any one time, or dynamically in its historical changes and developments in long periods of time. For when the question is, not what the state actually does or what it actually tends towards, but what it ought to do or ought to become, which are the practical questions proposed to every individual in his sphere, and peculiarly to those who are called to guide or directly influence the collective action of the state, the same difficulties arise again which arose in the case of the individual, relating to the criteria of desirability in the choice of ends. Ought the state to have a conscience, as it is called; ought it to direct its measures towards promoting the moral virtues in its individual citizens; or ought it to aim solely at their material prosperity as individuals, or at the material aggrandisement of itself as a state? Such difficulties as these are unavoidable the moment the question is put practically; and to ignore the question of what is best to be done or ought to be done, expecting an answer which shall be a guide to future action, is nothing else than to treat Ethic and Politic as purely speculative sciences, and, since all human action is choice and must be guided by some consideration or other, however we may treat it, to deliver it up to the blind determination of foreign or external causes. It is, comparatively speaking, easy to discover what the actual constitution of a state is, what its history has been, and what it is actually tending to become. This is treating the subject merely as a matter of observation of fact, as in the physical sciences. Every one, however, admits that Politic is a practical science, having for its scope to modify the actual condition, in some measure at least, for the better, and therefore to study the laws of society and of Book 1. CH. I. § 3. Relation of Ethic to Politic. BOOK I. § 3. Ethic to Politic. history as laws of natural phenomena, with a view to imprint upon them a better tendency, in other Relation of words, to introduce improvements where it is found practicable. Now the moment society begins to entertain the practical question, it is necessarily some individual or individuals in consultation who entertain it. What society thinks best to be done, that some individuals think best to be done; the practical judgment of society is the practical judgment of some individuals, many or few, in that society. They become its organs in all choice of conduct, and without organs it would be a blind non-deliberating agent, an object of observation and experiment alone, like the objects of chemistry or astronomy. This necessity of society's acting practically only through individuals is that which compels it to act according to the conditions of an individual's judgment, and therefore subjects it to the difficulties which, as already shown, constitute the, at present at least inevitable, embarrassment of Ethic. Consequently the science of Politic is subordinate to that of Ethic, the science of the whole mass of individuals to that of the individual separately, in the practical branch of the science. But in the speculative branch of Ethic, the action of the mass, or society as a whole, upon the individual is a part of the external conditions to which he is subject; and with the total of those conditions must be studied speculatively, as if it were the object of a science of pure observation or experiment. There is one branch of Ethic, the speculative branch, in which it is subordinate to the corresponding branch of Politic; and there is one branch of Politic, the practical, in which it is subordinate to the corresponding branch of Ethic. 2. If we cast a glance back at history, or at the history of philosophy, we shall find this view confirmed. The earliest complete theory which embraced both sciences, Plato's Republic, was the expression of the view that Ethic was entirely subordinate to Politic in its practical branch. (See Sir Alexander Grant's Ethics of Aristotle, vol. i. Essay III.) That which was desirable for the community was first determined, and the individuals were to be instructed not to consider what might be desirable for them individually. It is certainly remarkable, though by no means inexplicable, that Plato should have taken this view, Plato who was the great upholder of the idea of justice as opposed to pleasure, and of the conception of the virtues being ἐπιστῆμαι. It is an instance of the fact that great moral truths are seen more easily and therefore earlier when exemplified on a large scale, as in society, than on a small scale, as in the individuals, in whom they nevertheless originate. Plato could conceive the realisation of the idea of justice only by imagining it applied at once to the relation between a community and its members, not as obtaining between two individuals apart from the state; although, in truth, only by first satisfying its claims between the individuals, as such, could there exist any true justice in the whole; for justice is an idea conceived necessarily, if at all, by individual minds, and except as so conceived has no existence. The question really was, not what Plato, a spectator ab extra, thought just in a state, but what the individuals of the state would concur with such a spectator in thinking so. "Das Princip der neuern Welt überhaupt ist Freiheit der Subjektivität, dass alle wesentliche Seiten, die BOOK I. § 3. Relation of Ethic to Politic. BOOK I. § 3. in der geistigen Totalität vorhanden sind, zu ihrem Rechte kommend sich entwickeln." Hegel, Rechts Relation of phil. § 273. Zusatz. Werke, vol. viii. Ethic to 3. Ethic then was by Plato involved in Politic. With Aristotle the two became distinguished. We have separate treatises devoted to each. The actions, habits, and characters, of the individuals were examined, and classified as virtues or vices; and a general characteristic of the virtues was pointed out, namely, that they were all "means" between two extremes which were vices. Besides this, what was much more important, the logic of the gyov and its rékos was introduced, with the supreme réλos of all conscious action, evdarovía. Yet, notwithstanding that some prominence was given to the question of choice in its subjective aspect, goaígeois, no criterion for the subjective determination of choice at the moment of action or judgment was given, beyond what lay in the general perception of sidamovía. Beyond this a tribunal, and a function in man corresponding to it, were indicated, to which recourse was had in all doubtful points, I mean the frequent appeals to oglòs λόγος, and ὡς ὁ ἀγαθὸς ὁρίσεις. It is one thing however to have a judge appointed to decide questions, and another to have a judge furnished with a criterion or test which he must apply. He may not, even in the latter case, be able to decide all questions, but he can go farther than if he were left to his unguided sense, and the farther in proportion as the criterion is distinct and of immediate applicability. Aristotle, then, made the immense step of separating the practical branch of Ethic from Politic, but he did not treat it subjectively to any great extent, nor carry his analysis of choice far enough to discern a sub BOOK I. CH. I. § 3. jective criterion beyond the conception which "right reasoning" or "the good man" might form for himself of happiness as the end of life. The practical Relation of question in Ethic however is, as already shown, whether there is or is not such a subjective practical criterion. 4. If we turn to history proper we find a corresponding fact. Neither in Greece nor in Rome was there a spiritual power, in the usual sense of the term, side by side with or above the temporal, as Auguste Comte has shown. The development of the mind of man had not reached that stage at which the subjective side of practical judgment could make itself manifest, either in the shape of a theoretical philosophy or in that of a political constitution. It is only dawning in the Aristotelian doctrine of goaigeois. It is however the most prominent feature in ζέσις. the writings of St. Paul, the point on which he most earnestly insists: "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Rom. xiv. 5); and "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. xiv. 23). St. Paul is the law reformer of rising Christianity, as the writers of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle of St. John are its religious philosophers, or reformers in theology proper. He substituted the law of Conscience for the law of ordinances, the status of grace, of faith, of sonship, for the status of servitude to an external authority; free grace and free obedience being two expressions for one and the same thing, namely, the relation between the subject and the sovereign, between man and God. The doctrine of a conscience which could not be bound by temporal laws was the specific shape in which the subjective aspect of choice made its im Ethic to Politic. |