out; for
the doctrine of idols bears the same relation to the interpretation
of nature as that of the confutation of sophisms does to common
logic.
41. "The idols
of the tribe are inherent in human nature and the very tribe
or race of man; for man's sense is falsely asserted to be the
standard of things; on the contrary, all the perceptions both
of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not to
the Universe, and the human mind resembles these uneven mirrors
which impart their own properties to different objects, from
which rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them.
42. "The idols
of the den are those of each individual; for everybody (in addition
to the errors common to the race of man) has his own individual
den or cavern, which intercepts and corrupts the light of nature,
either from his own peculiar and singular disposition, or from
his education and intercourse with others, or from his reading,
and the authority acquired by those whom he reverences and admires,
or from the different impressions produced on the mind, as it
happens to be preoccupied and predisposed, or equable and tranquil,
and the like; so that the spirit of man (according to its several
dispositions), is variable, confused, and, as it were, actuated
by chance; and Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge
in lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.
43. "There are
also idols formed by the reciprocal intercourse and society
of man with man, which we call idols of the market, from the
commerce and association of men with each other; for men converse
by means of language, but words are formed at the will of the
generality, and there arises from a bad and unapt formation
of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. Nor can the definitions
and explanations with which learned men are wont to guard and
protect themselves in some instances afford a complete remedy-words
still manifestly force the understanding, throw everything into
confusion, and lead mankind into vain and innumerable controversies
and fallacies.
44. "Lastly, there
are idols which have crept into men's minds from the various
dogmas of peculiar systems of philosophy, and also from the
perverted rules of demonstration, and these we denominate idols
of the theatre: for we regard all the systems of philosophy
hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought out
and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds. Nor
do we speak only of the present systems, or of the philosophy
and sects of the ancients, since numerous other plays of a similar
nature can be still composed and made to agree with each other,
the causes of the most opposite errors being generally the same.
Nor, again, do we allude merely to general systems, but also
to many elements and axioms of sciences which have become inveterate
by tradition, implicit credence, and neglect."7
Metaphysical speculation
and its swarming progeny of blind and selfish political philosophies,
private opinions, private "truths," and private doctrines, sectarian
opinions, sectarian "truths" and sectarian doctrines, querulous,
confused and blind-such is characteristic of the childhood
of humanity. The period of humanity's manhood will,
I doubt not, be a scientific period-a period that will witness
the gradual extension of scientific method to all the interests
of mankind-a period in which man will discover the essential
nature of man and establish, at length, the science and art
of directing human energies and human capacities to the advancement
of human weal in accordance with the laws of human nature.
1
An Outline of the History of the Western European Mind,
by James Harvey Robinson. The New School for Social Research
New York, 1919. This little volume gives condensed statements,
as in a nutshell, of the historical developments of the human
mind and contains a long list of the most substantial modern
books on historical questions. All the further historical quotations
will be taken from this exceptionally valuable little book,
and for convenience they will simply be marked by his initials--J.
H. R.
2
(J. H. R.) "Late appearance of a definite theory of progress.
Excessive conservatism of primitive peoples. The Greeks speculated
on the origin of things but they did not have a conception of
the possibility of indefinite progress . . . Progress of man
from the earliest time till the opening of the 17th century
almost altogether unconscious.... Fundamental weakness of Hellenic
learning. It was an imposing collection of speculation, opinions,
and guesses, which, however brilliant and ingenious they might
be, were based on a very slight body of exact knowledge, and
failed to recognize the fundamental necessity of painful scientific
research, aided by apparatus. There was no steady accumulation
of knowledge to offset the growing emotional distrust of reason....
Unfulfilled promise of Hellenistic science. Influence of slavery
in checking the development of science.... The deficiencies
of Medieval culture. All the weaknesses of the Hellenic reasoning,
combined with those of the Christian Fathers, underlay what
appeared to be a most logically elaborated and definitive system
of thought. Defects of the university education.... Little history
of Natural science, in our sense of the word, taught in the
universities.... Copernicus, 'De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.'
Libri VI, 1543.... Copernicus' own introduction acknowledges
his debt to ancient philosophers. Still believed in fixed Starry
Sphere. His discovery had little immediate effect on prevailing
notions. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) made it his chief business
to think out and set forth in Latin and Italian the implications
of the discovery of Copernicus.... Bruno burned by the Inquisition
at Rome.... Keppler (1571-1630) and his discovery of the elliptical
orbits of the planets. Galileo (1564-1642). His telescope speedily
improved so as to magnify 32 diameters. His attitude toward
the Copernican theory, which was condemned by Roman Inquisition
1616.... Galileo's chief discoveries were in physics and mechanics.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) proved that the laws of falling bodies
apply to the heavens. This made a deep impression and finally
the newer conceptions of the universe began to be popularized....
Lord Bacon (1561-1626), the 'Buccinator' of experimental and
applied modern science.... His lively appreciation of the existing
obstacles to scientific advance, the idols of the tribe, cave,
market-place, and theatre.... Necessity of escaping from the
scholastic methods of 'tumbling up and down in our reasons and
conceits,' and studying the world about us. Undreamed of achievements
possible if only the right method of research be followed .
. . the distrust of ancient authority.... Descartes (1596-1650),
... he proposed to reach the truth through analysis and clear
ideas, on the assumption that God will not deceive.... His fundamental
interest in mathematics.... His claim to originality and his
rejection of all authority.... Obstacles to scientific advance
the universities still dominated by Aristotle; the theological
faculties; the censorship of the press exercised by both church
and state, . . ."
3
(J. H. R.) "Phases of religious complex. ‘Religious,’ a vague
and comprehensive term applied to: (1) certain classes of emotions
(awe, dependence, self-distrust, aspirations, etc.); (2) Conduct,
which may take the form of distinctive religious acts (ceremonies,
sacrifices, prayers, ‘good works’) or the observance of what
in primitive conditions are recognized as ‘taboos’; (3) Priestly,
or ecclesiastical organizations; (4) Beliefs about supernatural
beings and man's relations to them: the latter may take the
form of revelation and be reduced to creeds and become the subject
of elaborate theological speculations.
"Association of religion with the supernatural; religion has
always had for its primary object the attainment of a satisfactory
adjustment to, or a successful control over, the supernatural....
The cultural mind viewed as the product of a long and hazardous
process of accumulation.... Spontaneous generation of superstitions.
Prevalence of symbolism, mana, animism, magic, fetishism, totemism;
the taboo (cf. our modern idea of ‘principle’), the sacred,
clean and unclean, ‘dream logic’-spontaneous rationalizing or
‘jumping at conclusions’; . . . The 16th book of the Theodosian
Code contains edicts relating to the Church issued by the Roman
Emperors during the 4th and 5th centuries. They make it a crime
to disagree with the Church; they provide harsh penalties for
heretical teaching and writing, and grant privileges to the
orthodox clergy (exemptions from regular taxes and benefit of
the clergy). . . . Christianity becomes a monopoly defended
by the state . . . Psychological power and attraction in the
elaborate symbolism and ritual of the church.... Allegory put
an end to all literary criticism.... Flourishing of the miraculous;
any unusual or startling occurrence attributed to the intervention
of either God or the Devil.... Older conceptions of disease
as caused by the Devil.... Our legal expression ‘act of God’
confined to unforseeable natural disasters. How with a growing
appreciation for natural law and a chastened taste in wonders,
miracles have tended to become a source of intellectual distress
and bewilderment.... Protestants shared with Roman Catholics
the horror of ‘rationalists’ and ‘free-thinkers.’ The leaders
of both parties agreed in hampering and denouncing scientific
discoveries.... Witchcraft in its modern form emerges clearly
in the 15th century.... Great prevalence of witchcraft during
the 16th and 17th centuries in Protestant and Catholic countries,
alike.... Trial of those suspected of sorcery. Tortures to force
confession. The witches' mark. Penalties, burning alive, strangling,
hanging. Tens of thousands of innocent persons perished....
Those who tried to discredit witchcraft denounced as ‘Sadducees’
and atheists.... The psychology of intolerance. Fear, vested
interests, the comfortable nature of the traditional and the
habitual. The painful appropriation of new ideas.... The intolerance
of the Catholic Church: a natural result of its state-like organization
and claims.... Its doctrine of exclusive salvation and its conception
of heresy both sanctioned by the state. Doubt and error regarded
as sinful.... Beginnings of censorship of the press after the
invention of printing, licensing of ecclesiastical and civil
authorities.... Protestants of 16th century accept the theory
of intolerance."
4
(J. H. R.) "The Socio-psychological foundations of conservatism:
Primitive natural reverence for the familiar and habitual greatly
reenforced by religion and law. Natural conservatism of all
professions. Those who suffer most from existing institutions
commonly, helplessly accept the situation as inevitable. Position
of the conservative; he urges the impossibility of altering
‘human nature’ and warns against the disasters of revolution.
Conservatism in the light of history: History would seem to
discredit conservatism completely as a working principle in
view of the past achievements of mankind in the recent past
and the possibilities which opened before us.... Futility of
the appeal of the conservative to human nature as an obstacle
to progress.... Culture can not be transmitted hereditarily
but can be accumulated through education and modified indefinitely."
5
(J. H. R.) "Formulation and establishment of the evolutionary
hypothesis. Discovery of the great age of the earth; . . . gradual
development of the evolutionary theory.... Darwin's ‘Origin
of the Species,’ 1859. Herbert Spencer (1820-I903).... Haeckel
(1834-1919) and others clarify, defend and popularize the new
doctrine. Subsequent development of the evolutionary doctrine
by Mendel, Weisman, DeVries and others. Weakening of the special
creation theory by other evidence such as archeology and biblical
criticism. The significance of the doctrine for intellectual
history. Character of the opposition to the evolutionary theory.
Popular confusion of ‘Darwinism’ with ‘evolution’; Revolutionary
effects of the new point of view. Does away with conception
of fixed species (Platonic ideas) that had previously dominated
speculation. The genetic method adopted in all the organic sciences,
including the newer social sciences. Problem of adjusting history
to the discoveries of the past 50 years. Bearing of evolution
on the theory of progress. Organic evolution and social evolution."
6
(J. H. R.) "The Deists and philosophers destroy the older theological
anthropology and reassert the dignity of man; the growth of
criticism and liberalism has made the analysis of social institutions
somewhat less dangerous; the general growth of knowledge has
reacted in a stimulating way upon the sciences of society; the
great increase in the number, complexity and intensity of social
problems has proved a strong incentive to social science; The
Darwinian hypothesis has rendered preposterous any conception
of a wholly static social system. However, the modern social
sciences in our capitalistic order meet much the same resistance
from the ‘vested interests’ that theological radicalism encountered
in the Middle Ages. and social science has in no way approached
the objectivity and progressiveness of present day natural science....
Grave effects of vested rights in hampering experiments and
readjustments.... Obstacles to readjustment presented by consecrated
traditions.... Influence of modern commercialism in the inordinate
development of organization and regimentation in our present
educational system. Psychological disadvantages of our conventional
examination system. As yet our education has not been brought
into close relation with prevailing conditions of our ever increasing
knowledge.... Excellent aims and small achievements of sociology
in practical results. (Because of absolute lack of any scientific
base. Author.) General nature of the problem of social reform:
psychological problems involved in social reform movements:
violent resistance of the group to that criticism of the existing
institutions which must precede any effective social reform....
"
7
(J. H. R.) "During the past two centuries the application of
the scientific discoveries to daily life has revolutionized
our methods of supplying our economic needs, our social and
intellectual life, and the whole range of the relations of mankind.
The impulse of invention, iron, coal, and steam essential to
the development of machinery on a large scale; machinery has
in turn begotten the modern factory with its vast organized
labor, the modern city and finally, our well nigh perfect means
of rapid human inter-communication. The tremendous increase
in the production of wealth and the growing interdependence
of nations has opened up a vast range of speculation in regard
to the betterment of mankind to the abolition or reduction of
poverty, ignorance, disease, and war.... Man advances from a
tool-using to a machine-controlling animal. The rise of the
factory system, the concentration and localization of industry;
increased division of labor and specialization of industrial
processes. The great increase in the volume of capital and in
the extent of investments; the separation of capital and labor
and the growth of impersonal economic relationship. Problems
of capital and labor; unemployment and the labor of women and
children; labor organizations. Increased productivity and the
expansion of commerce. Industrial processes become dynamic and
everchanging-a complete reversal of the old stability, repetition
and isolation."
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