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English Year 1961
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dyn^^l^c new work which focuses the wisdom
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THE GREAT IDEAS Editors-in-Chief: Robert
Justice William
M.
Hutchins and Mortimer
J.
Adler
Cmouglas tells why democracy
new rfatidns while noted journalist Peregrine Wdrsthprnp disagrees in The Great is
best fdriibe
Debate of the Year the Etlltors examine
.our
exciting times 1n the light of the Great Ideas
Mark Van Doren, Gilbert
Cant, George P. Grant, Edward MShils, Walter Sullivan explore t^e^newest^cagtribu^pns in the arts and sciences Also aertinent works by Einstein, Toy n bed, Deifiey amd Moliere Experts
$895
Here
is
tool. It
an absolutely new, gleaming educational does not supplement the news; but, by
viewing our current
life
against the rich, fasci-
nating backdrop of 2500 years of
makes
and experience, the first time— intelligible." it
the
human thought
news-I think Clifton
"Man
has never stood more
at the
present
moment
in
for
Fadiman
need of ideas than
of history.
Without the
introduction of the proper ideas into popular
minds, our philosophers and statesmen may be powerless to save us. Books such as The Great Ideas Today, therefore, ought to be in every
American home." Steve Allen
seeks to focus the wisdom of the great books and the light of the great ideas on the significant and urgent problems of today. Its aim is to illuminate, in depth, not merely to report,
71he Great Ideas Today
and developments. volume will discover for himabout the self that Thucydides did not write just Peloponnesian War, but about war and peace in
the year's events
The reader of
this
general; that Machiavelli's advice to a Florentine prince applies with equal validity to a Central American dictator; that John Stuart Mill's observations about politically immature peoples and about gov-
ernment illuminate the current debate about the new nations in Africa; that the Federalist Papers, written was at the time the government of the United States established, provide a significant
American presidential
commentary on
the
election in 1960. In each case,
the reader, will perceive the
permanent features of
the political scene, and, doing so, will better understand the developments in the world today.
We often feel bewildered by contemporary happenings because they appear to be such chaotic mixtures of chance,
human
caprice,
and grim
necessity.
But a deeper look changes the picture and makes it more intelligible. The problems of the day become less
puzzling
when seen
in the larger perspectives
provided by the accumulated wisdom of mankind. We must ask Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Locke, and Mill for their comments
on the front page stories of the year. That is exactly what The Great Ideas Today does. The reader will find how rich and various are the answers which the great authors give as he II
of this
examines
book the many passages from
in Parts
I
and
their writings
which are either quoted or referred to because of their striking relevance to the contemporary scene. continued on back flap
1
Part
III
of The Great Ideas Today consists of five
full-scale essays written
by leading authorities about
current developments in the arts and sciences. These well-illustrated, highly readable essays contain ex-
tensive reviews of important
commentary and
criticism,
new works,
and
interesting
a full range of biblio-
graphical material.
The Great Ideas Today
also contains four perti-
nent great works chosen on the basis of their rele-
vance to the people, ideas, and events of today. this year consist of three significant
Those chosen for
in the form of esDewey, and Toynbee. and one of
twentieth-century contributions says by Einstein,
Moliere's most enjoyable comedies.
Adapted from
the foreword
CONTENTS PART THE GREAT DEBATE OF THE YEAR I
Is democracy the best form of government for newly formed nations? The Case For Democracy: Justice William O. Douglas The Case Against Democracy: Peregrine Worsthorne
PART II THE EDITORS REVIEW THE YEAR An
analysis of three developments in world affairs
PART III THE YEARS DEVELOPMENTS ARTS AND SCIENCES Literature by
IN
THE
Mark Van Doren
Physical Sciences and Technology
by Walter Sullivan
and Law by Edward A. Shils and Medicine by Gilbert Cant Philosophy and Religion by George P. Grant
Social Sciences
Biological Sciences
PART IV FOUR GREAT WORKS ALSO INCLUDED Experience and Education by John Dewey Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein The School for Wives by Moliere Three Essays by Arnold J. Toynbee
66-
Printed in U.S.A
THE GREAT IDEAS TODAY
1961
THE
GREAT IDEAS TODAY 1961
WILLIAM BENTON
Publisher
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC Chicago London '
•
Toronto
•
Geneva
©1961 By Encyclopaedia
Britannica, Inc.
Copyright under International Copyright Union
Pan American and Universal Copyright Conventions by
All rights reserved under
Encyclopcedia Britannica, Inc. Printed
in the
U.S.A.
The following works in this volume are reprinted under the arrangements listed below: Experience and Education by John Dewey. Reprinted by permission of Kappa Delta Pi, owners of the copyright.
The Special and General Theory by Albert by Robert W. Lawson. Copyright 1920 by Henry Holt & Company.
Relativity,
Einstein, Ph.D., trans,
Copyright 1948 by Peter Smith. Reprinted by permission of Peter Smith.
The School for Wives b\ Moliere. From
EIGHT
PLAYS BY MOLIERE, trans,
by Morris Bishop. £ Copyright 1957 by Morris Bishop. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.
Three essays: "Does History Repeat Itself?" "The Unification of the Worid and the Change in Historical Perspective," and "Civilization on Trial." From Civilization on Trial by Arnold J. Toynbee. Copyright 1948 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
The Great Ideas Today 1961
Editors
Editors-in-chief
Executive Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Picture Editor
Editorial A ssistants
Robert M. Hutchins Mortimer J. Adler Peter
C
.
Wolff
Milton Mayer Paul
M.
Gilchrist
Pierce G. Fredericks
Mary F. Blansfield Desmond J. FitzGerald
Departmental contributors The Great Debate of the Year
William o. Douglas Peregrine Worsthorne
The Years Developments
in the
Literature
Physical Sciences and Technology Social Sciences Biological Sciences
and Law
and Medicine
Philosophy and Religion
Arts and Sciences
Mark Van Doren Walter SulHvan
Edward A.
Shils
Gilbert Cant
George
P.
Grant
Foreword book is the first in a series of volumes designed to supplement Great Books of the Western World. To be published annually, The Great Ideas Today seeks to focus the wisdom of the great books and the light of the great ideas on the problems of the day. Its aim is to illuminate, not merely to report, the year's events and developments. As its title indicates, The Great Ideas Today brings the perennial into contact with the current, in order to reveal the timeless and abiding elements which are always present in the contemporary and the
This
transient.
were once called "the classics." As the pages to is a misnomer; for "classics" in its usual connotation refers to dead languages and dead books — the cultural achievements of antiquity, chiefly of archaeological interest. While the great books do represent the outstanding literary achievements of our Western civilization over the last twenty-five centuries, they are as alive today as when they were written. That is the true mark of their greatness. The ideas they deal with — and that is why they are the great ideas — constitute the intellectual implements which thinking men in every century must employ in order to understand the changing world in which they live. It is precisely because they are timeless in this way that the great books and the great ideas are always
The
great books
follow will amply demonstrate, that
so timely, always so relevant to the present.
The reader of
this
volume
will
discover for himself that Thucydides
did not write just about the Peloponnesian War, but about
peace
in general;
war and
that Machiavelli's advice to a Florentine prince
applies with equal vaHdity to a Central
American
dictator; that
John
Stuart Mill's observations about politically immature peoples and
about the government of dependencies illuminate the current debate about the new nations in Africa; that the Federalist Papers, written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay at the time the government of the United States was established, provide a significant commentary on
American
presidential election in 1960. In each case, the reader, otherwise be attentive solely to the novelty in current problems or events, will perceive the permanent features of the political scene, both in domestic and in foreign affairs; and, doing so, he will be
the
who might
better able to understand the
We
new developments
in the
world today.
often feel bewildered by contemporary happenings because, on
the surface, they appear to be such chaotic mixtures of chance,
human
and grim necessity. But a deeper look at them changes the picture and makes it more intelligible. The political and social problems
caprice,
vu
of the day become less puzzling when they are seen in the larger perspectives provided by the accumulated experience and wisdom of the race. That accumulated experience and wisdom is available to us in the great books, but we must also make the effort to apply it to our
We must ask Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, and Mill for their editorial comments on the Montesquieu, the year. That is exactly what The Great Ideas stories of front page Today has attempted to do. The reader will find how rich and various are the answers which the great authors give, as he examines, in Parts I and II of this book, the many passages from their writings which are either quoted or referred to because of their striking relevance to the contemporary scene. What is true of current events in the world of affairs is also true of current developments in the arts and sciences. Here, too, the great books shed light. The latest scientific discoveries lose some of their mystery when they are seen as part of a continuous scientific tradition. New departures in philosophy and theology become more intelligible current concerns.
when they And,
are related to the traditional discussion of the great ideas.
similarly,
literature
contemporary achievements
take on their true proportions
against the great
ards for
all
works of poetry and
in the field
when they
fiction that
of imaginative are measured
provide the stand-
times.
Part III of
The Great Ideas Today consists of
five essays
about
current developments in the arts and sciences: in the physical sciences
and technology, in the biological sciences and medicine, in the social sciences and law, in philosophy and theology, and in imaginative literature. These essays aim not only to help the reader of the great books become cognizant of recent advances in the major fields of inquiry and creative thought, but also to deepen his understanding and appreciation of them by setting them against the background of the great books and the great ideas. He will find, in each of the major fields covered, guidance for further study, in the form of recommended readings that select the most significant of recent works published and refer him to passages in the great books and the Syntopicon. The publication of an annual supplement to Great Books of the Western World provides an opportunity to make additions to the works included in that set. Part IV of the present volume contains four such additions — three
significant
twentieth-century contributions in the
form of essays by Einstein, Dewey, and Toynbee, and one of Moliere's most enjoyable comedies. In subsequent years, we will follow the same principle in supplementing the great books set by adding to it other works of permanent worth and interest. We hope that this volume succeeds in extending the living world of the great books and the great ideas. If it does, then this volume and those to follow will deserve to stand beside Great Books of the Western World on the library shelf.
THE EDITORS Vlll
Contents
A
Foreword
vii
note on reference style
xi
PART THE GREAT DEBATE OF THE YEAR I
Is
democracy the best form of government for the newly formed nations?
1
The case for democracy: William O. Douglas
5
The case against democracy: Peregrine Worsthorne
47
PART II THE EDITORS REVIEW THE YEAR
An
analysis of three developments in
world
THE year's DEVELOPMENTS
affairs
77
PART III IN THE
ARTS AND SCIENCES Literature by
Mark Van Doren
Physical sciences and technology by Walter Sullivan Social sciences and law by
Edward A.
143
189
Shils
245
and medicine by Gilbert Cant Philosophy and religion by George P. Grant
291
Biological sciences
337
PART IV ADDITIONS TO THE GREAT BOOKS LIBRARY
Dewey
379
The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein The School for Wives by Moliere
421
Toynbee
529
Experience and Education by John Relativity:
Three Essays by Arnold
J.
ix
479
-
PICTURE CREDITS Adrian 149 (left): Agfa-Brovira 144: Ron Appelbe 541: Eve Arnold — Magnum 137, 394 Fabian Bachrach 155 (right): Marc & Evelyne Bernheim 23, 44, 50, 52, 54, 99 (top & bottom): Ian Berry -Magnum 88, 91: The Bettman Archive 93 (upper left), 380, 540, 558 (center right), 559 (left); M. D. Bianchi, Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924, 177: Braun from P. I. P. 364: Robert Breon,
(bottom):
173
Jr.,
J.
Brodie — Camera
Press— Pix 64: Dan Budnik — Magnum 182 Courtesy of the California Institute of Technology 198: Camera Press -Pix 31, 35, 45: Phyllis Cerf 165: Comedie Fran?aise 493, 501, 510, 519, 522: Paul Conklin-Pix 60, 62; Howard Coster 151 (left): George Cserna 174: Culver 57. 81, 255. 256, 257, 260. 267, 270, 271, 292,
406
(left
&
right),
422
480, 483, 530, 535,
(left),
537, 545, 552, 553, 558
(left,
center
left, right),
559 (center left, center right) Agence Dalmas-Pix 16: Roy Doty 432-33, 448-49; Elliott Erwitt- Magnum 300, 362;
Morgan
167
Fitz
(center):
Larry Fried -Pix
Wayne Miller- Magnum
Moore — Camera Press — Pix 69; Joe Munroe 135 Hans Namuth 170; New York Public Library 90; New York Times 103 (top & bottom), 107, 110. 118. 119
(left
& right).
Museum
of Art 559
Magnum
1
38. 264:
(right):
Vaughn Gray 80
Camera
left).
347; Marc Riboud — Magnum Alan Richards 130; Ian Russell
Press
—
Pix 59
Reprinted from Science by permission of the
W. F. Libby 232: Brian Seed 172 (center): Sheed & Ward, Inc. 361; Sam Shere — Pix 129; Silverstone- Palmer 9; Courtesy of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research 295 (left & right): Sportsman 316; Ruth Standinger 151 (right): Dennis Stock publisher and the author
— Magnum
140:
Pierre
(right):
R.
14:
Lotte Jacobi
Black Star 171 (top): Alfred A. Knopf 155 (center): Edward Leigh 357
Magnum
43: Marineland of the Pacific 323;
8:
Kryn Taconis — Magnum 93 (right); U.C.L.A. Department 340 (top); United
Press International 95, 127, 252
Johnson 157; Bern Keating-
Star
Photographic
382
(right):
Indian Information Service
— Black
Unknown by Walter
(right)
Haas -Magnum 424; G. D. Hackett £ Copyright by Philippe Halsman 370: Hamaya— Magnum 126; Harvard University 200; Declan Haun-Pix 311; HausnerThe New York Times 303; A. Blakelee Hine 153 181
Streit
the
Burt Glinn-
Ernst
167
Courtesy of the
Random House 80 (upper
Sullivan 206
Douglas Glass. London 149
142; Pennsylvania
(right);
Pirandello Estate 171 (bottom); Pix 249
Mark Gerson 161, 172 (top): Gevaert, from Four Screenplays of Ingmar Bergman, Simon (left):
120
Guido Organschi — Scope
From Assault on
Schuster, 1960, 183: Clint Giese 155
398, 407;
248; David
274
&
387. 393,
With permission of the publisher J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tubingen, Germany, from Marianne Weber, Max Weber: ein Lebensbild, 1926,
Eli
179
&
right),
Wallach 172 (bottom): Arthur W.
Wang
Wide World
(left):
(left,
right).
302. 321
Color
,
(left
72, 114, 122, 133, 207
209, 214, 219, 223, 252 (center),
365; John Wiley
&
Sons, Inc. 341
,
346
illustrations
"Africa — Land of Contrast"
Black Star
fol.
— Emil
Schulthess —
84
"Great Ideas of Western
Man" — Courtesy
Container Corporation of America
fol.
404
of
I
A
note on reference style
Books of the Western World For example, "Vol. 39, p. 210b" refers to page 210 in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, which is Volume 39 in Great Books of the Western World. The small letter "b" indicates the page section. In books printed in the following pages, passages in Great
Inare
referred to by volume, page number, and page section.
single
column, "a" and "b" refer to the upper and lower halves of
the page. In books printed in double column, "a" and "b" refer to the
upper and lower halves of the left column, "c" and "d" to the upper and lower halves of the right column. For example, "Vol. 53, p. 210b" refers to the lower half of page 210, since Volume 53, James's Principles of Psychology, is printed in single column. On the other hand, "Vol. 7, p. 210b" refers to the lower left quarter of the page, since Volume 7, Plato's Dialogues, is printed in double column.
XI
PART
I
THE GREAT DEBATE OF THE YEAR
Is
the best
democracy
form of government
for the
newly formed nations?
The case for democracy:
William
The case against democracy: peregrine
o.
douglas
worsthorne
editors encountered remarkably Thetopic for the of
Great Debate
little difficulty
the Year: Is
in
choosing the the Best
Democracy
Form
of Government for the Newly Formed Nations? This is not to say that no important events occurred during the past
year other than the emergence of
many independent
nations. Obvi-
American pilot Francis Powers was tried in Moscow for his ill-fated U-2 flight; national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties met to choose candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States; John F. Kennedy was elected President in November, 1960, by the narrowest of margins; Premier Khrushchev attended the session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York in the fall of 1960 and 4emanded the reorganization of its secretariat; Cuba drifted ever more surely ously, they did:
into the Soviet orbit, especially after the unsuccessful invasion of
Cuba by
exiled anti-Castro
Cubans
in the spring
of 1961.
no other event suggested a topic for debate as important as the emergence of many new sovereign nations. Provocative questions can be raised, of course, concerning each of the events mentioned. Should the United States engage in spying? Is the present method of choosing candidates for the presidency the best available one? Should the electoral college be reformed? Is the United Nations doomed to failure? What should the United States do about a Soviet satellite state 90 miles from its border? Interesting as these questions are, none of them seemed to involve as clear a conflict of principles as the question about democracy for the new African nations. The editors, therefore, undertook to have this question debated in the light of the great tradition of political Nevertheless, the editors
felt
that
ideas.
Freedom came
mighty rush that leaves no doubt that numbered. Seventeen new, independent nations came into being in Africa; sixteen of them were admitted to the United Nations during the session of the General Assembly in the fall of 1960 (Mauritania's admission to the United Nations was vetoed by the U.S.S.R.). to Africa in a
the days of colonialism
on
that continent are
Introduction
The coming of independence to a great part of Africa did not mean, however, that the continent was peaceful. A bloody war raged in the former Belgian Congo, the French- Algerian strife continued unsettled, and the heavy foot of Portuguese colonialism stamped out the faint stirrings of a movement for independence in Angola. No wonder, then, that the world anxiously eyed each new nation as it emerged from colonial bondage. The anxiety reflected the ever-present Cold War: With which side of that gigantic struggle would the new state align itself? Observers in the democratic West had an additional worry, even if a new nation indicated that, at least for the time being, it intended to vote with the West or to remain neutral. That worry had to do with the stability and viability of the new nation's government. Each of the new African states received its tutelage in matters of government from its former colonial ruler, whether that happened to be Great Britain, France, or Belgium. Each of them, therefore, adopted a form of government which, at least on paper, imitated the republican and democratic forms of government in Britain, France, and Belgium. But will democratic government modeled after these European forms work successfully in Africa? That is the question which has been raised again and again, especially in the light of such events as the Congolese war, and the apparent quick deterioration of nominally democratic governments, such as that of Ghana, into dictatorships. Here is the point of departure for our two antagonists. Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Peregrine Worsthorne agree that democracy is ideally the best form of government and that each nation — in Africa or elsewhere—should eventually enjoy it. Both, therefore, would like to see the eventual establishment of strong and dedicated democratic governments in the new African nations. But Justice Douglas and Mr. Worsthorne profoundly disagree on the immediate steps to be taken toward the ultimate goal of democratic government for the new nations.
Justice Douglas maintains that the only to institute
it
way
to achieve
democracy
is
at once. If a nation waits until conditions are ideal before
never become democratic, for there it is not now safe to let the people run their own government. On the contrary, says Justice Douglas, democracy is so strong a form of government and has so many intrinsic safeguards that all of the new nations should adopt it now. On the other hand, Mr. Peregrine Worsthorne believes that the peoples of the new nations will more surely gain internal freedom, and a meaningful voice in their government, if proper account is taken of the dangers that attend a country whose government is in form, but not in fact, democratic. Undemocratic outrages of the worst kind are taking place and will continue to take place in these countries, although they are democracies in name. Democracy will be blamed for these outrages. As a result, these countries will turn away from it and fall easy prey to the totalitarianism of communism or fascism.
becoming a democracy, then
it
are always reasons to be found
will
why
THE GREAT DEBATE, INTRODUCTION Both debaters speak with great authority and conviction. Each marshals impressive arguments for his side. The resolution of the issue is, perforce, left with the reader. The editors hope that the reader will not dismiss the issue as unresolvable and as one which does not concern him. The issue concerns all of us. There may be no more important task facing the nations of the West than that of successfully transplanting their ideas of individual freedom and the remainder of the world.
human
dignity to
WILLIAM
O.
DOUGLAS
The case for democracy
The nature of democracy The self-governing community
7
Universal suffrage
11
Forms of representative democracy
15
Safeguards of democracy
19
1 1
of powers
19
powers
26
Special provisions for special situations
29
The separation and
dilution
Division of legislative
The
loyal opposition
36
Freedom
42
1 1 1
The Honorable WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, has had a long and varied public career. Born in Minnesota in 1898, he was graduated from the Columbia Law School in 1925. After teaching for several years in the Columbia and Yale law schools, he was appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1936 and served as its chairman for two years. President Roosevelt nominated him to the Supreme Court
in
1939. Mr. Justice Douglas has traveled widely and has written a
number of books about
his travel experiences.
works on natural
life.
A
number of works,
including the recent
He
is
also the author of several
lifelong interest in civil liberties
A
is
evidenced by a
Living Bill of Rights.
I
THE NATURE OF DEMOCRACY The self-governing community
Democracy,
unlike refrigerators and steel mills,
commodity.
come
a
way
of life, contagious
to see its potentials for the spirit
slowly in
new
lands. It
democracy
If
It is
may
is
not an exportable
among those who have
and mind of men.
take a long, long time for
It
full
takes root
flowering.
have a steady growth, it needs teachers who can and enlighten the minds of oncoming the perils as well as the opportunities in democratic is
to
specialize in political education
generations to
experiments.
The
task of educating leaders of these
new
nations has
been long delayed. The task of establishing among those nations institutes of political education so that thousands trained in the philosophy of a free society will be graduated each year has hardly started.
The undertaking is vast and complicated. It will require years, indeed decades, of patient and unremitting work. Yet if the roots of democratic institutions take hold, the ultimate creations will be exciting. Self-government within systems that make room for all minorities and for all the diversities among people is destined to be the achievement of all mankind. Every people must start sometime; and with advanced planning, the start of none need be long delayed. Montesquieu said: 'The people are extremely well qualified for choosing those whom they are to entrust with part of their authority. For though few can tell the exact degree of men's capacities, yet there are none but are capable of knowing in general whether the person they choose is better qualified than most of his neighbours."^ My visit to Persian villages in 1950 illustrated the point. Prime Minister Mossadegh passed a law designed to introduce democracy into the villages. Persian villages have never known democracy in their long history, nor have they ever performed municipal functions in the Western sense. They were a species of private property, owned down to the community bathhouse by the landlord. Mossadegh introduced democracy at the grass roots in an indirect way. The Parliament passed the "20 per cent law," under which the rent of each sharecropper was reduced by that percentage. The amount so determined .
1
The
.
.
Spirit
of Laws, Vol. 38, pp. 4d, 71c
THE GREAT DEBATE for each village
was then divided
into
two equal
parts:
one half being
remitted to the tenant and the other half being set aside for use by his village.
Most landlords evaded
those that did set a powerful force
the law, but in
operation.
some complied, and The existence of the
made the villagers eager to use it. So they elected from members of a village council — the first in Persian history. I was present at some of these village meetings. The people were virtually all illiterate. Yet they knew their neighbors; they knew whom to trust; they knew who the ablest in the village were. Their selections of council members were wise ones. The ones chosen would serve the village fund
their midst
village interests.
Once
it
man that he should actively participate in makunder which he is to live, democracy is on the way.
occurs to a
ing the decisions
The democratic
activist believes that democracy represents a value which should be defended and extended. No attack on democracy can hide the fact that it can be replaced only by a system that substitutes coercion for persuasion, one that replaces the individual's choice with
the choice of
The
some
habits of
ruler.
most of the world run against active participation
self-government. But those habits are being broken. is
Our own
in
history
a history of breaking the inner shackles of habit. But our history
is
not necessarily a unique path. Outsiders tend to overlook the ties that have long held the people
of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa together. Sometimes tribe. It
may have been was the
it
was a
a landlord system or a princely state. In large
That is true in Vietnam as it was in Vietnamese — probably 90 per cent — are Buddhists. Their Buddhism fuses several religions — Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and ancestor worship. The cult of the ancestor is the predominant element; it permeates Vietnamese family and social life. Some say that the familial tradition and the tribal tradition are antidemocratic. But democratic beginnings can be made even where tribe or family is the dominant influence. A national figure is needed— a areas of Asia
China.
PERSIAN VILLAGERS
WITH LANDLORD Though almost all are
illiterate,
the villagers
have acted wisely in
public affairs
The
it
family.
large majority of
NEHRU OF INDIA In some new nations,
a leader to
command
the loyalties
of all the people — a father symbol — is necessary
command loyalties and be the father symbol. Ngo Dinh Diem has filled that role in South Vietnam just as Nehru did in India. Where there is leadership and the mucilage of ties born of custom, leader to
religion, race or language, a start
toward a democratic society can
be made. People who cannot read have obvious limitations when it comes to being informed about public issues and about candidates for office. Yet modern radio establishes an effective line of communication between candidates and the masses. The mechanics of the ballot present no great obstacle. Election officials can be trained. That was done in India; and it resulted in smoothly operating polling places. Symbols for the separate parties or candidates can be used. In India bullocks were the symbol for the Congress Party, the peepul tree for Socialist, a thatched hut for Praja, a locomotive for Republican, an elephant for Scheduled Castes, etc.
The 1951-52
general election in India
was extended over a period
of 17 weeks; the one in 1957 was completed in ten weeks. There were
26 parties in the 1951-52 general elections and 25 in the 1957 election. Nearly 200 million people voted. By 1957 there had been many byelections and several state elections, the experience of the people increasing with each. In 1957 the three leading parties were the Congress Party that polled 48 per cent of the vote, the Praja Socialist that polled 30 per cent, the Communist that polled 9 per cent. No electorate ever has the comprehension to understand, much less to solve, all problems. A few issues may be understandable, such as war versus peace. Or again, the need of more water in arid lands, food
THE GREAT DEBATE shortages, the lack of doctors, the need of medicines, nurses, hospitals
— these
are issues that illiterate people
graduates.
The
may
see as clearly as college
of course, do not have the same range of
illiterate,
understanding on some issues as the educated citizens have. The nuances of the difference between socialized medicine and medical
may be more Examples can be
services rendered on the basis of private enterprise
apparent to the educated than to the
illiterate.
multiplied. in political competence between and the uneducated is one only in degree. Montesquieu says that the people can choose generals and judges for they have "better information in a public forum than a monarch in his palace. But are they capable of conducting an intricate affair, of seizing and improving the opportunity and critical moment of action? No; this
Yet, on analysis, the difference
the educated
surpasses their
abilities. "^
The modern world presents problems too intricate for solution by any but experts. The waste material from nuclear reactors is one example. It is presently being stored in large quantities by those who have mastered nuclear fusion. It has a half-life up to 1,000 years. No vote by any electorate in any country in any world could intelligently resolve the question of its disposal. All that any vote could do would be to express confidence in the ability of one candidate as against the other to solve the problem in a way that would best safeguard the electorate's interests. As Hegel said, even if "the people in a democracy resolve on a war, a general must head the army."^ There are many issues on which the electorate in the modern world cannot vote intelligently, e.g., the efficacy of a common market that has no history of actual performance; the damage done to soil, food, and lands by insecticides; the impact of automation and the manner of treating the labor
Rousseau
common
said:
it
displaces.
"Wise men,
if
they try to speak their language to
own, cannot possibly make themselves understood. There are a thousand kinds of ideas which it is impossible to translate into popular language. Conceptions that are too general ."^ and objects that are too remote are equally out of its range. Since modern societies pose problems that only experts can reduce to intelligible form, elections more and more become mere expressions of confidence in a particular candidate, even where the electorate is highly educated and therefore presumably intelligent and well-inthe
herd instead of
its
.
.
formed. Literacy and intelligence are not synonymous. race have no measurable relationship.
why
leave the
management of
2 Ibid., p. 4d 3
Philosophy of History-, Vol. 46,
4 The Social Contract, Vol. 38,
10
p.
p.
173b
401c
To
return to
Intelligence and
my
Persian village,
village affairs to the landlord
when
the
William O. Douglas villagers
know
their
needs and can pick from among their
own
ranks
the ones to carry out their desires?
nations have the capacity to manage There is no valid excuse for denying them that minimum measure of democracy. At least that much of selfgovernment they should have.
The peoples of newly emerging
their village or municipal
affairs.
Universal suffrage
Democracy nary
men
has had able advocates. Thucydides said that "ordiusually manage public affairs better than their more
who
gifted fellows" since "those
mistrust their
content to be less learned than the laws. lieved that
democracy
sires
.
."^
.
own
cleverness are
Others have long be-
tyranny — the result, Plato said, of drink-
."^ wine of freedom. The argument pro and con about democracy Euripides summed it up in a dialogue:
ing "too deeply of the strong
.
.
is
an ancient one.
Herald: A poor hind, granted he be not all unschooled, would from his toil to give his mind to politics. .
still
be unable
.
more hostile to a city than a despot; where he is, there place no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equal-
Theseus: Naught are in the
whose
.
ity is at
is
first
an
end."^
Herodotus took up the same debate: Otanes: The rule of the is wont to commit.
many
... is free
from
all
those outrages which a king
Megabyzus: There
is nothing so void of understanding, nothing so wantonness, as the unwieldy rabble.^
full
of
his only chance of fulfillment — the realizaand equality. There is, moreover, a flexibility in the concept of democracy which will fit varying needs. It is a form of government which — under built-in controls — any people with resolution can manage. What do we mean by "democracy"? The image created in the minds of people of the Western world by the word "democracy" is quite different from what prevailed in the ancient city-states of Greece or from what has sometimes been referred to as the democracy of the mob. Lincoln's democracy, which he extolled in his Gettysburg Address — "government of the people, by the people, for the people" — states the ideal. Lincoln's democracy envisioned that within broad limits everyone had the franchise. Moreover, Lincoln's democracy was not the "town hall" type. The people acted
Democracy
offers
man
tion of freedom, justice,
5
History of the Peloponnesian War, Vol.
6 The Republic, Vol. 7
8
6, p.
425b
412a p. 262a
7, p.
The Suppliants, Vol. The History, Vol. 6,
5,
pp. 107d-108a
u
THE GREAT DEBATE through representatives. in principle
The
The government was
but representative
in
a republic
— democratic
form.
some form of representative government "democracy" we talk about when we ask a form of government that is suitable for the newly emerg-
universal franchise and
are the ingredients of the
whether
it
is
ing nations.
Aristotle discussed the danger of turning the
masses — "for
their folly will lead
them
power over
into error,
and
to the
their dishon-
— "for a state in esty into crime" — and the danger of not doing so which many poor men are excluded from office will necessarily be full of enemies."^ Centuries later — in 1821 —Chancellor Kent spoke much more dogmatically when he expressed the classic position against universal suffrage — the danger of giving the vote to "men of no property" and to "the crowds of dependents connected with great manufacturing and commercial establishments and the motley and undefinable population of crowded ports" and to "every man that works a day on the road or serves an idle hour in the militia."^^ The principle of universal suffrage does not mean that every person must be entitled to vote. The mentally incompetent are not granted the franchise. Minors are customarily excluded. Most states require voters to be 2 1 years of age. Alaska lowered the voting age to 1 9, Georgia and Kentucky, to 18. People convicted of infamous crimes are denied the franchise. Up to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 — long after Lincoln's Gettysburg Address — the right of women in the United States to vote was not guaranteed by the Constitution. Today twenty states impose some form of a literacy test on voters; and those tests have been sustained against charges of unconstitutionality so long as they are not used as devices to discriminate against classes of voters, e.g., members of a particular race.^^ Many states have had property qualifications for voters. Five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia — still have poll taxes. Today nine states in this country bar paupers from voting. What is the standard by which limitations on the franchise should be tested? It is, I think, a simple one: if— in fact — a person can handle his own affairs, then he should participate in the disposition of public affairs. Exclusion of children and the mentally incompetent is justified. The exclusion of women is based on nothing more than tradition. The perpetual disenfranchisement of felons — allowing no room for rehabilitation—seems unjust. Literacy tests are often earnestly pressed. The government of Sir Roy Welensky in Rhodesia has long argued for a multi-racial political system based on qualifications in order to vote. That system would
9 Politics, Vol. 9, p. 479c The People Shall Judge (Chicago: University of The Science of Right, Vol. 42, pp. 436d-437c.
10
1
1
12
Chicago Press, 1949), Vol.
See United States Reports, Vol. 360 (October Term 1958). Lassiter Board of Elections, pp. 45-54.
v.
1, p.
569. Cf. Kant,
Northampton County
William O. Douglas
give Europeans a majority at the
start. In the end it would give Africans defended on the grounds of literacy and competency, not race. Literacy tests can be and often are advocated by those who want to maintain the leverage of the status quo. But they are difficult to defend except in terms of expediency. In terms of principle they are not
control. It
is
warranted.
The exceptions to universal suffrage, diverse and important as they may be in a particular environment, do not destroy the principle stated by Jefferson
in the
Declaration of Independence:
We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal: endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed .... that they are
Those who say that democracy is not appropriate as a form of government suitable for newly emerging nations repudiate the principle
who are secure in their own who want a change. Adam of view concerning our own
of "the consent of the governed." Those status
quo usually look askance
at those
Smith stated a jaundiced British point Founding Fathers:
The persons who now govern
the resolutions of
tinental Congress, feel in themselves at this
what they
call their
Con-
moment
a degree of importance which, perhaps, the greatest subjects in Europe scarce feel. From shopkeepers, tradesmen, and attornies, they are become statesmen and legislators, and are employed in contriving a new form of government for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves, will become, and which, in-
deed, seems very likely to become, one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world. Five hundred different people, perhaps, who in different ways act immediately under the Continental Congress; and five hundred thousand, perhaps, who act under those five hundred, all feel in the same manner a proportionable rise in their own importance. ^^
"Consent of the governed" is an ethical principle. It rests on the worth of the individual. It assumes there are no inferior people who are to have no voice in the selection of their rulers. It asserts that citizens of these new nations, who have always been under some totalitarian regime, should have a chance to become skilled and
dignity and
responsible in the exercise of the franchise.
"Consent of the governed" is sturdy common sense. It rejects which seek to prove that giving the vote to grown men and women is no different from giving it to children, or that both the poor and the mad are identically incapable of political participation. strained metaphors
But the reach of the idea is broader. It looks forward to a time when the free development of each individual is the condition for the free development of all men. Some new nations have had promising starts under universal suffrage. India — a heterogeneous country of 400 million people — is the conspicuous example. Burma — a smaller nation of 18 million, made up 12
The Wealth of Nations, Vol.
39, p. 270c-d
13
THE GREAT DEBATE of numerous communities — is another. The literacy rate in these countries is low. In India it averages from 20 to 25 per cent. Yet people, though illiterate, may nevertheless be intelligent. Their choice of
Nehru's government
India and of
in
U
Nu's
Burma
in
indicates dis-
criminating choices.
The uninformed nature of
the electorate
however, sometimes
is,
taken as the excuse for depriving people of voting rights. In 1958 when Mohammed Ayub seized control of Pakistan, that nation
was operating under a written constitution that provided uniThere were numerous political parties on the national Corruption was common; and many high officials were sus-
versal suffrage.
scene.
pected of using their offices to line their own pockets. Party leaders were also charged with bribing voters. These were the excuses for the
Even after the "scoundrels" had been removed from democracy was drastically limited. A community was defined as a group of eight to ten thousand people. It was made small so that the members would be likely to know each other and thus be able to make an intelligent choice of the person to represent them in municipal aflPairs. But the voters were disenfranchised in the selection of all officials above the municipal level. Ayub concluded that the voters had such narrow horizons, such little knowledge of state or national needs dictatorship. office,
ELECTION REGISTRATION IN
INDIA
The political competence of the largely people has increased with each election illiterate
that they could not
make
lect officials for the
cials at the
In
among candidates running
intelligent choices
for the higher offices. Municipal officials
— elected
by the people — se-
next higher level; the latter in turn
name
the
offi-
next level, and so on.
Pakistan
it
seemed
that
Plato's formula
"He who
was being followed;
has a mind to establish a State must go to a democracy as he would to a bazaar at which they sell [constitutions], and pick out .
.
.
."^^ What Ayub did was to select a limited the one that suits him form of democracy; yet it is at least a start toward self-government. And this constitution went further than those of some other new coun.
.
.
tries.
India followed Thucydides,
who endorsed
popular rule and said
that "if the best guardians of property are the rich,
and the best
counsellors the wise, none can hear and decide so well as the many; .
.
that
.
all
these talents, severally and collectively, have their just
place in a democracy. "^^ This reflected the
wisdom of John
was Nehru's highly Stuart Mill
principled stand.
who emphasized
He
the need
through education and experience in community or national affairs of taking people "out of the narrow circle of personal and family selfishness, and accustoming
the lic
them to the comprehension of joint interests, management of joint concerns — habituating them to act from pub-
or semi-public motives, and guide their conduct by aims which
unite instead of isolating 13
The Republic, Vol.
them from one another."^^ These can include
7. p. 4()9c
14 History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 6, 15
14
On
Liberty, Vol. 43, p.
320b
p.
520b
William O. Douglas
service
on
juries, participation in municipal affairs,
membership
in
voluntary groups, and the myriad of activities that add up to the "po-
education of a free people." Universal suffrage performs an indispensable function in a republican form of government. "It is essential to such a government" Madison said, "that it be derived from the great body of the society, litical
not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favoured class of
it;
other-
might aspire to the rank of rewise a handful of tyrannical nobles publicans, and claim for their government the honourable title of re.
.
.
public."i6
Forms of representative democracy Government through representatives is
both a necessity
in the
modern state and the crucial device for the distribution of power. Through it, minority interests, which the majority might not always respect, are safeguarded. The distribution of power is achieved largely by three devices: the separation of powers, the variation of the selection and tenure accorded the various positions, and the absolute prohibition of some action. Before those controls are considered, the forms of representative democracy should be noted. Most of the newly emerged nations have written constitutions that
provide for the direct election of
members of
the legislature.
Some
have an upper house whose members are named differently. Malaya has a Senate, a majority of the members being appointed by the Chief
some members being appointed but The Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) has produced a variant form. Twothirds of its Senate are elected by "representatives of provincial, muExecutive. Nigeria has a Senate,
the
majority being selected by lower legislative assemblies.
and rural authorities" while the rest are elected "from economic, social and cultural groups; selected in part from the most representative groups of this kind and in part for reasons of special individual competence." Features of the latter kind of representative democracy had counterparts in our own nation. The United States Constitution — as adopted and as it operated until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1 9 1 3 — provided for the selection of Senators by the state legislature, not by the people. The grant to state legislatures to choose our Senators was rationalized on two grounds: it was thought that this device would favor "a select appointment" and give "to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former, and may form a convenient nicipal
between the two systems."^'' not at the beginning have a direct election of a President and Vice-President. Originally, their choice was an independent, uncon-
link
We did
16
The
Federalist, \o\. 43, p. 125c-d
17 Ibid.,
p.
189b
15
THE CONGOLESE SENATE IN SESSION "Government
through representatives is
.
.
in
.
a necessity the
modern state"
trolled act of an Electoral College.
The
selection of President
and Vice-
President by an Electoral College was put on several grounds
some of
which sound familiar when accounts of Pakistan's "democracy" are read. One reason was that "A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations."^^ Another reason was to "promise an effectual security" against the "mischief" of "tumult and disorder" attendant on popular elections. The integrity of the electors against foreign intrigue
was thought to be assured (1) by making their dependent on "an immediate act of the people of America": and (2) by giving the Electoral College a "transient existence." It was thought that this indirect method of election afforded "a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."^^ With the appearance of American political parties, the Electoral College began to perform merely a perfunctory role. The party system itself became a device by which universal suffrage was disciplined. While in law only a few states bind their electors to follow the popular will, in practice and tradition the Electoral College makes no independent choice. The Constitution of the Malagasy Republic vests the executive function in a President who is elected for a term of seven years. He is chosen by an electoral college composed of (a) members of the national assembly: (b) members of the Senate: (c) members of provincial councils: and (d) delegates of municipal and rural assemblies elected by those assemblies, the number of delegates to correspond
or corrupt influence office
"proportionately" to the 18 Ibid., p. 205c 19 Ibid.,
16
p.
206b-c
number of
inhabitants.
William O. Douglas
India's executive
power
is
vested
in the
President
a term of five years by an electoral college
members of
the
who
is
composed of
two Houses of Parliament and assembly of the states.
chosen for elected
(a)
(b) elected
members
of the legislative Article II of our Federal Constitution gives the choice of federal judges, not to the people, but to the President with the advice and
consent of the Senate. Mill thought that "Of all officers of government, those in whose appointment any participation of popular suffrage is "^o Only one-fourth of our the most objectionable are judicial officers. states vest the selection of state judges in the governor or legislature; the rest of our states provide for the election of judges by the voters. system, however,
not in vogue in the
new
nations.
Under
This
latter
their
constitutions judges are appointed by the executive branch: and
is
once appointed they usually are made "irremovable," as the constitutions of the Republic of Cameroun and the Republic of the Ivory Coast state it. Mill believed that "no executive functionaries should be appointed by popular election: neither by the votes of the people themselves, nor by those of their representatives," because, as he put it, "The business of finding the fittest persons to fill public employments ... is very laborious, and requires a delicate as well as highly conscientious ."^^ discernment. We leave this function in the federal system to the President, who acts with the advice and consent of the Senate. He names members of the Cabinet, members of various agencies, ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and federal judges. In our states so-called cabinet posts are .
.
generally elected. But below that level the executive has the appointing power. In the
of government are
Universal
newly emerged nations the various functionaries
named by
suff'rage
the executive.
need not reach down
to that level of expertise.
however, important that the people choose the main officials. For as Aristotle said, "when the democracy is master of the votingpower, it is master of the constitution. "^^ The extent to which the "direct" election of a leader and of legislators by the people will be successful will not necessarily depend on their literacy or prior experience. It will turn on the quality of the leadership that commands their loyalties. Men like Nehru and U Nu have been symbols of honesty and integrity, as well as symbols of national aspirations. Where there is leadership of that quality, people It
is,
rise to their responsibilities.
Hegel made the point that elected
officials
represent not a particular
interest: they are there to "vindicate the universal interest
in is
.
.
.
their
meant to be a living body in which all members deliberate common and reciprocally instruct and convince each other." That not always what happens. Yet we know from our own experience
assembly
is
20 Representative Government, Vol. 4?>. p. 4\?>d 22 The Athenian Constitution, Vol. 9, p. 556d
21
Ibid., p. 4\2a.
17
THE GREAT DEBATE that the ical
lawmaker "acquires and develops
sense, tested by his experience.
a managerial and polit-
.''^3 .
.
Legislative assemblies elected by the people have their evils and
any form of government. But as Mill afflicts bureaucratic governments, and which they usually die of, is routine. ... In the profession of government, as in other professions, the sole idea of the majority is to do what they have been taught; and it requires a popular government to enable the conceptions of the man of original genius among them to prevail over the obstructive spirit of trained mediocrity. "^^ Yet "freedom cannot produce its best effects, and often breaks down altogether, unless means can be found of combining it with trained and skilled
spawn
their bureaucracies like
pointed out:
"The disease which
administration. "2^
Representative democracy through the various forms
it
can take
gives that opportunity at the municipal, the provincial, and the national level.
Even Egypt and Indonesia grant the people the right to vote only municipal elections. Morocco does the same, though its municipal councils are mainly advisory. In 960 Morocco let both men and women over 2 years old vote. For villages or municipalities of 7,500 people or less, nine council members were elected. That number inin
1
1
creased proportionately until in communities over 225,000 in size, 5 1 council members were chosen. Above that level, these three governments withhold that right, trusting only a dictatorship. its
Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem has had municipal elections since independence. In 1961 it had its first presidential election. In the
voted
Philippines, though the people, since independence, have
they were denied the right to vote in muUnder the Spanish regimes, which long ruled the Islands, the people were not trusted to vote at any level of government. The ruler named the governors of the provinces; and they in turn named the members of the village councils. Resistance to the grant of the franchise in municipal elections was great. The conservatives shook their heads, saying the people were not yet ready for that responsibility. But a group of Filipinos (organized as the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement and aided by Dr. James Yen of the International Mass Education Committee) had awakened the people in some 100 villages in the Islands to the needs of modern village development. As a result of that awakening, the political pressures for a grant of the franchise mounted. There has been a similar awakening throughout the underdeveloped in national elections,
nicipal elections until 1960.
The Asian and African experiments show that universal suffrage can be immediately granted to the people at least in municipal elections. Nations that trust only a dictatorship miss a great opportunity to start their people on the path to self-government. Those
continents.
23 Philosophy of Right, Vol. 46, p. I03b-c 24 Representative Government, Vol. 43, pp. 364d-365a 25 Ihid., p. 365b-c
18
William O. Douglas
not trust the people to choose their rulers can always find convenient excuses to withhold the franchise from them. The difference in viewpoint is age-old. But the principle of "the consent of the governed" will not be long denied in these revolutionary times without setting into operation forces of disintegration within a nation. The ideas of our own Declaration of Independence are so powerful a ferment in underdeveloped areas that an effort to thwart them will only feed the cause which the Communists champion. The reason for relying on the principle of "the consent of the gov-
who do
erned"
not,
is
however, to thwart Communist strategy.
belief that
all
telligence to
It is
a sound
places confidence in the people. It expresses the peoples, given a chance, will have the insight and in-
principle because
it
manage
"the power which
is
their
own
affairs.
It is true,
as Mill said, that
strongest tends perpetually to
become
the sole
power."26 However, this tendency is no barrier to the inauguration of representative forms of democracy, but merely indicates the problem with which the architects of any new system must deal.
II
SAFEGUARDS OF DEMOCRACY The separation and
dilution
democratic theory Thecommon good and act
is
munity.
The aims and
ing them, will
of powers
that the majority will
have a vision of the
in the best interest of the particular
com-
objectives, as well as the procedures for attain-
change from time to time as new needs arise and as the
wisdom of the people is the vision of a ruler or years than likely to be a better guide over the
wisdom of
the people grows. Certainly the
a family.
Yet the problem is not solved by turning every political decision over to a "town hall" or even to the majority. The Federalist spoke of "the confusion and intemperance of a multitude," adding that "In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."^ The sheer weight of numbers in a law-making group creates its own special problems. "In the first place, the more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is to be the ascendancy of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and of weak capacities. "^ But the objection to majority rule strikes even deeper. While the will of the majority is a safeguard against types of tyranny, even ma-
known
26 1
Ibid., p.
376a
Vol. 43,
p.
2 Ibid.,
p.
173a-b
181b
19
THE GREAT DEBATE must be restricted to prescribed procedures where the life, property of an individual is threatened. A "pure democor liberty racy," according to Madison, gives rise to abuses by the majority
jorities
— "there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual."^ One protection is the separation of powers. The Declaration of the Man of 1789 (preface to the French Constitution of 1791) "Every society in which ... the separation of powers is not determined has no constitution." Aristotle made the classic statement of separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.^ Madison referred to the joinder of legislative, executive, and judicial power in the same hands "whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective" as "the very definition of tyranny."^ Montesquieu said that all would be lost were "the same man or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of Rights of
said that
trying the causes of individuals."^
Madison thought the legislative power more likely than the others to become dominant, first because its constitutional powers are most extensive and less susceptible of precise description and second because
it
"alone has access to the pockets of the people.
.""^ .
.
Men
were often condemned, exiled, imprisoned, or executed, and their property confiscated by a legislative act. Such acts are called bills of attainder and are proscribed in our Constitution. If penalties are to be fastened on the citizen, the regular judicial procedures (with all their safeguards including right to counsel and to jury trial) must be followed. The vicious effects of bills of attainder greatly influenced the provision in the Virginia Declaration of Rights of June 12, 1776, that "the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judiciary." Legislatures were sometimes vindictive and punished an act which, when committed, had violated no ordinance. We ban those laws as ex post facto. India's and Malaya's constitutions have comparable
Ex post facto laws are engines of tyranny since today's innocent act is tomorrow's crime — should the government have an end to serve by making it such. provisions.
A
legislature
may
represent a religious group that uses governmental
power to wreak vengeance on religious minorities. Our First Amendment protects the conscience of the individual and his right to worship as he pleases;
and it prohibits the "establishment" of any church, such as was done in our colonial days when the Church of England was the official church in some colonies, supported by taxation. The Malaya Constitution has comparable provisions, with the exception 3
lhid.,p. 51c-d Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 498b-502a,c. The Federalist, Vol. 43, p. 153d
4 See 5
6 The Spirit of Laws, Vol. 38, 7
The Federalist, Vol. 43,
20
p.
p.
70a
15 Id
William O. Douglas
any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the Muslim religion" may be regulated by law. The Indian Constitution has broad provisions guaranteeing the free exercise of religion and banning the collection of taxes to be spent for religious
that "propagation of
purposes. Nigeria provides, inter alia, that no religious denomination shall be prevented from providing "religious instruction" in any place of education "maintained wholly" by that denomination. Nations that are emerging from French colonial rule usually have less explicit guarantees as to freedom of conscience and religion. But the basic
guarantee
is
usually present.
the Constitution of the Republic
Thus
of the Ivory Coast states that government "shall respect all beliefs." The Republic of Cameroun declares for "separation of Church and State."
Majorities sometimes went on "lynching bees." The rule of law is designed for guilty and innocent alike. The police under majority rule may prove as noxious as poHce under a dictator or king. Power is a heady thing, even when its source is majority rule. Montesquieu said that "every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry To prevent this abuse, it is nechis authority as far as it will go. essary from the very nature of things that power should be a check .
to
.
.
power."^
police have been a notorious example. They tend to become a law unto themselves. Hence we have provided that a person, when arrested, must be taken without unreasonable delay before a magistrate so that his detention, if it continues, is a public affair. In this country that matter is governed by statute; in India and in Malaya it is em-
The
bedded
in the Constitution.
Our Constitution provides
for a "speedy" trial of criminal cases. Nigeria requires a judicial hearing "within a reasonable time." By reason of our Fourth Amendment — which is duplicated in most
— police
cannot ransack a house or business office or automobile first get a warrant from the magistrate. The police throughout history have taken short cuts, using torture and numerous ingenious devices to compel suspects to confess. Since everyone has a breaking point, coercion produces untrustworthy admissions of guilt. Moreover, burning, stretching, beating, abusing defenseless people are affronts to human dignity. Our Fifth Amendment outlaws any compulsion to produce admissions used against the citizen in a states
at will.
They must
criminal prosecution.
Most of
the newly emerged nations leave this
A
few put protective provisions in their Thus Nigeria provides that "no person shall be subtorture," and that no defendant in a criminal case shall be
matter to legislative control. constitutions.
jected to
compelled to take the stand.
Our Fifth Amendment protects property as well as life and liberty. One man's land cannot be taken by government and granted to another person. The taking must be for a "public purpose." No matter who the 8
The
Spirit
of Laws, Vol. 38,
p.
69b-c
21
THE GREAT DEBATE property owner pensation."
is, if
his property
is
taken, he must be paid "just
The Republic of Cameroun has
com-
a provision comparable
Like provisions are found in the constitutions of nations that were colonies under England. India has a variation in a recent amendment that makes the amount of compensation depend on a legislative to ours.
determination not subject to judicial review. Our Bill of Rights has no "equal protection" clause in it. But the Fourteenth Amendment — forged in the Civil War — has one that is
The racial problems that gave rise to it are backgrounds of the newly emerged nations. The prin-
applicable to the states. reflected in the ciple of "equal
new
protection"
constitutions;
and
in
is
without exception underlined
the provisions are spelled out in
The
some
detail.
Presidential system used in this country
aration of
power between
The Constitution provides
in the
some, notably Burma, India, and Malaya,
marks a
distinct sep-
the executive and legislative branches. that
the United States shall be a
"no person holding any
member
of either
office
House during
under
his con-
tinuance in office." Similar provisions for separation of the executive
from the other branches are included in the new constitutions for the Republics of Cameroun, Malagasy, and Senegal, each of which was greatly influenced by French precedents. The cabinet or parliamentary system, in vogue in many new nations, creates a close executive-legislative relationship. That is the system that prevails in England and in most European nations. India followed that example with a slight modification in the creation of §in office of President that
is
largely sui generis.
in young inexperienced hands may prove to be the least desirable. It may result in more turbulence than progress. Even France — wise and experienced in the art of government — abused the parliamentary system so as to make every government temporary. The new French Constitution by strengthening the role
Yet the parliamentary system
of the executive produced what is popularly known in Asia and Africa as De Gaullism. That is, however, but one version of the strong executive which
we
established in our Constitution.
Those who have little faith in popular sovereignty point to Ghana where majority rule under a parliamentary system has led to great abuse. It was doubtless naive of the British to endow that nation with the Westminster system that requires a high degree of sophistication and discipline for successful operation. A separation of powers with the establishment of a strong executive such as
would have provided a greater degree of
we and the French have
stability
and yet assured
popular sovereignty.
Hamilton called the "complete independence" of the judiciary essential in a constitution that curbs legislative
power as ours does. "Limitations of this kind," he said, "can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the 22
COURT SCENE IN THE IVORY COAST "An independent judiciary [can insure] that every man
A
will
.
.
.
receive equal justice under law"
Constitution void."^ Hamilton, indeed, proclaimed in favor of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislative acts long before Marbury V. Madison was written by Chief Justice Marshall. ^^ Hamilton said that "the Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution."^^ It has been said that "The
keystone of the whole structure is, in fact, the system provided for most unique contribution to the science of government which has been made by American political genius. "^^ One basic requirement for a democratic regime is a judiciary that is free from manipulation or control by the executive or by the legislature. An independent judiciary is the rock against which all storms of passion break. It is an assurance that the conscience of the community will find expression, that every man, no matter how unpopular, will receive equal justice under law. Montesquieu sounded the alarm about joining the judiciary power with either the legislative or executive. If it were joined with the former, he said, "the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator." If the judge were joined with the executive, he stated, "the judge might behave with violence and oppression. "^^ Judges have been tyrants. The jury that acquitted William Penn of the charge of committing a nuisance was jailed by the judge. Judges were often mere instrumentalities to carry out the will of the king or dictator. The most important control over judges is the jury which makes its independent determination of guilt or innocence in criminal
judicial control — the
9 The Federalist, Vol. 43,
p.
230d
10 See United States Reports, Vol. 5
n
The
(December Term
1801), pp. 137-180.
238b 12 Charles A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (New York: Macmillan Co., 1939), p. 162 13 The Spirit of Laws, Vol. 38, p. 70a Federalist, Vol. 43,
p.
23
5
THE GREAT DEBATE cases or finds the facts in civil cases. The constitutions of the new nations do not provide for trial by jury, even though their background
has been British colonial rule. Some, like India, have restricted the jury system by statute to a very narrow group of cases. Trial by jury in these new nations — if it is ever used — will be one end product of
education
in
The new
government. constitutions provide, however, other safeguards against
the judiciary.
The
right to counsel
is
often recognized.
So
is
of confrontation of those who testify against the accused. sumption of innocence is commonly made explicit. In the American system
it
was thought
who
pre-
that "the great security
against a gradual concentration of the several
partment, consists in giving to those
the right
The
powers
in the
same de-
administer each department
the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. "^^ The American Federal Constitution, is, indeed, marked by a "sedulous avoidance of the concentration of great masses of power in the same hands" to use Mill's words. ^^ In this country none of the three branches has undisputed control. Mr. Justice Brandeis said: The separation of the powers of government did not make each branch completely autonomous. It left each, in some measure, dependent upon the others, as it left to each power to exercise, in some respects, functions in
and judicial. Obviously the President cannot secure full execution of the laws, if Congress denies to him adequate means of doing so. Full execution may be defeated because Congress declines to create offices indispensable for that purpose. Or, because Congress, having created the office, declines to make the indispensable appropriation. Or, because Congress, having both created the office and made the appropriation, prevents, by restrictions which it imposes, the appointment of officials who in quality and character are indispensable to the efficient execution of the law.^^
their nature executive, legislative
The
President with his veto exercises a degree of restraint on ConCongress can override a veto. Congress — being the appropriating authority — exercises a profound control over executive policy. The judiciary — by refusing to enforce unconstitutional laws — acts as a check or restraint on both the Congress and the Chief Executive. These are mere examples. The list of checks and restraints under our constitutional system is long. Those who speak for the majority are restricted in what they may do. These characteristics of the Federal Constitution apply in the main to our state constitutions. Each state, gress.
while accepting majority rule through duly elected
officials,
places
on each branch of government so that minority rights be honored, so that no branch will ride roughshod over another. Madison summarized the matter as follows:
limitations
The himself 14
The
magistrate in whom the whole executive power resides cannot of make a law, though he can put a negative on every law; nor admin-
Federalist. Vol. 43, p. 163b
Representative Government, Vol. 43, p. 4 2c 16 United States Reports, Vol. 272 (October Term 1926). Myers
1
24
will
1
v.
United States, pp. 291-292
William O. Douglas person, though he has the appointment of those who do administer it. The judges can exercise no executive prerogative, though they are shoots from the executive stock; nor any legislative function, though they may be advised with by the legislative councils. The entire legislature can perform no judiciary act, though by the joint act of two of its branches the judges may be removed from their offices, and though one of its branches is possessed of the judicial power in the last resort. The entire legislature, again, can exercise no executive prerogative, though one of its branches constitutes the supreme executive magistracy, and another, on the impeachister justice in
ment of a
third,
can
ecutive department.
In
some respects
try
and condemn
all
the subordinate officers in the ex-
1"^
the measure of
who never knew
human
rights,
seen through the
from our own. There are guarantees against all three branches of the government. Nigeria's Constitution gives anyone "unlawfully arrested or detained" a right to compensation. Banishment from the country is prohibited by many of these new charters. The "right to education" is a usual guarantee as is the "right to work." And the Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) enshrines in its Constitution "the right to strike." The selective way in which old grievances are treated is illustrated by the eyes of people
self-government,
provision in the Constitution of the Republic of
crecy of correspondence shall be inviolable. It in pursuance of a decision by the judiciary."
is
different
Cameroun
that "Se-
may only be intercepted
Hobbes, who made out a case against democracy and in favor of monarchy, said that a legislative assembly might disagree with itself and produce a civil war, that orators with their power "to accuse" can destroy popular assemblies, that democratic groups have no protection against majorities or to use his words no "liberty to dissent from the counsel of the major part, be it good or bad."^^ The specific guarantees in modern constitutions go far to protect the citizen against governmerit
These
itself.
on government
restraints
reflect principles of natural law.
Jefferson reduced to one sentence centuries of thinking in terms of
when he wrote
our Declaration of Independence: endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Man has some rights, Jefferson averred, that derive from God. These are rights which no government can rightfully withhold nor, having recognized, withdraw. These rights honor the divine spark that is in every human being. Our Constitution does not express in specific terms all the human rights which should be protected. After Jefferson and Madison catalogued the most important ones and put them in the Bill of Rights, they added a catchall: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." This is more than a protection against procedural irregularities. It declares some substantive rights those values "All
men
in
are created equal; they are
.
17
The Federalist, Vol. 43,
18
Leviathan, Vol. 23,
p.
p.
.
.
154c-d
106d
25
THE GREAT DEBATE as well, e.^., freedom of
movement
within the country, ^^ and freedom
^^^ to leave the country.
designed controls over the executive, legislative, and branches are available to every new country that adopts a written constitution. What specific ones may be needful and necessary will depend on the background of the people in question, the heteroSpecially
judicial
geneity of their population, religion and custom, the dominance of tribes,
and the
like.
England's unwritten constitution
who
is
a product of 600 years of his-
homogeneous in race and language and who occupy a rather small, compact area. England's example may be the ideal. But it is not practical for the new nations who have had no prior experience in self-government. A written constitution with a clear separation of powers is for them a prerequisite. Only in that way can the reserve powers of the people be protected, the tory. It
governs people
are largely
authority of government restricted, and the rights of minorities defined.
Power needs restraints, qualifications, and conditions. Prescribed procedures are important, as means are often as important as the ends themselves. What particular restraints are needed depends in part on the peculiar problems of the particular nation.
A
written constitution
filled
with guarantees gives no assurance, of
course, that in practice rights will be recognized and proper proce-
dures followed. But a written charter serves as a rallying point in case of crises; and it establishes necessary guidelines for all departments of government and for the individual citizen as well.
Division of legislative powers Iycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, instituted as part of his reforms a ^ senate which had power equal to the King's in matters of great moment and which gave a balance between royalty and democracy. Plutarch described this reform as follows:
For the state, which before had no firm basis to stand upon, but leaned one while towards an absolute monarchy, when the kings had the upper hand, and another while towards a pure democracy, when the people had the better, found in this establishment of the senate a central weight, like ballast in a ship, which always kept things in a just equilibrium; the twentyeight always adhering to the kings so far as to resist democracy, and on the other hand, supporting the people against the establishment of absolute
monarchy. 21
The
powers between an upper and lower house country served in part a similar purpose. The Federalist states that the Senate "distinct from and dividing the power" with the House division of legislative
in this
19 See United Slates Reports. Vol. 3 14 (October Term 1941). Edwards 20 See United States Reports, Vol. 357 (October Term 1957). Kent et State, pp. 16-143 Lives. Vol. 14. p. 34d I
21
26
v.
al.
California, pp. 160-186. v. Dulles, Secretary of
William O. Douglas
of Representatives "doubles the security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy,
where the ambition or corruption of one would otherwise be
sufficient.
"22
The Federalist advances another reason for a Senate — "the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions." A legislative body per-
forming these functions, it was thought, should "be less numerous possess great firmness," and "hold its authority by a tenure of con.
.
.
siderable duration. "23 It was believed that a body of men with long tenure would devote more time "to a study of the laws, the affairs, and the comprehensive interests of their country" and thus become better acquainted "with
the objects and principles of legislation."^^
The Federalist emphasized the evils of constant change in governIt also underscored two main evils of a rapidly changing govern-
ment.
ment: the lack of respect for the nation abroad and the lack of confidence at home:
But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability. ^^
The authors of The
Federalist pointed out that "no long-lived re-
The grant of two Senators to each what the size of the state -had the virtue of keeping the upper house small; it was also "at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual states, and
public" failed to have a Senate. ^^ state -no matter
"^'^
an instrument for preserving that residuary sovereignty. The House of Representatives, chosen directly by the people, was designed to have "a common interest with the people. "^^ Frequent elections — every other year — was one method of assuring it and of securing the liberties of the people. The standard used by the authors of the Constitution was— "the greater the power is, the shorter ought to be its duration; and, conversely, the smaller the power, the more safely may its duration be protracted. "^^ in the House of Representatives the Constitution expressed the democratic ideal by giving each vote "an equal weight and efficacy. "^^ The Senate was given certain powers in which the House did not share: (1) by a vote of two-thirds to agree to treaties made by the President; (2) to pass on nominations made by the President to the major
22 Vol. 43, p. 190a 23 Ibid., p. 190b Ibid., p. \90c,h
24
25 Ibid., p. 191c 26 See Ibid., p. 193a. 27 Ibid., p. 189c
28
Ihid., p.
29 30
Ibid., p. Ibid., p.
27
165d 167a 72a I
THE GREAT DEBATE public offices; (3) to
as the court that passes on
sit
The
impeachment
Senate, designed to represent "the free-
charges against holders and property owners" and other conservative interests nation, thus had important controls over executive action. officials.
in the
powers was one exclusive power granted the lower revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." Montesquieu emphasized the impropriety of the Offsetting those
house— "All nobles
in
bills for raising
When
an aristocracy levying the taxes. ^^
the people lay
the taxes, their burdens may be heavy "but they do not feel their weight. "^2 The matter was discussed in The Federalist:
The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse — that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representative of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government. This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure. ^^
The
Constitution of Nigeria has a provision requiring
bills" to originate in the
lower house. But they
may
all
"money
not originate there
except on the recommendation of the executive. Yet having been passed by the lower house and having lain before the Senate for at least a month, a
A
"money
bill"
may become law
similar provision governs
all
other
bills
without Senate approval. passed by the House in con-
secutive sessions but not passed by the Senate.
Malaya's Constitution also bars revenue measures from being introin the Senate. And only a Minister can introduce or move such a bill in the House. Enactments into law of a*"money bill" may be made by the House alone under provisions comparable to those in Nigeria's
duced
Constitution.
Burma has a legislative body composed of two chambers. One is the Chamber of Deputies. The other — approximately half the size of the Chamber of Deputies — is the Chamber of Nationalities drawn from the five states and the several territories that are included in the Union of Burma. These two chambers in Burma act conjointly. Yet restrictions are placed on the Chamber of Nationalities. It may not initiate a "money bill"; and "money bills" sent by the Chamber of Deputies to the Chamber of Nationalities are sent only for advice and recommendations which can be accepted or rejected by the former.
Thus
is
con-
of revenue matters kept out of the hands of minorities that have presented separatist and other acute problems to the central govern-
trol
ment. 31
See The Spirit of Laws, Vol. 38,
32 Ibid., p. 143b 33 Vol. 43, p. 180d
28
p.
24a-b.
William O. Douglas
In this regard, India's Constitution
is
similar to Burma's.
No "money
may be
introduced in the upper house (Council of States); and (House of the People) may accept or reject any reclower house the ommendations concerning a "money bill" made by the Council of bill"
States.
India has another innovation. is
in a
As
already noted, the executive power
The government, headed by a Prime Minister who is appointed Council of Ministers, presided over by the Prime
President, chosen by an electoral college.
parliamentary in form,
by the President.
A
is
Minister, advises the President in the exercise of his functions. Yet,
though the President is the executive, he has certain legislative powers. the two houses are not in session and "the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require." Any law that Parliament cannot pass, the President cannot promulgate; and the laws that he promulgates must be laid before the Parliament. They cease to operate at the end of six weeks from the reassembling of Parliament, unless Parlia-
When
ment erases them earlier. There is no one formula
for division of legislative power that will fit every nation. Tribes, blocs, minority groups, the fragile quality of a particular society — these may suggest not only restrictions on legislative authority but also the assignment of one kind of legislative power to one group, another kind to a different group. Local requirements may, indeed, lead to a grant, as in India, of limited lawmaking authority to the executive. The constitutional devices are so varied and flexible that a wide range of controls over legislative procedures is available.
The problem down the path
is
not whether newly emancipated people should start
The question is what particular formula for the division and control of legislative power best fits the to self-government.
genius of a particular people.
Special provisions for special situations
Federalism
is
ever there is
an imperative necessity for some new nations. Wherea large land mass under central control, federalism
is
a sine qua non. If the outlying areas are far
local affairs
must be entrusted
to local
removed from the center, management. No government,
no matter how mature, how wise, how experienced, can administer all affairs from the center if the geographical area is as large as Austraha, Canada, India, Russia, or the United States. Local problems can be intelligently managed only at a state, county, or municipal level. Moreover, a variety of races, cultures, religions, or languages may necessitate political divisions that might not otherwise occur. Language has led to some regrouping of states within India. Religion — which resulted in Pakistan's being torn from the original India — is at 29
THE GREAT DEBATE
times a force that clamors for political divisions within one nation. There are Muslim, Christian, and pagan communities in many African
may require the drawing of state or proone nation so as to recognize these separate religious groups. That policy — though not ideal by democratic standards—may nonetheless be pursued within the general framework of a democratic form of government. When such diversities combine with a large land mass, some form of federalism is almost inevitable. Madison said that in a federal system composed of "republican members, the superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the system against aristocratic or monarchical innovations." He cites Montesquieu for the proposition that governments of "dissimilar principles and forms" are less adapted to "a federal coalition of any sort than those of a kindred nature .... 'Greece was undone,' he [Montesquieu] adds, 'as soon as the king of Macedon obtained a seat among the Amphictyons.' "^^ These considerations led in this country to a guarantee by the Federal Government of "a republican form of government" for each state. As Madison said, "Whenever the States may choose to substitute other republican forms, they have a right to do so, and to claim the federal guarantee for the latter. The only restriction imposed on them is that they shall not exchange republican for anti-republican Connations. Political expediency vincial lines within
stitutions
."^^ .
.
.
The central government members of the federation as well as defense.
It
(in this
country) guarantees the cpnstituent
against invasion.
It
manages foreign
affairs
provides a uniform coinage, a postal service, and
commerce moving between the members of the federamovement of people. The central government also retains power to put down insurrections within the protection for
tion as well as protection in the free
federation.
Madison
laid great
emphasis on the
latter:
In cases where it may be doubtful on which side justice lies, what better umpires could be desired by two violent factions, flying to arms and tearing a State to pieces, than the representatives of confederate States not heated by the local flame? To the impartiality of judges they would unite the aff"ection of friends. Happy would it be if such a remedy for its infirmities could be enjoyed by all free governments: if a project equally effectual could be established for the universal peace of mankind! Should it be asked, what is to be the redress for an insurrection pervading all the States, and comprising a superiority of the entire force, though not a constitutional right? the answer must be, that such a case, as it would be
without the compass of human remedies, so it is fortunately not within the compass of human probability: and that it is a sufficient recommendation of the federal Constitution, that it diminishes the risk of a calamity for which
no possible constitution can provide a cure.^^
The states 34 35 36
30
division of powers between the central government and the cannot be determined by one formula. The minimal requirements
Ibid., p.
141b
Ibid., p.
141c-d 142c
Ibid., p.
PRESIDENTS MODIBO KEITA OF MALI, KWAME NKRUMAH OF GHANA, AND SEKOU TOURE OF GUINEA SIGN A PACT CREATING AN ECONOMIC UNION Forms of confederation can help the new nations meet many of their problems
have been stated. In the United States the grant of power to the cengovernment was much more limited than what the central government enjoys in India. The difference is in terms of history. In this country the states created the Federal Government; they existed as tral
living political entities prior to the Constitution. In India the stitution created the states
and accordingly relegated them
to
Conan
in-
ferior position.
Loose forms of confederation sometimes serve special needs. In 1959 the Republic of Niger joined the Republics of the Ivory Coast, the Upper Volta, and Dahomey in organizing the Council of Entente. It meets semiannually and is presided over in turn by each of the heads of state of the four nations. It has established a customs union and a fund for financial assistance to the member states; and it concerns itself with coordination of development plans for the four countries. A similar loose federation was worked out in 1959 between the Republic of the Congo (French), the Central African Republic, and the Republics of Chad and Gabon. By 1960 a charter had been adopted by the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo (French), and the Republic of Chad granting the federal government jurisdiction over foreign affairs, defense, postal and telecommunication departments, currency, and coordination of economic matters. This federation became known as the Union of the Republics of Central Africa. The stability in the Belgian Congo may eventually be found in a form of federalism built along tribal lines. 31
THE GREAT DEBATE Whatever form of federalism is used -whether the Amencan type. the Indian type, or a looser form — the constitution should include schedules which specify in some detail the matters assigned to the states and those assigned to the federal government. Federalism is no cure-all: it creates difficult problems of its own. Yet it is often one way -perhaps the only way — whereby, to use Hegel's words, "the constitution adopted by a people makes one substance —one spirit — with its religion, its art and philosophy, or, at least, with conceptions and thoughts —
its
upon the additional its
culture generally: not to expatiate
its
influences,
ab
extra, of climate, of neighbors, of
place in the worid.'*^'
Federalism can be put in a democratic firamework by the newly emerged nations, as Burma. India, and Nigeria illustrate. Federalism may not fit other areas which though large in land mass are torn by tribal or religious animosities. For as Mill said. **Govemments must be made for human beings as they are. or as they are capable of speed."^^ fly becoming .
.
.
Several types of controls.
show how will to
versatile the
dem^
-'~*
--:~ducis of the ^^'este^^ experience. .
.
.
rocedures can be once there
is
a
walk that path.
is an island off Mafuture- whether a part of Malaya or an independent r.a::on-is still in balance. There are turbulent forces: and the Commun:s:s. always well organized, stand ready with a united front to take over. The spirit of independence from any foreign control is, however, strong. The British hy-t v: :'..cc : .:: ^ solution which some suspect, but which in essence proMae? an orderly transition. Full self-govenmient is granted the people of Singapore; and they in recent years have developed a multi-pan> s> stem. But England retains control of defense and of foreign affairs. This is an interim arrangement: but it shows how with gradual approaches a beginning of self-government can be made. It is a striking demonstration that neither Franco's Spain nor Russia's Hungan" is the alternative we need
Singapore, formerly England's Cro\^n Colony,
laya. It
is
largely
Chinese and
its
face.
Cyprus is a more dramatic illustration of the flexibility of democratic procedures once that way of life i^ c^i^^^en. Cyprus is composed of a
Greek communit> representing i' per cent of the people and a Turkish community representing about 15 per cent. The Greeks are largely urban people: the Turks, agricultural. The animosities between the two groups have been long-standing. TTie prospect the Turks faced of being under Greek rulers seemed a gloomy one. The prospect the Greeks faced of either panition of the island between the two peoples or the maintenance of a Greek regime over a rebellious Turkish minority w^as
not encouraging.
The
result
37 PhUosophy of Hiitory, Vol 46, p. 174b 38 Represriaathrr Government^ VoL 43, p. 368c
32
was
the negotiation of a constitu-
William O. Douglas tion which made a viable democratic system — though not the ideal one — out of two antagonistic groups. This 1960 Constitution recognizes both languages as "officiar*: and each community is given the right to celebrate its national holiday. A particularized Bill of Rights is included, a declaration that enumerates the rights of the citizen in much more detail than our own. There are provisions disqualifying the President or Vice-President from being either a minister in the cabinet or a
member
of the legislature.
The
be a Greek: the Vice-President a Turk. The executive power of the President is described with particularity. So is the executive power of the Vice-President. There is also a list of powers that the two exercise "conjointly." Some powers of "veto" are to be exercised either separately or conjointly. The executive powers not assigned to the President or Vice-President are exercised by a Council of Ministers, designated by the two with the stipulation that seven shall President
is
to
be Greeks and three Turks. Universal suffrage is provided for: and 70 per cent of the House of Representatives is to be elected by the Greek community: 30 per cent by the Turkish community. The members of the House are elected for five years: the President of the House is a Greek, elected by the Greek community: the Vice-President of the House is a Turk, elected by the Turkish community. The House has all legislative power, except that granted to two frage.
It
Communal Chambers,
also elected
by universal
suf-
has legislative power over religious matters: educational,
and teaching matters: personal status, etc. Its Greek members by a Greek electoral list: its Turkish members, by a Turkish electoral list. The President has the right to veto any law or decision of the Greek Communal Chamber: the Vice-President, any law or decision of the Turkish Communal Chamber. The representation of the two communities appears throughout the Constitution. Even the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General may not belong to the same community. Neither may the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Issuing Bank nor the Accountant General and Deputy Accountant General. The public service, at all levels and in all grades, is composed of 70 per cent Greeks and 30 per cent Turks. The same percentage governs the composition of the
cultural
are chosen
Commission that supervises the public service. The army must be 60 per cent Greek and 40 per cent Turkish. The same is true of the security forces. Forces stationed in a Greek community must be Greeks: and Turks must be stationed in Turkish comPublic Service
munities.
An independent judiciary is provided, the Supreme Constitutional Court being composed of one Greek, one Turk, and one neutral. Next in the hierarchy is the High Court of Justice, to be composed of two Greeks, one Turk and one neutral, the last having two votes. As to trial courts, if plaintiif and defendant belong to the same community, only judges of that community shall sit. The same is true in criminal 33
THE GREAT DEBATE where the accused and the injured person belong to the same community. If the persons mentioned are of different communities, the
suits
judges
shall
created cil
belong to both also. Separate Turkish municipalities are of the largest towns. In a Turkish municipality the coun-
in five
elected by the Turkish electors; in a
is
Greek
electors
Other
make
Greek municipality
the
the selection.
like provisions
maintain the legal and constitutional identity
of each community, establish safeguards for it and oflfer assurance that its special interests will not be overridden by the other. The two main
groups are Greeks and Turks. There are other groups also — Armenians, Maronite Catholics, and Latins. They can join either the Greek or the Turkish electoral list. But in all events they enjoy constitutional protection against discrimination both as individuals and as
The Cyprus experiment in democracy shows how a start toward self-government can be made and a separation of powers achieved, even when racial animosities and suspicions run high. A third device of utility to newly emerging countries has been
groups.
written into the Indian Constitution.
It
was feared
that
some com-
munities might be so fragile, so lacking in leadership, so swept by
passions as to bring their early experiments in democracy to disastrous ends. So the Indian Constitution provides in Articles 356 and
357 that the President, when "satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provision" of the Constitution, may take over the administration of the affairs of that state as though it were an enclave of the national government. He may not, however, suspend the courts nor exercise any judicial function. During the declared emergency, the federal parliament takes over all the legislative functions of the state. India has found it desirable or necessary to exercise that power several times since her independence. The most recent was in 1959. Kerala had elected a Communist government in 1957. By 1959 that regime had operated Soviet-style to produce great cleavages in the state and to siphon off public funds into party programs. So the central government took over Kerala's affairs until a new election could be held. A 1960 election put a coalition of Congress Party- Praja Socialist
Party in power.
A in
further device
India.
When
is
the electoral register system that England used
the people chose representatives in their local gov-
ernment, they voted only for a Muslim in a district predominantly populated by people of that belief, a Hindu where that faith was in the majority, and so on. This system
was
carried so far as to apportion
available space in universities and colleges not only
among
religious
groups but among the various castes. If the incoming class was 100, only specified numbers could be drawn from the several groups. Thus even though by scholastic standards the first 100 applicants were all
Hindus or all Muslims or all Brahmans, the best had to give way more mediocre students from other religious groups or castes. 34
for
HE MULTI-RACIAL GOVERNMENT OF TANGANYIKA' Governments can be so organized that and religious groups are represented
Old was a
all
important racial
habits are hard to break;
and when independence came there
great impetus to continue the former practices.
tionment of students, however, stitution.
is
The Supreme Court of
now
The
old appor-
prohibited by the Indian Con-
India has maintained that
if
there
are 100 openings in a college class, the best 100 must be taken though
they
all
etc. And the same democratic men and women to the state and federal
be Untouchables, Muslims,
principle prevails in choosing
parliaments.
The system of the electoral register, however, has been used and being used elsewhere. Lebanon, the small country on the Phoenician coast lying just north of Israel, is composed of three religious comis
munities: the
Muslims (Sunni and
tians (mostly Maronites).
The
Shi'a), the
Druses, and the Chris-
Christians have a slight majority; and
the Constitution requires that the President be a Maronite; the Prime
Minister must be a Sunni Muslim; and the Speaker of the
Chamber
of
Deputies must be a Shi'a MusHm. The country is divided into election districts, each one being assigned to one of the three religious groups. No one not a member of that group can represent that district. A person organizing a socialist party — as did Kamal Jumblatt, a Druse — cannot run socialists
in
each
district unless
they are
members of
the
For example, a Muslim district may be teeming with Christians who are socialists. But the problem is to find a Muslim who thinks the same way. None may exist; or if one is found he may be weak and ineffective. Thus the difficulty of building a new party or maintaining an old one is compounded. The candidate who qualifies by the religious test may lack the qualities to win on economic or required religious
faith.
social issues.
35
THE GREAT DEBATE The
electoral register
Africa.
In
Kenya
system
the Africans
is
being applied
outnumber
all
in
modified forms
other races 24 to
in 1.
Pending independence from British rule, the law provides for a 65man Assembly. Of these, 33 are elected on a common roll; that is, all races vote for that number. The Africans took those 33 seats in the 1961 election.
Ten
seats are reserved for the whites, eight for Asians,
and two for Arabs. All voters — Africans included — select these 20. Thus only those candidates most favorable to the Africans are chosen.
members of
65-member Assembly are four These twelve are by the Assembly. When the Assembly sits as an electoral there are 33 Africans and 20 non- Africans. So the other 12
The remaining
12
the
whites, four Africans, three Asians, and one Arab.
selected college,
meet the specifications of the African majority. There is a Council of Ministers in addition to the Assembly. It is the executive branch under a British Governor and is visualized as a temporary stop-gap to give the British residual control until the people are ready for officials,
full
independence.
It is
composed of four
colonial office
four Africans, three white settlers, and one Asian.
Thus
the
65,000 whites who own the great wealth of Kenya, who produce 80 per cent of Kenya's exports, and who have long had their way in Kenya affairs are being given more votes than the formula "one man — one vote" would allow them. The old electoral register system has been modified to protect the position of a small group in Kenya but one which may be vital to its economic life. Whether this device — which is anti-democratic in some ways — will create a stabilizing inff uence in a difficult transitional period is as yet wholly speculative. There is but one time to start self-government, and that is now, no matter how illiterate, how inexperienced the people. Even though it may be limited in form and qualified by many safeguards, it will give the people a chance to acquire experience. Democracy cannot be legislated; it can only be acquired. But it can never be acquired unless
some opportunity
The
to practice
it is
afforded.
loyal opposition
is an acute problem in some new nations. Its causes, as Madison said, are "sown in the nature of man."^^ It can be, as Hobbes observed, "contrary to the peace and safety of the peo"^^ ple, and a taking of the sword out of the hand of the sovereign. The forces of faction can set back the progress of promising young nations. "In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not
Faction
secured against the violence of the stronger 39 The Federalist, Vol. 43,
p.
50c
40 Leviathan, Vol. 23, p. 12 id 41 The Federalist, Vol. 43, p. 164c-d
36
."^^ .
.
.
William O. Douglas
Most new
nations have been viewed with alarm by defenders of the
who want 1776 thought that continued union with Britain was the only thing that would save America from rancorous and virulent factions which have disrupted democracies. ^^ Yet faction presents not only danger but opportunity as well. Madison said: "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agenstatus quo; and faction has been a chief target for those
rebellions put
is
It
down. Some
in
inevitable that different political schools of thought will de-
velop in every nation, Madison noted. continues will
fallible,
be formed.
and he
As
is
"As
long as the reason of
at liberty to exercise
it,
man
different opinions
long as the connection subsists between his reason
and his passions will have a reciprocal on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable and
his self-love, his opinions
influence
obstacle to a uniformity of interests."^'*
channels through which faction becomes "it is almost a commonplace, that a party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are ."^^ both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life society, democratic When that stage is reached in the evolution of a
The problem
is
to provide
a stabilizing force. Mill said that
.
.
.
there emerges a party or parties of the "loyal opposition."
problems of a new nation — long under cothe development of a two-party system. The road is usually a rocky one. A good example is Turkey. Both men and women vote there; in the 1957 election, 85 per cent of the eligible voters went to the polls. Adnan Menderes won. His Democrat Party obtained 4,427,368 votes. The votes of the other parties were
One
of the most
difficult
lonial rule or dictatorship
— is
as follows:
Republican People's Party
3,752,861
National Republican Party
603,759 357,796
Freedom Party After the election, Menderes clamped
meetings except ployees (a majority of litical
rival)
making
at election time.
whom
down
He
hard.
He
forbade po-
leveled a law at state em-
had been appointed by
his
Republican
their retirement effective after 25 years of service, rather
than 30, or at 60 years of age rather than 65.
42 See Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Vol. 39, 43 The Federalist, Vol. 43, p. 50b 44 Ibid. 45 On Liberty, Vol. 43, p. 289c
p.
420c.
37
THE GREAT DEBATE Menderes was a crime
also continued a restrictive law governing the press.
It
any cartoon that was "insulting
to
to print
the government."
any
article or
One cartoon
(that resulted in the closing of the
paper
and the conviction and imprisonment of the cartoonist) depicted a policeman arresting a burglar near a safe. The policeman tells the burglar, "Of course you would come out empty-handed. Don't you know there are bigger thieves than you?" The label on the safe sug-
was the national treasury. Editors were also sent to jail and fined after trials that were secret. University professors were suspended, one for stating to a newspaper reporter that he believed some of the new rules of the Turkish Parliament were unconstitutional. Freedom of speech and of press suffered in Turkey even more than it did in this country under the Alien and Sedition Laws that John Adams sponsored and that Thomas gested that
it
Jefferson opposed.
Menderes might have survived the persecutions of editors, carand professors. But he went so far as to suppress his political opposition represented by the leader of the Republicans, Ismet Inonii, collaborator of Atatiirk, who founded modern Turkey. A committee was appointed to look into the "destructive and illegal activities" of the Republicans. Inonii was dogged by the police on his campaigns. His meetings were broken up. Army officers who protested and resigned were arrested. The debates in the parliament were so acrimonious that one day Inonii said: "If you go on like this, even I toonists,
shall not
be able to save you."
Students, restless under Menderes, began to parade arid protest.
They poured through
the streets of Istanbul. In retaliation,
put Istanbul under martial law and closed the universities.
Menderes
A group of
60 Turkish lawyers put on their robes and marched the streets of Istanbul in protest of Menderes. They, too, were stopped and some were arrested. When representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization foregathered in Istanbul in May, 1960, they found tanks guarding the building where they conferred. Facing the tanks were hundreds of students shouting "Freedom." This was the stuff which generated the military coup d'etat of May, 1960. Leaders of nations that are young in the ways of democracy often resent criticism. Criticism is considered a personal affront. Unlimited criticism carried so far as to label the opposition a "party of treason"
breakdown of democratic processes in any country. Tolerance of criticism and debate — the maintenance of a loyal opposition—is one first and hard lesson the newly emerging nations must leads to a
learn.
Practices similar to those of
government
in
Menderes on the
Ghana have been much
46 See Rothschild, "On the Application of the Westminster Model Vol. 4 (Fall 1960), pp. 465-583.
38
part of the
Nkrumah
publicized. ^^ Excesses can be
to
Ghana," Centennial Reviev
William O. Douglas
expected in other nations. People without experience and traditions in self-government need time to develop them. They do not evolve overnight or quickly. But without a start no progress can be made. Political maturity is acquired only with experience in political affairs.
The
multiplicity of parties
is
a
phenomenon common
around one particular end. Thus in Indonesia, 45
nations. People tend to rally to serve
most new
to
special causes, forming parties political parties
appeared, serving very special needs. Until Sukarno dissolved Parliament in 1960 and took control, Indonesia's splinter parties produced many cabinet changes. Since World War II, French cabinets changed on the average six times a
year until De Gaulle took office. The rate in Indonesia was one every eight months. The result was great instability. For while France had an effective civil service that carried on whatever happened,
Indonesia had a paucity of experienced personnel. Sukarno's most vociferous critics were the large Masjumi Party (which wanted an Islamic state) and the small but elite Socialist Party — both dissolved by Presidential decree in 1960.
Party was headed by Sjahrir
who went about
way. For 500 years under the Dutch,
work
The
Socialist
in
a scholarly
political parties
were non-
his
important to formulate a program covering all aspects of Indonesian affairs — agriculture, currency and banking, exports and imports, foreign policy, unemployment, land distribution, existent. Sjahrir felt
it
and so on. He conceived his role as that of an educator. Year after year he produced pamphlets on a wide range of subjects with the aim of (a) educating the intelligentsia and (b) forging an over-all program that would command support. But his efforts have now ceased. Neither his efforts nor the efforts of other Indonesian parties reached fruition because no national elections have been permitted since 1955 out of fear (perhaps only an excuse) that the Communists would gain control.
Communists a discipUne that The leaders are trained to select issues that capitalize on discontent. Never do they go to the people with a program that reveals the nature of communism and the regimentation which will be fastened on the nation if the Communist Party wins. That is Dialectical materialism has given the
other parties lack.
one reason why that party does not serve the role of the "loyal opposition." It does not reveal the true choice that the electorate has; it seeks strength through tactics that are utterly devious. The classical tactic is to infiltrate parliamentary governments, getting if
Communist
possible at the start the ministries of defense, communication, and education. That was what the Tudeh Party in Iran did under the
Ghavam government in Iraq in 1959.
They almost succeeded in that respect Once some such foothold is gained, the Communist in 1946.^'^
47 See Douglas, West of the Indus (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1958), pp. 241-242. Cf. Lenin, Selected Works (London: 1938), Vol. 10, pp. 97, 100-105; Stalin, The Road to Power (New York: 1937), p. 41.
39
THE GREAT DEBATE Party proliferates
its
control.
It
seeks power "for keeps"; and once
acquires the reins of government
it
does not tolerate opposition. That may in time change. In Yugoslavia the Communist Party tolerates an opposition; but it is only a token, not a true, opposition in the Western it
sense.
The
"multiplicity of interests"
is
sometimes said
to give the indi-
vidual security for civil rights just as the "multiplicity of sects" helps
underwrite religious
Communist
political
on the presence of running them only is
the
way
it
rights. "^^
won
strategy,
however,
splinter parties. It places in
is
astute and capitalizes
its
candidates selectively,
those districts where victory
the opposition parties (Congress, Praja Socialist,
had grown
is
probable. That
By 1960, however, and Muslim League)
the 1957 election in Kerala, India.
wisdom, united forces, and ran candidates on a was that this coalition beat the Communists. The workings of the Communist Party are becoming more and more evident to poHtical leaders on all continents. The episodes of Hungary and Tibet have made a deep impression on the minds of even illiterate people. Communist strategy will continuously aim at capitalizing on situations where numerous splinter parties exist and in every electoral district where poverty, disease, slum conditions, illiteracy combine to create volatile situations. But to date Communism has made no significant progress in areas where popular sovereignty is exercised. The presence of the Communist Party is therefore an excuse — not a valid cause — for withholding the franchise from the people. The other extreme from splinter parties is the presence of one party in political
selective basis.
that
commands
The
result
most. of the votes.
A
"loyal opposition" has then
little
chance to develop. Mill asked: "... is it not a great grievance that in every Parliament a very numerous portion of the electors, willing and anxious to be represented, have no member in the House for whom they have voted?"^^ Puerto Rico has a system for remedying this defect. It derives from a system for minority representation designed by Thomas Hare in 1859 and discussed by John Stuart Mill.^® Down to 1950, the Governor of Puerto Rico was appointed by the President of the United States. In 1951 Puerto Rico acquired a constitution and the right of self-government in most of its internal affairs. The Chief Executive is a Governor; the legislature is made up of a Senate and a House. Numerous parties have competed for popular support. The most popular has been the Popular Democratic Party headed by Munoz Marin. He and other Puerto Ricans of influence and wisdom decided that in the long run the Commonwealth would thrive only under a regime in which opposition parties had a voice in legislative matters.
48 See The Federalist, Vol. 43, p. 164c. 49 Representative Government, Vol. 43, 50 See /hid., pp. 372 ff.
40
p.
371c
William O. Douglas
Accordingly, a provision was included in the Constitution whereby a certain number of candidates of each minority party are declared elected, if one party elects more than two-thirds of the members of either the Senate
and the House.^^ The
size of the legislature
is in-
creased, within those limits, so that each minority party obtains representation equal to the proportion of votes received by their respective
candidates for Governor.^^ In the 1956 election this article operated as follows in the Senate:
Popular Democrats elected 23 to the Senate 2 Republicans elected
Independence Party elected 2
The Republicans were granted four adicional Senators and the Independence Party, one, as a result of the popular vote for Governor. In the 1956 election, the Popular Democrats won 47 seats in the House. The Republicans won three and the Independence Party one. As a result of the popular vote for Governor, 1 3 additional members were added to the House. Of these the Republicans obtained 8 (making a total of 1 1) and the Independence Party 5 (making a total of 6). In selecting the candidates to
the adicional slots in the Senate
fill
and House, the names are chosen
first
from the
list
of at-large can-
didates in declining order of total votes received. If any places remain to
be
filled,
they go to the district candidates
highest percentage of votes in their
home
who have
polled the
districts.
In the British tradition, the loyal opposition has acquired important status.
Canada, following the British practice, has a law which makes
House of Commons" a full-time The occupant receives not only the sessional allowance, which every member receives, but a salary of $15,000 a year in addition. The Canadian philosophy conceives the powers of government as powers in trust; and it supplies the mechanism to scrutinize the manner of their exercise. Those out of power become as important as those in power. The people make the leader of the group out of power a salaried guardian. His protests may come to naught. But his presence the "Leader of the Opposition in the
office.
on a full-time basis sobers those in power. While young nations usually do not have the tradition of a "loyal opposition," India and Burma have it to a degree. They reflect the British heritage. The Dutch and the French left no such legacy in their colonies. Neither did the Belgians nor the Germans. This means that the "loyal opposition" will have difficulty getting roots in many new nations. Yet there is only one way to develop that tradition and that is to create the opportunities for its growth. Only self-government gives a people the chance to experience criticism, to develop parties, to learn respect for minorities, to
become
skilled in dealing with those
51 See Article III, 7. 52 The Senate has 16 directly elected members from eight districts and 11 elected House has 40 chosen from single-member districts and 1 elected at-large. 1
41
at-large.
The
THE GREAT DEBATE
who use power oppressively. What people need is the chance to become skilled both in electing leaders and in choosing those who will lead the opposition.
Ill
FREEDOM Winning
independence
is
the bare beginning of the struggle for
freedom. Countries that are not colonies are not necessarily free, as Cuba under Batista, Spain under Franco, the Congo under Lumumba, and China and Russia under the Communists illustrate. Rousseau noted: "Liberty, not being a fruit of all climates, is not within the
reach of
of despair, but available
all
peoples. "^
we must
on a pushbutton
We
do not need
such counsel freedom are not
to accept
realize that the requisites of basis.
What are the forces opposing freedom in new nations? One factor is that many of them are not nations except in name. Joseph Ileo, the new Premier of the (formerly Belgian) Congo said: "Congolese unity does not exist. The Congo is not a people. It is a collection of large ethnic groups and each of them is a people." The group that commits itself to
self-government must have the basic ingredient of a viable
be economic or commercial, racial or religious, The fact that various groups were under the same colonial regime may be wholly irrelevant. As Aristotle said, "... A state is not the growth of a day, any more than it grows out of a multitude brought together by accident. "^ The Ottoman Empire that ended
society,
whether
it
linguistic or cultural.
with World
War
I
held vast areas together from Iraq to Egypt.
Once
colonial ties end, centrifugal forces often tend to separate people into
new groupings. Foreign machinations constitute a second factor inimical to freedom. utterly destructive of a nation's independence. Laos was torn asunder by the power plays of Soviet Russia and the United
They can be
States. The most important role of the United Nations in the days ahead may indeed be to afford new nations protection from such power plays.
Perhaps the strongest factor opposing freedom is the very lack of freedom itself. People who have had no prior experience in self-government need preparation for it. Educational foundations need to be laid for any experiment in government, and they need projection into a long future, for liberty is nurtured slowly. Yet, prior to 1959, no Congolese had ever cast a ballot or participated in any political decision. Not one Congolese had been trained as a lawyer, doctor, army officer, or senior civil servant. Few Congolese had ever attended college; and most of them had not completed their studies. The Bel1
2
The Social Contract, Vol. the
42
Roman
38,
p.
415b
504d. Some thought the union of Rome with the allied states of Italy ruined Republic. See Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Vol. 39, p. 271a.
Politics, Vol. 9, p.
KING BAUDOUIN OF BELGIUM SPEAKS
AT INDEPENDENCE CEREMONIES IN THE CONGO The Congolese people had not been prepared for the great freedom hastily conferred upon them
Congo loose in fifty years. But when the French across the river gave independence to their Congo, the fever of nationalism assumed a virulent form in the Belgian Congo. The Belgians, who refused to talk of independence in May, 1959, decided gians planned to turn their
October, 1959, to grant it in eight months. Their feverish activities produce a constitution led to the inauguration of a parliamentary system which is so sophisticated as to be singularly unsuited to a peo-
in
to
any prior experience in government. Viewing these acknowledged difficulties, some say the new nations cannot have freedom because of their illiteracy and inexperience. But they are putting a false case. The question is not whether all nations should be free; it is merely how much freedom a new nation can enjoy. Each people must be given as much freedom as it can cope with — no less. This means that some nations should enjoy the full extent of freedom as it exists in the Western democracies, while others must for the time being get along on less. In some areas — particularly in Africa — the Western ideal of freedom is still distant. Here the true unit of government is the tribe, not the nation. Any attempt to fit democratic structures to tribal groups will be difficult and long drawn out. Tribal ple without
governments, being totalitarian, are more readily susceptible to Communist management than to democratic influence. Yet even there modest starts can be made. A flow of teachers to those areas can be established; leaders can be trained abroad in Western philosophy. 43
THE GREAT DEBATE
And
it is
start, no matter how modest, be made. The democracy can only be overcome by giving
important that a
lack of preparation for
people a measure of self-government. Ability to govern itself well and responsibly will not suddenly spring up in any nation; it must be encouraged to grow. But the first step must be taken or there cannot be
any progress. Just as children learn to walk by walking, so young peoples learn to govern themselves by actually being given the opportunity to vote and to decide their own affairs. Of course, this involves risks. The risks can be minimized by making use of the
many
safeguards that are available to the maker of demoNot the least of these safeguards is the adapt-
cratic constitutions. ability of
democracy
to local conditions.
Democracy
in the
Malagasy
Republic need not — and indeed must not — be identical with democracy in Great Britain or the United States.
With careful nurturing, countries will develop their own leadership. One man who has the vision of a free society may be sufficient — one man like Thomas G. Masaryk, Nehru, U Nu, or even an Atatiirk. Men of that character can be found and educated in the new nations. There are no peoples who cannot develop the dispositions for democratic government.
WOMAN VOTING IN
GUINEA
Giving people the opportunity to vote
a way of preparing them is
for democracy
44
William O. Douglas
STUDENTS IN A
SECONDARY SCHOOL IN
NIGERIA
Education the
best
is
method
uainting people '.mocratic ideals
and practices
What
are these dispositions? Irving Kristol answers:
This is a large question, and any short answer will be inadequate. But it not too gross an over-simplification to say that included among them must be: a veneration for the rule of law as against the rule of men: a reliance on common reason as the dominant human motive, as against superstition or passion: a sense of community that transcends class divisions and the recognition of a common good beyond individual benefits: a scrupulous use of liberties towards these ends for which those liberties were granted: a distribution of wealth and inequalities according to principles generally accepted as legitimate: moderation in the temper of public debate is
and public demeanour.^
Freedom
The comes from Freedom re-
involves discipline, "the spirit of obedience to law."^
discipline that
is
freedom is Harry D. Gideonse has put
essential to
"internal constraint" as
the discipline that it.^
quires acceptance of moral responsibility. In no nation will all of these qualities be found at all times. Mobs break loose whatever the degree of development a nation may boast. Some people seem to take longer than others to develop these dispositions. A chart of British evolution from William I to Elizabeth II would be an uneven one. Setbacks and reverses wipe out advances; even a century may show little progress. Hence we do not advance the discussion to say, as many do, that Ghana in 1961 is no farther along than England was under Henry II. Government is built both on
education and experience; and there is no short cut to either. Certain it is that many years will pass before people, not yet freed from tribal patterns of life, will acquire the maturity, constraint, and practical wisdom for management of full-fledged democratic institu3
Low
and Modern," Encounter, August, 1960, pp. 38-39 509d "The Literature of Freedom and Liberal Education, Measurement and Research Schools" (American Council of Education, Washington, D.C.)
"High,
4 Aristotle, 5
Politics, Vol. 9, p.
45
in
Today's
THE GREAT DEBATE tions. We of the West have been preoccupied with arming new nations and with trying to provide them with technicians and industrial plants. There is, however, nothing ideological about machine guns or cement plants: and a man who can read the instruction book that comes with a tractor can also read the Communist Manifesto. Technicians and industrial plants, as well as armies, are necessary for underdeveloped nations. But education needs top priority. For only through education can the theory, ideals, and practical problems of a free society be made known to people who have not yet heard of Aristotle, Jefferson, or Madison. In this respect we of the West have largely wasted the years since World War II. What Dr. Johnson called the "fund of virtue and principle to carry the laws into due and effectual execution" will be sadly missing in some areas. ^ Yet the "community of families and aggregation of families in well-being," of which Aristotle spoke, are present to some degree in every society."^ Jefferson's dictum that representative democracy requires "an aristocracy of virtue and talent" sets a far-distant goal for some new nations, perhaps for most of them.^ Yet self-government at some levels provides a people with the only opportunity they can ever have to develop their own particular "aristocracy of virtue and talent." It is never too early to start. One distinctive contribution of America to the development of democracy is insight into how the two strains of the belief in "consent of the governed"— common sense and visionary — run together in life. Lincoln summed up the entire matter on June 26, 1857, wh^n he spoke of the Declaration of Independence:
think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all
I
men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what
men
they did consider
all
among which
life,
created equal
— equal
in certain inalienable rights,
and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet, that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement are
liberty,
might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere.^ of
it
They meant
What Lincoln
said in 1857 should be our goal today.
6 See Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 44, 7 See Politics, Vol. 9, p. 478c. 8 See Writins^s of
9
Roy
Thomas
Jefferson
p.
(Mem.
178c.
ed.; 1903), Vol.
1, p.
Easier (ed.), The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln University Press, 1953), Vol. 2, pp. 405-406
46
P.
54.
(New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers
1
PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE
The case
against
democracy
Primitive
democracy
49
Historical conditions suitable to
democracy
5
Industrialization
56
Education
61
The importance of indigenous development
62
Parliamentary procedures
65
The dangers of radical reform
69
Dangers of premature democracy
72
PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE
was born in 1923, and was educated Oxford and Cambridge universities. Since World War II, in which he served as a commissioned officer in the British Army, he has been a member of the at
editorial staffs of several leading British
newspapers.
Editor of the Sunday Telegraph (London) this year. sively in Africa, Europe, and America, and and American magazines.
is
He became Assistant He has traveled exten-
a frequent contributor to British
I
I
48
Primitive
democracy
have ever experienced was in have ever visited — an ancient tribe Hving in the volcanic belt of northern Kenya. The members of the tribe were quite illiterate, lacked even a system for measuring time, and had scarcely ever had contact with a white man. Yet as I listened to the chief and elders discussing some vexed fishing problem — whether or not to extend their spearing activities further westward along Lake Rudolph — it struck me that their system of government corresponded very closely to the democratic ideal. Democracy, we are told, consists of institutional arrangements for arriving at political decisions which realize the common good by making the people itself decide issues through the election of individuals who are to assemble to carry out its will.^ Admittedly, the chiefs and elders, as they sat on their logs debating, would not have described their activity in quite these terms. Yet they had been chosen by the people, were assembling to discover and determine the popular will, quite as much as, if not more than, does the United States Congress or
form of democracy that Thethepurest most primitive society that
I
I
the British
House of Commons.
Indeed, never before or since have so accurately carried out in practice.
I
seen the theory of democracy chief himself did little of the
The
talking, but listened sagely to the elders putting
forward different points
The arguments, expressed with great passion and excitement, for some hours. Only when the elders had exhausted their dis-
of view. lasted
agreements did the chief speak, and then only to express what he conceived to be the sense of the meeting. Once he had spoken the elders nodded their assent and the meeting passed on to the next business. But I was left in no doubt that if the chief had misconstrued the middle way, or had delivered himself of a decision that had not represented the lowest common denominator of agreement among the elders, he would not have enjoyed his position of primus inter pares. His authority, in short, sprang from his skill at discovering the general will. He was the very model of a democratic leader, quite as much as President Kennedy or Mr. Macmillan. 1
See Montesquieu, Spirit of Laws, Vol. 38, pp. 4a-6b; Kant, Science of Right, Vol. 42, p. 451c; and The Federalist, Vol. 43, p. 125c-d. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the term "republic" when discussing representative government.
49
AFRICAN TRIBAL MEETING Perhaps the purest form
of democracy can be found in primitive
societies
So long as a society remains small, cohesive, and primitive, governif it can be called such, has few incentives and little opportunity to flout the will of the people. In the first place, the minds of both ruler and ruled are so dominated and circumscribed by custom and superment,
determine themselves, since an organic parallelism between the individual will and the general will. If everybody wants to do what everybody else wants to do, because nobody can think of doing anything differently, government by the people, of the people, for the people presents no problems. Rulers and ruled are truly one. Moreover, the sheer physical condition of a primitive, subsistence economy means that it just does not pay a ruler to subjugate the ruled. What is the point of enslaving another man if he cannot physically produce an appreciable surplus over and above what is indispensable to maintain himself? If the ruler tries to take any appreciable part of the stition that virtually all political decisions
they simply grow out of the past. There
is
own use, he soon finds himself in the French peasant who complained that just as he had taught his donkey to live without eating, the wretched animal died. It is not until society advances to a certain stage of technical expertise, which enables individuals to produce far more than they need to consume, that the temptations of government really begin to operate. But even then, the chances of maintaining some form of popular or representational government remain bright, for it is difficult, physically speaking, for primitive rulers to govern for long without the consent, or against the will, of the people. That is to say, even when they develop the will to do so, they lack the means. If one-man-one-vote is the guarantee of democracy in advanced societies, one-man-one-spear does the job just as well in backward societies. fruits
of other men's labor for his
position of the
50
Peregrine Worsthorne short,
It is, in
no part of my
thesis to argue that the
countries are per se unsuited to
underdeveloped
democracy because they are under-
developed. In many ways Africa, for example, during the last thousand years has experienced more widespread popular participation in government than have the other more advanced continents. I very much
doubt whether the naked savage of smaller role in determining his
York
or London.
active role.
own
my
northern
affairs
Kenyan
On the contrary, he probably plays
The question
tribe plays a
than does a citizen of a very
New
much more
that needs to be asked today, therefore,
not whether the backward peoples can enjoy primitive democracy. already
know
that they can.
What
is
in question,
however,
is
is
We
whether
backward peoples can enjoy sophisticated democracy of the kind which the colonial powers have chosen to leave behind. While democracy is ideally suited to very primitive societies, which have yet to be faced with complicated political problems — and also perhaps to very sophisticated societies like Britain and America, most of whose complicated political problems have already been solved — is it going to prove suitable to primitive societies seeking to become advanced industrial states?
Historical conditions suitable to democracy
What
and what
essay is intended to show, is that the Europeans and Americans has been such that democracy and progress have been able to advance hand-inhand, whereas the kind of conditions with which the Afro-Asians are now faced makes it unlikely that they will enjoy the same good fortune. This has nothing inherently to do with the threat of Communism, which for the underdeveloped countries is largely a problem of geographical accident, depending on whether or not their borders happen to march with those of Russia or China. Communism merely adds to and deepI
believe,
this
historical experience of
ens the problem, but
it
does not create
it.
Romans, before leaving ancient Britain, had established a unified nation, which they had left in charge of a cadre of trained native administrators who, by some miracle, could call upon all the twentieth-century techniques of government — rapid communications, armed forces equipped with modern weapons, moJust imagine that the
bile police, a functioning bureaucratic
machine; and
that, in addition,
Romans had been clever enough to develop by that time the knowhow of industrialization, so that the tribes, instead of being driven mad by cold and hunger, could be clothed and fed; and that, morethe
over, the native rulers subsequently had the good sense to enlist into
any bright young tribesmen who grew up with any talent Can it seriously be believed that under these conditions the kind of representative institutions which are now Britain's pride and joy would ever have evolved? Even if the Romans had done us a further miraculous service, and made available their ranks
either for administration or industry.
51
THE GREAT DEBATE democratic literature, so that the ruling cadre were works of Locke, Montesquieu, and Thomas Jefferson, and had further anticipated history by clothing the infant body politic with the gloriously ponderous garments of parliamentary government, it still does not seem to me at all likely that the political course of British history would have led us in the direction which it actually took. Unless the ruling group had wrecked the whole show by quarrelling among themselves, or industrialization had failed and the tribes had risen up through starvation, or had been fired to passionate resentment by supression of some cherished custom like the right to paint their bodies with woad, the result would have been at best a protracted authoritarian system of government which the rulers felt no real need to impose with undue cruelty and against which the ruled felt no need to rebel. What primarily saved Britain from such a fate, and what has been the basic condition out of which freedom has evolved in the classical democracies of the past, is that the opportunities for rulers to oppress and the opportunities for the ruled — or those of them that wished to — to oppose oppression have been roughly speaking kept in balance. In Africa and Asia today, however, this crucial balance has been fundamentally upset by the colonial legacy, which has created an educated elite (in whose hands twentieth-century power is now invested) in the midst of still primitive, illiterate masses whose means of resistance has scarcely advanced since the stone age.
whole
libraries of
steeped
AN AFRICAN BUSH VILLAGE Within a few miles
of the modern capitals
are primitive mud or rush hut
communities
52
in the
Peregrine Worsthorne
In the capitals can be found ministers, civil servants, large, modern government buildings, army barracks, central banks, etc. — all the instruments and paraphernalia for ruling a modern state. Within a few miles of the capital cities, however, will be mud or rush hut communities in much the same primitive condition of social and economic organization as they were at the beginning of time — except that, in some cases, the inhabitants now have the vote. So far as the primitive masses are concerned, the rulers of today in the underdeveloped countries enjoy a superiority of sheer physical and administrative power which makes the greatest tyrants of old seem like impotent weaklings. One of the primary brakes on absolutism — technical incompetence — is, thanks to the colonial powers, sadly lacking in Africa and Asia today. Another brake, which the intervention of the colonial powers has also removed, is the inhibiting presence of traditional or religious restraint. One of the most important limitations on governmental power in the past has been a tacit understanding between ruler and ruled that certain actions, although not prohibited by law, were contrary to immemorial custom or forbidden by conscience. No institutions, for example, existed to thwart the will of the absolute monarchs who ruled by divine right in Europe until the French Revolution. Yet they voluntarily accepted certain moral restraints, which were regarded as heinous to ignore, and, out of respect for immemorial custom, refrained from extending governmental power into areas like conscription or direct taxation. It was not until after the French Revolution had introduced the theory of the general will that governments felt free to ex-
tend their activities irrespective of traditional restraints. ^ Fortunately for Britain and the United States, this democratic doctrine of the general will, which places such immense power in the hands of majority government, emerged only after the people's basic individual liberties were firmly entrenched and powerful nongovernmental organizations and institutions existed to defend them. Moreover, in these countries, this revolutionary doctrine of the general will had to cohabit with an equally strong tradition and faith in personal liberty. But where it did not, as in Russia and Germany, disaster soon ensued. No similar historic traditions or religious scruples, however, inhibit the governments of the underdeveloped countries today, since the new states have sought to make a clean sweep of their primitive or colonial past. The President of Ghana would not be at all impressed, when considering whether or not to lock up some opponent, if he were told: "This is not how we used to behave in the jungle," or "This is not what the British used to do." In any case, the economic, political, and social revolution transforming the new states today has been so dramatically rapid that continuity with the past has been decisively broken.
The
lack of these traditional or religious restraints
would not matter so much 2
The theory of
the general will
was
if
among
the rulers
there existed a widespread spirit of liberty
originally
developed by Rousseau. See The Social Contract,
Vol. 38, pp. 392a, 395a-398b.
53
TRIBAL
DANCING IN
WEST AFRICA To
create
national unity,
governments have to disrupt
the will
ancient tribal
and communal patterns of life
among
if it was likely soon to develop. But this is far from The whole concept of freedom is quite alien to very
the ruled or
being the case.
primitive peoples. Take, for example, freedom of conscience or free-
dom
of speech, which are so central to the meaningful practice of democracy.^ Why should primitive peoples cherish such rights, which are only valuable to a man who is capable of independent thought. For the great majority of the people of Asia and Africa, whose lives are still circumscribed by custom, convention, and superstition, independent thought is virtually out of the question. They lack the intellectual capacity as much to believe as to doubt, both of which are relatively sophisticated intellectual processes. Primitive peoples do not obey the rules of their communities because they believe them to be right, or disobey them because they believe them to be wrong. They obey them out of habit, because it is easier to do so; and they disobey them only out of passion or self-interest. It is difficult to believe that such communities will be inspired to do battle with arbitrary government in the name of freedom of speech or conscience. For the same reasons it is improbable that any large body of opinion in the underdeveloped countries will wish to oppose their governments very passionately on any of the other issues which advanced democ-
3
For
J.
S.
Mill's
views on the importance of such
Vol. 43, pp. 272d-274a.
54
liberties to a free society, see
On
Liberty,
Peregrine Worsthorne
due process of law, freedom to assoFor the time being, at any rate, the popular
racies regard as important, like ciate,
habeas corpus,
etc.^
unable to grasp these concepts. would be prepared to do battle with government about is any attempt to wean them of their superstitions, or disrupt their ancient tribal or communal patterns of life, or change their languages. These are the kind of catalysts around which genuine popular will is quite
What
the people
movements could be formed. That they
will
be so formed
the constitutions of these
new
is,
unfortunately, highly unlikely, since
countries are usually expressly designed
few genuine expressions of the popular will. They are regarded either as threats to national unity — which of course they are — or as threats to modernity, which is also true. Governments, therefore, can claim the backing of the constitution in stamping them out. It is difficult, however, to feel very confident about the growth of representative institutions in societies where the only things that mean anything to the great majority of the people have to be, for reasons of to stifle these
state,
regarded as treason or,
if
not as treason, as archaic obstructions
to progress.^
Even
the concept of national freedom, which sparked the struggle independence from colonial rule, can be said to affect only a small minority — the educated elite. The proportion who feel passionately involved with individual liberty — an infinitely more subtle concept — is far smaller, since those few who have the education and background to understand the arguments intellectually are almost all connected with government, and are therefore more fascinated with authority than freedom. The rest, as I say, are either too poor or too ignorant to for
care.
have governments had such opporand so few objective or subjective reasons for restraint, as they have today in the underdeveloped countries of the world; and seldom, if ever, have the ruled been so powerless to resist. The picture, however, is even less promising than that. For not only are the rulers in a position to oppress, and the ruled in a position to be oppressed, but there exists today a justification for the oppressor and a consolation for the oppressed which between them have almost made it impossible to think about freedom as an Afro-Asian concept at all. "Give me liberty or give me death," said Patrick Henry. But to the famished millions of Asia and Africa, death may not be the alternative to liberty, but its consequence; and slavery, instead of being equivalent to death, may be the means of life. For it may well be that dictatorship is the only method of raising the Afro-Asian standard of living so that it keeps pace with expanding population rates; that speedy inSeldom, therefore,
in history
tunities to rule arbitrarily,
4 See Constitution of the United States, Amendments 1-10, 14, 15, and 19, Vol. 43, pp. 17a-]9d. 5 "Representative institutions necessarily depend for permanence upon the readiness of the people to fight for them in case of their being endangered" (J. S. Mill, Representative Government, Vol. 43, p. 350d).
55
THE GREAT DEBATE dustrialization cannot be forced through fast
No
enough by any other
has ever enjoyed so plausible an excuse. Even more baffling, no oppressed peoples have ever had such good reason to suppose that their rewards for suffering in silence will
means.
former tyrant
in history
world rather than the next. debate about freedom, which has raged through the centuries in the classical democracies, had started off in this context; if the great formulators of democratic doctrine had come to the subject at a time when it presented itself in these terms, instead of, for example, about the rights and wrongs of religious toleration,^ would they have reached the conclusions which they did? But this is the context in which the politically articulate people in Afro- Asia are reaching their political
be
in this
If the
conclusions. While there
is
no reason
make communists of them — power strikes
me
as puerile to suppose that
to
suppose that
it
politics will really it
will
make them
will necessarily
decide that —
into ardent
it
dem-
A few, like Mr. Nehru, reared in the great liberal tradition, may maintain their democratic faith, as well as maintaining power. But Mr. Nehru is an exception who certainly proves no rule, as anybody who has talked to the younger generation of Afro-Asian leaders cannot fail
ocrats.
have learned.
to
Industrialization
It
may be
objected that
all I
have done so
among
far
is
to point out the ob-
masses
in the underdeveloped countries today are not conducive to freedom. But will not the prospects be radically improved once industrialization has raised the general standard of living and education has raised the general standard of knowledge? These particular hopes spring eternal in the Western breast. My own view, however, is that industrialization and education are just as likely — indeed more likely — to lead in the opposite direction. Far from helping to create independent and powerful interests prepared and able to counterbalance the power of government they will tend, in the particular circumstances of the underde-
-vious, namely, that conditions
the
veloped countries, to strengthen further the government's hands. It is perfectly true that in Britain, and in the other classical democracies, the growth of an industrial bourgeoisie, and that of a commercial bourgeoisie before, played an immensely valuable role in bringing absolute government under democratic control. But they did not do so because of any abstract faith in the virtues of representative govern-
The b9urgeoisie fought for political representation and for some measure of control over the government because the ruling groups of the time refused to allow them the freedom they needed to trade and produce.'^ Feudal rule in Europe, for example, rigidly excluded aspiring ment.
6 See Locke, Letter Concerning Toleration, Vol. 35, pp. la-22d. 7 For Marx-Engels' account of the role played by the bourgeoisie, see Manifesto of the Communist Party, Vol. 50,
56
p.
420a-c.
Peregrine Worsthorne
merchants from the circle of governmental influence and saddled them with restrictions and difficulties which prevented them from trading to the maximum advantage. It is difficult to exaggerate the role which the commercial requirements of the trading groups in England in the eighteenth century had on the development of British politics.^ Commerce instills in those who
practice
it
the arts of negotiation, bargaining, honoring agreements,
respect for law. Its interlocking relationships preclude any clear chain
of
command and
cut across strict hierarchies.
The commercial ethos
BRITISH
MERCHANTS AT LLOYD'S OF LONDON The commercial bourgeoisie played
an important role the development
in
of English
democracy
makes regimentation anathema. Toleration,
flexibility,
mutual
trust,
and a sensitive feel for every change in social trends — these are the qualities that make commerce flourish. They are also the qualities that are peculiarly conducive to the successful practice of parliamentary government. It was no accident that Britain's commercial bourgeoisie
should have developed a taste for democratic institutions, for an independent judiciary, and even, in time, for an incorruptible civil service. Arbitrary government, erratic implementation of the law, and corrupt administration
made
it
impossible for them to ply their trades.
do not mean to suggest that the battle against absolutism fought by Britain's commercial interests, which played so superb a part in winning British liberties, was strictly a matter of economic self-interest. There was, of course, also a magnificent body of doctrine evolved to lend rational justification to the cause. Economic self-interest provoked intellectual argument to justify that self-interest which in turn sparked genuine idealism, so that by the time the circle was completed. I
8
For an illuminating discussion of
(New York: Harper &
this
theme, see Henry A. Kissinger. The Necessity for Choice
Bros., 1961).
57
THE GREAT DEBATE the bourgeoisie and the professional interests, like the law associated
and limb, welfare and prosmaking money. But this, of course, is how all reform comes about — through a subtle blend of selfishness and idealism so interwoven that it is never quite clear which is the chicken and which the egg. So far as Britain was concerned, nineteenth-century industrialists certainly continued the struggle to limit the power of government. It is much less clear, however, whether the actual processes of industry really favor the diffusion of power, in the way that commerce does. The governing principle of an industrial society is efficiency, which ordains with them, were prepared to sacrifice
life
perity, for a political doctrine initially designed to justify their
all its component parts — including the human beings involved — be reduced to manipulatable quantities. A strict chain of command or hierarchy is an essential condition for efficient production. Whereas in commerce the arts of negotiation, bargaining, and compromise deter-
that
mine success,
in
industry
manipulate. There
is,
it
is
more
in short,
command,
the capacity to
regiment,
nothing in the ethos of industry which
helps to create a democratic attitude to politics.
The growth
of industry in Britain helped to promote democratic
in-
wanted democracy but because the ruling order of the day did not want industry. It was because the land-owning ruling class sought to place restrictions on the growth stitutions not
because the
industrialists
of industry, so as to protect their
own
agricultural interests, that the
espoused the cause of freedom against an unsympathetic government. What they were fighting against was governmental obstruction and what they were fighting for was industrial autonomy. The difficulty facing the underdeveloped countries is that they are attempting to jump virtually from a condition of mere subsistence industrial groups
straight
industrialization,
to
without lingering
in
that intermediate
period of slow commercial growth during which, in the classical
democracies, the habits and attitudes of democracy and parliamentary government took root. What is more, the impulse for industrialization, far from meeting governmental obstruction, is actually coming from the government itself. Whereas in the classical democracies industry had a vested interest in curbing the power of government, because it was being used to obstruct their aims, in the underdeveloped counhas a vested interest
tries industry
because is
it is
in
supporting governmental power,
being used to promote their aims. say, certainly does not encourage the
view that there
History, as
1
anything
the industrial process itself which favors a free society,
in
or encourages industrial managers to wish necessarily to control gov-
ernment. So long as the process of industrialization coincides with a government well disposed to this development, which does not seek prepared to stand Japan, where industrialization took place with the support and active encouragement of the landed ruling class. In both these cases the industrial to obstruct, past experience suggests that industry
aside from politics. This
58
was
certainly true in
is
Germany and
PRESIDENT
NKRUMAH INSPECTS
MACHINERY IN GHANA By taking a leading role in industrialization,
the
governments
are increasing the concentration
of power
managers were quite happy to barter political participation for economic autonomy, and insofar as they developed any interest in politics at all, it was to encourage nationalism rather than liberalism. I cannot myself see why industrialization should have different results in the underdeveloped countries. Why should the new class of industrial managers there, whom the governments will do everything in their power to cosset and favor, and who presumably will have little cause to complain against, and every reason to praise, the government of the day — why should they insist on any active participation in ruling the country? Since their prime interest will be in maintaining the stability of the government, it is more likely that all their influence will be concentrated on increasing rather than decreasing its powers. The truth is that democracy can be slowed down by governments giving people too much of what they want too early as much as by granting them too little too late. Contrary, therefore, to the optimistic assumptions that industrialin the underdeveloped countries, be a powerful force operating in the opposite direction. A frustrated industrial bourgeoisie, which happens to evolve in a country where parliamentary institutions have taken root, can prove a supremely effective dynamo for setting the wheels of democracy in motion. This was the situation which Britain was lucky enough to enjoy. But a satisfied bourgeoisie, basking in the sunshine
ization will be the ally of it
seems
to
me more
democracy
likely to
in a country where parliamentary institutions have no roots, is likely to be an equally effective brake preventing the wheels of democracy from ever getting into mo-
of governmental patronage, which evolves
tion.
But
if
industrialization
is
unlikely to throw up a radical bourgeoisie,
or one determined to curb the power of government, that the
workers
in
is it
not possible
Africa and Asia will develop the taste for free
59
in-
THE GREAT DEBATE stitutions? This tribal lands,
seems extraordinarily
to the atomization
how
unlikely.
Uprooted from
their
cut off from their customs and traditions, and subjected
of industrial
life in
city slums,
it
is difficult
to see
they can be expected to stand up to a combination of govern-
ment and management. But even if in time they are in a position to do so, it is highly unlikely that their objective would be the creation of a liberal democracy. Insofar as they influence politics at all, they will tend in the direction of extremism rather than moderation, since it will be prompted more by the agonies of hunger in their bellies than the passion for liberty in
Working-class revolutions, provoked by hunger and povfield of freedom, since this is not their aim. British political liberties were won, not by the masses fighting for bread, but by particular groups and interests fighting for the right to pursue their own ends without government interference. If the hungry masses in Asia and Africa seek to intervene in politics, their prime their hearts. erty,
seldom enlarge the
object will be to create a government which will do rather than less.
They
will
want, but rather to get what they need. While this
proper political demand, erty. If
it is
more
for
them
not be asking for the right to do what they
it is
is
an absolutely
not one that has anything to do with
made after the establishment of liberal
lib-
political institutions,
because of the existence of these institutions — as was it strengthens them, by demonstrating that they work. But in the underdeveloped countries, worker intervention in politics is likely to lead either to outright repres-
and
is
satisfied
the case in the classical democracies — then
SLUM SCENE LAGOS, NIGERIA
IN
Poverty and hunger are almost certain to lead to demands for stronger
governments
— at the expense of personal freedoms
Peregrine Worsthorne
sion by the
government or
to the establishment of
some form of popular
tyranny along Communist or Peronist lines. Most of the new underdeveloped states,
it should be noted, have under moderate left-wing governments led by men claiming to espouse democratic socialism. All the miseries of early industrialization and population expansion will, therefore, be visited on the heads of the moderates. It seems to me rather unfortunate that
started their lives
new states should begin their life, politically speaking, in the middle of the road, since if things go wrong, they must move either to these
the right or to the
others are is
all
left.
Some have already moved move very much further
too likely to
surely very improbable
is
that a country
which
far to the right;
to the left.
What
starts at the center
of the political spectrum, before it has yet to face all its agonizing growing pains, will survive the experience without toppling one way or the other.
Education Western optimists place the highest hopes which will do most to encourage the growth of free institutions in the underdeveloped countries. This is certainly a possibility, since once men begin to think, everything becomes possible. Except in this very general sense, however, it does not seem to me that education is likely to have the desired effect. People have a vague idea that education will produce inquiring minds who bring rational thought to the problems of society. When there are enough inquiring minds bringing enough rational thought to bear, democracy is expected
After
industrialization.
Lin education as the process
to appear.
But when one examines the
effect of education in practice
the underdeveloped countries, the picture
is
today
in
rather different. For the
overwhelming majority it is, at best, simply a matter of learning to read and write. The tiny minority who pass through universities, and who constitute the inquiring minds, are swiftly absorbed into the machinery of government, since the demand of administrative posts still greatly exceeds the supply. In other words, the opinion formers who are meant to act as watchdogs on governmental propriety, and maintain the people's side of the argument which goes on eternally between rulers and ruled, are almost to a man in some way connected with, or dependent on, the government itself. In time, of course, their numbers will increase. But the other main source of livelihood for the educated elite will be industry, which is not likely, as I have sought to show, to encourage any great independence of thought. The trouble is that for the foreseeable future there will be so much room on the governmental bandwagon for the educated elite that there will be no need for any of them to worry about its speed and direction. Of course, if industrialization fails to keep pace with educational plans, and there are very 61
A
READING LESSON
IN
TIMBUKTU
For the ovenvhelming majority
of the people, education is simply a matter to
of learning read and write
many more graduates produced than there are jobs for them to fill, the situation will be very different. Unemployed graduates today do not sit around reading Thomas Jefferson, or studying the Westminster rules of parliamentary procedure. Their inquiring
Marxwards by
minds tend
to travel
the fastest route.
It seems highly unlikely, therefore, that the processes of education and industrialization will of themselves produce organized private interests determined enough and strong enough to impose restraint on the arbitrary exercise of public power. The reason is horribly simple. Without governmental backing, no private interest will be able to pros-
per.
The importance of indigenous development
What the West finds so now
difficult to
appreciate
is
that
all
the activ-
Asia and Africa, which have the creation of modern industrial states as their aim, almost entirely lack indigenous momentum. Of course, the masses want the benefits of industrialization and want to be rid of disease, famine, drought, and flood. But this is quite different from wanting to make the sacrifices which would enable these blessings to be realized. While there is widespread popular demand for the ends, there is virtually no support at all for the means. It might be argued that this was also true initially in the Western democracies, where industrialization, for example, provoked the mob to break up the machinery with sticks and staves. The great difference, however, is that because Western advances in techniques, skills, and knowledge were almost all indigenous developments, they inevitably created their own body of informed support. Clearly, industrialization could not take place until there were enough industrialists to make it ities
proceeding
in
modern techniques of agriculture could not become widespread until there were enough farmers to understand them; modern ideas of hygiene and medicine could not be generally practiced until possible:
62
Peregrine Worsthorne their importance and enough patients were prepared to risk them. Since the Western peoples were their own pacesetters, throwing up their own pioneers, the speed of advance never ex-
enough doctors recognized
ceeded the capacity for at least some sizeable section of society to keep up with it. Progress, moreover, depended on private citizens discovering new techniques, organizing themselves to give effect to them, and persuading others to tolerate or support their activities. Governments could assist this process, but clearly could not initiate it. The result has been the gradual growth over the centuries of innumerable professional associations, corporate bodies, seats of learning, and interest groups, rich in pride and achievement, whose voices carry great weight with government because their roots are deeply based in public approval and respect. No equivalent developments can be observed in the new states of Africa and Asia. Progress in these countries is almost exclusively imported from abroad. In most cases the process of importation was initiated by the former colonizing powers and can be maintained only by the most strenuous efforts of government operation, since the people themselves are almost wholly unable to initiate and invent. Take, for example, medical science. If the progress of medicine in the underdeveloped countries depended on the wit and inventiveness of the local medical professions, it could not possibly keep pace with modern requirements. That it can do so at all is made possible only by the intervention of government, which decides to import the necessary drugs, etc.. or to send local doctors abroad to learn modern techniques. The same is true in all the other fields of modern knowledge. In the underdeveloped countries, in short, it has to be the government that sets the pace and pioneers the new frontiers, since the people are themselves unable to do so. It seems to me quite absurd to imagine that in these areas there are likely to develop those professional and private concentrations of power and influence, over and above government, which have been so crucial in establishing Western freedoms. All the forces of initiative, invention, imagination, and drive which in the West arose from the private sector, and therefore nourished and strengthened the private sector, are having to come in the underdeveloped countries from government, and are likely to strengthen and nourish the claims of government. The West should be able to understand this today, since to some extent the classical democracies are themselves beginning to experience a comparable difficulty. The greatest advance in modern science — nuclear fission — seems to defy democratic control, precisely because it was very largely a product of governmental rather than private enterprise. As a result, no private or professional body exists that can altogether understand its immense complexity. Parliaments find it difficult to discuss the problems it raises: the people recoil in baffled horror, willing to accept the security advantages it offers, but quite unable to
feel that its future is their private responsibility.
63
AN ELECTION SCENE IN
KENYA
Many of the important ''
government posts are still held by expatriate Europeans
In the underdeveloped countries, however, virtually every aspect of modern society presents the public with the same kind of difficulty
which nuclear fission today poses for Britain and America. It is as Afro-Asian public opinion to grapple with the problems of industrialization and modernization, and to develop means of controlling governments in these respects, as it is difficult for AngloAmerican public opinion to do the same in respect to nuclear power. Fortunately for the West, however, democratic institutions evolved and took root before the advent of nuclear power. The relationship between ruler and ruled was formed in conditions where the latter had more than enough cards to hold its own in the game. Unfortunately, the opposite is true of the countries of Asia and Africa. The position is even further complicated in many of the underdeveloped countries by the presence of large numbers of expatriate Europeans who, in the absence of an adequate local elite, still fill many of the crucial professional, executive, and university posts. In some cases they even occupy high rank in the civil service, in the police and armed forces. Most of the capital invested, too, is foreign, and in Ghana by far the best and most modern newspaper is British-owned. To a dangerous extent, in short, the elite, which should be bringing informed criticism to bear on government, is made up of what in effect are foreign mercenaries whose continued presence in the country can always be revoked by governmental fiat. Many of these foreign expatriates are, no doubt, men of high principle, who stayed on to help the new states through their post-independence difficulties. But clearly their status as former colonial masters is highly invidious, and the one thing they cannot allow themselves is to get in any way involved in politics. The same is even more clearly true of foreign business firms, whose economic interest must prompt them to do everything possible to keep the government sweet. The British-owned Ghana newspaper solves its problems by rigorously eschewing all political controversy. As a result, however, the very groups which, in a healthy democracy, bring informed criticism to bear on government, and provide the raw material of ideas and argument for the public to feed on, tend in many of the underdeveloped countries to be reduced to the role of political eunuchs. In some fields the position will, of course, improve as more native taldifficult for
64
J
Peregrine Worsthorne
ent
trained to take over the jobs
is
now done by
expatriates.
So
far as
concerned, however, the problem may well become worse, particularly in those areas where stable and strong government
foreign capital
is
established.
is
For the stronger the government becomes, and the
less
the area concerned seems subject to the instabilities of democracy, the
more
it will be to the foreign investor. The fact must be faced here a direct clash between the economic health of the
attractive
that there
is
underdeveloped countries and their prospect of democratic growth. For all these reasons, therefore, it seems to me that the prospect of organized concentrations of private power being able to control arbitrary government is exceedingly remote. Yet without them I cannot see how parliamentary democracy can hope to work. Merely dispensing the vote does little of itself to strengthen the ruled against the ruler, since the vote is only useful to a citizen who, as well as being a
head
to
count
at election times, is also
an interest which counts
at all
easily forgotten in the
West,
times.
This basic fact of democratic
which
likes to think that its
life is
own
liberties
arose from the franchise.
is a dangerous half-truth. For while it is true that in and America individual liberties are today protected by the vote, they were not created by the vote. They were created by dint of various interests, one after the other, so organizing themselves that they were in a position to fight for their rights. The vote, so to speak, is the flower that springs from liberty, not the root, and to create parliaments in the underdeveloped countries, as the colonial powers have done, without first creating interests to be represented in them, is as nonsensical as fabricating cups in a desert before first discovering
This, however, Britain
water.
Parliamentary procedures
However much,
governments of the underdeveloped in the sense of wanting to wish democratic, m^y to be govern according to the will of the people, they have no way of discovering what the people's will may be, since parliamentary institutions can give them no guidance. But that, it may be argued, is surely the job of the political parties. The political parties, however, can only express the needs and wants of the people if there exist organized interests and groups who have translated these needs and wants into precise and politically meaningful terms. For the parties simply to offer the people a vague choice of programs at election times is a singularly ineffective way, by itself, of either discovering what the people want or of committing the victorious party to any particular course. Unless this electoral process is also accompanied by all the subterranean bargaining between the political parties and the various sectional interests which go on in the classical democracies, it amounts to little more than a somewhat undignified therefore, the
countries
65
THE GREAT DEBATE Struggle between various groups of ambitious politicians to get their hands on the levers of power, and has little more to do with the will of the people than the intrigues and plots by which one dictator gets rid of another. The role of the opposition in such circumstances scarcely extends beyond that of making government awkward for the ruling party, without in any way helping to give effect to the desires of the ruled.
This, however,
is
the situation in
which parliamentary government No wonder, there-
has to operate in the underdeveloped countries.
one
fore, that in
state after another, parliamentary institutions are in-
creasingly regarded as a nuisance by the governments and as an
ir-
relevance by the peoples. Since they simply hinder the former without helping the latter, they can be swept aside without any loss to either.
Indeed,
much
may
it
well be better that they be swept away, since
it is
government should not masquerade under a false name. More important, it is infinitely more promising if those opposed to government policies in the underdeveloped countries, instead of prematurely concentrating on parliamentary representation — when they have nothing yet to represent except their own personal ambitions — should concentrate their energies on organizing, not political parties, but genuine pressure groups which reflect genbetter that undemocratic
uine interests. it seems virtually unavoidable that those governments underdeveloped countries which continue to espouse democracy will remain absolutist in fact, while democratic in name, which is the worst result possible, because it subjects the body politic to all the agony of the poison of tyranny while at the same time discrediting and corrupting the cure. Unpleasant as it is to recognize it, there can surely be little doubt that in the underdeveloped countries no political system could be more likely to strengthen those in power and weaken those in opposition than classical parliamentary government on the Westminster model.
Failing this
in
The only is
obstacle which democracy erects against abuse of
the electorate's right to reject an unpopular
government
power
at the
next
election. All the unwritten, subterranean limitations that exist in primitive
autocracies are eliminated in favor of this single major democratic
sanction; since
if
sovereignty
is
derived from the people, a popularly
elected government must remain sovereign until
successor.
Any
attempt to limit
its
power while
it
is
replaced by
it
is
in office
its
would
contradict the basic assumption on which democratic theory rests;
namely, the absolute sovereignty of the popular will. ^ In theory, mais the most tyrannical form of government conceivable — absolutism tempered only by impermanence. ^^ In practice, of course,
jority rule
"The general
alone can direct the State according to the object for which it was Sovereignty, being nothing less than the exercise of the ." (The Social Contract, Vol. 38, p. 395a). general will, can never be aliented 10 See On Liberty, Vol. 43, p. 269a-c. 9 Rousseau: instituted,
i.e.,
the
will
common good .... .
66
.
Peregrine Worsthorne in
the classical democracies, the knowledge that
if
a government mis-
uses power the opposition will win the next election acts as an incomparably efficient brake. But in underdeveloped countries it is extraordinarily difficult for this brake to work, or
if it
does work, for
it
not
to lead to a fatal political skid.
work because the party in power has at modern techniques of propaganda which spring its disposal all the government. reins of By this I do not mean of the possession from It is difficult
for the brake to
simply the brute instruments of corruption and intimidation, although these are certainly very formidable.
Nor do
I
merely to the more numerous and almost
refer
subtle forms of patronage, although these too are
Ghana, for example, it is possible to tell how an area is expected to vote at the next election or how it voted at the last election by whether it boasts a new school or welfare center. But even more imirresistible. In
portant in binding the electorate to the ruling party
is
the fact that, for
most part, the ruling party is made up of the men who actually fought and won independence and who, therefore, are surrounded by an almost legendary aura of glory, which all the organs of the state inevitably seek to amplify and maintain. It is difficult, if not impossible, for an opposition to compete against such advantages. But if the opposition did win — that is to say, if the brake did work — it is equally difficult to see how this would not put the state into a dangerous skid. For in these newly independent states, which lack all natural cohesion, made up as most of them are of conflicting tribes with no common interest in the present or tradition of co-operation in the past (except for the single objective of getting the colonial power out), without a common culture or language, and with unresolved economic rivalries between region and region, it is often only by the President's or Prime Minister's building himself up as a demi-god that any loyalty to the central government and any national unity at all can be created and maintained. the
The
realities, in short,
demand
that the leader should build himself
up as indispensable. But the whole theory of democracy requires that the Prime Minister should be dispensable. If the opposition cut him
down
to parliamentary size,
it
might well be an act of treason against
the state, in the sense that in fulfilling their constitutional role they
may be endangering national unity. Not only does this inhibit the position, but, in a way more dangerous, it justifies a government's
op-
use
of every method to limit and weaken their opponents. These difficulties have, of course, already done grievous damage in many new states seeking to establish parliamentary government. Either the ruling party consists only of a coalition of politicians, without
organization in depth, and
ences
in policy
is
therefore easily broken up over differ-
or personalities, which was the case with Pakistan's
Muslim League; or
it
is
so strong and so deeply entrenched that no it from power, as is the case with the Ghana. What is required, however, if
other party can hope to dislodge
Convention People's Party
in
67
THE GREAT DEBATE parliamentary government
is
to
work
at all successfully, are
two
large
One
of them must always be content to remain out of office for some ten years, while the other treats it with all the respect due to a loyal opposition. parties, both representing a multiplicity of interests.
These sophisticated requirements, however, are not
likely to be reunderdeveloped countries, but rather in societies where government is not the only basis of power; in societies, that is to say, where there are a great many concentrations of private power through which influence can be exerted — a condition which is singularly absent in the underdeveloped countries. The British habits of parliamentary life evolved in the eighteenth century, under an aristocratic system, when it did not make all that difference to those contending for office whether they got it or not. Victory at Westminster meant patronage and power, but defeat was by no means unpleasant, since not only did it enable one to spend more time in the hunting field or in the library but it also meant that, being freed of office, one could concentrate better on running local affairs. Whoever won, the aristocratic system continued, which was all that really mattered. The important thing was not to win elections, but to be born into the aristocracy or to win the King's favor. No wonder, therefore, that the whole activity of parliamentary contest evolved on civilized lines. There was really no great danger in anybody's rejecting the four governing assumptions of party rule: (1) when a party forms a government, it shall govern by consent instead of coercion; (2) it shall itself consent to surrender the goyernment to the direction of a rival party; (3) when this exchange takes place it shall be in a peaceful way; (4) the changes in existing relations in the whole community shall be of a moderate instead of a drastic sort. These sophisticated constitutional habits, formed during the aristo-
alized in the
cractic period
when they
acquired such
momentum and became
did not really require
much
of a sacrifice,
so deeply ingrained that they
have continued unimpaired into Britain's present state of universal suffrage and popular sovereignty. Indeed, it can almost be said that Britain's particular form of democracy has been fashioned so as to conform to the cherished habits of a bygone age. The difficulty bedevilling the new countries of Asia and Africa is that they need to develop an aristocratic attitude to politics in a democratic age: to show an eighteenth-century sophistication without ever having lived through the eighteenth century.
The
do matter quite desperno aristocratic class or capitalist class whose basic position in society is determined by considerations other than electoral victory. In the new states, the popular mandate is the only source of honor and power.
ately.
truth
is
that in these countries politics
Here there
This
is
is
not simply a personal problem, involving loss of patronage
and physical amenities, although this aspect is real enough. (The difference in mode of life between being Prime Minister and being Leader 68
NIGERIAN LAWYERS IN BRITISH COURT COSTUME ASSEMBLED IN LAGOS
Democratic institutions and practices which have developed slowly through several centuries are being imposed upon nations almost wholly lacking in political
of the opposition in most of these countries
is
experience
almost inconceivably
wide: for the former, world-wide travel, luxury and pomp, hobnobbing all of which must be infinitely inmost part, have risen from nothing, means nothing; and for the latter, total fu-
with the world leaders as equals, toxicating to
which
men who,
for the
in these areas really
tility.)
Far more important,
in these countries the
only
way
of shaping
There are no other tempting concentrations of power — economic or social — through which events can be influenced. Yet these nations are, in most cases, either wholly new, on events
is
through
politics.
the very threshold of their national history, or are undergoing vast
transformations — religious, social, economic, and cultural. Probably
governments be called upon to and structure of society; decisions which in Europe were decided only by force. It seems to me quite insane to suppose that any group of politicians, faced
never again
make such
in their history will their
crucial decisions, affecting the very basis
with the prospect of being out of office for ten years at such a time,
and understandably aware of all the methods their opponents can use to keep them out of office forever, will show the necessary sophistication and restraint to make the parliamentary system work.
The dangers of radical reform may well be argued, of course, that these difficulties are only temporary growing pains as the new states get under way. Dr. Nkrumah, for example, may see himself as doing consciously to Ghana what the Tudors did unconsciously to sixteenth-century Britain — forging a cohesive nation strong enough, at a later date, to survive the strains of parliamentary government. This comforting parallel, however, is vitiated by one striking diff'erence in the situation between the new, underdeveloped states and that of the classical democracies, which have also gone through the experiences of absolutism. Britain evolved into a democracy by way of monarchy and even dictatorship. The underdeveloped countries, however, are evolving into dictatorship by way of parliamentary government. Having, so to speak, started from the top, and descended to the
It
69
THE GREAT DEBATE bottom, time.
may prove
it
What
countries politic
far
more
whose outward forms
many
make
the ascent a second
of the newly independent
growing pains are taking place
that the necessary
is
difficult to
so disturbing about so
is
in
bodies
are already fully grown. While a young
expected to behave wildly, and to kick and scream, it when instead of being swathed in the swaddling clothes of autocracy, it is dressed up in the venerable uniform of a mature democracy. More important, by tripping and tearing this incongruous adult uniform in childhood, it will have been reduced to shreds and tatters by the time the new states might with luck have been ready to wear it. In other words, by the time the underdeveloped countries are ready for democracy, the institutions of parliamentary government will have been damaged beyond repair.
body is
politic is
difficult to
This,
smile indulgently
think,
I
is
what worries me most about the way things are
going in the underdeveloped countries — the dreadful double talk
which must be so
whose
lethally confusing to the simple, primitive peoples
futures are at stake.
Reduced
to
its
stark outline,
what
is
happening to these peoples in Asia and Africa is that the majority are being either coaxed or dragooned into giving up their ancestral ways and customs, the ways of their forefathers, and to adopt values and pursue activities which the minority believe to be good for them. They are being refashioned in the most radical sense, almost recreated.
In the
Communist
countries, like China, this process
is
being done
with great cruelty and speed; in the non-Communist countries
being done very is
being done in
tries.
It
In the
name
the
is
it
is
much more slowly and with gentler methods. But it one way or another in all the underdeveloped coun-
non-Communist
countries, however,
it
is
being done in
of democracy and freedom, since these are the slogans used.
being done, moreover, through the instruments normally asso-
ciated with
democracy and freedom
—
popularly-elected governments,
The masses are not being forced to Communist countries. ^^ They are being in-
legal process, trade unions, etc.
be
free, as
they are in the
freedom by materewards, or the promises of material rewards. To study this process at work in India, where it is being conducted with exemplary patience and humanity, is even more frightening than
vited to be free, conditioned to be free, seduced into rial
in those countries where it is being forced through with brutality. China the concept of freedom is being destroyed. In India, however, it is being castrated. The masses are being accustomed to associate freedom with a passive acquiescence, while the elite in power are becoming accustomed to interpret freedom as a restraint on the speed with which they push through reforms designed to improve the people's lot. But there is nothing in this relationship which we in the West can regard as appertaining to democracy and freedom. While we can it is
In
1
1
70
The
notion that men must sometimes be coerced The Social Contract, Vol. 38, p. 393a-b.
into
freedom can be traced
to
Rousseau. See
Peregrine Worsthorne
be thankful that the Indians are not using Communist methods to inand should pray that they will succeed in raising the material standard of living, so that the Communists will have no excuse to step in and do the job for them, we surely cannot argue that what is happening there is democratic or that the spirit abroad in India today is that of freedom, as that idea is understood in the West. Freedom in the West is an active, creative force. A free people is one in which each group has fought for its rights and feels strong enough and organized enough to protect them. But for the overwhelming majority of Indians, freedom has no such connotation. It is a gift, which they are pleased to accept, but which, because they have not dustrialize the country
made
it
for themselves, could be easily taken
away from them
other set of rulers, less civilized than the present lot, should to
do
seems
so. It
to
me
a great error for the
if
an-
choose
West to pretend otherwise
taken away from them, it is better that the West should be on record as saying that it was only ersatz anyhow. If the Indians think that what they have got now is freedom, not only may they not mind terribly losing it but also, far worse, they may never since,
if
this gift
of freedom
is
be inclined to look for it again. In one very important sense, therefore, it seems to me that the longterm prospects for freedom are better in Pakistan than they are in India. In Pakistan, there is no attempt by the junta of generals to pretend that the transformation of the country from a primitive pastoral community to a modern industrial society is being achieved through democratic means. It is being done quite openly and frankly by dictatorship. ^2 President Ayub does not claim to represent the popular will, or bother to carry through meaningless elections. The political atmosphere is one of unashamed aristocratic tutelage, with the educated elite justifying their right to give the orders on the rational ground that they can read and write whereas the masses cannot. While this may not make Pakistan a favorite at the United Nations, this uninhibited disregard for contemporary double talk at least has the crucial advantage that when the masses do become educated and do want to organize their own rights, they will be able to do so in the name of democracy, since the democratic theory will not have already been pre-
empted by an oligarchy
flying false colors.
Put it another way. Frank recognition by the Pakistan oligarchy that they are not a democratic government leaves the field free for later generations of Pakistani democrats to justify their claim to a share in government on democratic grounds. Nor is this possibility merely academic. The encouraging aspect of the Pakistani rulers today is that, although they are not democrats, they are very aristocrats,
if
you
will,
educated
in Britain
much
liberals
-
liberal
and deeply imbued with the
liberal tradition. conditions of society in which a vigorous despotism is in itself the best mode of training the people in what is specifically wanting to render them capable of a higher civilisation" (J. S. Mill, Representative Government, Vol. 43, p. 436b).
12 "There are
.
.
.
government for
71
PRESIDENT AYUB OF PAKISTAN TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE. The cause offreedom
may be
better served by avowed dictators like Ay ub than by demagogues who claim to represent the people
While
perfectly true that they are subject to no objective or inbrake on their absolute power, since they have abolished the franchise and rule by decree, they have not denied the subjective and personal limitations which come from the liberal conscience. In the long run this is surely a more promising situation than what is happening in those other underdeveloped countries where the rulers claim to be operating according to the popular will, and go through the motions of acquiring an electoral mandate which, for reasons already mentioned, present no great difficulty. In these democratic countries the rulers, by claiming to respect the democratic brake on absolutism — which cannot work — in fact acquire a tremendously powerful new accelerator towards tyranny. Backed by an electoral mandate which allows them to claim that what they want to do is what the people want them to do, they are able to ignore all restraints, private as well as public. If you believe, as they do, that the voice of the people is the voice of God, and if you can control the voice of the people — as they can — then your voice becomes the voice of God, and any dissident, oppositionist voice beit is
stitutional
comes
the voice of the Devil, to be treated accordingly.
therefore,
it
would seem
that the prospects of eventual
On
balance,
freedom are
better in the countries that espouse dictatorship openly, like Pakistan,
than in those which dress
it
up
in all the
hideous garments of Jacobin
democracy.
Dangers of premature democracy as it may sound, therefore, what is perhaps most worrisome about the political prospects of the underdeveloped countries is not the absence of democracy but its premature presence. The democratic doctrine has been fruitful of freedom in the West because, when it was initially propounded in its modern form in the eighteenth century, there was no possibility whatsoever of its being actually implemented. European society even then was far too complicated, and made up of far too many partially conflicting interests, for the idea of
Paradoxical
the "general will" to be taken at
72
all literally.
Nobody
studying society
Peregrine Worsthorne it actually existed could suppose that on any particular issue, king, nobles, priests, peasants, and artisans would all agree as to the common good, which is why, of course, the great propounders of the democratic
as
doctrine were compelled to postulate the existence of primitive society populated by noble savages. ^^
So
far as
some
idyllic
Europe was
concerned, therefore, one thing was clear from the start: either society had to be revolutionized to make it fit democratic theory or democratic theory had to be revolutionized to make it fit society. The French Revolution, in its disastrous Jacobin phase, was an attempt to do the former. By destroying all the established feudal insti-
tutions—monarchy, church, and aristrocracy — it hoped to remove all the obstacles to a people's government based on the general will. The result was democratic dictatorship. The Russian revolution made the same attempt with even more disastrous results. European experience suggests, therefore, that the
make
more strenuously countries seek
to revo-
democratic doctrines, the blacker are the prospects for freedom. Only in those countries, like Britain, where circumstances encouraged a gradual compromise between democratic ideals and undemocratic reality, where, in other words, it has been unnecessary to carry democracy to its logical conclusion, has freedom tended to grow. What fostered freedom in Britain was that the antidemocratic forces — monarchy, aristocracy, and church — were suffilutionize society to
ciently strong
and
it fit
sufficiently ffexible to
be able
at
once to
satisfy the
democratic urge without abdicating to it unconditionally. The ancient feudal institutions of monarchy, aristocracy, and church still continue to play important parts in British government, without in any way having to justify their role on democratic grounds. In other words, the democratic doctrine has never gained undisputed sway over the British body politic. There are still tests for governmental legitimacy other than the claim to represent the general will, as the con-
House
tinued existence of the result, of course,
ment. Minority views, even jority support, is
of Lords and the
has been to dilute the
can
still
if
full
Monarchy
suggest.
they are clearly unable to
command ma-
find protection, since the will of the majority
not the only force built into the public structure of the state.
same
The
force of democratic govern-
The
been brought about in the United States, where a whole battery of institutional checks on the general will, headed by the Supreme Court, exist to protect the individual citizen from the tyranny result has
of the majority.
There can be
little
doubt that these safeguards against unqualified
majority rule have brought about a revolutionary change in the theory
understood in the Anglo-Saxon world. The demobeen revolutionized to fit reality. No longer seriously be argued that power to decide political issues is act-
of democracy as
it is
cratic theory, in short, has
can
it
ually invested in 1
3
some
abstraction called "the people," since
Rousseau describes the state of nature inhabited by "noble savages" gin of Inequality, Vol. 38, esp. pp. 362a-366d.
in the
it is
rec-
Discourse on the Ori-
73
THE GREAT DEBATE ognized that trying to do so leads either to chaos or tyranny. Either the government never acts at all, because it is always searching for a nonexistent "general will," or it acts arbitrarily on behalf of a fictitious general will which, in practice,
is
merely
its
own
will
masquerading as
that of "the people."
Under
the
Anglo-Saxon
tradition of
democracy, therefore,
all
"the
people" do is decide who is to do. the deciding, which simply means that every few years the individual elector can cast a vote in favor of one individual rather than another. Instead of governing themselves, therefore, the people merely choose who should do the governing on their behalf. This
is
certainly a far cry
ment somehow magically is
precisely
its
from Rousseau's
reflecting the general will.
ideal of govern-
But
this,
of course,
virtue. In return for abdicating a fictitious right to self-
government, the people gain a real right of electing those who are to do the governing. The Anglo-Saxon tradition, in short, takes all the divine right nonsense out of democracy. Acts of government cease to be endowed with the magic of the "general will" and become merely executive decisions on which the people can express an opinion every four or five years or so.
underdeveloped countries, however, are such that is the only aspect of democracy that does make any sense at all. Take, for example, that north Kenyan tribe which I described at the outset of this essay. As I sought to show, its chief did in a real sense represent the "general will." Indeed this almost instinctive communion between leader and led was the natural method for reaching any decisions. This tribe, in short, represented precisely the kind of society that the eighteenth-century formulators of the democratic doctrine had in mind as their prototype. Insofar, therefore, as Conditions
in the
the divine right nonsense
the primitive tribes of the underdeveloped countries are concerned,
pure democracy can be taken very
literally indeed. However, whereas "noble savage" level, and therefore ideal material for pure democracy, the rulers are skilled in all the guile and sophisticated techniques of impure democracy, as it has developed to suit the advanced societies of the West. The combination could hardly be more disastrous. Not only do the rulers have all the advantages of primitive democracy, in being able to argue that they represent "the general will," but they also have at their disposal all the techniques of twentieth-century electioneering to prevent any challenge to this claim from ever emerging. The underdeveloped countries, in short, have the worst of both democratic worlds. As in primitive democracy, the masses are accustomed to feel an instinctive solidarity with governmental decisions — a solidarity which the governments are too so-
the ruled are
still
at the
advanced democracy, the governments demagoguery, corruption, and gerrymandering, while the masses have no idea how to make the most of their votes. phisticated to share; and, as in
know how
to exploit
Just imagine that, in the eighteenth century,
74
some absolute monarch
Peregrine Worsthorne in Europe had had the imagination to see how democratic doctrine could be exploited to buttress his throne, and had exploited all the instinctive popular respect and devotion for the crown to win election after election, and to weaken and destroy any middle-class opposition to the royal prerogative. Fortunately for Europe, the monarchies were slow off the mark, and by the time democracy became the accepted
method of government, it had already been established as the even more effective method of limiting government. In Asia and Africa, however, the reverse is true. It is the governments who, while still enjoying the instinctive support of primitive peoples, have embraced democracy from the
start,
while the great majority of those over
whom
they govern are quite ignorant of their democratic rights. Democracy, in short, has begun as a method of government, before establishing it-
method of limiting government. highly doubtful, therefore, whether the Afro-Asian world seems It will be able to look to democracy as the fountainhead of freedom which it has proved in the West. The conditions, as this essay has sought to show, are almost wholly different. I well realize that this is a profoundly pessimistic conclusion. Yet for the West to reach any more optimistic conclusion on the basis of the present evidence would be even more pessimistic, since it would suggest that Africa and Asia were being judged by quite different standards from those by which the West self as a
would judge
its
own
prospects.
West can give to the cause of freedom in the underdeveloped countries is to refuse to debase its own understanding of what freedom means. It has never been part of the Western thesis that freedom can be easily achieved. Its whole history, right up to the present -as Spain and Turkey exist to show -suggests that freedom is, even in advanced countries, as elusive as it is precious. Far better, therefore, that the West should be frankly pessimistic about the prospects of freedom in Africa and Asia than that it should accept double standards, which will confuse its own peoples without helping those in
The
best service the
other lands.
NOTE TO THE READER
T
he reader
who wishes
to resolve the issue
Debate
will
find
it
to
make an
posed
in
effort
the Great
helpful to consult the
Syntopicon and Great Books of the Westem World.
The reader should
first
turn to the intro-
ductory essays to the Syntopicon chapters
on
Democracy and Liberty. These essays many of the problems raised in the
discuss
preceding pages. In addition, useful references to Great Books of the Western World will be found in the Syntopicon under the following topics:
For the
suitability of
nations and
all
democracy
to
all
peoples, see
Democracy Ad.
The
suitability of
democratic con
75
THE GREAT DEBATE stitutions to
all
men under
cir-
all
conditions favorable to democracy; progress toward de-
cumstances:
mocracy
For the dangers inherent
2.
The growth
of political freedom:
the achievement of citizenship
The
derogation of democracy: anarchic tendency of freedom la.
lb.
from subjection
transition
the conditions fitting
Opinion lb.
its merits and danprotections against the false weight of numbers
Majority rule,
gers:
flourish, see
Citizen
Tyranny
Education for citizenship
The
corruption of democracy: the tyranny of the masses or of the
2c.
Democracy The educational
For the
majority; the rise of the
task of democracy: the
training of all citizens
ment, see
Democracy 4.
Constitution lb. The safeguards of
The
praise
constitutional
ideal
Liberty and equality for all under law (1) Universal suffrage: the abolition of privileged classes
of democracy in practice and the reforms or remedies for these defects
The
the
Aa.
Democracy
5c.
of democracy:
state
government: bills of rights; separation of powers; impeachment
The
demagogue
For the benefits of democratic govern-
safeguards which democracy
needs, see
4c.
of the people
tocracy
for self-government
For the need to have an educated citizendemocracy can be expected to
6.
The incompetence
and the need for leadership: the superiority of monarchy and aris-
to
ry before
6.
Lawless mob-rule: the tyranny of the majority
citizenship:
men
the
and
equality
and
civil rights
Slavery 6c. The
democracy,
Democracy
Progress 4c.
in
see
infirmities
distribution of functions
powers:
representative
76
and
checks and balances
democracy
in
(2)
The problem
of economic justice: choice between capitalism and socialism the
Ab.
The democratic
realization of pop-
ular sovereignty: the safeguarding
of natural rights
I
PART
II
THE EDITORS REVIEW THE YEAR
An
analysis
of three developments in
world
affairs
Seventeen new nations — colonialism comes to an end
The
great
game — America
elects a president
Youth — the young go "boom"
We
an eventful period of history — to put it very mildly. The crises all over the world, in Laos and the in Korea, Turkey, and Japan. These criCongo, in ses in far (and far-flung) places have had immediate impact and profound effect on the English-speaking world; proof, if any were needed, that we already live in "one world," whether or not we are ready to. It has been said of our time that we are producing more history than we can consume. The ideas involved may not be too much for us; the ideas themselves are all old, and they have all been argued for centuries by the authors of Great Books of the Western World. What staggers us is the sudden nearness, multiplicity, and complexity of events. Most of the headline developments of recent months (and, indeed, years) have had to do with the Cold War — the struggle for the world between the two great alliances of East and West. Every political, economic, or simply military upheaval is seen in these terms. The tumultuous General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, attended by the heads of most of the great (and many of the lesser) member states; the mutiny on the Portuguese luxury liner "Santa Maria" by a cabal of conspirators against the Portuguese dictatorship; the trial of the U-2 pilot brought down by the Russians — all were in one way or another manifestations of the one great world convulsion. The American business recession (and gold outflow), the crop failure (and famine) in Communist China, the kidnapping and trial of Adolf live in
months have seen Algeria and Cuba,
past
Eichmann in Israel, the nonviolent "sit-ins" in the American South, even the conviction of the leading American electrical equipment manufacturing corporations and the imprisonment of some of their top executives — whatever happened of a momentous character seemed to have Cold War implications. What about ^ood news? Certainly man's first space flights were historic landmarks of a happy character, though they, too, reflected the not-too-peaceful coexistence of the United States and the Soviet Union. Perhaps the best news of all — "in the long view of history," as the Friends Committee on National Legislation put it — was the littleheralded Antarctica Treaty, in which the United States, the Soviet Union, and ten other nations agreed that "Antarctica shall be used for 78
Review of the Year
The
peaceful uses only."
treaty "freezes" territorial claims
on the
world and provides for unrestricted inspection of the facilities and installations of all nations in an area larger than the United States and Europe combined. sixth continent of the
Even
this positive
achievement had a Cold
War
ring about
it.
Was
there anything that did not? There were three great church "mergers,"
which observers took as indications of a general movement toward ecumenism or church unity in the Protestant World. The Unitarians and Universalists in May, 1961, formed a united denomination with 175,000 members; three independent Lutheran bodies combined to form the American Lutheran Church with 2,200,000 members. And the United Church of Christ — the former Congregational and Evangelical and Reformed Churches — adopted its constitution at its 1960 general synod.
— and others the reader may think of— The Great Ideas Today have chosen for discussion in the 1961 edition the emergence of the new nations of Africa— a world political and cultural phenomenon; the American Presidential Election of 1960 — a great national event with world consequences; and the "revolt" of youth — a perennial problem of all mankind. In the analysis From
all
these developments
the editors of
of these three headline issues of the past year, the reader
is
invited to
share the thinking of the authors of Great Books of the Western World. In subsequent editions of The Great Ideas Today, other great issues of our time will be similarly treated.
Seventeen
new
comes
nations to
— colonialism
an end
fewer Americans — can name or even Europeans — and Few number those nations of the earth which have come into existence still
The Congo — yes. But which Congo, the Republic Congo Republic? Nigeria- now there's a new nation.
during the past year.
of
Congo or
the
But so is the Niger Republic. And then there's Sudan. There also used to be Soudan, only now it's Mali. And then there are Chad, and Gabon, New nations and the Dahomey, Malagasy, and Voltaic Republics all (and some more besides; seventeen within a period of six months); all of them just as much sovereign states as any other in the world, .
.
.
each of them with the same voting power in the councils of nations as England, or France, or Germany, or the United States, or the Soviet Union. Even the average European, whose own country may have had political ties with one or more of them, exhausts his knowledge of them in three words — "Africa," "colony," and "black." 79
COLONIALISM The past year has seen something unprecedented in human history. The "dark continent" has burst into the bUnding Hght of world power, and into fragments most of whose boundaries were fixed less than a century ago by men who drew careless lines on casual maps. And of these men and their fellow-Europeans, the average African until very recently knew only three words — "Europe," "master," and "white." Three years ago nearly all of Africa's 230,000,000 people were subwhose very names most of them did not know; today the overwhelming majority of those 230,000,000 are citizens (however
jects of rulers
SP.
A Nigerian youth costume to celebrate country's independence in
his
SP.
SAHARA]
AFRICA
MOROCCO-^ FR. MOROCCO
An 1 885
cartoon competition
illustrates the
among
the
European powers
for African territory
word must be used in most cases) of independent nations names (un-European names like Nkrumah) are as fathem as their own are unfamiliar to the European and Amer-
loosely the
whose
rulers'
miliar to
ican worlds.
The impact of this phenomenon is only beginning to be felt in those worlds, largely through the deliberations of the United Nations and the struggle of the Cold War which, to nearly all these Africans, is a European and not an African concern at
all.
But the "Asian-African
bloc," allied with neither East nor West, can already,
if it
acts as a
East or West from controlling the destinies of the United Nations; and in alliance with either can dominate that solid bloc, prevent either
organization absolutely.
What
is left
of colonial Africa
by a very small minority of
—
its
—
of the white man's Africa governed
inhabitants, a minority as small as
1
%
a scattering of enclaves which no one supposes will be either colonial or "white" much longer. All the rest of the continent consists is
of free states characterized by the
them
New
York Times as "most of
socialist in orientation, neutralist in sentiment, hopeful of staying
away from
war as it is possible to do so in this nuclear age, and intent on just two things: establishment of their own political viability as independent entities, and development of their own undernourished economies in order to raise an incredibly low individual as far
standard of
the cold
life."^
vast land mass — three times the size of the United States — under the domination of imperial Europe is an old story. But not so old, chronologically, at that; except for the anciently conquered (and reconquered) northern littoral, the subjugation of Africa was begun and completed almost entirely in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. When the great scramble for territory ended, only half a million of Africa's eleven and a half million square miles were independent: Abyssinia, Morocco, and Liberia. By the time World War II began, only tiny Liberia (40,000 square miles) was independent even in name.
How this
fell
1
July 5, 1960,
p.
30
81
-
COLONIALISM Without any regard
without any coneconomic rights of either peoples or persons, all Africa was partitioned by the rival powers of Europe. Remote America was uninvolved and unconcerned. But in the words of Scripture, the wind had been sown. The man was rare who prophesied that the whirlwind would be reaped in half a century, and the most famous to tribal entities or affinities,
sideration of the political or
of the prophets of the future was a ture. It
was Karl Marx.
man who
did not believe in Scrip-
made "a warren for by what he called "the Chris-
Africa, he said, had been
the commercial hunting of negroes" tian colonial system. "^
In the history of ideas, the justification of colonialism has been based on four arguments. The first is the Scriptural injunction to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole earth. This is, of course, the basis of the missionary movement which often accompanied the imperialism of the Christian era and was sometimes offered as its motivation; a motivation cynically treated by Rabelais, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Swift. In spite of the magnificent achievements of the missionaries, the satire of the great writers
is
commonly
reflected in the popular African
byword, "When the white man came, he had the Bible and we had the land. Now he has the land and we have the Bible." The second justification of colonialism is, like the first, outside the realm of reason.
It is
not religious, but emotional.
pride — or patriotism — gratified by empire.
loved Athens so
Duke
much
of Lancaster
in
From
Its
name
is
national
Plato's Socrates,
who
would never go outside the city, to the King Richard II, in whose mouth Shakespeare that he
put the famous words, .
.
.
this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, ^ this England .
.
.
.
.
.
the poetry, history, and biography of the great books portray the senti-
ment which inspires men not only to defend their own nation, but to assume as a national mission the task of subduing others.
also
While religious evangelism and imperial pride have both been factors conquest, two other motivations have been more generally
in colonial
urged, neither of them unrelated to the military or commercial.
The other
is
first
the
two.
One
is
"necessity"
"good" of the conquered peo-
ple. Cyprus, lying athwart the great Mediterranean trade route, has been a cruel victim of commercial "necessity." She emerged as an independent nation last year after two thousand years of servitude to Egyptians, Medes, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Turks, and Britons: a servitude interrupted by one year of freedom between its revolt against the Medes and its conquest by the
Persians.
Down
through the ages, military superiority has pleaded an
2 Capital, Vol. 50, p. 372c-d: see also pp. 379 3
The Tragedy of King Richard
82
II,
Vol. 26,
p.
flF.
328a-b
i
Africa — land of contrast
'1
I
facing
Ruins on the Mediterranean shore near Tripoli are evidence that Africa
of the
was once an important
Roman
part
Empire.
following In the
Congo River rapids above
Stanleyville,
Wagenia tribesmen use primitive fishing techniques. Victoria Falls seen
from the Southern Rhodesian
side.
A view of modern office buildings in Johannesburg, with refuse heaps of the Transvaal gold mines in the
background.
i
f
"i'fr-^:
J I
Wf6SfJ[ll^0tL
mmM '-^^
^^
i
-^-^
U}iiiU|LUf%.
w:.^
SB!
^ 1 I
1
It
M^l
i
im
^bI
m
'
1
n^^^^HH^^H
J|g|||^^|
I
^^^^^^^^^H
^j^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HV^^^^^HI^H
!
r !
Review of the Year
even more forthright necessity than commercial advantage, but seldom as clearly as in the case of the Athenian determination to overrun the
Spartan colony of Melos:
We
shall not trouble you [the Athenians tell the Melians] with specious pretences — either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us — and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in re-
we hope we do
aim at what is feasible since you know as world goes, is only in question between equals power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they
turn
well as in
you
that
.
.
.
will
.
.
.
that right, as the
must.^
The
idea that colonialism and slavery are for the good of the con-
quered people can be traced
at least as far
back as Aristotle. Though men as are born incapa-
Aristotle accepts as natural the slavery of such ble of self-government, he also notes that
superior in
many
writers "detest the
man
has the power of doing violence and is brute strength, another shall be his slave and subject."
notion that, because one
But (he goes on) even philosophers disagree on this point, for "power seems to imply virtue [and] virtue ought to rule, or be master."^ Thus at the beginning of Western thought, the stage was set for the most palatable of all arguments for colonization — the inability of some men to govern themselves. Whether or not that inability is temporary or permanent — in a word, whether or not such men are simply undeveloped or by nature undevelopable — is the heart of the question. Aristotle, dealing abstractly, decided that it was permanent. But even he did not think that permanent incapacity for self-government was to be found in one society or people and not in another. "It must be .
.
.
admitted," says Aristotle of the "natural slave," "that some are slaves everywhere, others nowhere."^ Similarly, Plato's three kinds of men, "gold," "silver," and "brass," are eties;
and what
more, the
is
men
all
of them to be found
of "brass and iron"
in all soci-
may have
"gold"
and "silver" offspring (and vice versa) J Modern philosophy likewise does not consider inability or inferiority to be the permanent handicap of a whole people. John Stuart Mill finds that there are "backward states of society in which the [human] race itself may be considered as in its nonage." In dealing with such barbarians (as Mill, too, calls them), "Despotism is a legitimate mode of government provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one."^ .
.
.
4 History of the Peloponnesian War, Vol. 5
Politics, Vol. 9, p.
6 Ibid.,
p.
6, p.
505b
448c-d
449a
7
See The Republic, Vol.
8
On
Liberty, Vol. 43,
p.
7, pp.
340d, 341a.
272a
85
COLONIALISM "But," he adds, "as soon as mankind have attained the capacity of own improvement by conviction or persuasion (a period long since reached in all nations with whom we need here concern ourselves), compulsion, either in the direct form or in that of pains and penalties for non-compliance, is no longer admissible as a means to their own good, and justifiable only for the security of othbeing guided to their
ers."^
On
Mill's principle, colonization
would seem
to
be justified by
a temporary condition — and then only for the purpose of alleviating
which the colonists are fit for liberty. upon their liberty is indefensible; and at precisely that point a colony must be liberated. But where is that point, and who is to judge (and by what standards) that it has or hasn't been reached'^ Borrowing the profession, if not the practice, of the missionary movement, the colonial powers of the present time have generally that condition to the point at
Beyond
that point,
any
restraint
maintained that the reason for keeping their colonies (whatever reasons their ancestors
may have had for acquiring them) was
that respon-
dark-skinned peoples was "the white man's burden." Their interest, humanitarian and even Christian, was to civilize their sibility for the
backward brethren and prepare them for self-government. As soon as the colonies were ready for liberty, they should have it. Their masters were Mill's improvers. In part this was an ancient idea; the Roman Empire described by Tacitus, Plutarch, and Gibbon considered itself the bearer of civilization, and in periods of the pax colonia devoted considerable energy to bringing the advantages of its culture to the conquered, even to the point of granting the greatest of
all its
prizes,
Roman
citizenship, with
most of its privileges, to those barbarians whom it deemed ready for it. But the Romans, whatever their purpose, never pretended to prepare their colonies for independence but rather to bind them closer to the Empire and strengthen it through their improvement. That the Roman method was not permanently successful we know from ancient history and modern, from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and from the Declaration of Independence, in which the Englishmen of the American colonies rejected something
The success of the modern method — asserted as the preparation of colonial peoples for independence—is still in question. With a few notable exceptions, such as the grant of independence to the Philippines by the United States in 1946, mother countries seem unwilling to acknowledge that a peaceful and profitable colony has reached readiness for freedom and therefore less than all the privileges of citizenship.
should have
it.
In Africa, Portugal and Spain have not even claimed to devote themselves to the preparation of their subject peoples for nationhood.
They
p. 272a-b. Mill also discusses the same problem in Representative Government. See Vol. 43, pp. 339a-341d, 343a-344d, and the entire last chapter, "Of the Government of Dependencies by a Free State," pp. 433b-442d.
9 Ibid.,
86
Review of the Year maintain that their African possessions — some 11,000,000 people in Portugal's case and some 150,000 in Spain's — are not colonies at all but "overseas provinces," integral parts of the nation. They have even refused to submit information on them to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, nor do they pretend that the benefits of their civilization
have been extended
to the
non-Europeans who comprise
nearly the whole population of these "provinces."
Colonial government is
is
by
definition dictatorship,
and
preparation for anything but continued colonialism,
preparation for the one-party state which the
new
nations of Africa.
Even
is
if
colonialism
it is
necessarily
developing
the intention
— if there
in nearly all is
of
one — to pre-
pare backward peoples for genuine self-government comes into
in-
view of Mill (a view supported by other great historians) that despotism is the only effective means of governing such peoples; and the bill of particulars against George III in the Declaration of Independence supports the charge of despotism in the government of colonies which were by no means backward. (We may marvel, in the light of tyranny both ancient and modern, at the mildness of the offenses charged by the Americans against the British Crown.) Education and participation in government may be taken as the two stant collision with the
quintessential devices for preparing a colonial people for independ-
ence. But
when Belgium
freed the
Congo
in 1960, barely half the
Con-
golese could read or write; only sixteen (in a population of 13,500,000) were college graduates; there were no Congolese doctors, lawyers, or engineers; no African officers in the 25,000-man Congolese army; and
only three Africans had been admitted to any of the top grades of the British and French administration, the New York cannot be said that they deliberately trained an extensive crop of Africans competent to run with the ball of independence."^® And when Guinea voted to be independent of the new French "commonwealth of nations," France immediately withdrew all its experts, its projects, and its funds from the country. service.
civil
Times says,
Of
"It
We
have already seen that the Greek philosophers did not believe any whole people was ever ready for self-government or that any other whole people was unready. Aristotle and Plato could scarcely be called modern democrats, any more than could Thomas Hobbes in his seventeenth-century Leviathan; or the Founding Fathers of the United States, who excluded slaves, Indians, women, and the propertyless from the franchise, //there is such a thing as "backwardness," even temporary, in a whole people, or in a class, a race, or a sex (women, except in a very few states, were not enfranchised in the United States until 1920), what constitutes it, and who is to decide who is backward and why? In the tradition of the Great Books, the question originates in the Biblical injunction against men's judging one another, in the figure of that
10 John B. Oakes, "Africa's 'Ordeal of Independence'," p.
New
York Times Magazine, Suly 31, 1960,
7
87
COLONIALISM the
mote and the beam, and
in
the stricture on the Pharisee
who thanks
That men and nations generally God regard their own laws and customs as civilized and those of others as uncivilized is a commonplace historically illustrated by Herodotus in that he
is
not as other
men
are.^^
the following anecdote: Darius, after he had got the kingdom, called into his presence certain Greeks at hand, and asked — 'What he should pay them to eat the bodies of their fathers when they died?' To which they answered, that there was no sum that would tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians, of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fathers, and asked them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew by the help of an interpreter all that was said — 'What he should give them to burn the bodies of their fathers at their decease?' The Indians exclaimed aloud, and bade him forbear such
who were
language. 12
The process
of colonization involved so
little
interest in the coloni-
whether they were "backward" or "forward," that the English journal, New Statesman, was able to say recently that zees,
A
in
much of African history is still obscure. As new studies are made, the old theory that African society was always primitive and barbarous until the coming of the Europeans is being exploded. What is certainly known is that traditional African politics have their own content of democratic spirit. Most tribalisms, for instance, though bowing to the superior wisdom of the elders and sometimes heavily depending on the leadership of a chief, are nevertheless based on the will of the people. This is not normally expressed in a party system. It comes nearer to the Quaker's view of "the sense of the
representative to the national
assembly of the
Congo
and
Republic-
appears at
meeting."
a public ceremony in a mixture
Socially, too, the tribe has a highly developed sense of community in which each member plays an essential part and the good of the whole tribe is always greater than that of an individual. It may be, then, that this community-sense can be linked to other democratic ideas taken from other countries. The central question is whether Africa can preserve its cohesion as a community and, at the same time, combine with it that sense of the importance of the individual personality which is the most vital product of West-
of tribal and Western dress
em Europe. 1^ Book
II
of Herodotus
is
the oldest reliable account
we have
of Af-
rican civilization, dealing with those limited areas of the continent
known to the ancients and with Egypt in particular. From him we learn how much the vaunted Greek culture borrowed from the dark-skinned Egyptians: of the Egyptian genius in medicine, history, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, and architecture: of their practice of monogamy, their rejection of human sacrifice, and their refusal of divinity to heroes. But like the ancient chroniclers and political philosophers generally, the first historians show no preoccupation at all with the concept of the backwardness of one society compared with another. See Matt. 7:1-4; Luke 18:11. The History, Vol. 6, pp. 97d-98a 13 July 16, 1960 11
12
88
i
Review of the Year
The barbarian of Greek and Roman times was simply the foreigner. And the slave taken in war was not assumed to be less intelligent than his captor and was commonly used as the teacher of his master's children.
True, the climate of most of Africa
is
enervating, and Montesquieu
presents a body of evidence to support his assertion that "the
ef-
feminacy of the people in hot climates has almost always rendered them slaves; and that the bravery of those in cold climates has enabled them to maintain their liberties. "^^ This idea goes back at least twentyfive centuries to the observation of Cyrus (reported by Herodotus at the end of his History) that "soft countries gave birth to soft men ."^^ Whether this generalization can be supported to the hilt may be questioned in the light of the histories (present, no less than past) of such countries as China and India, or of Russia, Germany, or Italy. What may not be questioned is the critical relationship of race — /.^., skin color — to the modern colonization of both Africa and Asia and to the whole concept of "backwardness." The claim of racial superiority is not peculiarly the invention of the modern white man, but it is .
.
.
deeply and definitely engraved upon modern history. The tradition of the great historians and philosophers — and of the scientists like Darwin and Freud — ignores or denies a relationship between "race" and inherent {i.e., permanent) superiority or capacity or incapacity for selfgovernment. But the fact is that no significant white colony has existed in recent times. To understand modern colonialism and especially the idea of backwardness, temporary or permanent,
is
impossible outside
the context of race and racism.
"There can be little doubt," says Alan Paton, the leading commenon Africa today, "that white supremacy has reached or is nearing its end in all countries north of the Zambezi [River: the northern nine-tenths of the continent]. This said, it is appropriate to pay tribtator
ute to the benefits that white rule has brought to those countries, the training (in
some of them) of Africans
in
administration and the
professions, the exploitation and conservation of resources, the es-
tablishment of industries relieving the impoverishing pressure on the
work of missionaries, the promotion of literacy,
land, the
the comforts
of medicine, the reign of law (often sadly vitiated by irregularities), the improvement of communications. Against all these benefits must be set the humiliations and injustices of the color bar, and it is from these that springs the resentment that is so powerful a motive of African nationalism."^^ There is general optimism that the British will be able to bring about a peaceful solution in their remaining colonies south of the Zambezi, but pessimism has deepened during the past year 14 15
The
Spirit
Vol.
6, p.
of Laws, Vol. 38, p. 122b 314c. Hippocrates similarly anticipates Montesquieu when he notes that "the principal reason the Asiatics are more unwarlike and of gentler disposition than the Europeans is, the nature of the seasons, which do not undergo any great changes either to heat or cold, or the like"
(On
Airs, Waters,
16 "White
Dilemma
and Places, Vol. in
10, p. 15d).
Black Africa,"
New
York Times Magazine, September
89
4,
1960,
p.
30
COLONIALISM Union of South Africa. Formerly a member state of the Commonwealth, the Union is ruled by 2,000,000 Afrikaners
as regards the British
(Dutch-descended whites) in a country of 15,000,000 people. (There are 1,500,000 ''mixed bloods" and 500,000 Indians, in addition to ,000,000 English whose attitudes run all the way from extreme big1
otry to extreme liberalism.) aration)
is
The Afrikaner doctrine of apartheid
(sep-
absolute, the repression of "coloureds" and their economic
slavery undisguised. In March, 1961, the Union of South Africa decided to withdraw from the British Commonwealth rather than acknowledge that other member nations even had the right to criticize
apartheid.
The knows
test
by which
all
Africans — and the lightest-skinned Egyptian
considered "colored" by the European-American world — determine friendship or enmity outside of their continent is
A
that he
is
painting
depicting the landmii of a party
of Dutch colonists in South Africa in 1 652
the view outsiders take of South Africa. Aristotle had defined the
"natural slave" as "he who participates in rational principle enough to "^"^ apprehend, but not to have, such a principle. In South Africa is the apotheosis of the doctrine (unknown to the ancients) that the skin color of any dark-skinned man is itself proof that he is a natural slave, incapable by nature of being prepared for the responsibilities of .
.
.
self-government.
South Africa, too, is the model of the commercial exploitation which, along with military necessity and imperial pride, has provided the prime impulse to colonize since the beginning of history. In South Af-
own about 80% of the land. The tribal of the land, maintained by law as community-
rica 1,000,000 white farmers
areas comprise
owned ghettos in compounds
12%
and the rest of the natives live mines (without their families) or in shanty "locations" outside the cities. They cannot go anywhere without a police pass. Their wages range down to one-tenth of those of white workers. 17 Politics, Vol. 9,
90
p.
for 3,000,000 Africans; at the
448b
-
South African police disperse
crowd of Negroes gathered to protest
I
government racial policies
The wealth of the former tirely in the
Belgians
still
Belgian Congo is concentrated almost enembattled province of Katanga, where a few thousand control just about everything.
European-American combine with
The Union Miniere,
a
sales of
$200,000,000 a year, supplies nearly 10% of the world's copper, about 60% of its strategic cobalt, most of its radium, and important quantities of industrial diamonds, zinc, and other metals. (The uranium of the first atomic bomb came from Katanga.) "The whole Katanga," said the New York Herald Tribune several years ago, "is a company town."^^ Within less than six months after its grant of independence to the Congo, the Belgian Government had to adopt an austerity program at home in order to make up for the loss of revenue resulting from the Congo's independence.
The great historians tell us repeatedly of the levies — materials, men, and money — exacted from conquered colonies; in return the conquerors were supposed to protect the colonies against their own or their conquerors'
enemies.
The
restriction of colonial trade to the
mother country is as old as empires. This is the uniform story of colonialism, and the colonies have always objected to it, just as the authors of the American Declaration of Independence did. The Communist view, which we find in Marx's account of the "... rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production," is that economic exploitation is the sole purpose of "capitalist" colonization (and liberation the sole purpose of "socialist" colonization).^^ The right to exploit the resources of new lands has never been questioned. It has always been thought to inhere in the right of disco very at least until the past year when discussion began of the internationalization of the moon. However, except at the climatic extremities of the earth, the "new" lands have always turned out to be old ones, popu18 February 15, 1953 19 See Capital, Vol. 50,
p.
372c.
91
COLONIALISM by either settled or nomadic inhabitants who claimed them as own. Their resistance to the discoverers — or invaders — meant war. The forfeit, in whole or in part, of their public and private property as well as of their liberty has long been held to inhere in the principle that whoever has the power over another man's life has the power over his lesser valuables, namely, his liberty and his property. But lated
their
Locke (whose defense of constitutional liberty is the direct antecedent of the Declaration of Independence) declared that no man has the right to take his own life or, consequently, to put it at the disposal of another. 20
As long as chattel slavery was practiced in America to the great profof both the American buyers and the Europeans "traders," African imperialism did not have to depend entirely upon the exploitation of
it
new
resources, the use of cheap labor in colonial agriculture and in-
monopoly of colonial trade. (Slavery was practiced in European countries which forbade it at home.) But the substitution of wage for chattel slavery was a blow to colonial profit, and persistent and always more widely spread rebellion increased expense. As the profit of empire declined, the will to hold on to it (except
dustry, and the the colonies of
for military purposes or imperial pride) also declined. India, for
example — are said eventually
Some colonies —
have shown an actual
to
fiscal
operating loss to the mother country under these circumstances,
al-
though their exploitation may have continued to be profitable to private persons and companies. The actual collapse of colonialism in Asia as well as in Africa appears to have had a variety of accumulating and accelerating causes, culminating in the irresistible demand for independence. However harsh or mild the subjection which the dark-skinned peoples suff"ered in the past, it was always evident to the most backward of them that their white-skinned rulers were foreign invaders. The African may never have known individual political liberty in our sense — few men ever have — but he knew that he once was free of the foreigner, and in this sense of freedom Machiavelli says that "he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. "^i So, as Herodotus tells us, the ancient Medes successfully aroused Upper Asia to take arms "for the recovery of their freedom" after 520 years of Assyrian domination;^^ ^o, as Gibbon says, "the invincible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age ..." when the Lombards of the twelfth century regained their independence ;23 so, in the twentieth century, the 20 See Concerninf^ Civil Government, Vol. 35, p. 30a. 21 The Prince, Wo\. 23, p. Sh 22 See The History, Vol. 6, p. 23a-b. 23 See The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 4
92
1 ,
p. 2
1
7b.
Review of the Year first President of the former French colony of Guinea says, "We would rather be poor in freedom than rich in slavery," and the first President of Ghana says, "We prefer self government with danger to servitude
in tranquillity."
And
if
this is the
the sense of individual liberty,
case without reference to freedom
we can understand
in
Machiavelli's ob-
An 1830 cartoon portray s American slave masters with captive Negroes. In the
background can be seen
the U.S. Capitol
I
\
The words of Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, are inscribed on the base of his statue in Accra, the nation's capital
^O
COLONIALISM servation that in enslaved republics "there
more
hatred, and
desire for vengeance,
is
which
more
will
vitality, greater
never permit them
to allow the memory of their former liberty to rest; so that the safest way is to destroy them or to reside there. "^"^ The same pride which drives nations to imperialism drives them to
independence, and history conspires with philosophy to suggest that is one which has always failed all empires. Should a people under domestic or foreign oppression — it matters not which — be treated hard or lightly? the art of colonial statesmanship
Locke favors leniency,
for
"when
the people are
made
miserable,
and find themselves exposed to the ill usage of arbitrary power, cry up their governors as much as you will for sons of Jupiter, let them be sacred and divine, descended or authorised from Heaven; give them out for whom or what you please, the same will happen" — rebellion.^s To Machiavelli the issue is an easy one; both moderate liberty and moderate oppression of a colony are fatal: "men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear
of revenge, "^e
The
further dictum of Machiavelli
is
that the ruler ought either to
reside in the conquered colony himself or send settlements of his loyal citizens there to hold erratically
in
would seem
it
for him.^"^ This latter course
own
was followed
the colonization of Africa, and Machiavelli' s advice
to be of dubious merit in the light of twentieth-century ex-
perience. Outside of the seething tyranny of South Africa (where the
Europeans are 20% of the population), the only African country where Europeans are more than 3% of the inhabitants is Algeria (10%), whose six-year struggle for independence has cost France $5,500,000 a day (not to speak of the 20,000 French and 500,000 Algerian lives already
The
lost).
breakdown of colonial imperialism—beginning with Indian independence at the end of World War II — are often embraced in the phrase "the revolution of rising expectaforces that led to the general
tions." Whence these expectations? The rapid spread of modern technology certainly contributed much to them; wholly illiterate peoples have learned of both economic and political opportunity through photography (especially the motion picture), radio, and the airplane. But without native leadership -an African elite -it is doubtful that all the
other forces of independence together would have availed. And that elite had not only to command domestic leadership; it had also to cope with the subtle and sophisticated imperial statesmanship of Europe.
How does such an elite develop under colonial conditions? 24 25 26 27
94
The Prince, Vol.
23, p. 8c
See Concerning Civil Government, Vol. 35,
The Prince, Vol. See
ibid., p.
4b-d.
23, p.
4d
p.
76d.
Review of the Year
'-i^iSif-
I
Tom Mboya, in the
a major fii>iire
movement
fo r Afric an independence, addresses an election rally in
Nairobi, Kenya.
On Mboya' s shirt is
a portrait
ofJomo Kenyatta, convicted leader of the Man Mau terrorists
Chronologically, the nineteenth-century missionary movement, which often provided schooling, came first in this development. It was followed by the opportunity given, especially by France and England, for a limited
number of natives (African or Asian)
to
come
to the
moth-
er country for higher education, developing lower-grade civil servants
with interpreters) and sub-management personnel for economic enterprises. The European-educated Asian or African learned (among other things) that the inflexible doctrine of white supremacy in the colony was much less rigorously maintained, if at all, by the ruling "race" in its own country, the instant result of which realization was the colonial's conviction that racism was primarily an economic and political instrument and not an article of the white man's faith. One of Machiavelli's rules for the governance of a conquered people was to establish among its own citizens "an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you. Because such a government, being created by (beginning colonial
that it cannot stand without his friendship and inter"^^ The Machiavellian utmost to support him. technique appears to have boomeranged in Africa: "The mistake which many white settlers and colonial administrators have made is to believe it possible to select a small African middle class, give them education and some property and then hope to draw them into the defense of aristocratic privilege and use them as 'partners' to mislead the world
the prince, est,
28
knows
and does
Ibid., p.
its
.
.
.
8b
95
COLONIALISM into believing that 'civilized' Africans are granted equality.
The
Bel-
gians and the Portuguese have tried this with their evolues and assimilados.
It
has failed, and
its
failure
is
destroying
many
intelligent Afri-
regarded as stooges. "^^ first leader to achieve the liberation of a dark-skinned colony from a white empire, had the advantages of European experience, as did Mr. Nehru, the present Indian Prime Minis-
who are now simply Mohandas Gandhi, the
cans,
ter
and the most eminent
figure in the Asian-African "bloc."
But many
of the ruling personages of the new nations had no such experience or schooling. A. M. Rosenthal, the New York Times' Africa correspondent, describes
capital of the
some of them he encountered
new
in
unheard-of Bamako, the
state of Mali:
hill is one of Mali's most important resources — strong, able men. them are leftist, some seem to be African Marxists, perhaps Sovietstyle Communists. They are the most impressive group of leaders this reporter met in Africa — confident, austere in personal honesty, willing to talk
On
the
All of
and willing to
But
all
listen,
and determined
to act.^^
history indicates that even with brilliant leadership, and es-
view of modern weaponry, no colony can hope to achieve independence from a great nation at the peak of its power. The revolt of the slaves under Spartacus was staged when Rome was "stag"^^ gering under the tremendous wars of Sertorius and Mithridates A short time earlier revolution had broken out among the Gauls, whose leaders aroused their people by pointing to "the grand opportunity for the recovery of freedom, if only they would contrast their ."^^ The victors of World own vigour with the exhaustion of Italy War I seized the African colonies of Germany and Italy, but after World War II, the victors themselves were hopelessly exhausted, and the colonial peoples took advantage of this fact. The use of outright war to retain its Algerian colony has drained the resources of pecially in its
.
.
.
France, just as the expenditures to hold Gaul drained the resources
Roman Republic. Writing of the "decomposition of the French Empire," the historian Raymond Aron asks, "Will France gracefully give up the kind of grandeur that is now slipping away and content itself with that which is within its grasp? The same question may be asked concerning all the former great powers of Europe. "^^ Much in the manner of Machiavelli, Edward Gibbon, reviewing the "decomposition" of ancient Rome, wrote: "an extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression: in the center an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources: a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts: fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion: a regular administration to protect of the
29 New Statesman, July 9, 1960 30 A. M. Rosenthal, "Africa Shouts to America: 'Choose!'" 31
20, 1960, p. 138 Tacitus, The Annals, Vol. 15,
p.
York Times Magazine, November
62d
32 Ibid., p. 55a 33 "France Has a Glorious Future, If-"
96
New
New
York Times Magazine, October
9,
1960,
p.
105
I
Review of the Year
and punish; and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair."34 j^f^^^ 1945 ^j^^j.^ ^^^ ^^ colonial power which could meet these requirements, and the material weakness of the once great nations was compounded by two powerful new forces. One was the Communist world revolution with its economic collectivism
new
(nothing
to the tribal tradition of Africa),
anti-colonialism. flected in the
The
UN
The other was
its
anti-racism, and
its
the rising sense of world morality re-
United Nations.
a scheme (much more clearly defined than its foundered predecessor, the League of Nations) for the ultimate association of all sovereign states sitting as equals; and its dream is the practice of a single
is
standard of morality in international as well as domestic affairs. The powers in the Security Council are able to veto action on co-
UN
great
Communist satellite) complaints as interference with the internal affairs of a member state. But once a colony (or, as in the case of Yugoslavia, a Communist satellite) has achieved its independence (or lonial (or
formally broken with the Cominform), the doctrine of non-interference is dead.
With the admission of so many new nations year, the Asian-African bloc has
become
to the
irresistible.
UN
in the past
At
the end of
mustered 45 nations with 45 of the General Assembly's 99
1960,
it
votes.
When
the Soviet
Union
last
year introduced a resolution calling
"complete independence and freedom forthwith" for all colonies and trustee territories, the Asian-African bloc introduced a subfor
stitute resolution declaring "the necessity
of bringing to a speedy
and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations." The latter resolution was adopted by an 89-0 vote; the abstaining votes were those of Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Australia, the Dominican Republic — and the United States. Recording the fact that the only Negro member of the U.S. delegation stood and applauded the vote, the New York Times quoted "reliable sources" as saying that the U.S. Government "refused to change the decision to abstain on the colonialism resolution despite the fact that the entire United States delegation — not Mrs. George [the Negro delegate] alone — had been in favor of voting for it."^^ The United States, itself a liberated colony and the greatest noncolonial nation in history, is allied in the Cold War with the historic colonial powers and, as the only rich survivor of World War II among them, it is engaged in fierce competition with the Soviet bloc (including non-Caucasian Communist China) for the friendship of the new nonCaucasian nations. These nations can scarcely survive without the capital investment formerly provided by the mother country for their development, and the two new great power alliances are both bidding ardently for the support of the peoples whose existence they had previously all but ignored. Each alliance driven by the other, they stumble 34 The Decline and Fall of the 35
December
Roman
Empire, Vol. 41,
p.
216c-d
18, 1960, Sec. 4, p. 2
97
COLONIALISM over one another offering recognition, treaties, loans, technical expertise, and economic and military aid to the new nations. But responsible commentators all agree that, if either side is winning, it is the
Communists. "For the Soviet Union," says the
New
York Times' special corre-
spondent, "the future is glistening in Africa. As long as the West retains the image of colonialism in Africa — and Africa is what counts in
Hawaii — it
Africa, not the Philippines or
is
hardly a contest. "^^
The
detested colonial masters were Westerners and the enemies of today are still Westerners. "We in Africa," says a leading Guinean to an American newspaperman, "have had experience of French colonialism, of British colonialism, of Belgian and Portuguese;
Americans are
we know you
with the British and French and Belgians and have never experienced Russian colonialism or seen
allied
Portuguese. We evidence of Russian imperialism.
We can worry about Russia later."^"^ Meanwhile, the Communist governments — China as well as those of Europe — portray themselves as "Africa's most loyal and unselfish ally" (in Premier Khrushchev's words) and emphasize their historic anti-colonialism and anti-racism and their more recent "peaceful coexistence" platform.
A joint communique
issued after the visit of Pres-
Communist Peking proclaims "the present national movement in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as an indispensable part of the safeguarding of world peace." The two ident
Sekou Toure of Guinea .
.
to
.
governments jointly "support without reservation ... all acts of general disarmament and prohibition of nuclear weapons" — at the same time supporting revolution all over the world. ^^ The Western powers reply by citing the Soviets as "the great oppressors of our day." Attacking "the new colonialism," in which the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dominates the supposedly independent governments of the satellite countries of Eastern Europe, the British Minister of State in a
UN
debate observes that delegates of 500,000,000 people granted independence by Britain since 1939 are sitting in the Assembly, while in that same period the whole or part of six independent nations, with a population of 22,000,000, have been forcibly incorporated into the U.S.S.R., and, in addition, "the Soviet
Union exercises economic,
political
and mihtary domination over
mil-
men and women in neighboring countries." But visitors to the new African nations uniformly report an almost total absence of the fear of Communism or of Communist imperialism. "Strange as it may seem to us," says the New York Times' representative, "the Russians come into Africa with what to many Africans — oblions of
livious of like clean
Communist policy and practice throughout the world — looks hands. "^^ The Communist offer to help strengthen the new
36 Rosenthal, op. cit., p. 134 37 Cakes, op. cit., p. 46 38 See National Guardian, November 39 Oakes, loc. cit.
98
7,
1960.
Review of the Year nations against "the
enemy" -white capitaHst exploitation -is someThe Western insistence upon the awful
thing instantly understood. threat of
Communist
able to defend
its
iar policy of the
Communists,
And the West, unrecord, can only point to the unfamilas something even worse, and, like the
incursion has a remote ring.
own familiar
Communists
offer to protect the Africans against the greater evil.
schoolroom Guinea, a teacher from In a
in
the Soviet
Union
instructs
native students in
chemistry
A Chinese Communist exhibit in is
to
Guinea
desiiined
impress Africans
with the efficiency of the
Communist system
99
COLONIALISM Thus
the
Romans
to the rebelHous
Gauls nineteen centuries ago:
Endure the passions and rapacity of your masters, just as you bear barren seasons and excessive rains and other natural evils. There will be vices as long as there are men .... Perhaps, however, you expect a milder rule under Tutor and Classicus, and fancy that armies to repel the Germans and the Britons will be furnished by less tribute than you now pay. Should the Romans be driven out (which God forbid) what can result but wars between all these nations? By the prosperity and order of eight hundred years has this fabric of empire been consolidated, nor can it be overthrown without destroying those who overthrow it. Yours will be the worst peril, for you have gold and wealth, and these are the chief incentives to war. Give therefore your love and respect to the cause of peace, and to that capital in which we, conquerors and conquered, claim an equal right. Let the lessons of fortune in both its forms teach you not to prefer rebellion and ruin to submission and safety. '^^
But the ancient Europeans under servitude responded no more enand promises than do the modern Africans. Gibbon reads the following lesson from Roman history: "There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations in opposition to their inclination and interest."^^ And when neither the crippled might of the Netherlands in Indonesia nor that of France in Indo-China was able to check revolution immediately after World War II, certainly no argument less persuasive than might could hold African nationalism longer thusiastically to threats
in
check.
That the emergence of the dark-skinned nations — all of them so lately colonial subjects of white empires — will effect a radical change in the world cannot be doubted. The year 1960-61 will be a landmark in human history. But, as of now, it would be a reckless prophet who tried to delineate that change. All of the new nations are poor in developed resources, many fabulously rich in undeveloped resources, and an imperialism of the next century may be achieved by capital investment as the imperialism of the last was achieved by the sword. But this "new" imperialism, which the Soviet Union practices in its satellite countries, is not really new; the use of "gunboat diplomacy" to protect the interests of the great nations of Europe and America is another old story.
The future of Africa is completely problematical. Many of the new nations are hopelessly small in extent and population: Israels without a highly advanced people to make the desert bloom. Tendencies
among groups of peared.
A
the new African states to federate have already apnewly "balkanized" continent may have no more chance
of survival without close federation than the authors of The Federalist believed the thirteen American colonies had at the end of the Revolution of 1776; the whole of
The Federalist is an exhaustively argued case against the sovereignty of contiguous "tribes" confronted with 40 The Histories, Vol. 15, p. 290c-d 41 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 41,
100
p.
216c
I
Review of the Year
common age.
dangers and
The common
common
tasks and possessed of a
heritage of Africa
is
common heritits common
considerable, and
outlook clear.
That
common
outlook
is the burning question for white Western civfrom the divisions of the Cold War. The relations between the Caucasian and the non-Caucasian worlds have been fundamentally hostile since the first modern whites appeared in Asia, and a "war of the races" has often been prophesied. In any case, the power, if not the legend, of white supremacy seems doomed. A tiny United Press International dispatch from Christiansted, St. Croix, may be relevant to the future: "Virgin Islanders called today for a larger measure of self-government from the Administration of President-Elect John F. Kennedy. Leaders of the four political parties here agreed the islands should have the right to elect their own Governor."^2 ^ point raised by C. L. Sulzberger in the New York Times whether democracy can recover from past mismay be relevant: ". takes in Black Africa."^^ And an observation by Herodotus at the very beginning of recorded history may be relevant: "For the cities which were formerly great have most of them become insignificant; and such as are at present powerful, were weak in the olden time. I shall therefore discourse equally of both, convinced that human happiness never continues long in one stay."^^
ilization, entirely apart
.
The
great
.
game — America
elects a president
the world the only great nation United States of America Thewhich a fixed term and on a fixed government changes in
is
after
its
date. This singular fact at least in part explains the singular character of the election of an American President. If the election is on November 8, November 9 is not a moment too soon for wide-spread speculation on who will win next time. Electorate and candidates alike begin building up a four-year head of steam, which explodes in the long fren-
zy between the national conventions and the national election. Nor is only a recent phenomenon. As early as 86 John Stuart Mill noted that "the whole intervening time [between elections] is spent in
this
1
what is virtually a canvass."^ There is nothing like an American
Nowhere
else
is
"the great
42 New York Times, Nov. 26, 1960, 43 June 29, 1960, p. 32 44 The History, Vol. 6, p. 2b 1
game p.
Representative Government, Vol. 43,
election
1 ,
anywhere
in the
18
p.
world.
of politics" thought of as a game. In
4 2d 1
101
^
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION older stable societies, like those of England, Switzerland, and Scandinavia, a political campaign is characterized by earnest consideration
of issues. In the unstable societies of continental Europe and elsewhere, national elections are grimly contested by those who, equating virtue with the views of their
In the
new
America,
Only
in
own
party,
push for victory
at all costs.
or underdeveloped societies of the Middle East and Latin
politics often
America can
it
means a be said
violent contest for personal power.
in
any pervasive sense that the people
enjoy an election.
The
fixed term
and date, the homogeneity of principle among a peo-
ple well satisfied with their system, the ebullience of a society
still
growing and moving — all contribute to the electoral spectacle that holds a fascination for the rest of the world, even when the outcome in
no foreseeable way affects the rest of the world. Only in America are millions of dollars worth of placards, pictures, buttons, pins, pennants, paper hats, phonograph records, booklets, brochures, biographies, pledges, promises, platforms, threats, maledictions, libels,
bumper
and billboards swept up into the discard on the same day that millions of dollars in bets are paid off and milHons of Americans shake hands, slap backs, exchange light-hearted congratulations (and equally light-hearted condolences), and "go back to work." On Wednesday
tapes,
Tuesday after the first Monday in November, almost every American has just had a whopping good time. That the election of a mere man to administer the nation's laws should so carry away the American people every four years is all the more remarkable in view of that people's dedication to a government "of laws, not of men." The accession of an emperor could hardly occaafter the first
sion
more general excitement, or take place with more panoply, than American President; and this in a
the election and installation of an
country dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The powers of the President are clearly specified in the Constitution. Since only one President (Andrew Johnson) has been impeached under the Constitution, and he unsuccessfully, it would appear that the role of the Presidency has not been substantially altered since its establishment. But the appearance, as any well-educated schoolboy knows, is
deceptive.
There have been "strong" and "weak" Presidents,
or,
perhaps more
men who made of the Presidency a strong or a weak office. Sidney Hyman, the historian, distinguishes them not by their attachment to the letter of the Constitution, but by the way they dealt with public opinion. "The 'strong' ones," he writes, "knew how to weave
justly put,
and guide that opinion .... The 'weak' ones, lacking that talent, were limited in their work to what was funneled to them by the men outside the Presidency
who
actually
commanded
public opinion, or at least
2 Aristotle's experience in the fourth century B.C. was evidently similar: "Those who think that all ." {Politics, Vol. 9, virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes p. 512a). .
102
.
Placards, pictures, buttons, and hats are in evidence
pins, pennants,
wherever presidential candidates
appear
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B A fireworks display in
the
^^^^^^^^p..jJjiULl
nation's capital is
a
traditional part
of the presidential inauguration ceremonies
Congressional opinion."^ (The "strong" Presidents, he says, were Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Lincoln, Cleveland, McKinley, Wilson, Truman, and the two Roosevelts; but it will be not-
ed that a majority of these were "crisis Presidents" either in war or peace and were possessed of both normal and emergency authority.) In "a government of laws," the legislative branch rules on behalf of the people; the executive is required, on the whole, only to execute. He has certain minor powers of his own, such as clemency and the recomto Congress, but they do not affect the fundamental function of his office. His function is to do what the people want done, under the Constitution and the laws made by Congress.
mendation of measures
3
The American President (New York: Harper
&
Bros., 1954), p. 66
103
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION President has always had another function — or,
The
if
not a function,
a position in which he willy-nilly functions. As the only officer elected by all the people, he is the only individual who may literally be said to represent them
all.
As
their representative he continually confronts
the central question of popular government: Is he supposed to lead them or follow them? Which do they want him to do? What is their
idea -or "the American idea" -of representation? In the 1960 campaign, Vice-President Nixon took a restrained position
on the issue of leadership, calling for a President "who will temptation to give the appearance of leadership when, actu-
resist the ally, his
speaking out rashly
may
set off a chain of
circumstances that
whole world." The Republican candidate appeared to reflect the attitude of the recent Republican Presidents to the office, opposing the aggressive roles of "New Dealer" Roosevelt and "Fair Dealer" Truman. Senator Kennedy was an emphatic advothe American cate of leadership: "In the decade that lies ahead Presidency will demand more than ringing manifestoes issued from the
would be disastrous
to the
.
rear of the battle.
It will
demand
.
.
that the President place himself in
the very thick of the fight, that he care passionately about the fate of the people he leads, that he be willing to serve ring their
them
at the risk of incur-
momentary displeasure."
Alexander Hamilton, advocate of a "strong" Presidency, in his argufor the adoption of the American Constitution, wrote as follows, with the obvious agreement of the other two writers of The Federalist, James Madison and John Jay:
ment
There are some who would be inclined
to regard the servile pliancy of
its best recommendation. But entertain very crude notions, as well of the purposes for which government was instituted as of the true means by which the public happi-
the Executive to a prevailing current ... as
such
men
ness
may be promoted. The
ate sense of the
they intrust the qualified
republican principle demands that the delibercommunity should govern the conduct of those to whom management of their affairs; but it does not require an un-
complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion, or to every tranwhich the people may receive from the arts of men, who
sient impulse
It is a just observation intend the public good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend that they always reason right about the means of promoting it. They know from experience that they sometimes err; and the wonder is that they so seldom err as they do, beset, as they continually are, by the wiles of parasites and sycophants, by the snares of the ambitious, the avaricious, the desperate, by the artifices of men who possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and of those who seek to possess rather than to deserve it. When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.
flatter
their prejudices to betray their interests.
that the people
commonly
"*
4 Vol. 43, pp. 214d-215a
104
1
Review of the Year
"To what purpose," Hamilton goes the judiciary from the legislative,
if
on, "separate the executive or both the executive and the judi-
ciary are so constituted as to be at the absolute devotion of the legisHe asserts that "the Executive should be in a situation to
lative?"^
dare to act his
own
opinion with vigour and decision" ;6 yet his emphatemporary delusion of the people suggests a negative rather than a positive independence on the part of the Presidency. President Kennedy seems to have had the same view, sis
on the duty
to withstand the
when, just before his inauguration, he said that one of the tests which must apply to government is "the courage to stand up when necessary to one's associates; the
courage to resist public pressure." But withstanding and resisting are a far cry from New Dealing, Fair Dealing, and New Frontiering. J. S. Mill (certainly no friend of tyranny) seems to urge an aggressive independence upon the office-holder: "... the electors should choose as their representatives wiser men than themselves, and should consent to be governed according to that ."; and he deprecates "a character of mind which superior wisdom .
.
does not look up to any one; which thinks no other person's opinion much better than its own, or nearly so good as that of a hundred or a thousand persons like itself. Where this is the turn of mind of the electors, they will elect no one who is not, or at least who does not profess to be, the image of their own sentiments, and will continue him no longer than while he reflects those sentiments in his con.'"^ duct Elsewhere, Mill observes, "No government by a democracy .
.
or a numerous aristocracy, either in qualities,
and tone of mind which
it
its
political acts or in the opinions,
fosters, ever did or could rise
Many have
above
themselves be guided (which in their best times they always have done) by the counsels and influence of a more highly gifted and instructed One or Few."^ Note how similar this sounds to the dry observation of Hegel (no great friend of liberty) that "Public opinion contains all kinds of mediocrity, except in so far as the sovereign
falsity
and
truth, but
it
takes a great
man
let
to find the truth in it."^
perhaps the most remarkable book on government ever written, in that it presents a theory of government in terms of the practice proposed for a great nation then and there coming to birth. The Presidential powers, delineated by the Constitution, are presented to the people's judgment with the clearest possible arguments to prove that they are formidable without being terrible. ^^ And the people are reminded that the person of the President has no more inviolability than the least one of themselves; upon impeachment, trial, conviction, and removal from office, he would be "liable to prosecution and
The Federalist
punishment 5
Ibid., p.
is
in the
ordinary course of law."^^
215b 215a
6 Ibid., p. 7 Representative Government, Vol. 43, p. 403b-c 8 On Liberty, Vol. 43, p. 298d 9 Philosophy of Right, Vol. 46, p. 149b 10 See Vol. 43, pp. 207a-210d, 218d-227b. 1
Ibid., p.
207b-c
105
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
What would
the framers of the Constitution say if they read today had given "the President a latitude almost as wide as the sky" and that "It might almost be said that a President's powers amount to whatever his own energies, public opinion and the courts let him get away with."^^ What Presidents have "got away with" under the ambiguities of Article II include Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana, Jackson's refusal to re-charter the U.S. Bank, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Theodore Roosevelt's seizure of Panama, F. D. R.'s bank "holiday" as well as his trade of fifty destroyers to Britain for bases in the Atlantic, Truman's order to drop the A-bomb, and Eisenhower's dispatch of troops to Little Rock and his discontinuance of the U-2 flights over the Soviet Union. Apart from the inherent or implied powers claimed by all the strong Presidents, the Chief Executive has always had an unparalleled opportunity for what F. D. R. called moral leadership — an opportunity stupendously magnified by television. (A "bully pulpit," said Theodore Roosevelt of the White House before the invention of radio.) Of course the most tangible accretion to Presidential influence has been the proliferation of commissions and agencies with quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial authority. Here the appointive power at the highest levels, like that of treaty-making and the veto, requires legislative support for which, however, the President ordinarily needs only a Congress dominated by his own party. And in times of crisis, Congress, still possessing both the revenue and the war powers, is no more likely to say "no" to the executive request for defense appropriations that they
than
it
said
"no"
to President
forces into battle in
Korea
Truman's executive order of American
in 1950.
At what point may an office — still nominally hedged by the law — approach arbitrariness? The President of the United States, "strong" or "weak," in fact is the Chief of State, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (in both war and peace), the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Alliance of NATO, the Chief Executive of the Administrative Establishment, the Chief Ambassador to Foreign Countries and to International Organizations, the Chief Formulator of National Policy and Proponent of National Legislation, the Chief Reliever of Disasters Local or National, the Chief Arbitrator of Labor Disputes, the Chief Spokesman of the Nation, the Chief Speaker to the Nation, and the Chief of the Leading Political Party. These "titles," taken together, represent so awesome an aggregation of authority that it would be difficult to gainsay President Kennedy's assertion that his office is "the vital center of action in our whole scheme of Government" and "the most powerful office in the free world. "^^ But so powerful an office may be used powerfully or not. "During the past eight years," said Candidate Kennedy before his election, "we have seen one concept of the Presidency at work. Our needs and 12
Tom
13
Address
106
Wicker,
New
York Times, February 12, 1961, Sec. 4, p. 3 Washington, D.C., January
to the National Press Club,
14,
1960
,t!3£^*
compensates for the deficiency of air overhead. This self-correcting situation, in which the weight of air and water on the ocean floor at any one point remains quite constant, was one of the discoveries of the International Geophysical Year of 195758.
However,
the I.G.Y. also revealed a strange deviation of the earth
from perfect symmetry. To the Greeks, who probably were the first to recognize that the world is round, it was a sphere. ^^ The first known attempt to measure the earth as a whole was the experiment carried out by Eratosthenes in the third century B.C. This remarkable man, as 16
"Some Recent Experimental Tests
of the 'Clock Paradox'.'" The Physical Revien, Vol. 120, No.
(October 1, 1960), p. 17 17 See Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Vol. 34, pp. 42b-43a, 286a-b. 18 See ibid., pp. 126a-128b, 288a-29la. 19 See Plo\emy, Almagest, Vol. 16, pp. 8b-9a. 1
203
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY Chief Librarian
at
Alexandria, was a leading figure in the mathematical It was to him, for example, that Archimedes more important works. ^^ Eratosthenes learned
flowering of that period.
addressed one of
his
was a deep well at Syene, near the present site of the Aswan on the Nile, where at noon at the summer solstice the image of the sun could be seen reflected in the water at the bottom of the well. At the same instant, he measured the angular distance from the sun to the zenith as seen from Alexandria, 5,000 stadia to the north (575 miles by the Roman and Attic scales). Assuming that the sun was so far away that its direction, as seen from the two points, was the same, he knew from simple geometry that the angular distance of the sun from the zenith, over his head, equaled the portion of the earth's circumference lying between himself and the well. The arc was one fiftithat there
Dam
eth of a
full circle.
From
this,
he calculated the circumference of the
earth to be 250,000 stadia (28,740 miles), not far from the present-
24,860 miles through the poles. the earth as a sphere became prominent again in the Renaissance. During the seventeenth century, by careful measurements in Britain and France, it was noticed that the distance subtended by one degree of arc at various parts of the earth's surface was not always the same. Close study of the planet Jupiter likewise showed it to be flattened slightly at the poles. Newton then sought to explain these distortions in the same way he explained the elliptical orbits of
day
figure of
The view of
celestial bodies.
The
polar flattening,
pound man weigh a pound more
it
was
makes a 200where he is nearest to
calculated,
at the poles,
the earth's center of gravity, than at the equator.^i In the early part of
became
clear that the earth's shape did not Perhaps because of broad regional varconform exactly to an ellipse. iations in density, the shape appeared to be slightly irregular. The nature of the irregularity remained obscure, largely because of difficulties in mapping the earth in three dimensions. While it was possible to survey a single land mass with considerable precision, errors entered into the picture when it came to extending the survey across water to
the twentieth century,
it
lands beyond the horizon. Sighting on the stars with
new
sonal Astrolabe, developed by
Observatory, made
it
devices, such as the
Andre
Danjon Imper-
L. Danjon, head of the Paris
possible to determine locations to within a few
observation point denoted the true ver-
feet,
assuming gravity
tical
or horizontal. In this astrolabe, one mirror
at the
is
a pool of mercury,
which establishes the horizontal, but because of irregularities in density of the earth, gravity cannot be counted upon to pull straight down. Therefore astrolabes can provide positions, in terms of the earth's center, that are accurate only within several hundred feet. During the I.G.Y., various schemes were used to get around this difficulty. In one, the moon was photographed, by a special process, against a back20 See The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems, Vol. p. 569a. 2 See Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Vol. 34, pp. 29 b-294b. I
I
204
1
,
1
Walter Sullivan
ground of stars whose positions were precisely known, making it possible, by intricate geometry, to locate the point of observation without
A
scheme made use of earth satellites. any variations in gravitational intensity are reflected in orbital changes. It was by observing such changes that the earth's shape could be deduced. The space vehicle that made this possible was by far the smallest of the I.G.Y. No bigger than a grapefruit, it provoked some scornful remarks from Premier Khrushchev, yet it produced some of the most valuable results to come out of the early years of space research. Designated Vanguard I, it was carried aloft from Cape Canaveral on March 17, 1958, in the second successful launching of an American satellite. As with the first Soviet Sputnik, there were no scientific instruments on board. Its chief function was to send out signals that would test the radio tracking system on the ground — and also show that it had actually gone into orbit. Its only added output was in terms of slight frequency shifts between its two transmitters, designed to provide a rough indireference to gravity.
similar
Because gravity holds a
satellite in orbit,
Fixed to the skin of this little sphere shuttered windows, that generated a weak current by the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity. Both batteries and tracking system were remarkably successful. It was predicted, in 1960, that Vanguard /'s tiny radio voice might still be whispering from the sky well into the twenty-first century. The Minitrack system developed by the Naval Research Laboratory was able to follow the flight of the sphere, thousands of miles away, with such high precision that the more subtle peculiarities of its orbit could be observed. One of these was the apparent swelling of the atmosphere beneath cation of
were
its
internal temperature.
solar batteries, looking like
the rims of the
Van
thin fringes of air
little
Allen radiation belts after a solar eruption. The to reach up and clutch at the sphere. This
seemed
speeded up the orbiting time, rather than slowing it, as one might expect at first glance. The drag robbed the satellite of a small amount of momentum and therefore caused it to lose altitude. This shortened its orbital path and thus reduced its orbiting time. The tracking system, by measuring the changes of orbit time, or "period," with precision,
made
it
possible to chart this orbital "decay." Because the orbit
is
with the center of the earth at one focus of the ellipse, the vehicle, at its so-called perigee, dipped low. This perigee migrated slowly around the earth, from the maximum northerly latitude of the elliptical,
southernmost latitude, and back again. The perigee of Vanguard I took eighty-two days to complete one such circuit. What surprised John A. O'Keefe and his colleagues in the theoretical branch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was that satellite, to its
the perigee dipped lower in the northern hemisphere than
it
did in the
must be an excess of material southern. They concluded near the North Pole comparable to a layer fifty feet thick and the size of the Atlantic Ocean, with an equal deficiency at the opposite end of that there
205
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
OUR "PEAR-SHAPED
EARTH
The solid line is a perfect circle. The doffed line represents the traditional view of an earth symmetrically flattened at the poles. The dashed line shous the deviation from this pattern detected hy studyini^ the orbit of Van^iuard I. The distortions are i^reatly exaggerated. Drawn to scale, all three circles would appear round
the world. Furthermore, they estimated that sea level in temperate
northern latitudes
is
twenty-five feet lower than
it
would be
fectly symmetrical earth, with an equivalent surplus of
in
water
a perin
the
southern temperate zone. The combined effect of these distortions
was
a tendency toward a pear shape. 22
was a minor
It
distortion
com-
pared to the twenty-seven-mile difference between the earth's diameter
from pole torial
to pole
and that
in the
plane of the equator.
Even
this
equa-
bulge would not be noticeable to a casual observer looking at
the earth from space. less he
made
It
would appear
to
him perfectly spherical un-
careful measurements.
Nevertheless, the deformation discovered by Vanguard satellite's orbit
I,
if
the
has been correctly analyzed, has important implications
with regard to the earth's interior. Newton's laws say the earth's shape
The violation of these laws implies that other work whose nature we can only guess at. Possibly, as George P. Woollard, Professor of Geology at the University of Wisconsin, writes in the chapter of Science in Space dealing with the earth, the deformation is produced by creeping convection currents should be
elliptical.
forces are at
within the "mantle," 1,800 miles thick, that encloses the earth's liquid
outer core. Although the mantle
is
solid,
some
believe that
it
flows, in
terms of inches or fractions of an inch per year, the hot inner material rising to replace the cool upper material. Vening Meinesz of The Netherlands, one of the best-known students of the earth's gravity, and its rocks are, or were originally, "scum" over the descending portions of such currents.
interior, believes the continental
afloat
22 See Science
206
in
Space,
p.
83
.
Walter Sullivan
Weather
Among the many tasks that can be performed by earth satellites, the one whose usefulness to mankind is most obvious is the observatwo initial Tiros weather satellites (launched April 1 and November 23), although crude in terms of what was planned for the future, gave us our first views of the world from space, apart from a few photographs taken from rockets. To see from far aloft the characteristic configurations of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or the Red Sea dividing Asia and Africa, was an awesome experience. Far more important, scientifically, were the views of cloud formations on a global scale, giving meteorologists an entirely new perspective. Continent- wide images, viewed through the Tiros cameras and tape recorded for playback on radio command from a ground station, disclosed many things weathermen had never seen before (though they had postulated some of them). In one picture of the southern part of South America, a sea of clouds pressed against the western wall of the Andes, but only a few "wisps" (each perhaps 100 miles wide!) found their way through the passes and were carried by the prevailing westerlies across all of Argentina, like long pony tails. In another view, the sea of solid clouds on the Pacific side of the mountains seemed to be .
tion of weather. In 1960,
I
A SATELLITE
UNDERSIDE VIEW OF THE SATELLITE TIROS The technician's hand is on
I
the wide angle lens
photograph images for the built-in TV cameras. The four small rods are transmitting antennae. The sides and top of the satellite consist of solar cells to power the electronic equipment used
to
VIEW
OF THE EARTH
FROM AN ALTITUDE OF 450 MILES strip running from the center lower right is the Red Sea. The black wavy line at the left is the Nile River, and the dark area at the upper left is the Mediterranean Sea
The dark
to the
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY breaking over the ridge like a surf, so that on the inland side the solid mass had changed to parallel ribbons, moving across the continent in successive cloud waves. Most impressive of all, the photographs
showed entire cyclones, sometimes covering an area as large as the North Atlantic Ocean. Since the days of Benjamin Franklin, students of meteorology have believed that the great weather systems of temperate latitudes are cyclonic. As a young man, Franklin was so interested in whirlwinds that he once chased one on horseback until he lost it in the whirling twigs and torn leaves of a forest. Furthermore, he remembered his experience when he failed to see an eclipse of the moon, scheduled to appear over Philadelphia in 1743. It was obscured by the clouds of a northeaster; yet friends in Boston, which lay upwind, reported that they saw the eclipse. The storm did not reach them until later. It was persuaded Franklin that the storm was actually a rotating system — a gigantic whirlwind. The construction of weather maps (in terms of temperature, pressure, wind direction, precipitation and cloud cover) has helped to enlarge the knowledge of these eastward-moving cyclones, one of which may cover a large part of the United States. (They are not to be confused with the local storms known as tornadoes, against which midwestern farmers build "cyclone" cellars, nor with the tropical cyclones known, regionally, as hurricanes or typhoons.) The Tiros pictures gave an instantaneous view of a cyclone, looking like a vast whirlpool thousands of miles in diameter, fringed with out-riding "streets" of puffy this that
clouds loosely following the same configuration. In Science in Space, the usefulness of satellites to the meteorologist is discussed by Harry Wexler, director of meteorological research at
Weather Bureau and himself a member of the Space Science Board. points out that the construction of weather charts began little more than a century ago and the first attempts covered areas only about 100 miles on a side. Today, with new instruments, radiosondes, and rapid communications, weather maps are drawn of all parts of the world (although data are lacking from large areas). The radiosonde is hoisted by a balloon, transmitting by radio an observational cross-section of the atmosphere as it rises. Radar on the ground follows the balloon's horizontal movements as it ascends, making it possible to determine the directions and speeds of wind layers to the summit of its flight. The the
He
normal ceiling of such observations is about twenty miles. In terms of weight (mass), only about one per cent of the atmosphere lies above that level, but it stretches up hundreds — perhaps thousands — of miles, becoming thinner than the most "perfect" laboratory vacuum. The use of radiosondes is, however, largely limited to the more highly-developed continental areas. The oceans and broad land areas are largely blank on weather maps. Wexler estimates that less than onefifth of the atmospheric mass is being "adequately" penetrated in dayto-day weather observations. For days, large storms can form and ad208
Walter Sullivan
A PICTURE OF A TYPHOON IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC TAKEN FROM A TIROS SATELLITE
vance across oceans, deserts or polar wastes towards inhabited areas before they are detected. This was demonstrated, before the launching of the first earth satellite, when a rocket fired from the southwestern United States photographed an otherwise unobserved hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. A satellite system that has been discussed by Wexler and his colleagues would employ a series of space vehicles placed in circular orbits passing close to the north and south poles so that they always crossed a given point at the same time each day and night. Because of Newton's laws of motion, once an orbit is established, outside the atmosphere, it remains fixed in space, although the earth rotates within it. Thus, if the relative positions of earth and sun remained constant, a satellite in a polar orbit would always cross each point at the same time. For example, a satellite launched southward along the noon meridian would pass over the South Pole and then follow the midnight meridian up the dark side of the earth to the North Pole. Meanwhile, the earth would have rotated a certain number of degrees, but the orbit would remain fixed in space — and therefore in reference to the sun.
The
vehicle would therefore continue indefinitely to fly south along noon meridian and north along the midnight meridian. Actually, of course, we are not fixed in space. Our planet makes
the
an annual journey around the sun, and therefore, in terms of sun time, there would be a daily four-minute displacement of a circular orbit 300 miles high. To overcome this, the Weather Bureau proposes to use an orbit tilted a few degrees from the north-south axis. Because of the earth's asymmetry, such an orbit would precess just enough to cancel out the effect of the earth's movement around the sun. There could thus be a satellite that passed overhead daily at noon and midnight as well as one whose passes were at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. and another launched to sail by at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. This would make it possible to 209
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY construct regional
maps of cloud cover,
surface temperature, or radi-
ation balance every four hours.
Another system, using six satellites in quasi-polar orbits 6,000 kilometers (3,750 miles) high, could insure, according to Wexler, that no important cloud cover escapes notice more than one hour. However, he believes lower-elevation satellites will be needed to watch out for squall lines, thunderstorms,
and fronts
that are not large
enough
for observation at a great distance. In addition, he argues the advan-
tages of a satellite circling the equator at an elevation of 625 miles, for in every 105 minutes its field of view would encompass the entire earth between the latitude of New Orleans (30° North) and that of Durban, South Africa (30° South). This would be particularly useful because of the difficulties that have been encountered in forecasting the weather
of the tropics.
At a symposium sponsored by the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences and the American Meteorological Society in January, 1961, Captain John F. Tatum, U.S.N., head of the Navy's weather service, told of a proposal that would bring satellite observations within reach of the most remote ship or island station. The scheme is to orbit a number of low-cost scanning vehicles that can be commanded by radio, at
any time,
to transmit
an image of the area below them. In
way,
this
the skipper of a ship in a part of the oceans barren of weather stations,
he suspected the presence of a typhoon, could wait until one of these came overhead, then command it to send an image of the region reaching for 1,000 miles in all directions from his location. Such a system would by-pass the troublesome problem of disseminating information obtained from such vehicles. Thus the stations in New Jersey and Hawaii, equipped to collect stored images from the Tiros satellites, cannot help weathermen in Egypt or South America unless they can get the information to them quickly. Experiments have been conducted with various schemes for transmitting facsimile images or coded cloud cover information. However, for the local forecaster, his direct interrogation of a satellite has much appeal, even if he is in a primary weather bureau; for if it adjoins a large ocean area (as, for example, in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles) he is anxious if
vehicles
know, as fast as possible, what lies offshore. While the United States is preparing its own weather satellites. Nimbus being already at an advanced stage of development, Wexler to
nevertheless makes a strong case for international co-ordination of the
program and world-wide dissemination of the that
COSPAR
of this
effort,
COSPAR
is
is
whereas the
He
suggests
WMO should deal with the operational aspects.
Committee on Space Research of the
Council of Scientific Unions. It physical Year of 1957-58, and entist
results.
the logical place for handling the research aspects
and one American
is
its
International
a leftover of the International
Geo-
organization, with one Soviet sci-
scientist as the
two vice presidents,
reflects
the co-operative approach to space problems that, by and large,
210
was
Walter Sullivan
WMO
The is, of course, the World Metewhose membership includes virtually all
characteristic of the I.G.Y.
orological
Organization,
nations and weather services in existence. In discussing the usefulness of weather satellites, Wexler notes the importance of knowing the world's radiation balance. Weather, he says, results from an attempt by the winds to equalize the uneven distribution of radiant energy as received from the sun. Thus, far more solar energy is delivered to the tropics than to the temperate or polar
regions, but this difference
is partially cancelled by the transfer of heat in winds and ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream. Further-
more, he points out, observations of this energy budget over long periods of time should help assemble the information needed for long-range forecasts. This may ultimately enable us to unravel the mystery of climate changes and make forecasts in terms of decades and centuries, rather than hours. The evidence of past changes is all about us — the rocky hills of New England and the Great Lakes remind us of ice ages that, we have discovered (thanks in part to radiocarbon dating), overlapped the birth of civilization. Each ruined city rising from the desert sands of the Middle East speaks eloquently of what a change in storm paths will do to a civilization. The United States Weather Bureau reported, in January, 1961, that a study of world-wide temperature records showed an almost constant warming from 1881 until 1 940, when a cooling appears to have set in. There is absolutely no agreement as to what causes such cycles.
One
of the liveliest controversies concerns the possible influence
of solar outbursts, such as the flares that cause magnetic storms on earth.
The only
clear-cut effect of such events
of the extremely thin upper
air.
Ionization
is
is in
ionizing portions
the conversion of elec-
atoms into electrically-charged ions. This one or more electrons from the atom or molecule, giving it a net positive charge, or by adding a stray electron, giving it a negative charge. Ionization makes the atmosphere a highly efficient conductor of electricity. Most of it seems to be produced by wavelengths of sunlight that cannot penetrate the denser atmosphere. Thus, significant ionization exists, as a rule, only above a height of some fifty miles. Even at 150 miles, only one part in 10,000 of the gas trically-neutral molecules or is
done by knocking
is
ionized.
When
off
the "scorching" light of a solar flare hits the
air,
it
and particles ejected by the flare have a different levels of the atmosphere, once they reach
briefly increases ionization,
similar effect at
the earth.
Opponents of the view that such events affect weather argue that nothing done to the near-vacuum of the upper air could influence the massive events that constitute weather. It has been estimated that a single summer-afternoon thunderstorm disposes of the energy of thirteen atomic bombs. A hurricane, driven by the latent heat released as the moisture in warm oceanic air turns to water, is said to "burn up," each day, the energy equivalent of 500,000 atomic bombs. 211
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY However, many meteorologists and space sibility
scientists believe the pos-
of solar influences should at least be examined.
the "explosive warnings"
first
observed
in
They
point to
a series of radiosonde bal-
loon ascents from Berlin during 1952. In two days, the temperature between fifteen and twenty miles up rose some 81° F. A series of I.G.Y. rocket shots from Fort Churchill, on Hudson Bay, in January, 1958, inadvertently disclosed an even more remarkable rise of 122°
hours at a height of twenty-five miles. The effect seems to have descended from above. Although many weathermen felt this could still be explained by a sequence of events originating within the atmosphere, Wexler, in Science in Space, points to the thin air between twenty and forty miles' elevation as a possible "connecting link" between unusual solar emissions and anomalous terrestrial weather. To reach this region, which is just above the ceiling of weather balloons, small, inexpensive meteorological rockets are being used experimenin ninety-six
tally.
Wexler and
his colleagues
make no claim
that satellites will eliminate
the need for other observations. Until the invention of the balloon
toward the end of the eighteenth century, man's view of the ocean of was entirely from below. With satellites we can look down on it from above, but penetration with balloons and rockets is also necessary and will be particularly so until we know far more about the dynamics of the atmosphere than we do today. Eventually satellites may be used to monitor temperatures at the earth's surface through the observation of certain portions of the infrared spectrum generated by surface heat and able to penetrate outwards through the atmosphere. The world's first weather satellite was Vanguard II, whose launching on February 17, 1959, was the second successful one in the ill-fated Vanguard program. This spherical vehicle carried two photocells, or "electric eyes," aimed outward on either side of its spin axis. As the satellite rotated, they made successive sweeps across the earth, somewhat like the scanner on a wirephoto device; but, because of a wobble in the spin, it proved impossible to reconstruct the hoped-for pictures of cloud cover. The following October 13, Explorer VII was sent up with four small spheres coated and arranged to observe various kinds of radiation. By comparing their readings, as radioed to earth, it was hoped to determine the amount of radiation coming from the sun, the amount of it reflected back from the earth, and the amount absorbed by the earth and its atmosphere and re-radiated in the infrared region air
One of the earliest results of this experiment, as reported to the conference on climate change held in New York City in January, 1961, was an indication that solar flares do not seem to bring of the spectrum.
about any great change in the amount of radiated energy reaching the earth. Verner E. Suomi, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, who designed the experiment, told the conference that there could not have been any change in solar output as great as one percent between the various periods for which he was able to make 212
Walter Sullivan
computations.
He
had
to
use data collected by the
the brief time, in each orbit,
low
it
when
it
was
satellite
in sunlight
only during
but the earth be-
was dark.
Upper atmosphere In
a separate section of Science in Space, Oswald Garrison Villard, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and
Jr.,
Alan H. Shapley of the National Bureau of Standards laboratories at Boulder, Colorado — both of them members of the Space Science Board — discuss the upper atmosphere. Whereas the problems of weather control seem almost insurmountable, in view of the immense energies involved, these two scientists report that the possibility of artificial
this
was
control of the ionosphere
is
very
real.
A
notable instance of
Project Argus, which showed, in 1958, that the entire inhab-
of the world could be enclosed in a shell of electrons of a small atomic bomb 300 miles aloft at a carefully predetermined location within the earth's magnetic field. As a byited portion
through the product,
firing
artificial
auroral displays were seen in both hemispheres.
it has been shown that 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of chemicals released from a rocket seventy-two miles aloft can produce a small artificial radio-reflecting layer. Villard and Shapley point out that it is difficult to determine the nature of events in the upper air because of the impossibility of reproducing the same conditions in the laboratory. For example, at sea level the molecules of gas constituting the air, in their thermal motions, travel only a submicroscopic distance before they hit another molecule. This motion is what makes a warm breeze feel warm. It is, in eff'ect, the inherent property of heat. Heat is conducted through the sides of a coff'ee cup or through the walls of a house by the collisional translation of this motion from molecule to molecule. But at a height of 200 miles the air is so thin that an atom or molecule must travel an average of six miles before it can expect to hit another atom or molecule. That is, in the parlance of physicists, its mean free path is six miles. While theoretical studies can be done on paper, the only way to determine how atoms and molecules really behave under such conditions, bathed part of each day in the cruel glare of unfiltered solar radiation, is to send instruments into that region. It is there, in the socalled ionosphere, that are formed the layers that, with increasing elevation, are populated more and more densely with free electrons. The ionosphere is subdivided into layers that bend radio signals back to earth instead of letting them escape into space. The higher the radio frequency, the higher the layer dense enough to turn it back. The study of this region is, therefore, of great importance in improving our
In a simpler experiment,
presently unreliable long-range radio circuits and, above ing
ways
ready
is
all, in find-
open up new channels and relieve the traffic jam that albecoming a communications babel. In addition, the peculiar to
213
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY radio-bending properties of the ionosphere must be known, so that the projected navigation and communication satellites can be useful. Such
knowledge is also necessary for accurate ground control of missiles and other space vehicles, particularly where the line of sight between guiding transmitter and the receiver passes close to the horizon. Such a path skirts layers of the ionosphere whose shaping by the earth's magnetism and by other forces is still only partially understood. Among the proposals made by Shapley and Villard is the placing of radiation monitors in orbit around the earth, but at very great distances, so that they may warn of approaching clouds of magnetized solar gas and thus furnish reliable advance notice that a magnetic storm, with its concomitant disruption of communications, is in the offmg. As noted by Wexler, the earth's atmosphere is a global envelope, and only with a globe-encircling vehicle, namely the earth satellite, can it be adequately studied. By the same token, atmospheric phenomena can only be understood when viewed in the broadest terms, providing a strong incentive for international co-operation.
The moon
From the layman's
point of view, probably the most glamorous ob-
jects of the solar system, outside of the earth, are the planets
Mars
and Venus. In some respects, however, the moon has more to offer, scientifically, than any other body. This is the view, for example, set forth by Harold Urey in his chapter of Science in Space devoted to the moon and planets. So far as we can tell with our earthbound telescopes, only the moon seems to hold a readable record of the cataclysmic events that have marked the history of the solar system. Indeed, THE MOON In this recent
photoi^raph, the
moon's craters
and "seas" are clearly visible
Urey
believes the
moon
pre-dates the earth — that
it
is
a relic of an
earlier stage in the formation of planets.
go back to the discovery of diamonds in concluded that these meteorites must originally have been in the interior of moon-sized bodies, for only there could the requisite pressures be developed to squeeze graphite into diamonds. Such moons were so numerous, according to this hypothesis, that there was a field day of collisions (actually over a period, perhaps,
His views,
in this respect,
certain meteorites.
He
lasting millions of years).
Some
of the debris
fell
together again to
form the planets; some of it did not, and survives as the asteroidal belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The moon and a few other bodies of similar size survived the period of collisions and became trapped in orbits around the larger, heavier planets. From June 20 to 22, 1960, the National Academy of Sciences — National Research Council sponsored an informal conference on "Problems Related to Interplanetary Matter" at Highland Park, Illinois. Although the proceedings were not published until 1961,^^ Urey 23 Nuclear Science Series, Report No. 33, Publication 845 (National tional Research Council [Washington, D.C.. 196!])
214
Academy
of Sciences -Na-
Walter Sullivan
soon became aware of the findings presented there by Edward Anders, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Enrico Fermi Institute for
Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. Anders pointed out that diamonds had, by then, been found in five meteorites, and told of a study that he and his colleagues had carried out on one of them. This is the Canyon Diablo meteorite that left an immense crater in Arizona. Its weight before fragmentation has been estimated at about 2,000,000 reproduce the crystalline condition of the which the diamonds are encased, it was found that it could be done by heating the constituent chemicals to about 1,600° F. and, within a few seconds, quenching them in cold water. On the basis of this and other considerations, it was concluded that the diamonds were formed by heat and pressure produced at the instant of impact. Meanwhile, however, Urey found that his proposal that the moon was one generation older than the earth had explained the moon's remarkably low density. From the observed strength of its gravity, it has been found that an average cubic mile of lunar material is only two thirds as heavy as an average sample of the earth. Urey suspects that the moon was formed from roughly the same mixture of elements as that constituting the sun, but that its gravity was not strong enough to keep hold of the lighter gases. During the period between the formation of the moon and that of the earth, outward pressures from the sun, including radiation, outflowing gas, and magnetism, swept away some of the lighter debris, so that what finally fell together to form the earth was of a heavier mixture. Thus, for example, there seems to be considerably more iron, per cubic mile, in the earth than there is in the moon. The gigantic craters and strangely smooth "seas" of the moon have an awesome tale to tell of past events. If, as Urey suspects, this history reaches back 4.5 billion years, almost to the birth of the solar system, then the moon is a most interesting place indeed. Because lunar erotons. In laboratory efforts to
fragments
sion
is,
at
in
most, a slow process, the record should be visible
at the sur-
produced by a constant weakening of gravity. At the start of the conference on interplanetary matter, a history of the solar system was presented that reflects some of the most up-todate thinking in that area. The speaker was A. G. W. Cameron, on loan from Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., to the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories in California. There have been radical changes since the days, at the start of the century, when the views of Sir George Darwin that the moon was an off-spring of the earth still held sway. Presumably the birthplace of new stars and planetary systems is in the clouds of gas and dust that are circling within the inner part of the galactic disk. The gas is relatively dense, compared to the rest of space, there being an estimated ten hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter (a face, as noted earlier with respect to the search for cracks
thimbleful).
From time to time there is a supernova, or star explosion, in these clouds, generating for a matter of hours or days a volume of light com215
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY parable to that of an entire galaxy. This fuses
some of
the elements
high up on the scale of atomic weights; they spread out through the cloud and mingle with the partially-decayed products of earlier su-
pernovae. So long as the cloud remains warm, its atoms will shoot about in thermal motion and, when ionized, will be subject to various magnetic influences. Sometimes the clouds collide, raising each others' temperatures. But a cloud may occasionally go 30 million years, or so, without a collision, and it then cools enough so that the gravitational attraction
cloud,
between the atoms wins out over heat and magnetism. The
whose weight
is
probably 1,000 times greater than that of the
sun, begins falling together.
At
first,
the gravity
hold on the atoms so marginal that the process
is
so diffuse and
slow. This stage
is
its
may
last some 25 million years and produce a number of sun-sized bodies, with thermonuclear reactions igniting in their cores when the necessary gravitational pressure has built up.
In this star-building process, the free-fall contraction stops
when
the
"proto-sun" has a radius roughly 100 times that of the whole solar system. Light pressure and other factors come into play and contraction slows
some
down; but when the proto-sun has shrunk
three times that of the solar system, there
is
to a radius
another rapid col-
lapse within the brief span of about 200 years. In the process, the proto-sun leaves behind it a nebula equal in weight to about half the weight of today's sun. The gases in the nebula condense into bouldersized objects
which then
fall
together to form planets. Meanwhile,
the sun continues to contract until
it
reaches
its
present
size.
Such a history was proposed by Cameron, based not only on what has been seen going on elsewhere in the galaxy, but also on the reconstruction of events in the early lifetime of the solar system through
radiochemical analysis of meteorites. Urey noted that the iron meteorites do not, as formerly thought, appear to be fragments from the shattered core of a large, earth-like planet. Rather, they seem to have
been embedded
in the silicate material
in
lumps roughly
on the
earth. Crystal
of a large body,
the size of the iron meteorites that have fallen
many that they have been moon or planet. Hence, some
structure in such meteorites has convinced
under the pressure that exists inside a believe the interior of the
moon may be
interspersed with lumps of
nickel-iron like raisins in a loaf of raisin bread.
At the meeting on interplanetary matter, Albert R. Hibbs of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology told of the instrument payloads being prepared by his group for the first
American attempt
at a
"hard" landing on the moon. Although the three
vehicles of this series would be slowed, before impact,
by retro-rockhave to be cushioned for a shock equal to that of hitting a concrete wall at 200 miles per hour. This payload, he said, would include a seismograph, able to survive such a blow and then sense the slight tremors of "moonquakes." A radio and batteries to telemeter the readings to earth would also have to remain operative ets, the
216
instruments would
still
Walter Sullivan
for the experiment to have
any value. Urey, in his chapter on the moon, may be resolved through seismic observations on that body. They include determination as to whether its interior is like raisin bread, or whether the iron has been melted by radioactive heat and settled into a core. There have recently been re-
some of
sets forth
the problems that
ports that the inside of the
On November
3,
moon
is
not entirely inactive.
1958, a Soviet specialist in astronomical spectra,
Nikolai A. Kozyrev, observed what he took to be an eruption of gas Alphonsus. Some months later he reported making a similar observation. At first his report was received with skepticism by in the crater
many astronomers
in the
West, for the idea that the
moon
is
a dead
body was deeply engrained. However, by the end of 1960, when an international conference on the moon was held in Leningrad, a large proportion of the world's lunar specialists had come to accept the observation, including Urey and Gerard P. Kuiper, head of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. A seismometer of the type described by Hibbs has a battery lifetime
of only a few weeks. What are the chances that there will be any quakes, in so short a time, of sufficient force to provide clues to the moon's structure? Urey points out that the orbit of the moon around
produce a monthly variation in the on the moon of 11.5 per cent. If the moon was covered with water, this would mean the tides would be fifty-three feet high. Since the pull of the moon is enough to produce the earth
is
sufficiently eccentric to
earth's gravitational attraction
twice-daily tides of several inches in the earth's hard crust, likely that there are far
enough
more marked
tidal
movements
it is
in the
not un-
moon —
produce moonquakes. Likewise, the flow of heat from a hot moon has one — should produce certain kinds of tremors. ^^ While the most severe quakes would result from meteorite impacts, they must be rare. The use of rockets to explore the moon began in 1959 when the United States and the Soviet Union both shot rockets past that body; the Russians hit the moon (with Lunik II), and (with Lunik ///)established an earth-moon orbit that enabled the vehicle to obtain a series of crude images of the far side. Scientifically, not much has been learned so far by these feats, although the Russians found that if the moon has any magnetic field at all, it must be very weak compared with that of the earth. Still to be settled are such questions as the origin of the seas, the craters, and the light-colored rays that radiate from certain to
core — if the
large craters.
Although the moon seems
brilliant in the night sky, its color and almost as dark as volcanic dust. It has even been proposed that the seas are so deep in cosmic or volcanic dust that a space ship, coming in for a landing, would vanish into its depths. Recent radar and radio studies have convinced most astronomers that the
reflectivity are
24 See Gordon J. F. MacDonald, "Interior of the Moon," Science. Vol. 133, No. 3458 (April 1961), pp. 1045-1050.
217
7,
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY depth of powdery dust can be no more than a few inches or, at most, a few feet. The majority view seems to favor the idea that most lunar craters, particularly the large ones, were formed by the impact of meteorites. It has been suggested by Kuiper and others that the seas are hardened lava that flowed out from a hot interior when meteorites ruptured the crustal shell in an earlier stage of the moon's history. Some smaller craters, on the other hand, strongly resemble volcanoes. Another puzzle is the moon's shape. Because it always keeps the same side toward the earth, the moon would be expected to bulge in about seventeen times greater than is thought to have once been far closer to the earth, where such a distortion would be expected; but the moon should long since have settled back to a rounder figure. One explanation would be a remarkable rigidity in the moon's interior. Another would be an irregular distribution of weight. Urey proposes that that direction, but this ellipticity it
should be.
The
orbit of the
is
moon
a satellite in a low orbit around the
moon
about sixty miles' elebeing studied through satellite tracking. A vehicle in orbit around the moon, however, can skirt the mountain tops, for there is virtually no atmosphere to worry about. The composition of the moon can be determined in a preliminary vation)
would
(at
settle this matter, just as the earth's interior is
fashion by various radiation measurements and by television scanning, at normal magnification and through a microscope, using equipment landed gently. Samples of certain seas, rays, and mountains will ultimately be brought back for analysis in laboratories, but, Urey notes, eventually an expedition will have to land there and see for itself. Who should go? He says the lunar explorer should be familiar with a.number of sciences, "but he should be particularly a hard-rock geologist with some acquaintance with meteorites."
The planets
When
it
comes
to the planets, the first question people usually ask
whether or not they harbor life. While there is some evidence of "life" on Mars, the word must be placed in quotation marks. The only other planet that could conceivably support life is Venus. But, in essence, Venus seems to be too hot and Mars too dry. Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, is fearsomely inhospitable, for it does not have any sequence of day and night. Like the moon, it rotates on its axis only once a year. This means that Mercury always keeps the same side toward the sun, a behavior that can be illustrated by placing a chair in the center of the room to represent the sun. If you walk around the chair, always facing it, you will not only make a complete circle around is
the chair, but will also, in terms of the
make one
rotation
on your own "axis."
the side facing the sun
is
room — that
On
is,
Mercury,
perpetually so hot that
it is
cosmos — means that
the
this
doubtful that ra-
dio telemetering equipment could operate there. Hence, the
218
first
ex-
MARS IN 1907 AND 1954 The large dark area in lower center of the 1954 photograph (scarcely
may be spreading
visible in
1907)
vegetation
ploratory vehicle will almost certainly be landed on the shaded (and extremely frigid) side. Mercury apparently contains much iron. In fact, the tendency is for the planets farther from the sun to be less dense — presumably a consequence of the sorting of material, by weight, during the formative period of the solar system.
Venus, whose orbit lies between that of Mercury and that of the is so heavily enveloped in clouds that the nature of its surface is a mystery. It has been said that it must be entirely covered by oceans. Yet the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States has detected radio emissions, thought to be coming from the surface of the planet, that indicate a temperature of about 600° F. This would make the surface an oven-like desert. Mars, lying just outside the earth in the solar system, clearly undergoes seasonal changes. The white caps at its poles wax and wane, but instead of indicating large volumes of snow and ice, such as those in the polar regions of the earth, they seem to be little more than coatings of frost; for the atmosphere of Mars appears almost devoid of moisture. There are large areas in lower latitudes of the planet that become greenish or grayish in spring and reddish brown in the fall. In recent years William M. Sinton, at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, has studied light coming from these dark regions and has detected absorption in infra-red portions of the spectrum indicative of the presence of carbon and hydrogen (and thus typical of plants). It is absent in light from other parts of Mars. While Mars is essentially cloudless, it has what appear to be dust storms. Astronomers have noted that, a few days after a dark region has been paled by dust from such a storm, the dark color returns as though plants had shaken off the covering. When Urey heard this propearth,
symposium at the National Academy of Sciences, he commented dryly that he supposed there was no reason why plants on another planet might not have muscles and be able to dust themselves off. In his chapter on the planets, however, he treats seriously osition, during a
219
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
away of the dust means "that some mawhich has rejuvenating properties must exist in the dark areas." In fact, he says, this is "one of the most important reasons for believing that life exists." However, it must differ markedly from life on earth, in view of the shortage of oxygen. There are plants on earth that live without oxygen, such as the anaerobic bacteria, and it is thought that life on this planet began without an oxygen atmosphere. In fact, it appears that life itself may have been responsible for the existence of oxygen in our air, since the plants have been "exhaling" it for milthe suggestion that the clearing
terial
lions of years.
Urey
points out the difficulties in guiding a rocket to an asteroid
or getting close to a comet, although, he notes, there tification for
considering such ventures.
The
is
scientific jus-
gravity of Jupiter
is
so
any vehicle trying to make a soft landing there, but it might be possible to do so on one of that planet's twelve known moons. Jupiter is a subject of special interest because of its powerful radio emissions in the 14- and 27-megacycle bands. Some of these come in bursts, apparently from below the surface of the planet. A long-standing mystery is its "great red spot" which, although of vast dimensions, seems to be afloat in the atmosphere, for its position changes from time to time. The other planets, Urey says, are at present beyond reach, even in terms of planning. On the nearer ones, many scientific discoveries await us, he adds, but the finding of life — even if radically different in chemistry from that on earth — "would be one of the most fascinating discoveries of all of modern science." There must also be a search for strong that
it
would present problems
evidence of past
life,
for
he asserts, although the discovery that
we got to
a
planet too late, so to speak, "would indeed be a keen disappointment."
Van Allen
radiation belts
the most publicized — and, perhaps, most significant — discovery of the International Geophysical Year was that of the Van Allen radiation belts. In the spring of 1958, James A. Van
Certainly
Allen, Professor of Physics at the State University of Iowa, and his
colleagues were puzzling over the
initial results
obtained with the
first
two instrumented American satellites. Explorer I (launched January 31, 1958) and Explorer 111 (launched March 26, 1958). Geiger counters carried by both these vehicles suddenly stopped reacting at elevations above 700 miles over South America. Van Allen knew something was amiss, for, as the devices rose higher above the earth, they were expected to record a steady increase in radiation intensity. This was because the earth's mass would shield them less and less from the cosmic rays raining from all parts of the heavens. Suddenly Van Allen and his associates realized that what they had encountered was not a total absence of radiation. It was a flux so intense that it swamped the counters and made them tongue-tied. 220
Walter Sullivan satellites and moon probes disclosed were two regions of particularly intense radiation enveloping the earth. Both consisted of extremely fast-moving particles
Further Soviet and American
that there
trapped within the classic configuration of the earth's magnetic field. electrons from the outer belt seemed to account for the radiation observed by rockets at the top of the atmosphere in the zones, encircling both poles, where auroral displays are seen almost
The leakage of
nightly.
The outer belt seems to be subject to massive changes in extent. Thus, Van Allen reports in Science in Space, this zone, as seen by Pioneer III (the abortive American moon shot in December, 1958) and the first Soviet shot past the moon (in January, 1959), appeared constant in width; but on March 3, 1959, Pioneer IV found that it extended almost 10,000 miles farther into space. This encouraged the view that particles in the outer zone were replenished, from time to time, by gas clouds from the sun. However, Explorer VI, launched on August 7, 1959, observed a radical shrinkage of the outer zone during a magnetic storm. It was only afterwards that the zone grew to an extremely large size. These observations are described in the chapter of Science in Space entitled "Results of Experiments in Space." It was written by Bruno Rossi, Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Robert Jastrow, head of the Theoretical Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and first published in 1961.2^ The authors point out that this satellite was placed in an orbit so eccentric that, in the twelve and a half hours that it took to make one it swung out across the outer belt. Why did the new mass of high energy electrons not appear until after the cloud of solar gas had presumably passed beyond the earth? Some suggested this was because the new population of electrons was not accelerated to sufficient energy for detection until after some process — as yet unknown — had taken place.
circuit of the earth,
The sun of the belts, and of several other phenomena, during the I.G.Y. initiated a surge of interest in earth-sun relationships. As an introduction to such problems, Leo Goldberg, Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Harvard College Observatory and a member of the Space Science Board, discusses, in Science in Space, what we know
Discovery
about the sun itself. When its characteristics are plotted on the standard graph of star types (the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram), our own star turns out to be very average. It is of middle age and of medium size. It is of great importance to the astronomer, not because it is the prime prerequisite for life, but because it is close enough to give us
many clues 25 See Science
to the nature of stars in
Space, pp. 73
ff.,
and
their life histories.
esp. p. 80.
221
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
We
do not see the "furnace'' of the sun,
actions that produce
for the thermonuclear re-
heat are taking place only in the core, where
its
the pressure
is sufficient for the so-called proton-proton fusion reacThis turns hydrogen into helium, with a small residue of matter which is converted into a great deal of energy. However, these reac-
tion.
tions are rare in
any one cubic yard of the sun's core and, therefore,
the heat output of the sun
comparable mass of times as that
its
much
total
is
surprisingly small.
heat as the sun.^^
output of heat
is
It is
It is
estimated that a
humans" would generate 5,000
"living, breathing
only because our star
sufficient for life to exist
on
is
so huge
earth.
Surrounding the sun's core, whose central density is ten times that of turbulent layer of gas, no more than one-fifth the radius of the visible sun, through which heat from the core is transported outward by convection. When seen through a telescope, the visible surface, known as the photosphere, consists of a mass of "granules" whose polygonal shapes give the sun the appearance of a pebbly mosaic. The balloon-borne camera of Martin Schwarzschild has revealed the fine structure of these granules and shown that each exists for only a few minutes. To hoist his astronomical camera above the blurring influence of the sun-heated atmosphere, he had to use an immense gas bag. Sun-seeking devices kept the aim of the camera steady despite the swings and sways of the payload. The width of the granules ranges from 200 to more than 1,000 miles, and they seem to mark upwardflowing currents carrying heat from the interior. Eugene N. Parker, Associate Professor of Physics at the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago, in steel, is a
the chapter on the physics of magnetic fields and energetic particles in space, suggests that
it
might be more appropriate to consider the
visible surface of the sun as just one layer in the solar atmosphere.
The
sun proper would then be limited to the core. He notes that the convective churning that takes place in the region surrounding the core is somewhat analogous to weather phenomena in the earth's atmosphere. Many of the wild events that we observe on or near the sun appear to originate in this convective turbulence. The best-known are the sunspots. The most important, from our point of view, are the flares that occur near sunspots. We still lack an adequate theory to account for the sunspots and their cyclic behavior.
The
spots vary, in
number and
in location
solar disk, in a cycle with an average length of eleven years.
on the
The mag-
and of the spots reverses itself at the end of each cycle, so that it actually takes twenty-two years for the pattern (that is, the sun's magnetic polarity) to return to its starting point. The spots usually range in size from that of the earth to that of the moon. They are dark because they are relatively cool. Their magnetic fields are sometimes 3,000 times stronger than that of the earth.
netic pattern of the sun
26 E.N. Parker,
222
in
//j/c/..
p.
229
Walter Sullivan
A flare is a cataclysmic event manifested by the appearance, within a few minutes, of a bright cloud covering a large area near a sunspot group. It may last a half hour. As soon as light from a major flare reaches the earth, the lowest part of the ionosphere is badly "sunburnt." Ionization is frequently so dense that all radio waves are absorbed and there is a blackout of long-range radio communications throughout the lifetime of the flare.
The
flare also, in
a manner not yet understood, shoots out particles
is, hydrogen nuclei) at close to the speed of light. Via a path apparently twisted by intervening magnetic fields, they
(mostly protons, that
reach the earth
many minutes
than the light of the
flare and are toward the poles. When these particles strike the atmosphere, they, too, produce ionization and a regional radio blackout near the poles. Finally, a day or two after the flare, there is likely to be a severe magnetic storm on earth. The less energetic particles released by the flare shower into the atmosphere producing auroral displays that spread toward the equator from the polar regions. Electric currents course through the atmosphere and the earth, contorting the earth's magnetic field. One of the most important currents appears to flow around the earth in the outer Van
deflected,
Allen
by the
later
earth's magnetic field,
belt.
Parker points out that, to produce the observed effects, a solar flare must release an enormous amount of energy. The energy in a magnetic storm is comparable to that of a major earthquake. Yet it derives from a small fraction of the energy released by the
flare, which, itself, appears to be greater than the total energy stored in the solar atmosphere
above the
visible surface (that
is,
in the
chromosphere and corona).
This estimate of flare energy is set forth by John A. Simpson, Professor of Physics at the Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chi-
who
To account he and Parker believe it must release energy that, after generation in the core of the sun, has somehow been stored in magnetic fields between the sunspots. Some astromomers have reported detecting the annihilation of such fields at the instant of a flare. cago,
for the
A
edited the chapter on the physics of particles.
punch of a
flare,
GIANT SUN FLARE
The flames pictured
liere
are an estimated 30,000 miles loni:
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY Knowledge of these events has been
greatly enlarged by the rocket observations of recent years. Interest in the subject was stimulated, in advance, by the great solar flare of February 23, 1956,
and
satellite
whose released
were so energetic that they penetrated the and atmosphere in all parts of the world. For the first time it was evident that the sun, on occasion, could generate cosmic rays. These were originally thought to be an extremely penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation, differing from light only in wavelength, and "shining" upon the earth equally from all directions. Hence they were called "rays," although it is now known that they are the nuclei of atoms traveling so close to the speed of light that many of them can penetrate three feet of lead. In Simpson's words, their origin and means of acceleration are among the "major problems" of contemporary physics. One explanation of cosmic ray acceleration is that proposed by Fermi in which particles, moving through the vacuity of space between the stars, sometimes collide with moving magnetic fields in a manner that gradually builds up their speed. The particles released by the sun are weak, as cosmic rays go, and therefore cannot normally cut across particles
earth's magnetic field
the force lines of the earth's magnetic field (or penetrate the atmosphere).
It is
for this reason that the polar blackouts are limited to the
where the force lines lie parallel to the flight flare was an exception, and its demonstration that the sun generates cosmic rays showed that at least some cosmic ray particles may originate in sun-like stars and subsequently be accelerated. Among the puzzles in the record of cosmic ray intensity have been the so-called Forbush decreases. They are named for Scott E. Forbush regions, near the poles,
path of the particles.
The 1956
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
who
first identified
them,
and are marked decreases of cosmic ray intensity that accompany some magnetic storms. Their most striking feature is the fact that, although the cutting off of the rays from the earth occurs quite abruptly, the return to normal is a gradual process continuing for many days after the storm has passed. Probably the most popular explanation is that the decrease is caused by deflection of the rays by the same clouds of solar gas that cause the magnetic storm.
The
effect lingers after the
storm because, although the gas cloud or clouds have passed beyond the earth, they still shield our planet from parts of the heavens in which the rays originate. One of the most exciting experiments in early
search was the launching of Pioneer
V on March
American space re11,1 960. This was
man's first effort to explore deeply into interplanetary space, for the payloads previously tossed past the moon by the United States and the Soviet Union were equipped to make observations only in the earth-moon vicinity. Pioneer V continued sending signals until it was 22 1/2 million miles away and, by a stroke of good fortune, it observed the effects of a solar flare when it was some 3,000,000 miles from the 224
Walter Sullivan
earth in the general direction of the sun.^'^
was
Among
its
the passage of high-energy particles that, a few
observations
moments
later,
produced a polar blackout on the earth. Two years earlier a watch for such blackouts had been initiated as part of the I.G.Y. and, by this time, several dozen had been observed. Likewise, Pioneer V detected a Forbush decrease almost simultaneously with its observation on earth, showing that such phenomena involve a sizeable area in the solar system (rather than a local region centered on the earth). The "ring current," long postulated by theorists as girdling the equator in space, was detected at an elevation of 33,500 miles above the equator. Its intensity was estimated at 5,000,000 amperes. Parker, in his contribution to Science in Space, sets forth the concept of a "solar wind" with which he is associated in the scientific world. This is the view that gas is constantly blowing out in all directions from the sun. As evidence he cites the strange behavior of comet tails, which point away from the sun regardless of the direction of their motion, suggesting that they are "blown" out by a solar wind. In this picture of earth-sun relationships, events on the sun produce "gusts" in the solar wind. According to the opposing view, there is little or no solar wind in the vicinity of the earth, apart from the gas clouds that erupt periodically from the sun. Those of this mind argue that the pressure of sunlight is enough to account for the observed behavior of comet tails. Rocket observations reported in 1961 seem to support the latter school of thought, but the matter
is
not necessarily
settled.
Another
series of rocket observations has indicated that tempera-
may reach levels seven times higher than those believed to exist in the core of the sun. The explanation seems to be a magnetic pinching of particles in high-speed, high-energy tures in the vicinity of a solar flare
somewhat similar to what is being done in the laboratory achieve temperatures high enough for a controlled fusion reaction — that is, taming the power of the hydrogen bomb. orbits.
in
an
This
is
effort to
Simpson points out
that,
thanks to the
new
rockets, the inner solar
system "has become one vast laboratory for the investigation of dilute plasmas, magnetic fields, hydromagnetic waves, and shock phenomena that cannot be scaled down for laboratory study." It would not be surprising, he added, if from these studies there emerge new ideas applicable to the problem of controlled fusion. Few developments
would change the course of history so radically as the solution of this problem, for it would provide mankind with unlimited energy, independent of the sun and stored solar energy (such as coal, oil, and It is, therefore, not surprising that much space research is
gasoline).
now aimed at the problems of earth-sun relationships. Eventually, in fact, we can be expected to send probes to observe conditions as close to the sun as four times the solar radius. When we do so, as Goldberg points out, we will need materials more resistant to heat than those 27 See
ibid., p. S4.
225
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY presently available for making instruments. Meanwhile, however, we can learn much by watching the sun and turbulent events in its vicinity from a more respectful distance.
Astronomy of the galaxies
To many
astronomers, the most exciting prospect offered by space technology is the possibility of placing large telescopes outside
The chapter of Science in Space on galactic and extraastronomy tells of at least four institutions in the United States that are working on designs for such instruments. They will have many tasks. It is hard to predict what they will see, any more than Galileo knew what would come to light when he aimed the first telescope at the heavens. In 1961, the first two men to gaze into space from above the obscuring atmosphere — Major Yuri A. Gagarin of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet ''Cosmonaut," and Lieutenant Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., the first American "Astronaut" — saw nothing surprising. This was because their organs of sight, through the course of evolution, had learned to see only the wavelengths that penetrate the the atmosphere.
galactic
atmosphere. By photographing the heavens from above the atmosphere in the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum, it is expected that we will be able to see the center of our galaxy as well as many unsuspected features. A few rocket-borne glimpses have raised high hopes in this respect. From the ground, the central part of our galaxy is hidden by clouds of dust that cut off the visible portions of the spectrum. Looking outward, we may be able to see galaxies so distant that their motion away from us has shifted their light deep into the infrared. Such a broadening of our horizons might enable us to understand better the nature of the universe as a whole. Another possibility is to find parts of the sky extremely bright in gamma rays. These rays are absorbed in the upper air and never reach the earth. Yet, if we could scan the heavens for gamma rays, we should
be able to tell where cosmic rays come from. Some believe most cosmic rays are generated in the clouds of hot gas produced by the stellar
explosions
known
as supernovae.
However,
their flight paths are
so twisted by magnetic fields in space that they reach the earth uni-
formly from all directions. Gamma rays, being a form of light, ignore magnetism. Therefore, if they are generated in the same clouds as cosmic rays, we should be able to pick out these spots in the heavens. Astronomers are full of other hopes as to what they can accomplish in space.
One
has proposed a space telescope that, by masking out the
around an orbit around the sun, with the radius of the orbit several times larger than that of the earth. This might make it possible to determine far more accurately the distances to near-by stars that must now be computed light
of a near-by
such a
226
star.
star,
should enable us to see planets
in orbit
Another has suggested placing an observatory
in
Walter Sullivan
by
triangulation, using the width of the earth's orbit as a base Hne.
A
rather simple experiment would determine the density and distribution of electrons in near-by areas of the solar system by placing radio receivers in various orbits. They would report to earth the lowest frequency radio emissions from the sun or stars audible at each
The lowness of the frequency of signals that get through indicates the concentration of electrons between the receiver and the source. One of the proposed orbits would be eccentric and tilted sharply to the plane of the ecliptic, so that the receiver would point in the orbit.
travel
away from
the discus-shaped region within which the planets
More
elaborate schemes designed to pinpoint astronomsources of radio emission are under study, such as the unfurling, from a satellite, of wire or mesh antennas a mile or more in width, equipped with supports to keep them spread out in the proper orbit the sun. ical
configuration. Finally, an important astronomical project in space would be to seek out the dimmer members of that family of variable stars known as cepheids, so called because one of the brightest is Delta Cephei in the
The cepheids resemble one another in that they rhythmically vary in brightness. Each one has its characteristic constellation Cepheus.
period, from in others,
maximum
it is
to
maximum.
In some,
it is
a matter of hours;
several weeks. In these brief periods, the brightness of
may double or halve. The study of cepheids seemed at first a rather but in 1912 it suddenly became of momentous the star
abstruse occupation, significance. In that
year Henrietta Leavitt of the Harvard Observatory noticed that the peak brightness of the twenty-five cepheids visible in the Small Magellanic
(that
Cloud varied
is,
in direct
their pulse rate).
The
proportion to the length of their periods brighter the star, the longer the period.
This characteristic had not been noticed before, since the relative brightness of cepheids picked at random in the heavens was primarily determined by their distance from the earth. However, those in the
Small Magellanic Cloud are
all,
essentially, the
same distance from
the
earth.
The discovery that gave astronomers a yardstick to estimate distances far beyond the reach of other methods. As noted earlier, the longest base line available for triangulation is the width of the earth's orbit around the sun. This is so short, on an astronomical scale, that it enables us to calculate distances only to the nearer stars of our own galaxy. Beyond that range it is difficult to tell whether a dim star is faint because it is inherently dim or because it is very far away. Another way to estimate distances to stars in our galaxy is to observe their "proper" motion in relation to the background of far more distant objects. It can generally be assumed that the greater their proper motion, the nearer they are. Although this method is crude, when a statistical analysis is made of the proper motions of a Cepheids occur throughout the
visible universe.
their pulse rate indicates their intrinsic brightness
227
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
number of stars in a group, the results are more dependable. In this way the distances to some of the nearer cepheids were estimated, and it was then possible to calculate their intrinsic brightness, and that of all
other cepheids, as revealed by their periods. This done, wherever
a cepheid could be seen,
in
our galaxy or
tance could quickly be estimated.
The
in
a neighboring one,
result
its dis-
was a vast broadening of
our horizons. The method, however, is still subject to uncertainties. For example, the impediment of the earth's atmosphere sets a limit on our ability to see the dimmer cepheids and has thus limited the accuracy of the curve that we use to represent the relationship between their period and their luminosity. Therefore, to improve our scale of cosmic measurements, one of the first telescopes in space will probably hunt for dim cepheids.
Biological sciences
and space research
chapter of Science TheProfessor of Genetics final
at
in
Space, written by Joshua Lederberg,
Stanford University, and H. Keffer
Hartline of the Rockefeller Institute, both members of the Space Science Board, discusses the biological sciences. The subject matter, whose details are beyond the scope of an essay on the physical sciences, includes problems relating to the origin of life and the idea of "panspermia" (the migration of life spores from one planet to another), as well as the need to avoid contaminating the planets with bacteria or other forms of life that would upset the natural state of those bodies.
Future of space research summing up
InLloyd V.
the opportunities offered
by our entry
into space,
Berkner, Chairman of the Space Science Board, and Hugh Odishaw, its Executive Director, concede that the current man-inspace efforts do not fill any scientific need: "It is not likely that man
can contribute much, if anything, to knowledge or application either by simple orbiting about the earth or mere travel through the interplanetary medium." Automated instruments can do the job better and an astronaut's value as a maintenance man is negligible, for the weight of equipment needed to keep him alive is greater than that of duplicate instruments that could be switched on, automatically, if one fails. The significance of putting man into space is as a first step toward manned exploration of the moon and planets. Such exploration must come, even if only to satisfy the basic spirit of adventure that moves all mankind. Scientifically, as well, no machine can replace the insight of man in studying, on the spot, so strange an environment as another planet. As in all previous exploration, there will be inevitable (perhaps unforeseeable) hazards and lives will be lost. This has been the price paid for venturing into unknown regions, whether they be in Africa, in Antarctica, or on the high seas.
228
Walter Sullivan
In view of the cost and magnitude of the effort, Berkner and
Odishaw
importance of an international approach. They quote statements by Soviet scientists expressing a similar view and describe the co-operation that marked the International Geophysical Year: "Tired of war and dissension, men of all nations turned to 'Mother Earth' for a common effort on which all found it easy to agree." With limitless stress the
space within reach, they add, the opportunities for common efforts are The two authors cite the formation of COS PAR (the Committee on Space Research of the International Council of Scientific
far greater.
Unions), whose task has been to continue co-operation
in this field
(although they avoid discussing the political problems that plagued during its formative period). "In man's brief history," they
COSPAR
cosmic space stands unparalleled. What endeavor in the pursuit of knowledge more compellingly invites the assembly of men and of nations in common creative cause?" write, "the challenge of
Carbon-14 dating
In
December, 1960, the Nobel Prize
in
chemistry went to Willard
F. Libby, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles and former member of the United States Atomic Energy
reward for a research project that began some a quantity of gas from the sewage disposal system of the city of Baltimore. The gas was methane (CH4), an oderless hydrocarbon produced by the decomposition of organic matter. It is not only generated in sewage plants, but is stored beneath the ground where material decayed millions of years ago. Since it is explosive when mixed with air, it is known to coal miners as the dread
Commission. years earlier
It
was
his
when he obtained
"firedamp." freshly-formed methane, for he wished to had grown from the pre-war work of Serge Korff and his colleagues at New York University. In 1939 Korff discovered that neutrons are constantly being produced at the top of the atmosphere by the impacts of incoming cosmic rays. This "spray" of neutrons is itself so energetic that, when they hit the abundant atoms of the isotope nitrogen- 14, they should create atoms of carbon-14, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of about 5,600 years. From the intensity of the neutron spray observed at balloon heights, it was calculated that for every square centimeter at the top of the atmosphere two atoms of carbon-14 should be created per second. Assuming that this has been going on for millions of years, in every second there should be an equal number of carbon-14 atoms decaying back into nitrogen- 14-a typical "steady-state" situation. Libby and his co-worker, E. C. Anderson, tried to calculate what percentage of radioactive carbon (carbon-14) should be mixed with the inert carbon circulating in the air, the seas, and the bodies of living things. They estimated the total carbon in this reservoir of air, water, and living matter at 8.5 grams per square centi-
What Libby needed was
test a hypothesis that
229
4
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY meter of the earth. It should contain, they decided, sufficient carbonproduce fourteen radioactive disintegrations per minute for each 1
to
gram of this carbon. This was because the
and oceans was sufficient of the atmosphere long before it had time for appreciable decay on a 5,600-year time scale. However, as soon as a living thing died, its supply of fresh carbon- 14 would be cut off. As long as anything is alive, its life processes continuously bring in fresh carbon from the outside. Trees and plants draw it from the air in the form of carbon dioxide. Men put fresh carbon into their bones because they eat vegetables (carbohydrates). But once this stops, the carbon in the wood or the bones is isolated. The carbon- 14 in this dead material slowly decays into nitrogen- 14. After some 5,600 years, the number of disintegrations per minute, per gram circulation of the air
to distribute the carbon- 14
of carbon,
is
newly formed
at the top
halved.
Libby saw that the extent of this decay could serve as a clock to determine the age of any sample of ancient wood, bone, or other organic substance. First, however, he had to find out if his calculations were correct, and it was there that the Baltimore sewer gas came in. Methane millions of years old from a mine or oil well would presumably be totally inert, but, if he was right, the carbon in fresh methane should display a radioactivity of fourteen disintegrations per gram per The gas from Baltimore did, in fact, have roughly the expected
minute.
radioactivity.
The next problem was to devise an inexpensive way of making the measurements. The analysis had been done with a thermal diffusion isotope column at a cost of thousands of dollars. What Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago did was to place the carbon samples directly inside a Geiger counter. They surrounded it with iron shielding eight inches thick, which absorbed stray radioactivity from watch dials and other sources. The iron was not enough to stop cosmic rays, but the central Geiger counter was surrounded with a shell of additional counters so wired that, whenever a cosmic ray passed through one of them, it turned off the central counter for about one thousandth of a second. The unshielded counter ticked away at some 500 counts per minute; when shielded, there were still some 100 counts per minute produced by cosmic rays: but the surrounding counters eliminated almost all of these (there was a residual background count of from one to six per minute). With this rig it was possible to set about trying to do some dating. At this stage there was still one possible source of error to be eliminated. Because the ffight of cosmic rays in space is bent by the earth's magnetism, the intensity with which they rain upon the earth is far greater at the poles than
Anderson assembled data
it
is
at the equator.
As
his doctoral thesis,
determine whether or not this regional variation in cosmic rays affected local abundances of carbon- 14. Samples of contemporary organic matter were obtained from throughout
230
to
Walter Sullivan
They included a piece of white spruce from the Yukon, a of elm from Chicago, honeysuckle leaves from Tennessee, oak from
the world. bit
Palestine, ironwood from Majuro Island on the equator, and seal oil from Antarctica. The lowest count (per gram of carbon per minute) was 14.47 ( ±44) in a briar from Geomagnetic Latitude 40° N (in Africa). The highest count was 16.31 ( ±.43) in a eucalyptus from Geomagnetic Latitude 45° S (in Australia). It was clear that winds spread carbon- 14 uniformly over the globe. The final test was to use the carbon- 14 method to date ancient objects whose age was already known from historical records — a problem, as Libby put it, "which led us to mummies.'' For this, it was nec-
essary to pin
down
the half-life of carbon- 14 as accurately as possible.
Measurements by various groups produced somewhat differing results (5,513, 5,580, and 5,589 years). A compromise figure of 5,568 years was adopted, and Libby's group, now joined by J. R. Arnold, went in search of specimens. The oldest that they could obtain whose ages were known even approximately were bits of wood found in the brick structure of two tombs at Saqqara in Egypt. Both tombs dated from the First Dynasty, one being the resting place of King Zet and the other the tomb of the Vizier Hemaka from the reign of King Udimu. The ages of both tombs have been placed by archaeologists at 4,900 years, with a possible error as great as 200 years. Other samples, of somewhat less antiquity, included cedar wood from a chamber within the Southern Pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur, and a sample from the deck of a funeral ship found in the tomb of Sesostris III of Egypt and now in the Chicago Museum of Natural History. Even its paddles are still intact. A specimen of wood was also obtained from the outer sarcophagus of Aha-nakht at El Bersheh. One of the most precisely dated specimens used in the study was taken from the heart of a giant sequoia. Known as the Centennial Stump, the tree was felled in 1874. The sample consisted of material lying between the 2,802nd and 2,905th rings from the outside of the tree. The fact that its carbon proved to be that old showed that the wood in the heart of the tree was isolated from the subsequent growth process. Other samples included wood from the floor of a hilani ("palace") at Tayinat, in north Syria, which is known to have burned about 675 B.C. Likewise, analysis was done on the linen wrapping of the Book of Isaiah, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Palestine.
wood
Perhaps the specimen most precisely dated of
all,
historically,
was
a
79 A.D. The more recent samples were wood whose age could be determined by counting tree rings. When the radioactivity of these specimens was plotted against the curve of radioactivity to be expected from their loaf of bread charred
known
when
ages, the correlation
volcanic ash buried Pompeii
was remarkable. [On
the
in
accompanying
curve of "knowns" (p. 232), Chicago dates refer to knowns measured by Libby's group at the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania dates to those measured at the University of Pennsylvania.) 231
1
\ '\^ Tree Ring
^ \"^
0.9
(C)
Tree Ring (C)
SAMPLES OF KNOWN AGE (C) Chicago dates (P) Pennsylvania dates (Ralph)
0.8
vtTayinat(C) f\^-- remains one of the
peaks of
political
and
social analysis.^
the political philosopher
who
It is
appropriate, therefore, that
has thought most deeply about the dan-
gers of social disintegration should also be the chief seventeenth-century translator of Thucydides. We refer to Thomas Hobbes. He was obsessed by the possibility that every restraint which subjects man to authority and custom might be dissolved and that society might fall into murderous chaos. None has excelled him in his depiction of a society in which every moral tie has been dissolved and in which man has become a wolf to other men." Karl Marx was in some ways the greatest disciple of Hobbes. He. too. saw social life as a perpetual conflict. In his vision, he saw. instead of restless individuals preoccupied with the fear of their own extermination, classes preoccupied with the
protection or reahzation of their
own
interests. It
is
true that
Marx
looked forward to a conflictless age which would follow on the abolir tion of private property in the instruments of production. The preceding period of human histor\ however, he saw as one in which classes are as wolves to other classes.* The Darwinian conception of .
natural selection, through the conflict of species for existence,
seemed
to give a universal validation to this vision of perpetual instability
of the social order.
The concern of
social science in the present century with the con-
which destroy social order is the natural outgrowth of this tradition. It was not only this inherited tradition summarily indicated
flicts
6 See History of the Peloponnesian War. \ol. 6. pp. ?49a-593a, c. 7 "In such condition there is no place for industn. because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the eanh: no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building: no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force: no knowledge of the face of the eanh: no account of time: no ans: no letters: no society: and which is worst of all. continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man. solitary poor, nasty, brutish, and short." (Leviathan. \ ol. 23. p. 85c 8 See Manifesto of the Communist Parry. \ ol. 50, pp. 4 1 9b.d-425b. 9 See Origin of Species. \ ol. 49. pp. 32a-64d. .
I
249
1
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
above, but also the environment and social situation of social science and of social scientists which made for the prominence of the dissensual elements in the modern social order. The conflicts of generations among American immigrants, ethnic hostility between Negroes and whites in American
between employees and their were the subjects of American
cities, the conflicts
superiors in industrial plants
— these
sociologists. Political scientists in recent years have not been content to describe government organization, laws and administrative decrees, or to restate the doctrines of political theories. They have come under the influence of sociologists. The conception of political society as a war of each against all, and of any political order as no more than an equilibrium of interests, was most forcefully propounded in Arthur F. Bentley's Process of Government. The lively interest in "pressure groups" gave a concrete plausibility to this view. Professor Harold Lasswell's Politics; Who Gets, What, When, How, first published in 1936, and Professor David Truman's Governmental Process (1951) restated, in the idiom of contemporary social science, the ancient notion that politics within a society is no more than a scramble for power and that political order is no more than a balance of power. Thus one side of the ancient tradition was allowed to acquire a disproportionate significance at the cost of other elements which were essential in that tradition. The classical philosophers were interested in the nature and conditions of social order. By a series of subtle shifts in emphasis, their tradition was set into a somewhat different direction.
In the course of time, the balance has righted
itself.
The study of the modern trends,
great philosophers, the fruitful convergence of certain
themselves rooted
in the great
works of the
past,
and the honest conlife have brought
frontation of the plain facts of social and political
about
this readjustment.
some measure because of man's need for membership in a political community. ^^ It is not just as a matter of prudence or interest that man agrees to be a member of a political community; rather his nature requires it. Man's nature requires his participation in an order which transcends the necessities of the maintenance and reproduction of his physiological organism. The Stoic idea that men have a natural sympathy and fellowship with one In Aristotle, the political order exists in
another constitutes another instance where classical
ophy opposes the notion
political philos-
and disintegrative elements are The Hegelian conception of the realm of
that divisive
preponderant in social life.^^ spirit, with its trans-individual existence, was still another resource from which the idea of consensus could be born.^^ the
"Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal .... The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual, vvhen isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole." {Politics, Vol. 9, p. 446b-c) See Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Vol. 12, p. 292b-d. 12 See Philosophy of History, Vol. 46, pp. 160b-c, 170c- 178a. 10
1
250
Edward A. It
was
not,
however,
gether the traditions of
until Professor Talcott
German
Shils
Parsons brought
idealism, British individualistic
to-
util-
and French positivism (The Structure of Social Action, 1937) that there was restored to contemporary social science the idea of a solidarity based on the sharing of ultimate values which transcend itarianism,
men's individual existences. The individual human being thus came to be seen as a knot in the network of social ties, as a point of crystallization in the structure of beliefs which he receives, shares, and transmits, and of which he is only a stopping point or a way-station. This view has been carried forward by Professor Parsons and the present author, who over many years has been emphasizing the need for social scientists to refocus their attention and to give more prominence to the consensual element in social order. It is a view which has been gathering support, as may be seen in the experimental study of behavior in small groups (T. M. Newcomb, "The Study of Consensus" in Sociology Today, edited by R. K. Merton et al., 1959) and in the discussion of the largest units of social life, such as the national state. It
was only
natural that this righting of the balance of consensual
and dissensual elements should take place. Social scientists have become aware that there is more in social life than conflict, withdrawal, and alienation. They have become aware that if their particular conceptions were generalized, society would be a state of nature. ^^ They know that society is not a state of nature and their task is to explain it. That is why recently there has come to be such emphasis on consensus.
The most
significant namifestation of this trend
is to be seen in the Martin Lipset, Political Man (1960). Professor Lipset is highly proficient in the analysis of survey data; i.e., data gathered by the technique of public opinion polling. In the past, this has been subjected on the whole to only superficial analysis; very few writers have attempted to deal with basic problems on the basis of such data. Professor Lipset is a notable exception. In his recent book, he inquires into the prerequisites for the stability of a demo-
important book of Professor
cratic political order.
S.
He shows
that
democracy has flourished best
under conditions of a high and rising standard of living, of an expanding economy, and of a high level of education, spread widely over the population at large. Countries in which the middle class is small, with the result that the differences in culture and outlook of the upper and the lower classes are pronouncedly different from each other, are more likely to have vehement class conflict, and democracy is accordingly less stable there. Where the middle class is larger, there is a less profound cleavage between the classes, and democracy is accordingly
more 13
stable.
A
state of nature in which conflict is dominant is described in Hobbes's Leviathan, Vol. 23, pp. 84c-86b. Differing descriptions of the state of nature are offered by Locke in Concerninf' Civil Government, Vol. 35, pp. 25d-28c, and by Rousseau in On the Ori^iin of Inequality, Vol. 38, pp. 334b-347a.
251
The divisive tendencies in societies are held in check where political parties cut across class, religious, and political lines, e.g., the Republican Party, which includes among its leaders the three men pictured above It is
cy; nor
not,
however, economic expansion as such that aids democra-
is it
a high standard of living, a wide diffusion of education, or a
strong middle class. These factors influence the stability of the polit-
and the extent to which it is democratic, through their influence on consensus. Education is conducive to sharing in common ical order,
values; a higher standard of living permits a longer period of education
and therewith a longer exposure to the central values of the society. Economic expansion is conducive to optimism and the acceptance of the present situation as a prelude to future improvements. All these factors hold in check divisive tendencies and hostility against the existing order.
There
is
another factor which inhibits divisive,
i.e.,
dissensual,
tendencies. Professor Lipset shows that where political parties are
heterogeneous
in their
kinds of people is
who
less intensive.
composition so that there
is
an overlap
in the
support them, the conflict between the parties
Since the lines which separate party from party
cut across the lines which separate religious groups, social classes, ethnic groups, and regions, disagreements arising from these differ-
ences do not reinforce each other. Instead, the disagreements are muffled and inhibited by agreement, by consensus among those who are, on the particular issue, in disagreement. Here agreement and disagreement may be compared to a lamination in which the lines of strain in the adjacent layers run in different directions. The conception of this particular kind of consensus is rather modern. It received its 252
Edward A.
Shils
by the famous German sociologist Georg work which was recently published in America under the title Conflict and The Web of G roup Affiliation (1955); the idea was taken up and developed by Professor M. Gluckman in Custom and
first
explicit formulation
Simmel
in a
Conflict
in
Africa (1956).
These factors affect the strength of consensus. But what is the consensus which Professor Lipset has in mind? What are its decisive features? First and foremost, Professor Lipset would say, it is agreement about the rules of the democratic system and about the value of its
institutions,
such as the party system, representative assemblies,
freedom of expression and association, the rule of law, etc. In placing this conception of consensus at the foundation of his analysis of the working of modern political systems, Professor Lipset has taken a major step toward establishing a fruitful unity of empirical social research, contemporary social theory, and the Aristotelian idea that a
common belief in
the justice of the prevailing institutions
is
a necessity
for political order. ^^
Approaching the matter from a quite different standpoint, Professor Frank H. Knight (Intelligence and Democratic Action, 1960) has come up with conclusions much like Professor Lipset' s. Professor Knight is an economist, liberal and democratic by conviction, but deeply worried about the possibility of rational social and economic policy. He sees man as excessively submissive and excessively antagonistic to authority when he is confronting it as a citizen, and as excessively enamored of it when he confronts it as an official, elected or appointed. The problem for a democracy is the restraint of the rulers and the willingness of the citizenry to accept authority while taking a rationally critical attitude towards
it.
This immediately brings the phenomenon of consensus into the center of consideration. Professor Knight is an individualist who is aware of the dangers of excessive individualism to the peaceful and reasonable ordering of social affairs and of the limitations which an individualistic orientation imposes, past a certain point,
standing of certain aspects of society.
He
on our under-
occasionally expresses the
suspicion that at the bottom of the phenomenon of consensus there is an experience not unlike communion or a mystical participation. It is interesting to note here that although Professor Knight is one of the most distinguished economic theorists of the present century, and one
who
prefers the ground of reason to any other principle of policy, he is It is from his religious studies that
also a profound student of the Bible.
he has drawn the understanding of the mystical union which enters into his conception of consensus. The consensus which is agreement about the justice of the rules of public life is insufficient. Professor Knight suggests. The individual14 See Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 502a-503d. Aristotle says, in an earlier passage in Politics that "justice the principle of order in pois the bond of men in states, for the administration of justice ... is litical
society"
(p.
446d).
253
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
istic tradition in
which Professor Lipset
still
to the sense of participation in a collectivity
existence of
its
own. Through membership
stands cannot do justice which has a value and an
in
it,
the individual
human
being transcends his individuality and becomes part of a common culture. Of course, the individual organism and the self-consciousness
organized around it does not cease to exist. What does happen some of the individual's self-consciousness is dissolved and he acquires to some extent a sense of being not just a separate member but a continuous part of a collective whole. The dissolution of individuality is very seldom so far-reaching, except in certain mystical states. Something of it exists even in what is called normal experience. Thus far,
which is
is
that
social scientists, with their inherited distrust of anything that smacks of religious experience, have been shy of coping with this subtle and
elusive
phenomenon. The
situation
is
now changing somewhat.
Much
of the credit for such change as has occurred must go to Professor Parsons for his repeated efforts to develop the ideas of Durk-
heim about "collective representations," and to those authors who have tried to elaborate Max Weber's idea of charisma {e.g., Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, New York, 1960). The growth of understanding of this component of our social existence is extremely difficult. It has to contend with the resistance which arises from the individualistic and utilitarian tradition in which most of us have been brought up and which we affirm ethically. Because we are so little at home in thinking about it, it is difficult to investigate it. The techniques of contemporary social science are still insufficiently sensitive,
still
Nor
too superficial, in their penetration into
the task made any easier by the rhetoric have caught a glimpse of the phenomenon of which we speak. C. G. Jung and Mircea Eliade {Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, 1961) are among the most distinguished of these, but their idiom is so anchored in their own tradition, and their grasp of modern social reality is so faint that it is difficult for empirical and individualistic social scientists to assimilate what they have to teach. Nonetheless, the gradual dawning of an awareness of the quasi-religious nature of the dispositions and attachments which make political democracy feasible represents a great step forward in social scientific the depths of the mind.
of writers
who appear
is
to
It is, furthermore, a renewal, with a heightened realism, of the profound insight of the great political philosophers.
thought.
Politics
As we
and mass
society
have just shown,
have advanced in their cohesion and equilibrium of large modern societies, particularly democratic societies. In their effort to further their understanding, they have come up against social scientists
l\ appreciation of the consensual element
in the
the fact that in the great societies of the twentieth century, there
254
is
a
The polls of the Greek city-state was a face-to-face society
problem which has never before been faced on an equally grand scale, namely the problem of very large numbers. This is a problem which Aristotle did not have to face. The polls was a face-to-face society and the mass of the population did not share in the making of political decisions. Moreover, even the numbers of those
who
lived in the city but did not share in the privileges or responsi-
bilities
of citizenship were as nothing compared with the populations in antiquity, of popular
of modern societies. There was a general fear, participation in politics.
The
great historians of the decline of the
Roman
Republic and of the ordeals of the Empire paid attention not only to the brutality and cynicism of the political leaders, but also to the fickleness and unruliness of the urban mobs and their readiness to join in any type of public disorder. ^^ Shakespeare's Corlolanus epitomizes this conception of the political capacities of the mass of the the
Roman Empire
to the tumultuousness of the
uneducated and
population,^^ and Gibbon's Decline also
makes references
and Fall of
unpropertied in the public sphere.^'' The authors of The Federalist inherited this tradition, and they did not, despite their republican and liberal ideas, attenuate it greatly. Their great genius went, among other things, into the softening of the impact of the masses in politics. ^^ Their apprehensions did not yet
reach to the problem of a vastly populous and far-flung society which 15
See, for example, Tacitus' Histories, Vol. 15, pp. 197d. 265a-b. and Plutarch's Lives, Vol. 14.
pp. 809c-810c. 16 See Vol. 27, pp. 351a-392a, c. 17 See, for example, Vol. 40, p. 510b-d. 18 See, for example, Vol. 43, pp. 192c-d, 205c-d, 214c-215a.
255
LAW
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
admits the masses into
Alexis
de Toqueville
its
political life. Alexis
de Tocqueville
in his
America was the first writer who confronted this problem. He feared that a mass democracy might degenerate into an amorphous mob, without the discipline of ethical standards, but insistent on uniformity. Professor William Kornhauser has tried to deal with the problem in The Politics of Mass Society (1959). He carries the problem a stage further than Tocqueville. He is no longer fearful of the disintegrative social effects of the entry of the mass of the population into politics. He is concerned rather with the danger to democracy of extremist minorities arising from the tendency of a large-scale industrial society, democratic and equalitarian in its political ethos, to generate anti-democratic attitudes. With more than a century of democratic life separating him from Tocqueville, Kornhauser's book represents what
Democracy
in
social science with
its
new
techniques can contribute to the analysis
of enduring problems. Whereas Tocqueville proceeded largely deductively,
Kornhauser has
at his disposal
a vast body of information on
many monographs on
political movements, demoand anti-democratic. On the whole, Kornhauser's conclusions are optimistic, on the condition that a pluraHstic society is preserved. As long as there is a multiplicity of contending elites, each of which is attached to the system which allows them to exist, there is, he thinks, little danger. Danger comes only when the poHtical and civic concerns of the whole society become polarized into a few massive organizations dominated by aggressive and ruthless leaders acting nominally on be-
voting behavior and
cratic
half of a large but apathetic following.
As long as members of a society live in their normal multiplicity of attachments to kin and church, neighborhood and place of work, poparty and civic association, there is little danger of their becoming vulnerable to the demagogy of a mass movement. Only those who have, as a result of the excessive mobility sometimes exacted by the industrial system, suffered the rupture of their network of attachments are in danger of being swept into a vast mass movement which attempts to overthrow the existing society on behalf of some simplilitical
fied principle.
When man
ceases to be a "political animal," he becomes "tribeless,
lawless, heartless," as Aristotle
said,
quoting Homer. ^^
When
ceases to be a "political animal," he "plunges into a passion" for
he
civil
The great problem is: What causes him to cease being a "poHtical animal"? The destruction of the pluralistic network, of his ties to family, neighborhood, profession, church, and friends drives him to put all of himself into the political sphere. The result is ideological politics, to which the consensus of the political order means nothing. It is this rather than the sharing by the mass of the population in political decision that endangers democratic society.
war.
19 Politics, Vol. 9, p.
256
446b
Edward A.
Mass
Shils
culture
fear of the ancients that the mass of the population, Thegreat might become a
living in
mob, destructive of the social order, has not only been taken up by modern social scientists, like Professor Kornhauser, and resolved, but it has also been extended into the sphere of culture, where it has been given a new meaning. The political interpretation of the dangers of the mob was given a cultural emphasis in cities,
the course of the nineteenth century. Tocqueville thought that political
democracy would have profound
cultural
consequences and on
the whole result in a lowering of the cultural tone. Similar views were
expressed by later writers
like
Burckhardt and Nietzsche who had be-
hind them, in addition to the revolutions which Tocqueville
knew when
he wrote Democracy in America, the European revolutions of 1848, and the Paris Commune of the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon of 1 85 aristocratic European thinkers to attributed by 1871. All these were political and cultural population into of the of the mass intrusion the 1
,
life.
on the whole, concern themselves with the consequences of the entry of the poor into zones of society from which they had hitherto been excluded. The vulgarity of the comSocial scientists did not,
cultural
mon pleasures, the coarseness of popular culture never penetrated the concerns of social scientists. The results of folklorists' research did not reach sociologists, and political scientists and anthropologists did
WENTWORTH STREET by Gustave Dore Until recently, studies of the poor were concerned only with their poverty, livini,'
conditions,
and rootlessness
!57
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
not give any attention to the folk and popular culture of
modern
soci-
A
few exceptions, such as Geoffrey Gorer's Hot Strip Tease, found no echo among social scientists; and H. L. Mencken's The American Language, which is the greatest record of American popular culture as precipitated in the language of the country, has been completely disregarded by social scientists. Social scientists did study the poor, but it was the misery of their lives arising from poverty, their insalubrious living conditions, their alleged loss of a framework of traditional beliefs and practices which were the main objects of interest. It was generally assumed that such pleasures as they got from life did no harm to anyone except possibly themselves. It was expected that with the improvement of their material conditions and with better education they would come to share in the great cultural inheritance already enjoyed by the educated classes. Sociologists and political scientists began to analyze the content of the mass media — particularly radio and television — more than two decades ago. However, they began to take a more critical look only in eties.
the past decade.
When
the simpler quantitative analysis of content
was
replaced by a more complex, sometimes impressionistic, sometimes statistical
assessment, the political and broader cultural ramifications
of mass culture
and
came
into the foreground.
Here again Tocqueville's,
to a lesser extent Nietzsche's, critique of the superficiality of the
modern
culture and the base moral qualities of the lower classes provided the tradition. Another factor in the attitude of social scientists was the disillusionment with Marxism and its romantic outlook which
had claimed a superior moral quality for the mass of the population. All these preoccupations were expressed in the large collection of essays on Mass Culture, edited by Bemhard Rosenberg and David White (1957). Few recent works have given such full disclosure of the basic attitudes of social scientists and those writers who have inspired them.
Few show
so clearly the limited scientific basis of their judg-
ment.
For the most part, social scientists have confined themselves to the examination of the content of broadcast and television programs and the extent of listening or viewing in various sections of the population. The studies are summarized in Professor J. T. Klappers's The Effects of Mass Communications (1960), but even they do not inquire into the actual culture of the listening public but only into the specifiable effects
They certainly do not indicate anything remotely resembling an identity between the content of programs and the beliefs and attitudes of the audience. The actual culture of the mass of the population, their knowledge, their beliefs, and their moral standards tend on the whole to be disregarded by sociologists at any level deeper than that of the public opinion poll. Certainly there is no conclusive evidence that the culture of of mass communications.
the less educated sections of the population has been particularly debased by their experience of the mass media. What small evidence
258
Edward A.
Shils
is shows practically no deep and lasting impact on more fundamental moral attitudes. Critics of the culture of the mass of the population in contemporary society are not satisfied with their claims about the impoverishing impact of the mass media on the culture of the mass. They also claim that the vulgarity of mass culture is bringing about a deterioration in the quality of the higher culture produced and consumed by the more edu-
there
cated classes. There
is
However,
it
a certain originality in this contention, but
does have the virtue of raising once more, in a somewhat fresh manner, the question, canvassed since the eighteenth century, concerning the conditions of effective intellectual and cultural growth. In the eighteenth century in England and France, writers like Godwin or Condorcet believed that once intellectual life was emancipated from the pressures of superstition and tyranny, the human mind would unfold its capacities for rational thought and for the enjoyment of beauty. The Marxian doctrine foresaw the same outcome, but it supported its conclusion with a more complicated argument. It regarded intellectual life in modern bourgeois society as hamstrung by the alienation of man from his fellow man, and from his own true nature, by the system of private property. Alienation compelled men to little
truth.
think "ideologically," and forced
ness."
It
was only
in the
working
them
into a state of "false conscious-
class, the harbinger of a society with-
out alienation, that "class interest" and truth concided. In the future society — the communist society — truth and beauty would grow and
be appreciated without obstacle. In the society of the present day, however, such would not be the case. The critics of the cultural state of mass society, many of whom are influenced by Marxist preconceptions, even where they are not Marxists, allege that the system of private property in the media of mass communications damages intellectual culture by corrupting the creative artists and thinkers. It does this by debasing their prospective audience and by corrupting them through the temptation to enter into its service. The large-scale demand of an affluent mass society forces cultural production into bureaucratic forms and this, too, has a degenerative influence. Mr. Dwight Macdonald is the most vigorous
view (presented in his "Theory of Mass Culture," in Mass Society). It has been put trenchantly by a number of contributors to the Daedalus symposium on Mass Society and Mass Culture proponent of
this
(1960), reprinted as Culture for the Millions: Mass Media in Modern Society (1961). The most profound critic of the cultural consequences
of mass society is Miss Hannah Arendt, whose essay in the symposium attempts to show that even the highest cultural creations have become the objects of a basically new and basically unappreciative attitude because of the change in the attitude towards labor in mass society.
To
the present author, practically
all
these judgments
259
seem super-
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
SATURDAY NIGHT The culture of the mass of the populace has been deficient in all societies
and incorrect. Even the weightiest of them, those expressed by Miss Arendt, neglect equally the great creativity of contemporary Western societies in science, art, and literature, as well as the deficiencies of the culture of the populace, and even of most of the elite, in practically all societies outside the contemporary West, whether they be large or small, democratic or oligarchical, affluent or impoverished. They distort the real problem, which is the establishment, extension, and maintenance of high standards of cultural and intellectual creation and experience in populations which have not previously known them. This is a task in contemporary Western societies, where ficial
sections of the populations previously without contact with the great cultural tradition of the it.
It is
West
are
now
being brought into contact with
equally a task in the societies of Asia and Africa, where the
ruling groups are seeking to
modernize their societies and, in the course of doing so, to create a modern culture. The conduct of intellectual life does face problems today which it did not face two hundred years ago. It has become much more organized It is
in
universities
much more
and
in
research institutes than previously. ^^
the object of governmental patronage, with
bureaucratic arrangements which that entails.
involved as scholars, writers, scientists, and students
ever before and growing
all
all
the
The number of persons is
larger than
the time; this entails a far
more com-
system of administration. Furthermore, what these large numbers do is much more in the public eye and more likely to be sub-
plicated
The output has work has become so much more specialworld is in danger of coming apart into non-
ject to the pressure of public opinion than in the past.
become
so
much
greater and
ized that the intellectual
20 The development of "research institutes" was anticipated by Bacon more than 400 years ago. See New Atlantis, Vol. 30, p. 214a-d.
260
Edward A.
communicating life in
the West.
sectors. All of these are
They have
new problems
Shils
for intellectual
arisen from economic growth, from the de-
pendence of technology on research, from the increased size of modlife which the populations desire to enjoy. In some respects, these problems do pose serious threats to intellectual life — but none of them is a product of the barbarity or vulgarity of the mass of the population. In the new countries of Asia and Africa, the great problem is the development of high standards of performance, such as are already widely observed in the advanced countries of the West. The primary problem is the need for indigenous scholars and scientists who can come to share in the standards of the international intellectual community. There are other problems which are more dramatic, such as the antipathy of political demagogues, who denounce the foreignness ern societies, and from the higher level of
of modern intellectual
own
their
life in
countries; intellectual
life is,
methods, even where the substance is indigenous. There is also the resistance presented by the traditional indigenous culture, both within the minds of those who would become modern intellectuals and among those who regard mod-
for the time being, foreign in the origins of
its
ern intellectual activities as a betrayal of the culture of the ancestors.
Then, too, there
is
the resistance to
political bosses, fanatics,
modern
and zealots,
intellectual creation
in totalitarian
from
countries and,
and with less effect, in democratic countries. This brief and very incomplete list of the factors working on and
to a lesser degree
sometimes against the creativity of intellectual and artistic life is suffishow the superficiality of an argument which concentrates on mass culture {i.e., the culture which is offered through the mass media) as the explanation of an alleged and undemonstrated decline in intel-
cient to
lectual standards. 2^
Of
the factors which determine the creativity of genius in science
or literature or
spite the beginning its
nothing
art, practically
of efforts
is
known
systematically, de-
by contemporary psychologists
nature and the conditions of
its
manifestation.
A
to study
large critical bib-
liography on Creativity has been assembled by Morris Stein (1960) which should be helpful in the beginning of inquiry into one of the most crucial problems in the study of man. Interesting work has been
done recently on the activity
— not just
its
social aspects of the effectiveness of intellectual
influence or usefulness but also
The
its
actual success
which influence the effectiveness of intellectual achievement range from the subtlest features in the relationship between student and teacher and the mechanisms of as an intellectual undertaking.
factors
the communication of insight, to the apparently cruder, statistically measurable dimensions of the educational system as a whole.
21
present author has tried to put the problem into its broader context in "The Intellectuals and the Powers," reprinted in part in The Intellectuals (ed. G. B. de Huszar [Chicago: Free Press. I960]), as well as in The Intellectual between Tradition and Modernity: the Indian Situation
The
(1961).
261
LAW
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
The most
penetrating observations on these subjects have
recent years from Professor Michael Polanyi,
who
role of traditional elements in intellectual creation
the traditions of intellectual creativity
come
in
has analyzed the
and the way
in
which
grow and are transmitted
{Per-
sonal Knowledge, 1958). Certain aspects of the structure of the scien-
community
propounded by Professor Polanyi have been in The Logic of Personal Knowledge: Essays presented to Michael Polanyi, 1961). The intellectual world has its own institutions, with a life and equilibrium of their own. These institutions recruit and train, promulgate and allocate tasks, render judgment regarding performances, and promote and propagate accordingly. This community, which is never completely organizable into formal institutions and which depends on a traditionally transmitted discipline of sensibility and imagination, is not, of course, completely autonomous. It is naturally aff'ected by what goes on in the economic and political orders of society. In contrast with the Marxian view, however, which makes intellectual life wholly a function of the relations of production and of classes to each other ,22 the sociological view contends that the scientific and other cultural spheres possess, and must possess if they are to work effectively, a genuine, if partial, autonomy. Like all parts of a larger system, they are contained within a larger system without being simply a by-product of tific
first
elaborated by Bertrand de Jouvenel ("The Republic of Science"
that larger system.
Thus,
we
see that Polanyi's inquiry results in ideas similar to those
from contemporary sociological thought, though the two fields have little contact with each other. Each is in its way a product of a broader tradition from which the inspiration for present work^ has come. Polanyi's ideas have been much influenced by Gestalt psychology, which in turn drew much from the German "philosophy of nature," in which Goethe's ideas of "wholeness" played a central part.^^ The sociological conception of "cultural systems" has been much influenced by Hegel.2^ Both of these sources have a common older arising
source in the Platonic notion of the realm of ideas. ^^ Of course, both Polanyi and contemporary sociology have added, synthesized, and modified considerably the traditions within which they have been working.
The
significant thing for
cient inheritance has criticism
our present purposes is that an anto contemporary problems for the
been adapted
and correction of interpretations of the relations between culand mass society — the latter a phenomenon with no spe-
tural creation
cific parallel in antiquity.
22 "In every historical epoch the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from " (Preface to which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch Manifesto of the Communist Party, Vol. 50, p. 416c-d) 23 "Into the whole how all things blend.
Each
other working, living!" {Faust, Vol. 47, p. 13a) 24 See Philosophy of History, Vol. 46, pp. 176b-177d. 25 For a summary exposition of Plato's theory of ideas, see Parmenides, Vol. 7, pp. 487c-488c.
262
in the
Edward A. Intellectuals
Shils
and ideology
T
he recognition of the existence of a scientific community has gone hand-in-hand with a richer appreciation of the intellectual community in general. It is part of the increasingly sophisticated effort to understand the relationship between culture and the larger society. The role of the intellectual — of the specialist in general ideas, systematic knowledge, and techniques requiring disciplined theoretical study, and of those who cultivate their creativity in the arts — has come to the fore in recent years. One particular aspect of this role has long held attention and continues to do so now, not only because of the great tradition but also because of the unceasing urgency of the problem, i.e., the relationship of the intellectual community to the political
community.
The
interest in the political implications of being
an
intellectual
was
formulated in Plato's distrust of poets in The Republic.^^ Hobbes, anti-classical though he was, continued the classical distrust of men of letters in politics. He extended it, moreover, to a distrust of all those 2"^ who raised questions in politics about the foundations of authority. The role of the philosopher in eighteenth-century France was seen in
first
same way by Tocqueville in L'Ancien Regime. This great anti-intellectual tradition expressed a primarily conservative standpoint. It feared the disruptive effects of great ideas in poli-
the
was, paradoxically, complemented by the socialist attack upon the bourgeois intellectual as a revolutionary. This was the achievement of Marx and Engels, most notably, in The Communist Manifesto, and of Proudhon, whose dislike of literary men went back to Plato. 28 Lenin's great vade mecum of the professional revolutionary, What is to be Done, brought all these currents of thought together. Lenin, like Marx and Engels, believed that the intellectual had too tics. It
many attachments to the bourgeois order ary. Yet Marx and Engels, despite their working class
in bringing
to
become
a true revolution-
primacy of the about the revolution, could not overlook the belief in the
and middle-class revolutionaries in providing the ideas and leadership of the revolutionary movement. Lenin went them one better and said that without the intellectual turning himself into a pro-
role of upper-
fessional revolutionary schooled in theoretical principles, the revolution would never come about. His distrust of the working classes was
even greater than his distrust of intellectuals. These traditions are brought together in The Intellectuals: A Collective Portrait, edited by George de Huszar (1960). The traditions, however, as almost always, contain only part of the truth. Reality has been different. Intellectuals are certainly not always revolutionary in politics; they are not always alienated from public life, nor are they 26 See Vol. 7, pp. 432d-434c. 27 ^ce Leviathan, \/o\. 23, pp. 102d-103a, I49c-I52a. 28 See Vol. 50, p. 432a-d. It is interesting to note that Marx and Engels considered Proudhon himself a pre-eminent example of the bourgeois intellectual.
263
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
always doctrinaire or extremist. They are not always disruptors
in
politics.
A
more
image of the political relationships of the which he lives is required to do justice to actual experience. Intellectuals have always been among the most responsible governmental administrators in many great societies. Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s history of the Roosevelt administration shows what an important part intellectuals played in the United States in the great reforms of the 1930's. Sir Charles P. Snow's Godkin lectures on far
differentiated
intellectual to the polity in
Science and Government (1961) represent another such effort to analyze the position of the intellectual — in this instance, the scientist — as an adviser to government. Snow draws his material from the experi-
ence of two eminent British scientists, Sir Henry Tizard and Lord Cherwell, as advisers to their government on defense policies before and during World War II. (For C. P. Snow's contributions in literature, see pp. 157-160 above.)
Inquiry into the role of intellectuals in their society raises funda-
mental questions about the nature of the social order, and the importance to it of common belief. Professor Lipset, in a chapter of Political
Man,
asserts that the alienation of the
their society has
now
American
ended, and that they are
now
intellectuals
from
integrated into the
main patterns of American thor's
life. Although he quotes the present auskepticism concerning the possibility of perfect integration,
Professor Lipset seems to believe that a state of practically perfect integration can exist.
American
He
thinks that the continuing complaints of
intellectuals against their society are not evidence of imper-
from the distorting influence of the alienwhich the intellectuals are still subject, and which hostile towards the existing order. Professor Lipset
fect integration but only arise
ative traditions to
cause them to feel makes it appear as if such ahenation as exists is unilateral; in doing so, he takes up a position contradictory to his own pluralistic outlook as a
and as a political philosopher. The alienation does not come from the side of the intellectuals. There is a real strain between the outlook connected with an attachment to ideas, general principles, and symbolic constructions in art, science, and literature, on the one hand, and the particular exigencies of daily life. The routine life of society is as alienated from intellectual life as intellectual life is alienated from the executive tasks of ordinary existence, both at the level of the most grandiose decisions and on the humbler planes of society. There is a continuous and subtle interpenetration of the two spheres, through the medium of the educational system and the religious institutions, through the absorption of persons with intellectual training into industry, commerce, administration, and politics, through the media of mass communication, and through books. Those who produce intellectual things such as works of art, literature, and science are drawn into closer contact with those who consume them, and the impact spreads outward through a series sociologist
solely
"There is a real between the outlook connected with an attachment strain
to ideas
.
.
.
art, science,
and
literature,
on the one hand,
and
the particular
exigencies of daily life"
264
Edward A.
Shils
of concentric circles. There
is neither total alienation nor total consensus and integration. There never has been and there never can be. The extremes are only theoretically conceivable extremes; as social science becomes more realistic and more subtle in its techniques, it
will learn to deal
more adequately with complex combinations of con-
sensus and dissensus.
Those who believe
any society could ever be completely inteit as desirable also assume its possibility - ordinarily put forward the view that the integration is to be achieved through the universal acceptance of a coherent system of values and beliefs. Plato was the first of the great minds who asserted the necessity of an all-encompassing body of beliefs — or myths — to make the society stable. ^^ The hardheadedness of Aristotle did not permit him to go this far, but it has been the Platonic view which has had the upper hand in intellectual tradition. The Platonic desire for an integrated society received a powerful impetus in the Reformation. The response to every threat to the prevailing order of society until well into the nineteenth century was to assert the need for a unified system of beliefs authoritatively expounded and, if necessary, coercively enforced. The belief that a society could survive and be effective even though it had no uniformity of belief, no unifying ideology, was the great achievement of British liberalism, particularly of Milton and Locke.^^ They argued that a society would lose more by coercing its members into the acceptance of a common system of belief than it would gain. John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty took the next step and asserted that the diversity of views in a society was a condition of that society's progress. ^^ He had no fear that social order would be destroyed by the diversity of grated -and those
that
who
regard
opinions.
However, the Hobbes regarded
away in modern times. some measure of dissensus,
Platonic view did not fade diversity of opinion,
i.e.,
as utterly incompatible with the consensus necessary for order:^^
Rousseau's conception of the "general will" likewise put
all
emphasis
on the need for a fundamental uniformity of opinion;^^ the prescriptions of Auguste Comte for the regeneration of society on a positivescientific basis after the convulsions of the French Revolution, which he attributed to liberal metaphysical speculation, were likewise in favor of a regime of uniformity.
has been the Platonic view which has fascinated sociologists. a conception of an organic society unified by common beliefs. Marxism, with its insistence that only a society or a It
They have operated with
29 See The Republic, Vol. 7, pp. 321a-324c. 30 See Milion, Areopagitica, Vol. 32, pp. 384a-388a, and Locke. A Letter Comernini; Toleration, Vol. 35, pp. 15b-17c, 18d-21c. See Vol. 43, pp. 288d-292a. "Only through diversity of opinion is there, human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth." (p. 290a) 32 See Leviathan, Wo\. 23, pp. 102d-103a. 33 See The Social Contract, Vol. 38, pp. 395a-398b. 31
in the existing state
265
of
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND social
umph the
LAW
movement with a coherent and compelling ideology could trior even survive, has influenced even anti-Marxists. Thus one of
most outstanding of the younger sociologists
in the
United States,
Professor Phillip Selznick, has described liberal society as vulnerable to a movement with a powerful ideology such as communism, simply
because
liberal society is not completely integrated in structure or uniideology {The Organizational Weapon, 2nd ed., 1960). Not sociologists resisted this view of the necessity for ideology, par-
fied in
many
ticularly of the necessity for
Toward
an ideological
politics of the intellectuals.
the end of the last decade, however, the argument for plu-
ralism rather than complete integration, and for civil rather than ideological politics, gained
Opium of the
much
ground.
Raymond Aron
published The
and the present author, "The End of Ideology" {Encounter, 1956) and "Ideology and Civility" {Sewanee Review, 1958). The latter two have been reprinted in The Intellectuals and the Powers (1961). The notion of an "end of ideology" became established and was taken up by Professor Daniel Bell as the title and the theme of his collection of essays {The End of Ideology, 1960), as well as by Professor Lipset as the title and topic of the final chapter in Political
As still
Intellectuals (1957),
Man.
a direction of empirical sociological research, the
in its early beginnings.
As
new
line is
a direction of political philosophy, how-
only makes articulate, in the idiom of contemporary discussion, it adds the Burkean critique of ideological politics. Following Burke's critique of the docever,
it
the great tradition of liberal utilitarianism to which trinaires of the
French Revolution of 1789 {Reflections on the Revo-
lution in France), this
new
affirmation of liberal pluralism stresse,s the
inescapability as well as the prudence of accepting the tradition.
This
new
attitude has already aroused
new and more
framework of
among a few
sociol-
approach to the structure of consensus. While insisting on the necessity for consensus, this view has equally stressed the impossibility of a complete consensus and the damage done to a democratic policy by aspiring toward it. This has compelled political philosophers, anthropologists, and sociologists to make a real effort to describe the characteristic value system of any society as more flexible, less consistent, more ambiguous and fragmentary than has been previously asserted. It has also induced a renewed effort to come to grips with the nature of tradition in advanced societies. Naturally, the opposing view has not simply folded up and left the field. It is too deeply rooted in a great philosophical vision of an orogists a
realistic
ganically unified society,
it is
of present-day society, with
too inextricably involved in the critique its
heritage derived from
Marx and from
the romantic reactionary parentage of sociology, to give up so easily. forth a scatter of resistance from the "new and the United States, in such periodicals as Dissent and the Universities and Left Review. These journals tend on the whole to view with dismay and disapproval the dissolution of what It is
already
summoning
left" in Britain
266
Edward A.
was once regarded as the proper outlook of the They reaffirm the tradition of alienation, reclothed affluent society
and the mass
society, both of
Shils
critical intellectual.
in the critique
of the
which they view with
horrified repugnance.
Modern
The
outlook which
entails ety. It
and
society
an
the family expressed in the slogan "end of ideology" understand anew the nature of modern soci-
is
effort to
has long been a cliche that modern society
which moral
is
a soulless machine,
and traditions have been destroyed, in which individualism has run rampant in building an apparatus in which the individual has ceased to count. Concerned only with profit-making, modin
ties
ern society has subordinated every human activity to the pecuniary The organic ties of family and territory have disintegrated;
calculus.
religious faith has evaporated.
Man
is
bound
to
man
only by consid-
eration of prudence and advantage. Urbanization, industrialization,
bureaucratization,
depersonalization,
dehumanization
atomization,
have become the key terms of this interpretation of the nature of modern society. (A summary of some of the sociological inquiries which are alleged to provide the empirical foundation for this interpretation is to be found in The Eclipse of Community: An Interpretation of American Studies by Maurice R. Stein, 1960. Professor Stein shares the melodramatically exaggerated views of the authors whose work
he presents.)
The
idea that an urban society
tion goes
back
philosophers
to antiquity. It
who
is
a scene of sin and moral dissolu-
was not
the view of the great
Greek
regarded the city-state as the highest form of social
BLER STREET
AND GIN LANE — from "The
Hogarth
idea that an urban
a scene of dissolution goes hack to antiquity" society sin
is
and moral
267
LAW
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
was born
life.^"^ It
the austere
in the
Roman
denunciations of the
moralists and historians
Hebrew prophets and in who mourned the death
of rustic Republican virtue amidst the debauchery and corruption of morals and politics in the capital. ^^ Rousseau's praise of the simple life of a small society and his disparagement of the liberal pluralist
modern foundation for this moral reprehension of urThe Marxist critique of capitalistic society had much in common with the Hebrew classical denunciation of the decay of morals in the great city. Marx gave it a "scientific" form by adapting the Ricardian analysis of the market economy to the needs of his moralpolitical problems.^*^ Henry Sumner Maine's Ancient Law, basing idea provided a
ban
life.^^
itself
on the
oped
in the
between "status" and "contract" as devel-
distinction
Hegelian tradition of legal historical studies, also contributed to the "scientific" establishment of this outlook. According to this conception, obligations in past societies were functions of a person's status as a member of a kinship group or a territorial society, while in modern society obligations are no more than contractual. There is, in other words, no spontaneously acknowledged moral bond which holds men together in modern society. Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, which assimilated modem society to a joint stock company, drew much from this tradition and greatly strengthened it. The upshot of this tradition is a conception of modern society which lays stress on what are alleged to be its unique qualities among all societies in world history. Beliefless, ration-
and
it seems by biological drives and economic ambitions. Urban sociology, which was for many years the major branch of American sociological inquiry, by selecting certain aspects of Amer-
alistic, secular,
individualistic to the point of inhumanity,
to be driven forward only
ican society for study, appeared to corroborate this view.
The
discus-
"mass society," which accompanied the discussion of "mass culture," has accepted these themes without seriously investigating sion of
their validity.
The
counter- movement in contemporary social science, which has
reasserted and reformulated the idea of consensus and criticized the
conception of ideological politics, has also made itself felt in the analysis of social structure. It has not done so by direct frontal attack, but through a series of studies of the family. Modern writers, not only revolutionary critics of
modern
liberal society like
.Marx and Engels
but also conservatives like Le Play, have claimed that the growth of
modem
society has disintegrated the family.
allege, in
34 See
The Communist Manifesto,
Marx went
that the family
so far as to
had been confined
Politics, Vol. 9, p. 530a-d. 35 See, for example, Tacitus, who complains that the vigor of the soldiers of Imperial Rome "was undermined by luxury, a luxury that transgressed our ancient discipline and the customs of our ancestors, in whose days the power of Rome found a surer foundation in valour than in wealth" {Histories, Vol. 15, pp. 232d-233a). 36 See The Social Contract, Vol. 38, pp. 403a-404a. 37 See Capital, Vol. 50, pp. 37 lc-378d.
268
Edward A. and degraded to nothing more than an exploitative sexual
Shils
relation-
Le
piay^ in his vast studies of family structure {Les Ouvriers Europeens), reported the breakdown of masculine and parental auship.38
and therewith the moral decay of the whole society. These views have been widely accepted by the majority of recent sociologists. It has become a truism of modern sociology that the fam-
thority
ily
has lost
functions except those of procreation and of providhas shrunk to a nucleus of husband and wife and their has been reduced to the nuclear or conjugal family. It is
all its
ing affection. children:
it
It
thought that social mobility has broken the
which binds parents and and sisters lose contact Cousins have become strangers tie
their adult children together, that brothers
with each other on becoming adults. to each other. All this is regarded as part of the process of the dissolution of affectional, moral, and religious ties, characteristic of modern, large-scale urban, industrial society. How different this is from the image of society which was propounded by that most civil-minded of ancient authors, Aristotle, who viewed the family and the household as the most central of all social institutions.^^ The household was an economic institution; it was an institu-
which human beings learned their place in society, in which in which they found care in time of need. was taken for granted, throughout antiquity and in early modern
tion in
they were disciplined, and It
times, that the family
was
the prototype of the larger society, as well
as the seedbed in which the major virtues of social
life
were learned.
Since ancient social thought did not confront a large-scale society, spread over a vast territory,
it
did not contain the corrective for the
which we have been describing. The correction has come rather from the improved realism of empirical inquiry, and from the heightened awareness of the necessary pluralism of any large-scale society, which has been extended to the study of distortions of reality
family relations.
The same
trend of thought which resulted in the restoration of the
to the center of our efforts to understand the the stereotype of the isolated nuclechallenged political order has now landmarks in this reversal of the the of important ar family. The most
problem of consensus
trend of thought just described has been a series of studies of family life in London, conducted by the Institute of Community Studies
(Michael Young and Peter Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London, 1957, and Family and Class in a London Suhurh, I960). These are simple investigations into the kinship ties of London working and lower middle-class persons in an old working class district and in a suburb. They testify to the persistent strength of ties beyond the immediate family, and to the important part played by the wife's mother in the maintenance of the extended kinship group. They demonstrate the frequency of conviviality and helpfulness among adult 38 See Manifesto of the Communist Parly, Vol. 50, pp. 427b-428a. 39 See Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 445d-447a.
269
Recent studies testify
to the persistent
strength of
family
ties
even
in industrialized,
highly mobile societies
siblings, the
concern for older
reveal similar features of family
The
and the persistence of connecOther studies in the United States
relatives,
tions over widely dispersed areas.
life.
general theory of action (to which
we
shall refer later) has also
contributed to the reassessment of the situation and structure of the family in modern society. Working within the framework of this theory,
and Ezra Vogel have assembled a number of the most valuable recent writings on the family {A Modem IntroducProfessors
Norman
Bell
tion to the Family, 1960).
The processes of integration
within the fam-
ily, the mechanisms for the maintenance and transmission of moral standards, and the modes of linkage between the family and other insti-
way which demonstrates the power of the family to withstand disintegration. The claims of those theorisits of mass society who declare that modern society is the scene of "atomization" and "dehumanization" are rendered meaningless by this new approach. The basic patterns of all societies are akin and integral to the life of the species. The degree of disorder which the more extreme tutions are presented in a
critics
contend
bility as
is
long as
The need for
characteristic of
human
modern
society
is
not even a possi-
beings remain what they are.
the study of tradition
mode
of change and traditional attachments {i.e., attachment to symbols of the past as regulators of change) were
Tradition
as a
not greatly stressed in the inheritance which modern social analysis received from antiquity. Traditions were accepted as existing, but it was the task of philosophers, as various as Socrates and Bacon, Hobbes and Descartes, to criticize them. Criticism did not necessarily entail the task of understanding why, despite their incapacity to withstand the rational criticism of the philosophical mind, traditions still persisted. It
was not
until
Edmund Burke
criticized the efforts of
French
revolutionaries to create a society according to a rationally precon-
ceived pattern that the analysis of the nature and processes of tradition
270
Edward A.
Shils
The development of linguistic and of folklorist studies in Germany brought to the fore a considerable body of cultural products,
began.
which were transmitted largely if not exclusively by oral communication and which underwent the unplanned adaptive modification which
we now call traditional change. modern society the analysis of tradition made no progress whatsoever. Then slowly, as part of movement we are indicating here, sociologists began to
In the empirical study of for a long time
the larger
awaken
to the
importance of traditional elements
in authority, in sci-
ence, in politics and, indeed, in every sphere of life. The work of Professor Talcott Parsons, here as elsewhere, has played a very important
through his interpretation of the thought of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim and through the frame of reference which he worked out in The Structure of Social Action and in subsequent writings. The task of understanding the nature and working of tradition remains more prominent on the agenda of the social scientists than on the record of their achievements. The effort to reassess the structure of modern society has not yet been expressed in empirical investigapart,
On the theoretical side, howbeen made by a number of writers who have been concerned with the contention that modern society is traditionless. Professor F. A. Hayek (The Constitution of Liberty, 1960) devotes an important chapter to an analysis of the nature of tradition and its role in a free society. Hayek goes back to Burke, as must every tion outside the field of family studies.
ever, real progress has
other author who wishes to treat this so much neglected subject. The present author attempts to advance the analysis of tradition in "Further Thoughts
Afro-Asian
on Tradition and Modernity" (in The Problems of the London, 1961), drawing once more on Burke,
New States,
on his own observations concerning attitudes towards contemporary Asia and Africa.
as well as dition in
.^s=r^*^
*llIfe.
&-vn ^M^ mi^^ _^.#€vi WAY ^^^.^^^^~
VICTIMS
OF THE TERROR
ON THE THE GUILLOTINE
The analysis of tradition began ith
Edmund
Burke's
criticism
of the efforts of the French revolutionaries to create a wholly
new
society
tra-
m ti^m^^w^JiA
mm
^Bl*.
W^'^kK^^
T iH^^BF ._^^ ^^^ '
^^\
271
\ '
.7«-?t^^ri^B
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
The problems involved ficult.
in the
study of tradition are extremely
Social anthropologists have studied
societies."
what they
dif-
call "traditional
However, they have never
of tradition or the grounds for
its
directly confronted the nature acceptance or rejection. No one has
yet studied the adaptability of traditions and their compatibility with non-traditional and anti-traditional elements, such as rational thought, scientific research, revolutionary ideology, critical attitudes
which seems at as such, and each of which
authority, etc., each of to tradition
variety of ways.
The study of
tradition
first
towards
glance to be uncongenial
is
dependent on tradition
is
a subject for which there
in
a is
guidance in classical social and political thought or in contemporary research techniques. An appreciation of its importance for the understanding of contemporary large-scale societies has only very relittle
cently emerged.
The
class structure of society
of men, within each society, into grades according to The division capacities and merits comes down modern their
their
to
social
science from the very origin of Western social thought. Plato regarded the acceptance of differences in merit as the basis of order.'*^
The very
idea of a three-fold division of social classes — the rich, the poor, and
— comes from Aristotle, and it has been unquestionby generations of social scientists. ^^ Karl Marx ac-
the middle class ingly accepted
cepted it and put his powerful rhetoric at its disposal.^^ This division has caused much confusion in sociological analysis and has served as a block to new thought in the same way in which Aristotle's jdeas blocked the development of original ideas in physics. Since the idea of the tripartite division of classes has actually helped to form society, this
problematic theory has acquired the appearance of validity be-
cause of its influence on actual life. Since antiquity, the antagonism between the rich and the poor, between propertied and the unpropertied, between moneylenders and debtors, has been regarded as a major clue to the understanding of society. It was one of the causes of revolution enumerated by Aristotle. ^^ It was adduced by Roman historians to explain the decay of the Roman republic and the violent convulsions which preceded its end.^^ Classical writers were concerned not only with class conflicts; they were also interested in other concomitants of the differences in wealth and power. They were concerned, for example, with the ambitions of individuals and families — Sallust gives much weight to this in his analysis of the Civil War, and Tacitus does the same in his exam40 See The Republic, Vol. 41 See Politics, Vol.
9, pp.
7, pp. 340b-34 1 a. 495c-496d.
42 See Manifesto of the Communist Party, Vol. 50, pp. Allc-AlSz.. 43 See Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 495c-496c, 505a-b. 44 See Plutarch, Lives, Vol. 14, pp. 674c-680d, 682c-689a, and Tacitus, Histories, Vol. 224d-225a.
272
15, pp.
Edward A
.
Shils
ination of the turbulence of the Imperial Epoch.^s bitious
men, sensitive
The action of amand eager to redress the families by guile and con-
to their lowly origins
balance, to elevate themselves and their spiracy has never again been so shrewdly treated. When the matter-of-fact understanding of society was renewed by historians and political philosophers in early modern times, these
themes were taken up again. Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Clarendon, Hobbes, and many lesser minds perceived the central importance of differences in social status, differences in wealth and power, and differences in education and in family connections in attaching people to
them against it. Other writers, especially were more concerned to understand became differentiated into classes, and why some roles
the existing order or turning the
Scotsmen
why
societies
(e.g.,
John
Millar),
were more highly regarded than others. Contemporary social science has not on the whole concerned itself with the first of the great themes of classical social analysis, i.e., revolution. Revolutions have interested many sociologists and political scientists, but the phenomenon has been too grandiose for them to encompass by the methods which they like to use. Interviewing and statistically controlled analysis of the dependence of one kind of action on another are methods of research which are more appropriate to stabler, less violent situations.
phenomenon of
More microscopic
treatments of the
have been more common. The relation between employers and employees in factory and office has become one of the common subjects of sociology; the correlation between class position and intelligence, school achievement, political attitudes, electoral choice, reading habits, television viewing, style of life aspirations, and child-parent relations have been gone into as perhaps no other problems of modern social life. Much of this is summarized by Leonard Reissman in Class in American Society ( 959). It cannot be said that the value of these studies goes beyond a more careful documentation of conclusions which would be reached by a fairly careful observer using more impressionistic methods. A greater deficiency is the fact that very few of the authors attempt to go beyond class
1
their results
which demonstrate
that different social or occupational
or income classes have different modes of hfe and correspondingly different attitudes toward a variety of objects. The great problem dealt with by classical political philosophers and historians, and by those modern historians inspired by Karl Marx -the problem of class conflict in
relation to revolution
-is scarcely dealt with by sociologists,
who are generally Marxist in outlook. Perhaps sociolhave come to recognize so many other factors operative in the
even by those ogists
causation of revolution that they pay little attention to class conflict. Nor do they deal with the inner connection between wealth and poverty on one hand, and self-esteem and self-disparagement on the other. 45 See, for example, the career of Sejanus
in
Tacitus. Annals. Vol.
15.
pp.
273
63d-S4d passim.
12*
•
"Movement between the manual working class
is
and
the
middle class approximately the
same
in all
advanced countries"
Although a good deal of material on the status accorded to different occupations has accumulated, little thought has been given to why some occupations are more highly esteemed than others. Elliott Jaques (The Measurement of Responsibility, 1956) differences
and the tivity
among
a partial exception.
is
The
individuals with respect to their sensitivity to status,
and social consequences of such differences in sensitheme of historians and moralists in the sixteenth and
political
—a
great
seventeenth centuries as well as of the ancient Roman historians — likewise pass without much inquiry. One aspect of social stratification has, however, been very effectively studied in these past years. critics of the ancien regime from
great stress
upon each man's
That
Adam
is
social mobility.
The
liberal
Smith to John Stuart Mill
laid
right to the opportunity to use his talents
according to his lights and to develop himself to the best of his abilities.^^ The argument for equality of opportunity through universal education and the elimination of monopolistic barriers to entry into was a common feature of
the various occupations and professions liberal social philosophy. It
was
was long thought
moved closest world were much more
the country which had
that the
United States and that the
to this ideal
restricted in the range of societies of the old opportunity which they allowed to the gifted and the ambitious. Indeed, part of the explanation of the alleged disintegration of the moral fabric of the "mass society" was seen in the higher rate of social mo-
United States as compared with the more traditional among e.g., Great Britain. Professors Lipset and Bendix {Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 1960) attempt to synthesize all the available data on mobility between occupations all over the world. The authors conclude that the relative amount of movement between the manual working class and the middle class is approximately the same in all advanced countries regardless
bility in the
the advanced societies of the West,
46 See
Adam
293b-302c.
274
Smith, Wealth of Nations, Vol. 39,
p.
300a-c, and
J. S.
Mill,
On
Liberty, Vol. 43, pp.
Edward A.
Shils
of religious or other cultural characteristics which were once thought to be determinative of social mobility. further, although less defin-
A
itively
demonstrated, result of
this inquiry is the
conclusion that the
dichotomy between rigid societies, which permitted no movement between classes, and open societies, which had no restrictions on such movement, is largely a fiction. Thus gradually the wheel is turning. Modern Western industrial society
is
history.
being restored to
There
no attempt
is
but a real attempt
being
its
kinship with other societies in world
to assert that
made
from
all
societies are identical,
to soften the sharp
disjunctions which were once said to societies
all
and unbridgeable modern, advanced other societies of the past and from the modern civilis
mark
off
izations of Asia or Africa.
In
modern
societies the scale of social organization
set to social organization require
and the tasks
modes of administration and types of
authority which were not so frequent in other civilizations. Technological changes have brought economic changes which have rad-
changed the occupational structure of modern societies. The standard of living has been changed by the increased productivity of the modern economy. ically
Yet, with
all,
what was
The fundamental
essential to
man remains
essential to him.
and death, the scarcity of the fruits of nature, and the need to economize resources impose certain basic patterns which limit the range of variation. There is a tendency in men to esteem themselves and others according to their possession of certain characteristic features, and these, too, impose a common pattern. The ties of kinship and affection, the inevitability of authority, the disposition to be autonomous as well as submissive, the need to form a meaningful map of the universe, the sense that some things or symbols are infused with sacredness — all these impose a universal pattern. Variations do occur, and the accumulation of an inheritance from the past, which makes for uniformity, also makes for differences, since no societies which succeed one another in time ever receive the same inheritance. But all these uniformities and variations belong to a single scheme of things. The basic problems of social life remain, because the basic determinant situations remain the same. It is the achievement of contemporary social science to have restored this sense of sameness to our consciousness. The achievement is all the greater since the stock of knowledge, the range of past experience, is now so much richer and more diversified than what was available to our Mediterranean ancestors two millennia ago.
Consensus
facts of birth
in the
new nations
of a movereassessment of the nature of modern society Thement obtain the widest possible frameof thought which seeks is
part
to
for the understanding of social life. Our own society is being seen in a wider historical perspective. This makes us more aware of
work
275
3 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW common
the problems which our society has in
the past and present. This process involves a
with the societies of
more intense knowledge
of other societies and the process of their development.
This extension of our interest
is
in
a purely internal intellectual progress.
A
some measure a product of few decades ago
social sci-
became aware that genuine intellectual progress in their subwas being blocked as long as each social scientist confined him-
entists
jects
self to the
partment.
boundaries defined by the jurisdiction of his academic dea result of this awareness, political scientists began to
As
absorb the results and methods of sociology, sociologists began to learn more about psychology, etc. Social scientists felt increasingly the inadequacy of an approach which confined them to a single society or a single civilization; this was a result of increased intellectual sophistication, of the emergence of a new intensity and range of curiosity.
The widening of interest is also prompted by the contemplation of Asian and African countries, long lain recumbent under foreign rule, which are now attempting to vitalize themselves. These countries are trying to become modern, and becoming modern means becoming like other contemporary countries. It means trying to acquire institutions and outlooks which have not grown from an indigenous tradition, but which are established as a result of the belief in their efficacy and validity beyond the place of their origin. Ancient Greek philosophers could not have appreciated a situation like this. It was never thought of in antiquity. Barbarians were, and had to remain, barbarians. Their golden splendors and bizarre mores were thought to be separated by an impossible gap from the condition of civilization. Since nations did not progress — there was no notion of progress but only of degeneration — there was no possibility of the barbarians becoming like Greeks. They could only be what they were. Herodotus' interest in oriental empires did not extend to seeing them as a part of a universal pattern. historical development, the discovery of the difference between antiquity and modernity, the consciousness which the Renaissance and the Enlightenment both had of their advance over
The conception of
the "dark ages" class
mark
which believes
the change from antiquity.
in progress
Only an
intellectual
could develop a concept of moderni-
zation.^'^ It is
against this background that the situation of the newly formed
Asia and Africa must be seen. They are trying to become modern. To a considerable extent, they wish in the first place to become nations. They wish to conduct their governmental and political life in a modern style, to pursue policies of economic and social advancement. They wish their governments to foster their nationhood — a conception utterly alien to antiquity. They wish to enhance their status in the world; and in order to do this they must states of
47 For further discussion of the idea of progress, see the introductory essay ter on PROGRESS, Vol. 3, pp. 437a-444a, c.
276
to the
Syntopicon chap-
Edward A
.
Shils
acquire the habiliments of modern societies. Otherwise, they will not feel themselves worthy of respect. They wish to improve their
economies, make their people less poor. They wish to have a modern educational system. They wish to have modern administrative and political institutions. They wish to have popular legitimation for their government; and thus, at least in some measure, they wish to be democratic.
These aspirations raise problems which ancient social thought was not prepared to contemplate. For example, the process of the formation of a society which did not grow out of a kinship group or a household or which was not created by the conquest of one territorial group by another was anticipated neither by Aristotle, nor by Plato, nor by Cicero. They took the existence of their polities for granted. They foresaw the possibilities of their decay, but they had no realistic explanation of their origins. For one thing, they scarcely had the conception of a nation as a collectivity bound together by a sense of affmity among its members. The contract theory offered no explanation of the
formation of either a nation or a state. Nor did a myth of common The idea of a nation as the basis of a state was foreign to ancient political thought. How can Aristotle's discussion of the divine origin.
which men know one another, be made relevant to the Congo, where about 13,000,000 people live in a territory as large as Europe, speak different languages, have no adequate system of transportation and no common educational system? Nor is Machiavelli much more helpful. He gave advice to rulers on how to keep themselves in power; he did not tell them how to form a body of citizens."*^ The great tradition of social and political thought refers to the dangers of the decomposition or disaggregation of what already exists.
polis,^^ in
Even there, the tradition is not very helpful. The disaggregation of Congo after the abdication of the Belgians did not result in a war of each against all. It resulted in the aggravation of rivalries among the
politicians speaking
and acting on behalf of
tribes.
structure of social relations remained intact.
Much
of the sub-
Not everything
is
de-
continued existence on an all powerful government — as Hobbes thought^^ — any more than in contemporary society, bureaucracy and mass communications control and fill the lives of the people. Yet a society needs a coherent government, especially when some of the people demand services and conditions for which wealth
pendent for
its
and authority are necessary. Again, the classical conception of the nature of governments did not envisage such a wide range of activities. This is the situation which contemporary social scientists face in attempting to understand the problems confronting the human race over a large part of the earth's surface. Over the past few years, American, British, and French social scientists -especially the 48 SeePo////c5,Vol. 9,530d. 49 See The Prince, Vol. 23, pp. 3a-36b. 50 See Leviathan, Vol. 23, pp. 99a- 101a.
277
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
Americans — have not hesitated to throw themselves into these tasks. An orderly and intelligent summary of present-day understanding is contained in The Politics of the Developing Areas (1960), edited by Professors Gabriel Almond and James Coleman, and From Empire to Nation (1960) by Rupert Emerson. The former is one of the most valuable works of recent years because it not only attempts to formulate a theoretical, analytical scheme which utilizes the important advances of social thought
in recent years,
contributions of Professors Lucien Pye,
but
it
also attempts, in the
Myron Weiner,
Professor
Coleman himself, Dankwart Rustow, and George Blankston, to apply that scheme to recent and prospective developments in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The work is of outstanding merit as a factual account of the present situation and as an interpretation of the main problems. In a smaller compass, the present author has surveyed the aspirations, the conditions, and prospects of the new states in Political Development in the New States (1961). In all these writings, consensus is at the center. It is of as much relevance to those who would understand underdeveloped societies as it is to those concerned with the advanced societies. The problem of the formation of a polity is the same as the problem of the formation of consensus. In a society and economy which assigns powerful authority to the polity, whether it be democratic or oligarchical, there is a pressing need for a rather far reaching consensus. Modem societies which institutionalize conflict and which require much internal collaboration need consensus to limit conflict and to facilitate co-operation. Underdeveloped societies need it to keep the support of the government intact and to prevent the government from being torn apart. They need consensus so that the measures which their governments enact for the development of the economy and for the modernization of the society will be regarded as legitimate and worthy of obedience and execution. There are different obstacles to consensus: tribal and ethnic loyalties are even greater in backward societies than in advanced societies; the contents of modern education and of the indigenous culture of the populace are even more divergent than in advanced societies, etc. But its functional importance and the conditions of its emergence and maintenance are the same as the problems dealt with by Professor Lipset in Political Man and by other contemporary writers. And insofar as a "civil sense" is at its root, consensus is ultimately connected, through many complications and with many additions, with Aristotle's and Cicero's ideas about the nature of citizenship.^^ The ancients stressed the need for the justice of the existing system of authority to be generally acknowledged. Modern governments aspire to accomplish more than ancient governments, and their citizens are more inclined to view their governments as instruments than as awe-
5
1
See
278
Politics, Vol. 9, pp.
47 1 b,d-475d.
Edward A.
some
repositories of authority.
ments than the populace did
They demand more from in
Western antiquity or
Shils
their govern-
ancient Insofar as an approximation to modern public opinion takes form in the underdeveloped countries, there is pressure oriental
in the
societies.
on government to achieve all sorts of things. For this reason, contemporary social scientists think that in addition to appearing just, governments must give the impression of effective accomplishment if they are to legitimate themselves and thus achieve a society-wide consensus. Authority must be effective to be legitimate. This much contemporary social scientists have learned from Machiavelli. But for modern social scientists, effective authority must do more than proceed decisively against conspirators and revolutionaries. It must accredit itself by its probity, its justice, and its effective purposefulness.
None
of these attributes can be realized without a well-organized
To this matter, Mr. Kenneth Younger has devoted a book. The Public Services in the New States (1960), in which he examines the administrative problems arising from the aspirations of the new states and makes recommendations for the provision of adequate personnel for the administrative service. The educational requirements of a self-modernizing society are subjected to a remarkably comprehensive and imaginative treatment in the report of the Ashby Commission of Post School Certificate and Higher Education in Nigeria: Investment in Education (1960). With economic and social development so high on the agenda of the new states, it is clear that the adaptation of existing scientific and technological knowledge to their problems, as well as much new research, will be needed. A wide survey of these problems is offered in the symposium on Science in the Advancement of New States (1961), in which Professor Arthur civil
service.
solid
Lewis' "Science and Economic Development"
is
especially valuable.
Economic growth of an The effectiveness or of educational
elite is
not just a function of energy or good
The management and of the econgrowth the of promotion the and of an economic system advanced most the on based art complex of a omy involve the mastery will
scientific research.
of the social sciences. The study of the conditions of economic growth is something new in human history. The classical philosophers and historians thought that countries become rich by conquest or by commercial aptitude or
by the good fortune of the possession of ample natural resources. The notion that a ruler or a government could improve the economic situaand that such policies could be part of a far from the thought of the ancients. The most that a ruler could do by his own artifice was to keep wealth
tion
by deliberate
policies
general theory of the in the
economy was
country. Only in the seventeenth century,
when 279
Mercantilist
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
became articulated into a theory, could it be said that there was now an intellectual, theoretical foundation to the pursuit of na-
policies
tional
enrichment, through governmental policy. In the eighteenth
century, the promotion of economic growth through governmental policy
came
to
be the proper, concern of economists. ^^ Through the
nineteenth century, the science of political economy, from John Stuart Mill to Alfred Marshall, was concerned with the increase of the national
wealth and the enhancement of individual welfare. The emergence of new states in Asia and Africa in the mid-twentieth century, the
the
by the older states on these continents as well as in Latin America to modernize themselves, and the debate about the relative merits of the Western and Communist types of economies have given a great impetus to this branch of economic study. One particular aspect of the discussion of economic growth is releefforts
vant to our discussion in these pages. This is the consideration of the ends of growth and of the consequences of the successful fulfillment of a policy of growth. In antiquity, a balance of virtue and moderation in action and enjoyment was regarded as the right ideal by writers as different as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Seneca. ^^ In modern times, the end of economic policy has been national and individual enrichment. The volume of material goods produced tends to be regarded as the criterion of growth and as a good in itself. The conception of man has also changed. Hobbes's conception of man as a creature restlessly aggrandizing himself as a means of assur-
was basic to the notion of man as Hobbes made no virtue of this; he merely
ing his perpetually threatened safety
a consumer without limits. declared
its
inevitability
and accepted
it
as given.^'* Mandeville^went
a little further: he said that positive benefits for the society would flow from man's efforts to indulge and enrich himself. In general,
throughout the nineteenth century, the classical and medieval condemnation of luxurious and immoderate acquisition and consumption, the
abhorrence of luxury which was so common among the ancient politiand moralists, faded. ^^ It was not only those who favored the bourgeois order of society, with the regime of private property and the freedom of enterprise in a market economy, who accepted this new standpoint. The critics of bourgeois society, too, were hedonists. Marx was not averse to the limitless elevation of the level of material consumption as a general ideal. He was hostile only to the social system in which it was so uncal philosophers
52 See Wealth of Nations.Vol 39, pp. 182a-300d,esp. 182b-192c, 279b-300d. 53 See Plato, Phaedrus, Vol. 7, pp. 120b-c, Laws, p. 715d; and Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Vol. 9,pp. 351c-355a,c. first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless deof power after power, that ceaseth only in death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be content with a moderate power, but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more." (Leviathan, Vol. 23, p. 76d). 55 See, for example, Aristotle, Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 451d-452b; Plutarch, Lives, Vol. 14, pp. 291d292b; and Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Vol. 19, pp. 615d-616c.
54 "In the sire
280
Edward A.
Shils
equally attained.^^ Professor R. H. Tawney's The Acquisitive Society, written from the standpoint of a guild socialist and in the tradition of
William Morris, is one of the few famous socialist books which looks with repugnance on a society in which men make the material standard of Hving their chief interest. Tawney's viewpoint has not found many adherents among those who
concern themselves with economic development. For one thing, most of them are too impressed with the terrible poverty of most of the world, outside the English-speaking countries and northwestern Europe, to think of the problematic moral and aesthetic aspects of a high level of consumption of material goods. Furthermore, most of them really accept the postulate of the goodness of such a style of life. Very recently, however. Professor J. K. Galbraith in The Affluent Society (1958) and M. Bertrand de Jouvenel in Efficiency and Amenity (1960) have brought the entire principle into question. Both these writers, neither of whom is a socialist, ask whether the ideal of a limitlessly rising standard of private consumption is the right ideal of mankind. Both put forward as alternatives, not a regime of austerity or asceticism, but a greater concern with objects of public consumption, such as schools and parks, and a greater concern with the aesthetic consequences of private consumption. De Jouvenel goes further and inquires into the values of higher standards of material consumption purchased at the prices not only of aesthetic values but of such values as satisfaction in work, comradeliness and affection, etc.
The renaissance of the comparative method
The
questioning of
civilization has
some of
the fundamental assumptions of our
been prompted,
in part,
by the
partial realization
of some of the important goals of the humanitarian program of the past two centuries. It is also a function of a greater detachment and a wider and more critical perspective on our own civilization and our own epoch. The transcendence of the departmental boundaries, of academic
gone hand-in-hand with the expansion of the interests of the social sciences to other countries and periods. The extension of interest to the new states of Asia and Africa, with special attention to the two problems of the conditions of political democracy and the conditions of economic growth, which we have cited here for illustrative purposes, is evidence of this multiple transcendence of conventional disciplines, has
standpoints and boundaries.
Asia and Africa used to be the subjects of anthropologists and linguists. Now these specialists are joined by sociologists, economists, political scientists.
There are
still
some
persistent differences.
The
anthropologists tend to confine themselves to village studies, but they now are more frequently inclined to see their villages in the context 56 See Manifesto of the Communist Party, Vol. 50, pp. 428d-42yb.
281
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
LAW
in a way which they seldom did before. Sociolsegments of the urban population; they are, however, more sensitive now to kinship and to traditional culture and other features of social and cultural life which were previously in the jurisdiction of anthropologists. More fundamental, however, than any of these specific extensions of knowledge is the broadening of perspective which social scientists have recently been experiencing on an unprecedented scale. The result is a renaissance of the comparative approach. It could be said that Aristotle, with his collection of Greek constitutions, and Herodotus, with his gathering of information about people outside the Greek cultural area, were the founders of the comparative method in the best sense.^'^ But Aristotle did not make explicit the relationship between his diverse data and his theory, while Herodotus did not attempt to construct any theories from his data. It was really only with the intellectual aftermath of the age of discoveries that the comparative method — the use of data from diverse societies as a basis for forming general theories — was revived. In Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Vico, and Rousseau are to be seen the antecedents of the present pattern of comparative analysis. Of course, their data about preliterate societies were much more fragmentary than our own, and the validity of these data was extremely doubtful. In the nineteenth century, the assessment of the situation of one society in the context of other societies underwent a reversal, which ended by casting discredit on the very conception of the comparison of societies. For a long time, the "comparative method" remained in the shadows because it was believed to postulate, and in many cases did postulate, a unilinear scale of progressive development on which all societies had their place. This was the result of the influence of the theory of evolution. The comparative method nowadays means only the employment of a scheme of concepts and hypotheses which are applicable to all societies and not just to one's own or to those very similar to one's own. It is a means of testing hypotheses about why a given social phenomenon has happened in a certain way in one country (e.g., why the military took over political power in Iraq or Pakistan) by comparing the situations in which it happened with those of other countries where such events did not occur (e.g., India or Great
of the whole society ogists tend to study
Britain).
The contemporary revival of the comparative method has certainly been greatly stimulated by the growth of interest in the new states. It is not, however, entirely attributable to that development. Indeed, interest in the
new
states might be in equal part attributed to the quest for
a wider framework of social analysis. Social scientists, in breaking out of the narrow confines of their
academic specialization and
their
own civilization and epoch, have
57 See Aristotle, Politics, Vol. 9, pp. 465h-47\d, Athenian Constitution, Vol. and Herodotus, History, Vol. 6, esp. pp. 49a-88a, c.
282
9, pp.
also
553a-584a-c;
Edward A.
Shils
been impelled by an awareness of the unsatisfactoriness of a theory which pretends to universality while reflecting only a parochial and particularistic frame of mind. One of the most revealing indications of this broadening of outlook is the new journal Comparative Studies in Society^ and History, begun in 1958, which is edited by a group of American anthropologists, historians, Islamists, sociologists, and Sinologists, with collaborators from all over the world. It is the explicit aim of this quarterly to foster the comparative approach to the study of societies and their constituent institutions.
Among
the subjects
it
has treated are the position and
role of intellectuals in various societies, frontiers, ethnic minorities, political
and religious sectarianism, bureaucracy, peasantry,
etc.
The theory of action
The
social sciences are not only extending their scope in time
space.
theory
They
are also being deepened by theoretical efforts.
now emerging in the social sciences is interested in man and human action which will have
a conception of
and
The
developing a place for
whatever has happened in the course of history and in all parts of the is no easy task. It is a task at least equal in magnitude to those undertaken by Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, and Hegel. It is not a totally new conception of man which the social sciences wish to promulgate, but one which, growing out of the great intellectual achievements of the past, will also be disciplined by the tremendous accumulation of scientific and historical observation of the past century and a half. The data which have been accumulated by disciplined techniques require an effort at synthesis. It is not an encyclopedia of all recently gathered knowledge which is necessary, but a new system of concepts and hypotheses. Only through these concepts and hypotheses will the classical conceptions of man and society be given a new life more appropriate to the particular concerns of the present world. This
time.
This
is
the direction of the social sciences today.
It is still
very ten-
ambiguous and great gaps remain, but the movement is on its way. The theory which attempts this synthesis may be referred to as the theory of action. It draws on the tradition of utilitarianism, as embodied in Marshallian economics, on German idealism as reinterpreted and modified by Max Weber, and on French positivism in the interpretation given it by Emile Durkheim. The first important stages of the synthesis were undertaken by Professor Talcott Parsons nearly twenty-five years ago, and the work has gone forward since then. It has drawn not only on political philosophy and economtative. Its results are
ics,
still
but also on experimental
psychology,
psychoanalysis, social
and economic history. anthropology, comparative religion, and man as a biological enfor place find a to The theory of action tries acquisition of knowthe power in his for potentialities, tity with plastic social
LAW
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND ledge, for his
need for moral judgment, and for aesthetic expression.
attempts to confront the fact that society is not simply an outgrowth of man's nature but is also a product of man's nature operating in an It
environment of other human beings and of physical resources and conwhat arises necessarily from the fact that human action takes place in the context of a system of actions and that this system has its own inherent properties which are not simply derivable from the properties of man as such. ditions. It tries to discern
The exigencies of the
social situation give rise to certain
phenomena
such as authority, organization, and stratification. Man's fundamental moral, cognitive, and expressive needs generate a culture which imposes itself on these phenomena, and they, in their turn, give problems to the culture.
Even though the properties of man remain fundamentally the same through time and in space, and even though every social system has certain common properties, it is necessary to acknowledge also that societies and cultures differ among themselves in the course of history and over the earth's surface. The theory of action must not only be adequate to the basic properties of individual action; it must also be equal to the comprehension and explanation of the diverse forms taken by human society. It is obvious that this program is still in its beginning stages.
The
historical sources of this
direction
mented
new
which the new synthesis in
a large
compendium
is
and the expounded and docu-
theoretical enterprise,
taking, are
entitled
Foundations of Modern
Sociological Theory (1961), edited by Professor Parsons, the present author, and several younger collaborators. This work is intended to
by reproducelements from which it has
disclose the present state of the theory and to exemplify, tion of the
main
texts, the intellectual
grown.
The emerging theory will be more scientific than the ancient and modern political philosophies in the sense that the data on which it is based are more rigorously gathered and more systematically analyzed. The logical structure of the emerging theory will also be closer to the structure of the scientific theories of today. This does not mean, however, that the great
books of the past have now outHved
their useful-
ness.
The
great value of these books does not
scientifically valid theories. It
lie in
their presentation of
Hes rather in their discovery of the most
fundamental problems, and the most fundamental concepts for the analysis of these problems. As long as man remains what he has been, a creature of reason and passion, with a moral conscience, with biological impulses and aesthetic capacities, and as long as man is doomed to die and nature is niggardly, the fundamental concepts which were discovered in Western antiquity will retain their crucial relevance. Contemporary and future social science can improve them, refine them, deepen them, and revise them, but it cannot discard them. 284
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NOTE TO THE READER central issues and Many of thephilosophy are touched upon
the treatment of national, racial,
in social
and
political
in
this
review
of recent developments.
Readers interested
much
religious minorities
The
clash of economic interests
and
political factions: the class
war
valuable mate-
the Syntopicon and in the selections
included in Great Books of the Western World. For a general introduction, the
reader
(2)
in further discussion of
these issues will find rial in
5d
should consult the
essay
in
For
Syntopicon chapter on State.
the dis-
cussions of specific issues, the essays and
below
topics listed
be most
will
For discussion of the entry of the masses into public
la.
World
lb.
Lawless mob-rule: the tyranny of
The incompetence of
Books of
cracy
under the following topics:
3^.
Comparison of of the
of
people
the
and the need for leadership: the superiority of monarchy and aristo-
cited in the Syntopicon
Constitution preservation 7. The
cited
the majority
For discussion of the factors contribut-
the Western
see the Syntopicon essay
Democracy
helpful.
ing to stability or instability in the social
order, see the passages in Great
life,
on Aristocracy, and the passages under the following topics:
constitutions:
the political
many and
wisdom
the few: the
mixed
regime as including both
factors tending toward their dissolution la.
The
relative
stability
of different
types of constitutions
Revolution 3c. The causes and
Art effects of revolu-
under different forms of government
tion
State 3/?
(1)
Man
as
by nature a
animal: the
Love
human need for civil bond of men
and patriotism Fear and dependence as the cause of social cohesion: protection and security
5 J (1)
The opposition
The sources of
experience, im-
in
art
agination, and inspiration
For discussion of the
role of the intellec-
community
his participation or
tual in
life,
alienation, see the passages cited
and justice as the
in states: friendship
3/
5.
political
society 3e.
For discussion of the nature of creativity, see the passages cited under
of social groups:
under the
following topics:
Philosophy 6d. The philosopher
as a man of theory or vision: neglect of the practical: withdrawal from the affairs of men
and the marketplace !87
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND State Sd
The
(3)
LAW cumstances: conditions favorable to democracy; progress toward
role or function of experts
democracy
the service of the state
in
State For discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of diversity of opinion, see the essay on Opinion, and the passages cited
3a.
3d.
Truth covering the truth: freedom thought and discussion
of
For discussion of the changing function of the family, see the essay on Family, and the passages cited under the following topics:
society or the state: universal
For discussion of economic growth and value as an end of society, see the essay on Wealth, and the passages cited under the following topics:
Progress 3a. The
increase of opulence: the of labor as a factor in progress
division
Wealth 9a.
Family 1. The
8.
social contract as the origin of
its
8^. Civil liberty as a condition for dis-
2c.
The civil
consent as the basis of the constitution or government of the state
Opinion Advantages and disadvantages of freedom of discussion
of the state from
other communities
under the following topics:
5b.
The development
nature and necessity of the family
Wealth as an element cal common good
in the politi-
9b. Factors determining the prosperity
The
place and rights of the family in the state: the control and education of children
or opulence of states: fluctuations in national prosperity 9d.
Historical observations on the institution of marriage and the family
Government
regulation of produc-
tion, trade, or other aspects of eco-
nomic lOa.
For discussion of the importance of tradition, see the passages cited under the fol-
life
The nature
of wealth as a good: place in the order of goods and
its
its
relation to happiness
lowing topics:
Custom and Convention
It
Custom as unifying a community Custom in relation to order and pro7a.
8.
gress:
the factors of tradition and in-
vention class structure of
society, see the passages cited
6
under
State
Herodotus, The History Thucydides, The History^ of the Pelo-
ponnesian War Plato, The Republic, Statesman, Laws Politics, The Athenian 9 Aristotle, 1
The
classes or sub-groups arising
from the division of labor or
dis-
Constitution
tinctions of birth: the social hier-
14
archy
Numa PomMarcus Cato, Pompey, Alexander, Caesar, DemosPlutarch,
pilius,
For discussion of the in organizing a
the
passages
new
cited
difficulties
involved
under the following
15 Tacitus,
20
Democracy The
suitability of
stitutions to all
288
democratic con-
men under
all cir-
Lycurgus,
Solon, Pericles,
thenes, Cicero
political society, see
topics:
4d.
reader to be reminded of
these are:
For discussion of the
5c.
may help the many works
of social and political philosophy included in Great Books of the Western World. The most important of
the
23
The Annals, The Histories
Thomas Aquinas, "Treatise on Law" in Summa Theologica NicoLO
Machiavelli.
Thomas Hobbes.
The
Leviathan
Prince
Edward A 32 35
John Milton, Areopagitica John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, Concerning Civil Govern-
ment 38 Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws Jean Jacques Rousseau, On the Origin
of
Inequality,
On
Political
and for
tions their
Declaration
of
Independence
The Constitution of the U.S. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, The Federalist J. S. Mill, On Liberty, Representative Government, Utilitarianism 46 Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, The Philosophy of History
the Analysis of the Ego, Thoughts the Times on War and Death,
Civilization
Right
The
Shils
50 Karl Marx, Capital Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party 54 Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology
Economy, The Social Contract Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Immanuel Kant, The Science of
Articles of Confederation
.
and Its Discontents
For a general introduction political
to social
and
philosophy, the following selec-
particularly recommended for brevity and their concise treat-
are
ment of the central issues: Plato, The Republic, Books and II Aristotle, Politics, Book Machiavelli, The Prince HoBBES, Leviathan, Chapters 13-21 and 29 Locke. Concerning Civil Government Rousseau. On Political Economy Mill, On Liberty I
I
Marx-Engels, Manifesto of munist Party
!89
the
Com-
GILBERT CANT 1949. 1
940.
has been the Medicine Editor of Time magazine since
He was born and educated He has worked for several
a war correspondent for the
New
in
England, and became a U.
British
S. citizen in
and American newspapers and was
York Post.
He
joined the staff of Time in
1944. Author of three books on naval history, he has also written several Public Affairs pamphlets on medicine, and has appeared frequently on evision, notably
290
on NBC's Today.
tel-
Biological sciences and medicine GILBERT CANT
By the agency of man, a new aspect of things, a new comes into view.
universe,
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
four-hundredth anniversary of the TheBaron
birth of Sir Francis Bacon, Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, was little noted though his name will be long remembered. Under the joint sponsorship of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Philosophical Society, commemoration exercises were held at which the Provost of the University, Loren C. Eiseley, delivered the principal elegiac address. To eulogize Bacon is no easy task. The biographical introduction to his selected works in Volume 30 of Great Books of the Western World recognizes his intellectual greatness, but it is weighted heavily by concern for his ethical shortcomings. Such an ambivalence, suggested Eiseley, has been characteristic of every age since Bacon's. Perhaps because he left his name — in his own phrase — for the "next ages" to judge, each succeeding age has felt itself obliged to sit in judgment upon him. In Eiseley's post-Freudian view, each age, in so doing, is judging itself and projecting upon the memory of Bacon its own fears, its own hatreds, and its own failures of understanding. Although the importance of Bacon's role in laying the groundwork for the establishment of the Royal Society (which celebrated its tercentenary in 1 960) may be disputed, as his own claims to be considered a serious scientist are emphatically disputed, there is no denying that in his writings there is to be found a prophetic outline of virtually all that modern science has set out to do and is already achieving in part. For his posterity, the most important single element of Bacon's philosophy is a basic attitude of mind. Despite his own religious, legal, and philosophical training, he was able to cut loose from traditional anchors and to sail boldly toward a New Atlantis of the mind. To do so, he was obliged to go directly counter to the prevailing attitude towards the natural world, or as Bacon put it: is not to be narrowed till it will go into the understanding (which has been done hitherto), but the understanding to be expanded Then, and only and opened till it can take in the image of the world.
The world
.
.
.
291
^
BIOIOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE we no longer be kept dancing within little rings, like persons bewitched, but our range and circuit will be as wide as the compass of the then, shall
world. ^
To break
out of the
"little
many
rings" in which so
poraries were content to remain.
Bacon
great circles of scientific investigation
laid out for
— some
of his contem-
himself a series of
of them so remote from
the generally accepted understanding of his time that he had to present them as part of a Utopia. In the closing pages of New Atlantis, he
Francis Bacon
sketched most of the lines along which modern biochemical, biological, medical, surgical, and pharmacological research has been directed, with appropriate attention to horticulture and animal husbandry. His
we
reference to "chambers of health, where
qualify the air as
we
think
good and proper for the cure of divers diseases, and preservation of health," might well be invoked by the champions of air-conditioning. Not yet generally accepted but under intensive study is the concept that health and a feeling of well-being depend largely upon the ionization of the air: there is some evidence that most people feel more energetic and pay less attention to minor ills if they inhale an atmosphere which is strongly charged with negative ions. It may also be are in such as suggested that Bacon's description of "drinks effect meat and drink both" is a foretaste of formula diets which have recently become popular and widely publicized items in the United exquisite distillations and States. His reference to "fermentation forms of composition, whereby they incorporate alseparations most as they were natural simples," describes the manufacture of antibiotics and the synthetic analogues of natural substances such as hor.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
mones.
The new universe which Bacon strove so greatly to bring about includes not only the outer universe of space and galaxies, but equally and no less momentously, the inner universes of man (his body, his mind, and his soul), of all living things, and of the essence of life itself.
In the year under review,
man
has
made remarkable
progress in the
much proThe trend of discovery, plotted on paper, is an exponential curve. More than half of all the research scientists who have ever lived and worked on earth are living and working now. One scientist, with more humor than many of his colleagues, suggests that
biological sciences. In a way,
it is
not remarkable that so
gress has been achieved.
since researchers are increasing in
numbers at a faster rate than the more research scientists than
general population, there will soon be there are people on earth.
A
fortunate though coincidental aspect of
much
recent work in the
has effected a confluence of several hitherto discrete currents in speculative investigation. The merger process begins with the nucleic acids (ribonucleic acid or RNA, and deoxyrib-
biological sciences
1
2
is
that
it
Parasceve, Aph. 4 in Works {Boslon: 1863), Vol. See Vol. 30, pp. 21 lc-212c.
292
8, pp.
361-363.
Gilbert
Cant
onucleic acid or DNA), so named because they are found in the nuclei of all living cells, and determine their growth and reproduction. They
key elements in the study of genetics and of heredlower organisms and in man himself. Similarly, the nucleic acids are found to be essentially the same as the cores of viare, therefore, the
itary defects in
ruses and, therefore, intimately associated with the infectivity of these particles — and with a host of diseases. There is also a growing belief that cancer in the human, as well as in many subhuman species, is caused in some manner by viruses or virus-like particles. In this way, the chain of sciences beginning with biochemistry and linking genetics and immunology approaches an end point at which it may explain the origin and eventually supply effective treatment for one of the most devastating groups of human diseases. Dr. Warren Weaver, formerly of the Rockefeller Foundation, spoke during the year of the "vanishing of intellectual boundaries ... between chemistry and physics." He noted: "At superficial levels of application — the cookery level of chemistry and the hardware level of physics — one can still tell the two subjects apart. But fundamentally they have now become one." Dr. Frank Horsfall, who became director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in 1960, carried this analogy a step farther and suggested that the physical and biological sciences have now met on common ground in the nucleic acids. These master fractions of all living things have molecular weights running into the millions. They are, therefore, far more complex than anything that the physical scientists, whose view of the universe has been scaled to the atom, have hitherto dealt with. At the same time, biological scientists have worked downward in the size of the components with which they deal, from elephants and man, through smaller organisms such as the protozoan parasites and the bacteria, to viruses of which the infective portion is a nucleic acid molecule. Thus, says Dr. Horsfall, it is now possible to speak of "infective molecules" -something which would have been inconceivable only a decade ago. At the same time, the concept of what is life has had to be modified. For almost half a century there has been debate as to whether a virus could be considered a living particle, since it could not reproduce except by invading a more highly organized cell, and since some viruses could be extracted in chemically pure form and crystallized. It was, therefore, reasonable to argue that viruses were essentially chemical particles and belonged not to the animal but to the mineral kingdom. Dr. Wendell Stanley of the University of California, one of the world's outstanding virologists, applies a rough and ready rule: he reasons that
capable of making copies of itself ("self-replication"), an inescapable mark of life and admits the particle to the animal or vegetable kingdom. if
a particle
that ability
is
is
Dr. George W. Beadle, who recently left the California Institute of Technology to assume the chancellorship of the University of Chicago, submits that there is an unbroken spectrum from the smallest and 293
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE atom to the most highly organized and complex of mammalian Hydrogen atoms, under the influence of some forms of radiation, combine to create more complex atoms. To Dr. Beadle, this is essentially the same process as mutation in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Above the atomic level, the mutations are more clearly identifiable and more obviously entitled to be so designated: atoms combine to form molecules which can readily be modified to form other molecules. As they combine, for example, in the case of the amino acids, they create more complex macromolecules such as proteins. simplest species.
Other relatively small molecules combine, by a different system, to form the giant molecules of the nucleic acids. Some nucleic acid (DNA) molecules are as yet indistinguishable from the units of heredity that we customarily call "genes" and may prove to be identical with them.
There
is
no question
that the
gene
the basis of evolution. That there
is
is
mutable, for
its
mutations are
a continuous subspectrum from
one-celled animals up to the most complex of higher organisms has long been recognized. Therefore, Dr. Beadle contends that there is no single point at which a line may be drawn horizontally, through the ascending order from the simplest atom to atom-destroying men, at which it can be said: "Below this line there is non-life and above this line there
delighted
is
life."
some of
The
classic simplicity of this concept
the ancient
Greek philosophers, but
it
would have would have
been disputed by others.^
BASIC BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH Viruses
Virus sist
particles
have been likened
to golf balls
because they con-
of a tight core of nucleic acid, with a shell or "overcoat" of
protein. The core may consist of either ribonucleic acid (RNA) or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). A tremendous amount of ingenious effort
has been devoted to ascertaining the detailed structure of the
DNA
molecule, in the hope of learning how this relatively huge but submicroscopic particle is able to dictate not only its own reproduction, but that of all the organisms in whose cell nuclei it occurs. The molecule is in the form of most widely accepted view is that the a double helix, with each of the two intertwined helices containing the sugar and phosphate portions, while the four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) are arranged in horizontal bars like the rungs still
DNA
3
Plato and Aristotle made a clear philosophical distinction between living and non-living things: only the former move themselves. See Plato, Laws, Vol. 7, p. 763b-c; Aristotle, Physics, Vol. 8, pp. 339b-d, 345b, and On the Soul, Vol. 8, p. 641a-b. Aristotle, however, noted that it is very difficult to say whether certain things are lifeless or living: "Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie" {Histor\ ofAnimals, Vol. 9, p.
294
114d).
Gilbert
Cant
of a ladder, joining the helices (see drawing). Complex as it is, this hypothetical structure has been useful to researchers because it fits
many observed phenomena which could
Now
not be otherwise explained. Dr. Robert L. Sinsheimer at the California Institute of Tech-
nology has shown that there is at least one exception to the doublehelix structure in DNA. This is in the core of the smallest virus so far detected, named ''0X 174" and found as a parasite of the common colon bacteria Escherichia coli. Visualized by the electron microscope, molecule is found to consist of only a single helix. Further this details of its structure remain a mystery.
DNA
is important because of its bearing on the mechanism by molecules are able to make copies of themselves. From the postulation of a double-helix structure, it was reasonable to suppose that in reproduction each helical strand made a mirror image of itself. The usual analogy is to represent the molecule as having two
The
which
subject
DNA
By some chemical magic still not even guessed at, the right the manufacture of a new left hand, while the original commands hand left hand directs the manufacture of a new right hand. Presumably, the "ribs" comprising the four bases could also make copies of themselves. This hypothesis may still be proved correct for double-helix molecules,
hands.
^
Model of a
DNA
acid) molecule,
(deoxyribonucleic
left.
A proposed structure of DNA, beUm-
SUGAR-PHOSPHATE STRANDS
AAdenme GGuanme C-Cytosine
TThymine
295
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
DNA. But the discovery of 174 requires a new theory to explain its self-duplication. The original theory may have to be further modified in the light of research which indicates that some molecules may consist of more than two strands. which may be the commonest form of
DNA
single-strand
in
0X
DNA
The most remarkable probing into was reported from Dr.
the intimate substructure of a
Stanley's laboratory, and concerned the tobacco mosaic virus. This has long been a favorite of researchers and is known for short as TMV. It is a relatively small and also relatively simple virus, with a nucleus of RNA. It attacks the leaves of tobacco plants, causing a disease in which the leaves are marked in a mosaic pattern. was already noteworthy because it was the first virus to be crystallized. Stanley's group had previously determined that the protein overcoat of consisted of a great number of units of a single protein, each unit of which comprised no fewer than 158 amino acids in a chain. Early in 1960, these researchers showed that when they treated the virus with chemicals and altered a single amino acid — it happened to be No. 157 in the chain — this resulted in the creation of a virus with distinctly different infective powers, but with its ability to replicate itself unchanged. The next question was how the 158 amino acids are arranged in the protein chain, and how many such chains or blocks there are in the virus's overcoat. The detailed structure of proteins had previously been determined only for insulin, which contains 5 1 amino acid units, and the enzyme ribonuclease, with 124 units. An incomplete analysis of the 158 amino acids in had been proposed by researchers working in Tubingen. In 1960, Stanley's group established that each particle's overcoat contains about 2,200 molecules of its distinctive protein. Each of these, in turn, was calculated to have a molecular weight of about 1,800, giving a molecular weight for the entire overcoat of almost 40,000,000. By using exquisitely delicate techniques to break down the protein with enzymes, the Stanley group determined the order of the 158 amino acids and identified them all. Their findings require some modification of the proposals made by the Tubingen group, but do not inliving particle
TMV
TMV
TMV
TMV
dicate that the
German work was
points out,
possible that the two laboratories were working with
it
is
slightly different strains or
the
first
virus to have
its
necessarily incorrect.
"breeds" of the virus.
As
Stanley
TMV thus becomes
protein structure determined in detail.
Genetics and heredity
Abbe Mendel's work was belatedly recoghad been assumed that all hereditary information was transmitted by the "units of heredity" or, as they are more familiarly
Since
the importance of
nized,
it
known, "genes." From should be "genetic,"
296
this,
i.e.,
it
followed that
all
hereditary information
gene-determined. This evidently
is
an over-
Gilbert
simplification.
animal
The
fact that there are other hereditary
from the chromosomes and
cells, distinct
virtually
demands a
their
Cant
mechanisms
DNA
in
content,
revision of terminology: "genetic" cannot be con-
synonomous with "hereditary." The existence and importance of non-genetic information mechanisms have been emphasized and to some degree explained by Dr. Winston Salser of the University of Chicago. The discovery of a type sidered as necessarily
of cell inheritance controlled by the structural organization of the cell itself, regardless of the genes in the chromosomes of its nucleus, was re-
ported by Dr. Tracy
M. Sonneborn of Indiana
He showed Paramecium
University.
that radically differing types of the one-celled animal
reproduced themselves true to type in his laboratory, and their progeny established different lines of heredity, despite the fact that they had identical genes. The additional factors influencing heredity are independent not only of the genes, but of the cytoplasm, the jelly-like mass of the cell surrounding the gene-carrying nucleus. Sonneborn and his colleagues had previously shown that there were factors controlling heredity in the cytoplasm, and called them "partners of the genes." The most recent work indicates that factors of a third type reside in the cell. The role of these non-genetic mechanisms of heredity is at present as obscure as was that of the genes themselves for more than half a century. However, much detailed information has been found as to how genes work, and what inborn defects in human infants can be directly attributed to gene abnormalities. The breakthrough came in 1958 when Dr. Jerome J. L. M. Lejeune of Paris showed that a 47th chromosome was
cortex (outer layer) of the
commonly known as monupon the reluctant recognition
present in victims of the congenital defect golian idiocy. This followed so quickly that
man
normally has 46 chromiosomes, instead of 48 as had long that Lejeune's findings were received skeptically at
been assumed, first.
Within two years these findings were reproduced and confirmed in other laboratories, and they were quickly extended to at least a dozen genetic defects other than mongolism. As the result of agreement reached at a conference in Denver in 1959, there is now an international,
uniform system of numbering the human chromosomes
in
pairs
up to No. 22. Mongolism is associated with the tripling of chromosome No. 2 1 Other abnormalities, some of which result in stillbirths or death soon after birth, have been traced to the presence of additional chromosomes numbered 13 through 17, and to defective chromosomes (of which certain parts are missing). Perhaps the most interesting are the .
"intersex" abnormalities resulting from the presence of an additional chromosome. (The two sex chromosomes are not numbered.) A or superfluous X (female) chromosome in a genetic male (normally XY)
X
Y
gives the
XXY combination, which results in an infant whose basically may be obscured by marked feminization of physredundant X in a genetic female gives the combina-
male characteristics ical structures.
A
297
45
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE tion
XXX,
or "superfemale." There
is
also a "double male," with an
XYXY pattern. and
identified
in the
The
The chromosomal anomalies which had been explored by March of 1961 are shown in the accompanying table
order of their discovery. last
item in the table
especially interesting because
is
it
covers
certain forms of leukemia (surprisingly, not the acute leukemia of child-
hood). The aberration detected here is not an additional chromosome, but rather a defective one which may lack one or several of its normal complement of genes. Lejeune has shown that this is associated with a metabolic defect of mongoloid children who are especially subject to
leukemia.
They excrete abnormal amounts of
three biochemical sub-
stances involved in a metabolic chain reaction involving serotonin,
which has been called a "brain hormone." Serotonin is beheved to play an important though as yet undefined role in brain function. Lejeune suggests that mongoloid infants are affected adversely by a low serotonin content in the brain.
Disorders Identified with Chromosomal Aberrations Disorder
Chromosomal Anomaly
Mongolism
One extra #21 chromosome (trisomy)
Clinical
Flattened skull, oblique
eye Klinefelter
One
Syndrome
in
Turner's
One
extra
X chromosome, resulting
XXY pattern
idiocy effects,
sometimes
impaired intelligence
X chromosome missing (XO)
Immature female sexual development
Translocation — fusion of #22 to
#
1
3,
Lesions of the vertebrae,
with some loss of genetic material
borderline intelligence
Same
Exceptional
Extra #21 chromosome, with trans-
Mongolism
location of one to
Unnamed
One
as yet
slit,
Feminizing
Syndrome Polydyspondilism
Symptoms
extra
#
1
7
#
1
3
#
or
as other
chromosome
Multiple malformations;
always
#
#
Trisomy of Patau
Trisomy of either
Superfemale
Trisomy of X chromosome (XXX)
Hypofemale
Part of one
1
3
or
mongols
1
fatal
Anophthalmia, always fatal
1
X chromosome missing
cleft palate;
Impaired intelligence
Female with somewhat masculine appearance
(Partial)
XXXY pattern
Hyperklinefelter
Same
Syndrome
as Klinefelter syn-
drome, with primary amentia
Double Male
XYXY pattern
Malformed
Chromosomal Mosaic
Mixed populations of cells such
True hermaphrodites
as
XY/XO or XXY/XX
Leukemia (chronic
Abnormal autosome
granulocytic and
loss of portion of #2
chromosome
chronic myeloid)
©
1961 Medical World
298
genitalia
resulting 1
or
#22
from
Progressive anemia, internal
hemorrhage and other symptoms of leukemia
News (adapted and reproduced by permission)
Cant
Gilbert
There is evidence from earlier work with the fruit fly Drosophila to suggest that defects of this type, resulting from the lack of certain genetic material,
may be
preparation of
DNA
correctible.
or "digested"
The treatment would
DNA
involve the
containing normal genetic
and the injection of this material into the defective child to left by nature's oversight. Such treatment probably would have to be initiated promptly after birth, because the brain damage may occur within the first few days of life, and prove irreversible unless material,
the gap
fill
counteracted immediately. In a few cases, extraordinarily high chromosome counts have been reported as the result of the failure of chromosomes to divide ("non-
one individual, every chromosome pair had divided abnormally, leaving an additional chromosome for each pair, for a total of 69 chromosomes. In a recent report from Roswell Park Memorial disjunction"). In
Institute in Buffalo, a leukemic child was found to have no fewer than 87 chromosomes — the greatest number yet recorded in a human
being.
Somewhat comparable changes in the genes within chromosomes now postulated to explain the sickle-cell anemia and possibly other
are
blood abnormalities found in Africa and around the Mediterranean. The hemoglobin of "sickling" victims has been found to have the amino acid valine as a substitute for the glutamic acid of normal hemoglobin. This is the end result of a long biochemical process. To explain it, researchers have worked both backward and forward, and suggested how an abnormality in the genetic material, perhaps within a molecule, may operate through a series of complicated steps to pro-
DNA
duce the anemia. The but the hypothesis
is
series of steps as postulated
nevertheless important.
It
may
not be correct,
represents the
first
plausible attempt to show, at this intimate biochemical level, the devel-
opment of a conspicuous abnormality. All mutations are not necessarily harmful, and all chromosomal abnormalities need not hinder the bearer in the struggle for survival, as is shown by the fact that victims of sickle-cell anemia enjoy an unusu-
degree of resistance to malaria. This explains, superficially, their survival in such large numbers that they make up a majority of the population in the most malarial regions of western tropical Africa. So far, there is not a more fundamental explanation of how the defective hemoglobin affords this protection against malaria, unless it is by ally high
medium for the parasites. may produce mutations in the genetic
the simple lack of a suitable
Among
agents that
material
of the chromosome, radiation continues to receive major attention from investigators as well as moralists because of concern over fallout from explosions of atom bombs of various types. The role of radiation was described by Dr. H. J. Muller of Indiana University as 'Mike that of a
shop -if it displaces or breaks one plate, that corresponds to a gene mutation -but if it knocks over a whole shelf, that is equivalent to an abnormality involving an entire chromosome.'^ In
bull in a china
299
Professor H.
J.
Midler,
Nobel Prize-winning geneticist,
with students
Muller's view, whole-chromosome abnormaHties are not likely to persist for more than one generation because the bearers of these defects
do not usually reproduce. (Though an occasional exception in a childbearing mongoloid has been reported.) So only the small-scale mutations, involving abnormalities at the gene level, are likely to be transmitted to future generations, as in sickle-cell anemia. Despite the concern resulting from the dangers of atomic weapons, appears that so far the bulk of the radiation damage in the l^uman species can be traced to X-rays used by physicians. It is too soon to tell how much of this damage consists of gene mutations which may be reflected in future generations. There were notorious cases of the it
misuse of radiation in the 1920's and 1930's by both reputable physicians and outright quacks. At that time, radium preparations were available for prescription and sale with a few or no legal restrictions. Much greater numbers of patients were involved in the later series of medical fads and fashions, when it became customary to use X-rays for such simple and benign conditions as acne and enlargement of the thymus gland in the newborn. Disturbing evidence reported in the year under review suggests that these treatments of a generation ago are being followed by a markedly increased incidence of cancer in patients. Cancer reflects a mutation in somatic (the body's ordinary) ceUs; since radiation was used so haphazardly, it seems unlikely that the specialized genetic cells could have escaped damage in many patients. But there has been favorable news about the X-ray examination of pregnant women. Reports from England in 1957 had suggested that the offspring of women so examined had a higher than average incidence of leukemia. This is not so, according to a more comprehensive British study reported in 1 960. 300
Gilbert
Cant
ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY The
origins of man
One of
the most perplexing problems
earliest
man
arises
from the
in
fact that
determining which
"man"
is
the
almost as difficult to define as is "life." Most paleoanthropologists have concentrated on anatomical features. Dr. L. S. B. Leakey, curator of the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi, belongs to the school which holds that a more reliable
and
what modern man should be willuse of tools that he him-
significant diagnostic feature of
man is the consistent manufactured^ (Many anthropoids and
ing to recognize as early
self
is
modern
the
great apes
have used available ready-made tools such as pointed sticks and sharp stones.) In the Olduvai Gorge, at the southern end of the Great Rift Valley in Tanganyika, on the shore of a prehistoric lake, Leakey has found artifacts which convince him that deliberate tool-making had taken place there, and that the toolmakers must have been close enough to Homo sapiens to be considered "human." Not until 1960 did Leakey report in the National Geographic Magazine, which has supported his work, that a year earlier his wife and co-operator, Mary, had found the skull of what he believes to be the earliest known man. Mrs. Leakey's find consisted at first of the palate of a young male. The palate had been cleft down the center line, but it retained its teeth. These are remarkable for the small incisors and canines, used for biting and tearing, and for the extremely large molars, which are used for chewing. From these dimensions, and from the fact that many artifacts were found in association with skull fragments, Leakey deduced that the owner of the palate and his kin relied upon tools to skin and dismember the small game which is shown by accompanying remains to have been part of their diet. The large molars would be suitable for the original and primarily vegetarian diet. Virtually all the fragments of the same individual's skull were found close to the fractured palate during painstaking work, with a camel's hair brush and dental picks, extending over 19 days. The lower jaw, which might be even more revealing, has not been found. The brain pan of this early man or manlike creature is approximately half the size of modern man's, and the forehead must have shown about the same slope as that o( the modern gorillas. However, Olduvai man evidently walked erect more con-
do the gorillas. Leakey has named his find Zinjanthropus from the ancient Arabic word Zinj for Africa, and has given it the specific name hoisci, in honor of one of the financial backers of his explorations. sistently than
The difficulty in of human ancestry
evaluating the place
o'i
Zinjanthropus
in
the scale
from the manner in which l,eakey has conunder his own auspices and those of his investigations centrated the human remains would eventually be oldest the that Certain backers. results
4 Cf. Aristotle, Parts of Animals, Vol. pp. 295C-296C.
4. pp. 2
I
Sc
2
I
^>c; iirul
Daiu
in. /
//.
Oisanl of Man.
30!
\
ol.
4^.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
Dr. L. S. B. Leakey
measures
skull
o/Zinjanthropus, which he claims is the world's oldest
At
human.
the left
is
the skull
of a chimpanzee £ National Geographic Magazine
found
in Africa,
he was convinced by 1931 that they would be
lo-
cated at Olduvai. His subsequent finds there serve somewhat too aptly to fulfill his own prophecies. It is also remarkable that they are associated with what he insists
is
a
museum
historic pig as large as a rhinoceros, a at the
of ancient giants: a presheep that stood six feet high
shoulders, a short-necked but heavily-an tiered giraffe, a ba-
boon which he believes to have been the biggest of all primates, and an ostrich which appears to have dwarfed the extinct moa of New Zealand. Despite Leakey's enthusiasm for the
human
qualities of
Zinjanthropus, the creature had a sagittal ridge along the top of skull,
somewhat
like that of the
modern
gorilla,
its
although less promi-
nent.
No
less important than the
lutionary scale
is its
dating.
radioactive carbon- 14 years.
From
is
placement of Zinjanthropus
The
in the
evo-
dating of archaeological finds with
not accurate for more than about 50,000 number of geological as-
the associated fauna and a
sumptions, Leakey makes Zinjanthropus about 600,000 years old. This is somewhat older than the generally accepted ages for Java man {Pithecanthropus) and Peking man (Sinanthropus). It is somewhat younger than the Transvaal hominids, Australopithecus and Paranthropus, which are believed to have lived about 750,000 years ago, and very much later than the ape-like Proconsul, found in 1948 by Leakey and believed by him to be 25,000,000 years old. In the next digging season, Leakey found the fossil remains of part bones, fragments of a skull, some teeth, two and two ribs, at a site close to that of Zinjanthropus. If these remains also prove to represent Zinjanthropus, they should shed considerably more light on the species' relationship with other forms of the
left foot, six finger
collar bones,
302
Gilbert
man
of early
or pre-man, because the structure of the hand
is
Cant
closely
related to the stage of brain evolution.
Since modern
man is so addicted own genealogical
ancestor-worship and to childmost popular interest in anthropology is centered on the findings of early human forms which may be assumed to be in the direct line of descent of Homo sapiens. It ishly climbing his
to
tree,
is still far too early to judge whether Nutcracker man, as Zinjanthropus has been nicknamed, will eventually be accorded a place in this line of
descent. It
is
now
generally conceded that Neanderthal
man
is
not
in the
direct line, but that the species stands in the relationship of a cousin,
which was exterminated (probably during a cannibalistic era) by Aurignacian forms of Homo sapiens. Nevertheless, considerable interest persists in the study of Neanderthal forms, which have been found distributed over an area extending at least as far east as Iraq. In diggings at the Shanidar Caves, three virtually complete skeletons of
Neanderthal forms were unearthed by Dr. Ralph Solecki. From estimates of the temperature changes occurring in the recent geological epoch, the Pleistocene, Drs. John Rosholt and Cesare Emiliani have computed that the last interval between ice ages recorded its highest mean temperatures about 95,000 years ago. The oldest skull now generally accepted as attributable to Homo sapiens was deposited at approximately this time. The earliest man on whose identity there is substantial agreement has hitherto been estimated as anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 years old. The latest 95,000-year estimate strikes a happy medium.
The beginnings of civilization "n
r
became
civilized. Dr. Paul
tutes of Health has turned to the
Squirrel
monkeys
man (of whatever genus and MacLean of the National Instisquirrel monkey {Saimiri sciurea) for
elucidating the processes by which
species)
MacLean kept two female and four male squirrel monkeys same cage and found, as expected, that one male quickly came
clues.
in
the
to
dominate the entire group, while the other males had a descending status order corresponding to the "pecking order" in chickens. More surprising was the finding that when the dominant male made an aggressive sexual display, this might be either for the purpose of courting
one of the females and inducing her to copulate, or simply to intimidate one of the males lower down in the group's social structure. Male No. 2 used this aggressive sexual display only to intimidate the two males below him in the structure, and male No. 3, only to establish his superiority over male No. 4. It has long been known that display of male genitalia, especially during arousal, has a disturbing effect on human societies -even those
which customarily go almost entirely naked. The findings in squirrel monkeys, combined with observations of human societies, lead to the 303
lOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE hypothesis that concealment of the male genitalia is one of the most important preconditions to the process we call civilization. As long as display by one male was commonplace and certain to evoke anger and hostility in other males, it would be difficult for human social units to grow beyond the single family with one dominant male, one or more mates, and their subadult offspring.
The vast literature, notably the contributions by Sir James Frazer and Sigmund Freud and his followers, on the "primal horde" and on the killing of the aged tribal leader in order to replace him with a younger man, all testify to the survival down to our own day of what may be an archetypal or racial memory of the primitive conditions which have been studied in connection with the monkeys.^ If further investigation shows that it is reasonable to extrapolate from MacLean's findings with squirrel monkeys to Homo sapiens, it will appear that the breechclout is one of the most important factors — if not the most important single element — permitting the civilizing process to develop. It would be difficult for a species in which sexuality is evident the year around, instead of being associated with estrus cycles, to develop an organization involving units larger than the family, without
upon the
hostility
some such brake
and aggression which would be provoked by the
display of sexual arousal. It is
certain that in other
subhuman primates, aggression and
Among baboons
sex-
each subtribal group, a dominant male who makes his own law in regard to both sex and aggression and who will brook no competition from other males. On the other hand, among the howler monkeys of the g^mx^ Alouatta of South America, a more "civilized" tribal structure has developed, but only, it appears, through the suppression of much hostility and aggressiveness, and therefore of overt sexuality.^ uality are closely related.
there
is,
in
New theories concerning ''mind" questions of what "mind" and how related matter Thehave agitated philosophers since the time of the ancient Greeks."^ is
In recent years including
it
to
is
it
has been generally accepted that mental processes,
memory and
reasoning, are largely dependent
upon the
trans-
mission of electrical impulses to the central nervous system — principally the brain — which has been likened to a telephone exchange. This ,
analogy has failed to explain how the nervous system can react to these electrical impulses and store the memory of them. At a meeting in San Francisco in 1960, a Swedish neurophysiologist. Dr. Holger Hyden, reported on some exquisitely delicate experiments 5
See Descent of Man, Vol. 49, the Ego, Vol. 54, pp. 686c-689b.
p.
581a-b; and Freud,
Group Psychology and
the Analysis of
6 Cf. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Vol. 54, pp. 781c-789b. See, for example, Aristotle, On the Soul, Vol. 8, pp. 661b-662d; Descartes, Rules, Vol. 31, p. 20a-b, Discourse on Method, Vol. 31, pp. 51d-52a, Meditations, Vol. 31, pp. 77c-81d, 10 Id- 102a; and William James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. 53, pp. 95a- 107b, 6a9b.
7
1
304
1
1
1
Gilbert
Cant
with single neurones which offer at least a brilliantly original working hypothesis as to the biochemical — or, more precisely, electrochemi-
cal—processes of the mind. Hyden and his colleagues separated neurones from their adherent glial or "gluey" cells. They found that when neurones had been stimulated (in monkeys spun on a centrifuge), they showed an increased output of ribonucleic acid (RNA). The glial cells showed a corresponding drop, indicating that they had furnished this
RNA
to
meet the neurones' requirements.
The Hyden
thesis
is
that the neurones need this
RNA
as a source
of energy to generate electric currents to originate or transmit nerve
Hyden suggested, the stimulus may change the arrangement of
impulses. In the higher brain functions, arrives as an electrical impulse and
the bases or other submolecular components on the backbone of an
RNA
molecule. This altered molecule, serving as a template for the
complex chemicals which the neurone produces,
will
then dictate that
the stimulated neurone produce proteins in a pattern specifically re-
message. By this reasoning, memory becomes the imprinting of a chemical code on RNA molecules or their component parts. Each neurone contains thousands of RNA molecules, and a human brain has about three billion neurones. So the number of possible combinations is almost beyond the grasping power of the human brain so composed. Since each neurone may participate simultaneously in many memories because of its variety of imprinted RNA molecules, and since many neurones may participate in the same memory process flecting the recently received
through the imprinting of parts of their RNA content, memory ceases to be a single and relatively simple function like the reaction in a tele-
phone exchange when a particular number is dialed. It becomes at complex as a conference call with several participants. It is not yet certain that Hyden's thesis can be confirmed in other laboratories. However, the Swedish investigator has tentative evidence that
least as
increased suggestibility, reflecting a change proteins produced, can be effected in
man by
in
neuronal
RNA
and the
administering small doses
of a substance called tricyano-amino-propene, and that the process may be reversed with a chemical antidote. At a somewhat different level, a New York neurologist and psychi-
Dr. Harold G. Wolff, suggested that what we call "mind," and commonly regard as being essentially a function of the central nervous system, may actually have a broader biochemical basis extending to the whole organism. He noted that among men who are subjected to atrist,
unusual and prolonged deprivations, generally while in solitary confinement in prison, there is an actual loss of neuronal function. It appears that the central nervous system requires continual stimulation there apif it is to remain fully operative and efficient. Furthermore, and the stimulation neuronal between connection direct a pears to be responsiveness of all somatic cells. In this way. Dr. Wolff suggested,
"mind" may be
said to be inherent in
all
the body's cells.
305
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
A new hypothesis about dreams most Onemanof has been the
familiar
and universal of phenomena
interested since earliest times
is
in
which
that of his
own
dreaming. Sigmund Freud developed a theory that dreams were for the purpose of preserving sleep, by allowing a partial discharge of psychic energy which, if uncontrolled, would be disturbing.^ He con-
cluded that if a dream awoke the sleeper, it had failed in its sleeppreserving purpose. Freud only hinted at the alternative or comple-
mentary possibility that dreams which awake the sleeper might also have a definite value and purpose in preserving the well-being of the organism. He did not pursue this. Now Dr. Harold M. Voth suggests that the arousal value of dreams may be extremely important. Granted that under many conditions, especially those upon which Freud concentrated his studies, the best adaptation of the sleeper to moderately disturbing psychic products is to remain asleep, there are other conditions in which awakening is a more suitable reaction or adaptation than remaining asleep. Thus, cases of arousal as a result of dreaming may not be failures, as Freud thought, but positive cases of a second mechanism fulfilling its purpose. A more sweeping hypothesis was put before the American Psychiatric Association in 1960 by Dr. William Dement, who had worked in Chicago with Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman. In a series of carefully controlled experiments.
Dement
sleeping volunteers, and
attached electrodes to the eyelids of
by observing the onset of
flickering
was able
dreams. On the average, the subjects did not after they had been asleep for about ten minujes.
to judge the beginning of
begin to dream until
If they were awakened whenever the onset of dreaming was signaled and were thus deprived of dreaming, they showed no appreciable ill effects for one or two nights. But by the third or fourth night of dream deprivation, they showed severe mental changes corresponding to the hallucinations observed in subjects deprived of sensory stimuli. The
longer the dream deprivation, the
more severe
the hallucinations be-
came, no matter how much dreamless sleep was permitted. The hallucinations ended when dreaming was resumed. Dement suggested that the function of dreams might be more important than Freud had envisaged: nothing less than the preservation of sanity.
The occurrence and development of genius Street neurologist Sir Russell Brain addressed himself Theto Harley the genius. Looking the
age-old question of what
problem from
man cells
makes a
at
his specialist's viewpoint, Brain pointed out that the
of genius does not necessarily possess a greater number of nerve than the non-genius. What is important is the organization of
these cells. Brain suggested that in the genius the neurones 8
"Dreams
are the
means of removing, by hallucinatory
sleep." (General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis, Vol. 54, p. 499c) See pp.
306
may be
ar-
satisfaction, mental stimuli that disturb
496b-504d passim.
Gilbert
Cant
ranged in especially complex patterns, to account for "the delicacy of perception and imagination that distinguish genius from talent." Equally time-honored is the question whether geniuses necessarily or only coincidentally show a high incidence of emotional disturbance. Again, Brain's hypothesis covered the admittedly high incidence of mental abnormality and instability in outstanding individuals: this may be simply due to the unusual neurone pattern. Sir Russell saw evidence for this in the fact that the form of insanity most often associated with genius is manic-depressive psychosis. Among the outstanding victims of this disorder, he listed the poet William Cowper, James Boswell, George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, and Sir Isaac Newton. He also made a neurological diagnosis and critique of Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson. Considering the formative level, several investigators were concerned to find what it takes for a genius to appear in childhood and for him to be encouraged so that his unique gifts will bear full fruit. Dr. Annette Rosenstiel, a sociologist at Mills College of Education in New York, said that genius must be detected in a child before he goes to school, and she deplored the recent tendency among adults to force unusual children into conventional patterns of play and behavior with their less gifted contemporaries. "By the time a child goes to school," she said, "his early curiosity may have been blunted, his eager probings
iP
for
knowledge thwarted, his questioning sidetracked, and his desire by what to him may appear to be adult disinterest
for learning dulled
and actual opposition." Following a study of geniuses who have graced the American scene in
recent years, Victor Goertzel, a
that the so-called "ideal" family
New York
life, in
psychologist, declared
which parents get along with
each other and with their children, all of whom get along well with each is the worst possible background for outstanding talent or genius. Far better, he suggested, is the family in which disputation is encouraged and freely indulged, but carefully restrained within the bounds of normal civilized disagreement. The ideal family, he proposed, is one in which frequent and furious arguments are resolved, other,
not in the ring, but by resort to a dictionary or encyclopaedia.
STREET SCENE IN
INDIA
Some
experts predict that
within the next
hundred years — if present trends continue — all ire as of the world will be as congested as this Indian district
Population control
According to Heinz von Foerster of the University of Illinois, L Doomsday will fall on Friday, November 13, in the year 2026, because by then the human species will have multiplied so greatly that
its
members
will
be squeezed to death by physical pressure. This is not very far
admittedly exaggerated forecast, printed in Science,
removed from the more pessimistic estimates of what in the in
next hundred years
if
will
happen with-
medicine continues to cut the death rate
underdeveloped countries and
if
the birth rate
is
not substantially
checked. 307
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE Methods of birth control, or as it has become more euphemistically known, "family planning" or ''planned parenthood," which are applicable in the developed countries of the living
and
West with
high standards of
relatively high cash incomes, are not applicable to the devel-
oping countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. As a result, miTch research has been directed to the development of an oral contraceptive
be cheap enough for virtually universal distrienough in dosage schedule and method of administration to be used by the illiterate masses. The nearest approach to this is a synthetic chemical, related to the natural progestational hormones which prevent ovulation when a woman is pregnant. The synthetic analogue is taken during the middle part of the menstrual cycle to prevent ovulation. The one which had been most extensively used by the spring of 1961 was Enovid, produced by Searle and Company. In large-scale trials in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, Enovid proved almost, if not completely, successful in preventing ovulation, and therefore in preventing conception. With one doubtful exception, the only unwanted conceptions during the trial were among women who had missed taking their pills for a few days. Most important, the synthetic hormone had no deleterious effect on fertility. On the contrary, there seemed to be a rebound effect, so that immediately after the medication was withdrawn because a couple had decided that the time had come for them to have another child, the wife conceived much sooner than might have been expected without the previous medication. Another important factor was the apparent freedom from untoward effects, most notably a predisposition to cancer of the cervix or uterus. It was too soon to evaluate with any certainty the statistics so far available, but it appeared that the incidence of cancer in the female reproductive tract was no higher, and perhaps actually lower, in the women who had taken part in the which,
it
is
hoped,
will
bution, and simple
trial
than in the general population.
The
principal
drawbacks
to
Enovid and
similar synthetic proges-
togens are their cost and the necessity for taking them on each of 20
days during each menstrual cycle. When they were first made available for birth-spacing, the daily doses were marketed at about 50 cents, making the annual cost of $120 prohibitive for all but a small minority in the most highly developed countries. After a broad market base had been established, the manufacturers were able to reduce the price so that the annual cost was no more than $40 or $50. This was still prohibitive for the peoples with the greatest need for effective contraception, and the rigid daily dosage schedule made this means of popu-
The next stages of laboratory research included efforts to develop a "depot form" of a similar progesto-
lation control generally impractical.
gen, so that a
much
smaller
number of
pills
would give the same
anti-
ovulatory protection for several days at a time.
Some researchers believed that a more practical way to prevent unwanted conceptions was by suppressing the man's production of 308
Gilbert
Cant
spermatozoa. The theory was that the husband, with a smaller number pills, could obtain longer-lasting effects, independent of monthly cycles. Dr. John MacLeod of Cornell University Medical College reported on a series of tests with prisoner volunteers in both New York of
and Los Angeles. In these preliminary studies, a synthetic hormone analogue suppressed both the numbers and motility (which may be equivalent to viability) of the sperm produced. It was also found that sperm production returned to normal shortly after withdrawal of the drug. However, this method of conception control, no matter how attractive in theory, is subject to a more serious criticism and contains
more potential hazards than the corresponding treatment in the female. The great danger is that when the motility and viability of the sperm are reduced, conception
may
still
occur, but result in the union of a
subnormal sperm with the ovum, and eventually or a monster.
Much
in
a handicapped child
further research along these lines will be required
before any such method of birth control can be considered safe enough to
be generally recommended.
PROGRESS
IN
MEDICINE
Immunization physiology and medicine was awarded to Nobel Prize TheSir1960 Frank Macfarlane Burnet of Melbourne and Dr. Peter Brian in
Medawar
of University College, London. Their prize-winning
involved the
immune mechanisms which
work
are valuable to the higher an-
imals in acquiring resistance to infectious agents, especially viruses.
But these same mechanisms have balked the velop ways of transplanting parts of one
surgeons to de-
efforts of
human body
to another, or
of transplanting the organs of lower animals to man.
As
early as 1949, Burnet had formulated the theory that the
mechanism by which an animal pecially protein,
immune
rejects invading "foreign" tissue, es-
from another animal, even of the same species — ex-
cept in the case of identical twins — was acquired during
life in
the
womb
and was not genetically determined. Professor Medawar and his colleagues proved the theory by inoculating mouse embryos, still in the womb, with tissues from a different strain of mice. After the inoculated animals were partly grown, tissues from the donor animals were grafted onto them, and the grafts "took." However, in control animals which had not received the prenatal anti-immunizing treatment, the grafts were rejected in the conventional fashion. It has been suggested — and had been so suggested before the Nobel award — that the Medawar work opened up the possibility of injecting a
human
is still
immediately after birth when the immune mechanism who might serve as a source for skin grafts or organ transplants. The prac-
infant,
only partly developed, with tissue from a donor
in later life
309
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE aside from the moral, difficulties of such a proposal are apparent. However, it is hoped that through an understanding of the mechanisms
tical,
by which immunological rejection develops, it may be possible to suppress them at least temporarily, or to control them sufficiently to permit grafting in
human
adults.
So far, the only means of achieving suppression of the rejection mechanisms in human patients have been too drastic to be of widespread use. It was reported in 1960 that Yugoslav atomic energy workers who had been accidentally exposed to normally lethal doses of radiation in a reactor accident had survived (with a single exception), thanks to daring treatment administered in Paris. This comprised the transfusion of large volumes of donor blood and the infusion of donor bone marrow, which apparently succeeded because of the accidental suppression of the rejection mechanism. At the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York, a number of child victims of acute leukemia have been deliberately subjected to what would normally be a fatal dose of radiation to suppress the rejection mechanism in their bone marrow, and have then had donor marrow injected. Even if
these children should survive appreciably longer than other patients
it would appear that a few have been bought at too great a cost. At the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Dr. John Merrill and his colleagues have been working for several years on the problem of transplanting a kidney from a donor to a victim of kidney disease in which both organs are failing and thus threatening life. Previously they had achieved this only in transplants between identical twins. In 1960, however, they made a transplant which survived for at least a year, and apparently with functional success, between brothers who were fraternal rather than identical twins. Even this notable success must be qualified, because the fraternal twins had many antibody mechanisms and other biochemical characteristics more nearly alike than have other siblings or unrelated individuals.
treated by conventional chemical means,
added years of
Afflictions
With
life
of the aged
the lengthening of the average
life
span, already achieved in
most highly developed countries of the Western world and approaching achievement in the still-developing countries, the problem of health
in the
aged
is
preoccupying the medical profession as well More evidence was adduced in 1960
as sociologists and politicians.
than ever before to show that, regardless of the severity of chronic illnesses which are often loosely called "degenerative diseases," the principal factor impairing the health of the aged
is
emotional: the feel-
unwanted, and rejected. The emotions arising from this feeling are powerful components in all bodily ills. With the growing number of aged and of ailing aged, there has been a revival of efforts to arrest the failing of faculties which so often acing of being useless,
310
Gilbert
"The
Cant
principal factor impairing
the health of the aged is emotional: the feeling
of being useless, unwanted, and rejected"
companies advancing years. The most optimistic claims for success in this field came from Dr. Anna Asian, a Rumanian, who reported that she had arrested the degenerative process of chronic disease in the aged, and that in some cases the patients seemed actually to have achieved a turning back of the clock. This, she said, was the result of long-continued injections of procaine (better known by its trade name. Novocain).
Although early in 1960 these reports were greeted with extreme skepticism by American investigators, toward the end of the year it appeared that the difference between Asian's results and those reported by the first American researchers who tried to reproduce them lay in the method and duration of treatment. Careful and conscientious researchers at Rockland State Hospital in New York said they had found some schizophrenic patients who had failed to respond to all other treatment, but showed marked improvement if the procaine injections were continued for several months. In a New Jersey home for the aged, patients with mental deterioration, but apparently free of
schizophrenia,
showed comparable improvement.
Effects of climate
and weather on health
Hippocrates must have devoted
a great deal of thought to the in-
fluence of climate and weather
upon health and human tempera-
ment, for he discusses their apparent interactions in elaborate detail.^ His attempts to find direct cause-and-effect relationships between observed weather changes and health phenomena led to what are now obvious oversimplifications. In recent years, medical scientists have been dismissing Hippocrates' theories along with old wives' tales on the 9 See
On Air,
Waters, and Places, \o\. 10, pp. 9a-19a,c.
311
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE same
subject.
Now there is a growing body of scientific evidence which
no matter how wrong that both short-term weather appears he may have been differences and changes may have climatic longer-range and changes pronounced effects not only upon day-to-day health, but also upon
was
suggests that Hippocrates
right in principle,
in detail. It
the development of
human temperament and even upon an
individual's
inborn constitutional equipment. At Ohio State University, Dr. Benjamin Pasamanick and his wife, Dr. Hilda Knobloch, have studied the effects of high temperatures and humidity upon pregnancy. They have concluded that mental deficiency and other congenital defects are more common if the early months of gestation fall within the hottest part of the mid-continent summer, when the mother is so distressed by the weather that she is likely to subsist on an inadequate diet — including an excess of sweet, cooling drinks. In 1960, these researchers reported on a study of admissions to the Columbus State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital over a 30-year period. They concluded that there had been a definite association between the incidence of schizophrenia and the weather conditions at the time of the patient's conception. There is nothing to indicate that the effect of the weather upon the fetus is direct. Rather, it appears that summertime changes in eating and drinking habits early in pregnancy, when the fetus is most susceptible to "insults," may have a deleterious effect on the child. Drs. Pasamanick and Knobloch have found that the southern states with semi-tropical summers have "far lower" spring birth rates than the states with more temperate summers. Such a reduction in midsummer conceptions in areas with the highest temperatures and greatest risk to the normal development of the fetus may represent one of nature's automatic compensating and protective mechanisms. The expression "feeling under the weather" may also have unsuspected scientific validity. There is no question that infections of the upper respiratory system are most numerous in temperate climates during the winter months and the month or so immediately preceding and following winter. The plausible explanation, although it has not yet been scientifically proved, is that these are usually months of high humidity, when many infectious organisms can multiply most readily, and when the human host's resistance is at its lowest. But some noninfectious disorders also show increases or exacerbations on a seasonal pattern. Peptic ulcer
is
usually a chronic condition, yet
torious for acute and painful aggravations in spring and
fall.
it is
no-
There
is
also an unexplained increase in the detection (and perhaps, therefore, in the severity)
of diabetes
in
March. The combination of high temperashown by Dr. George E. Burch of
ture and high humidity has been
Tulane University
be especially threatening to victims of heartOrleans area. He urges such patients to take maximum advantage of air-conditioning during the hot months. It does not appear to be necessary for them to stay continuously in a moderate artery disease in the
312
to
New
Gilbert
temperature: the objective
is
for
them
to avoid sustained
Cant
exposure to
high temperature with high humidity.
The ability of mammalian cells and tissues to low temperatures was demonstrated by Drs. J. Stanley W. Jacob at the University of Oregon hope of developing means to preserve human
withstand unbelievably Engelbert Dunphy and Medical School. In the tissues and organs for
eventual transplantation (after the immune mechanisms discussed above have been overcome to permit grafts), the researchers froze human spermatozoa to a temperature of -272.2" C, almost exactly one degree above absolute zero. After thawing, the spermatozoa were still fertile. Viruses exposed to the same extreme low temperature retained their ability to induce disease, and whole organs of animals were suitable for grafting. The surprising viability of the tissues was explained by partial dehydration of the material, and freezing it under high pressures. In ordinary freezing, water expands to form ice crystals and continues to expand until a temperature of -2.2^ C. is reached.
These processes destroy living tissues. Water cannot expand or if it is under high pressure. The Oregon researchers prevented expansion and crystallization partly by substituting glycerol for much of the water in the tissues, and partly by maintaining pressures of several atmospheres during the freezing process. crystallize
Infectious diseases
Of
the
many groups
of illnesses to which
prising the infectious diseases has
man
seemed
is
subject, that
for
more than
com-
a cen-
tury to be yielding most significantly and hopefully to the advances of
medicine. However, as in
all branches of science, as soon as the anone question or the solution to one problem was achieved, other questions or problems of equal urgency appeared which had hitherto not been evident. It was so most conspicuously in 1960 in re-
swer
to
gard to poliomyelitis.
Experience with the killed vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk Some of the vaccine had been "killed" (more precisely, inactivated with formaldehyde) with such excessive vigor that it was no longer capable of serving as an effective antigen to stimulate inoculated subjects to produce protective antibodies. As a result, statistical studies, showing that the vaccine had been generally 75% to 909c effective in conferring protection against paralytic polio, were misleading. No individual could be sure whether he or his children had received a course of three inoculations - possibly followed by a fourth or "booster" shot -all of which were potent, only some of which were potent, or none of which were potent. In the late 1950"s and in 1960 many children developed paralytic polio despite a full series of inoculations with Salk vaccine, which evidently lacked of the University of Pittsburgh had been spotty.
full
potency. 313
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE Since poliovirus multiplies mainly
in the digestive tract, the
eradication of poliomyelitis as a disease and the
more
complete
difficult
achieve-
ment of eradicating the virus itself from human surroundings depend upon medical measures to sterilize the gut against it. No killed vaccine can achieve this: all it can do is protect the central nervous system against invasion by poliovirus after multiplication in the gut and dispersal through the blood. However, a "live" vaccine made from an attenuated strain of the virus, which is still capable of multiplying although no longer capable of causing paralytic disease, will sterUize the digestive tract so that no future infection by poliovirus of any type can take hold. It is assumed that severe forms of the disease and eventually the virus itself can be wiped out if it is denied this breeding ground. To achieve this, three teams of American researchers have been working for many years to prepare live- virus vaccines against polio. first group to bring such a vaccine to the point of wide-scale clinical testing in the United States was Lederle Laboratories, with the vaccine strains developed by Dr. Herald R. Cox. Early in 1960 the Cox-Lederle vaccine was given in a single oral dose to 414,000 children and adults in Dade County, Florida— the city of Miami and its environs. Meanwhile, a comparable live-virus vaccine developed by Dr. Albert B. Sabin at the University of Cincinnati had been administered to about 75,000,000 people in the Soviet Union. During the summer of 1960 an advisory committee of the U.S. Public Health Service studied both the Cox and Sabin preparations, together with a third developed by Dr. Hilary Koprowski, and concluded that only the Sabin product was safe enough to be approved for mass manufacture in the United States, with a view to licensing in the imme-
The
diate future.
The
objection to the other vaccines
tained remnants of viruses found in
monkey
was
that they con-
kidneys, the basis of tissue
cultures used as a seedbed for poliovirus in the preparation of vaccines. It was feared that these monkey viruses might prove eventually to cause disease in man. The U.S. Public Health Service licensed only the Sabin vaccine. Five American pharmaceutical companies had already invested
large
sums of money and had trained technical staffs in the preparation A changeover from this killed preparation to the live
of Salk vaccine.
Sabin vaccine presented many technical difficulties. As a result, the vaccine could not be prepared in the United States in sufficient
live
quantity, and tested adequately for both safety and potency, before the
1961 peak season for polio. Public health authorities, therefore, urged the continued use of the Salk killed vaccine during 1961, in the ex-
pectation that the Sabin oral vaccine would be available at the end of the year, or early in 1962, to permit wide-scale immunization in time for the
1962 peak season.
It
was
ironic that the Sabin vaccine took so
long to reach the American market, since
adopted
in the
Soviet Union
it
had been unhesitatingly
more than two years
earlier.
The Russians
reported a reduction of paralytic polio almost to the vanishing point, 314
Gilbert
and
insisted that they
had had no untoward incidental
effects
Cant
from the
oral vaccine.
The pendulum has swung away from
the viewpoint of the late ninecentury (based largely upon a misinterpretation of Louis Pasteur's findings) that nearly all bacteria and other microorganisms
teenth
are harmful to
man and
should be eliminated. Increasing recognition
being given to the symbiotic relationship between the human species and many varieties of bacteria. Experience with antibiotics of the tetracycline group has shown that if the bacteria normally inhabis
now
iting the
human
digestive tract are too ruthlessly reduced in numbers,
other organisms
may
multiply and cause diseases which are harder to
treat medically than the condition for
which the drugs were prescribed.
a result, physicians are putting more emphasis on pinpointing their attacks on the infectious cause of the immediate disease problem, so as to remove only the particular microorganism responsible for this con-
As
dition.
To do
so requires the careful selection of sulfa drugs or antiand is directly opposed to the "shot-
biotics for this specific purpose,
which antimicrobial drugs are used indiscriminately. One of the worst aspects of the misuse of modern medicine has been the promotion of combinations of antibiotics which were advertised to the medical profession and too often prescribed with no regard to their incidental effects. It is a striking commentary on the tendency for such practices to persist that "polypharmacy" was condemned early in the sixteenth century by Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus. Noting that one drug tended to neutralize the beneficial effects of another, he advocated simgun" approach
plicity rather
in
than multiplicity in prescription.
The success of antibiotic treatment of most bacterial infections penicillin became generally available (about 1945) has resulted
since
in an epidemic of polypharmacy. This has aggravated one of the greatest difficulties
confronting physicians treating patients in hospitals: the
spread of bacterial strains which are resistant to penicillin and to the tetracyclines. The species which shows the greatest capacity for developing resistance is Staphylococcus aureus, so the problem of resistant bacteria
is
commonly
referred to as that of "hospital staph." In
1960, two antibiotics were marketed which offer a substantial contribution toward the defeat of these resistant organisms. The first was
DMCT
or demethylchlortetracycline, an improvement on the earlier
soon reaches higher concentrations in the and therefore leaves less opportunity for the emergence of resistant strains. The second was the perfection of a modified penicillin, based upon the recent synthesis of penicillanic acid, which is the basic substance of all antibiotics of the penicillin group. The modification known as methicillin, marketed in Great Britain as Celbenin and in the United States as Staphcillin, has proved remarkably potent in its action against the stubbornly resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus. tetracyclines because
it
patient's bloodstream,
315
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
Diseases of the heart and arteries Heart attacks are now by far the commonest in highly
single cause of death developed Western countries. But the causes of the
underlying disease, atherosclerosis
(literally
"mushy hardening") of
the arteries in and near the heart, remain the subject of intense dispute
among medical
researchers. Only a few years ago, a clue to the frequency of coronary atherosclerosis and resulting fatal heart attacks at relatively early ages in these Western cultures, especially among men, seemed to have been found. The high incidence was associated with a diet which included a high proportion of animal fat, such as that found on red meat and pork, in eggs, and in butter, cheese and other milk products, and in the hydrogenated shortenings now used in place of oldfashioned lard. Next it was learned that the question was not simply one of animal versus vegetable fats: the Eskimos who live largely on
marine mammals, including whales, with notoriously thick layers of blubber, appeared to be free of atherosclerosis even at relatively advanced ages. The question then came down to a chemical difference: the "saturation" of the fatty acids involved. Those animal fats which are solid at ordinary room temperatures, like the fat in beef and milk products, contain fatty acids which are "saturated" by the chemist's definition — they have hydrogen atoms attached at all possible points to the carbon atoms in their molecular chains. Vegetable fats, with the exception of coconut oil, are mainly unsaturated, meaning that there is room at several points on the carbon atoms for additional hydrogen atoms. Fish oils and the fats of marine mammals like the whale and seal are now
ESKIMO INFLATING SEALSKIN HUNTING BLADDER Eskimos, whose diet consists largely of "unsaturated" fats in marine mammals, are almost completely free of heart disease
found
Gilbert Cant
resemble vegetable fats in being "'pohunsaturated." Consewas relatively easy to evolve a hypothesis whereby the heavy consumption of saturated fats by the privileged few in Western cultures contributed to atherosclerosis and the higher male death rate
known
to
quently,
it
from heart disease. (Women on the same diet are protected until the menopause by female hormones, and the protective effect, although not understood, usually does not wear off until women are well into their seventies.)
This simple assumption seemed to accord well with the known fact that the underprivileged and largely undernourished masses in underdeveloped Asian countries have very little fat in their diet, and subsist largely
on carbohydrates from
cereals, notably rice.
some protein with accompanying
fat.
it is
of the "Nev'v- ^'ork cut" sirloin steak.
with the
known
lo\^
When
they do get
not likely to be the hard
The hypothesis
fat
also accorded
incidence of earh' coronary disease in the peoples
of Greece, and of Southern Italy, where the staple of the diet
pasta.
is
and the fat consumed is usually in olive oil. During the year under review, no simple answers to the many questions posed b\ an attempt to apply this hypothesis to the United States death rate were produced. On the contran." most of the recent evidence proved to be conflicting or at best confusing. The effects of saturated fats in the diet are numerous and too complex to be readily measured. So the
level of cholesterol circulating in the blood
is
generally accepted
as an admittedly crude index to the total effects. Special diets and diet
lower the blood cholesterol were widely advertised and — although there is still no proof that lowering the blood cholesterol will reduce the risk of hean attacks. Some American studies suggested that the diet was less imponant in determining an individual's susceptibility to atherosclerosis, and his risk of hean attacks, than his temperament and his reactions to the
supplements
to
gained some popular acceptance
modem
At the same time. Dr. Edward Ahrens of the Rockefeller Institute reponed preliminan.- studies on a small number of patients in which he showed that a diet high in carbohydrates, but low in proteins and fats of any kind, was also capable of causing an elevastresses of
living.
tion of blood cholesterol.
able finding
was
One
explanation of this seemingly irreconcil-
that the subjects of Dr. Ahrens" study
were
receiv-
all
more than adequate diet in termiS of total caloric intake, and therefore were susceptible to an\ influence that might cause atherosclerosis. The underprivileged peoples who subsist mainly on carbohydrates are usually on the edge of starvation. When the body
ing an adequate or
needs
all
likely to
its food supply — from whatever source — for fuel, waste any by letting it accumulate in the blood.
it
Intensive studies of this complex subject must continue for
years before generally acceptable answers can be expected.
is
un-
many
The
re-
search findings to date suggest that no single factor will ever be isoall the premature or "excess"" deaths from Western countries.
lated as responsible for
hean disease
in
317
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE in any of the many coronary arteries, despite the fact that heroic efforts had been made to do this over a period of several years. These included an operation known as "endarterectomy," in which that portion of a coronary artery which has been clogged by atheromatous deposits is reamed out. Dr. Charles P. Bailey, who attracted much attention for the extreme daring of his heart surgery while in Philadelphia, suggested that corrective surgery to overcome the results of a coronary occlusion might depend upon a more radical rerouting of the blood flow within the heart itself than has so
In 1960-61, no substantial progress
attempts at surgical correction
far
been considered
By seemingly have attempted
was reported
of defects
in the
practical.
gentler but in fact no less drastic means, physicians to control the effects of atherosclerosis
administration of female hormones to male patients. So
hormonal substances or synthetic substitutes used
through the
far,
in
none of the
experimental
studies has received the general approval of physicians. Neither has
any of the methods of administration. The ideal would be a substance, probably synthetic, which retains the artery-sparing powers of the natural female hormones, without any of their feminizing effects. In 1960, the William S. Merrell Company of Cincinnati announced that it had found such a substance in triparanol, which it marketed under the brand name of MER/29. At the end of the period under review, triparanol was receiving both intensive and extensive trial as a prophylactic against heart attacks. readily available means for judging its physiological effecwas the measurement of the blood cholesterol level. Any conclusive judgment as to the value of triparanol, or any substance offered for the same purpose, must wait at least five years, so that the heartattack rate and death rate of large numbers of treated patients can be compared with those of patients suffering from comparable disease but
The only tiveness
not so treated.
Diseases of the kidney
Disorders
of kidney function are almost invariably associated with
some cases they result from a previously exblood pressure, while in others a defect or disease in the kidneys results in the secretion of substances which cause high blood pressure and thus damage the general arterial tree. A human being can survive with only about 5% of the normal kidney function, but when the organs are so damaged as to fall below this minimum performance, it is almost impossible for medical science to sustain life except by arterial disease. In
isting high
The most familiar of these measures is use of the many ingenious models and refinements have in the last twenty years. However, all require round-
heroic measures. artificial
kidney, of which
been perfected
the-clock attendance of specially trained physicians, nurses, and technicians while the patient
318
is
hooked up
to the machine. This
hook-up
is
Gilbert
Cant
achieved by inserting plastic tubes into an artery and into a vein, and leading the blood out of the body through the former to the artificial kidney, which then removes metabolic poisons from it by the process
of "dialysis," and returning the cleansed blood to the venous system. This method requires the insertion of the tubes into the blood vessels
each time the patient is to receive a treatment. As only a small number of arteries and veins in the extremities are suitable for this purpose, all accessible blood vessels are scarred and weakened beyond repair after a few treatments. Use of the artificial kidney has therefore been confined to short-term emergencies, especially after kidney function has been impaired by poisoning.
At and
the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Belding Scribner
his colleagues
were able
to
keep several patients alive from 1960
into 1961, although they had far less than the minimal 5% of normal kidney function remaining. This was achieved by making permanent
implantations of the tubes into an artery and vein in the forearm, and leaving them in place, so that the patients could be hooked up to the
kidney at intervals of a few days. One of the Seattle group's had been maintained (as of March 31, 1 96 1 ) for fifteen months, with only one day a week devoted to dialysis. The permanently implanted cannulas or tubes in his arm were hooked together during the remaining six days of the week to form a shunt through which the blood passed freely, and thus reduced the danger of clotting. This patient, with only 2 1/2% of normal kidney function remaining, was at that time probably the only man in the world kept alive by such means, and in sufficiently good condition to be able to work and live an outwardly normal life. Three other patients, with more severe damage from kidney disease, had been maintained almost as long; because of their age and other handicaps, they were unable to work, but they lived at home and engaged in many normal activities. artificial
patients
Cancer
The
word "cancer"
is
used here to cover
all
forms of malignant
lymph sysbetween studies of the causation of cancer and studies of viruses and infective molecules of DNA has already been noted. In 1960-61, there were two major developments involving the neoplastic disease, including those of the blood and
tems.
The
relationship
human cancer. Investigators at the National Health had recently isolated from leukemic mice a virus which produced not leukemia, but solid tumors, after it had been grown in tissue cultures and injected into healthy young animals. Since this viral agent produced several different kinds of tumors, it was named the "polyoma" virus. It soon showed its versatility by crossing the species barrier and inducing tumors in rats, rabbits, and hamsters. Dr. Sarah E. Stewart, who first isolated the polyoma virus, has found that it is widespread in laboratory mouse colonies, and is such a potent antigen virus causation theory of Institutes of
319
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE that antibodies giving
immunity against
it
are passed to
mouse
off-
spring in their mothers' milk.
To
establish conclusively the cancer-causing properties of the virus,
Dr. Stewart and her associates had to produce large quantities
in tissue
absence of antibodies. Electron microscopy has shown that the polyoma virus has a diameter of .0000027 millimeters, and chemical analysis has established that its core consists of DNA. When stripped of its protein overcoat, the naked of the polyoma virus has proved itself to be an infective molecule in the sense that Horsfall described — capable of infecting cells with cancer and of inducing cells to make complete virus particles containing both the core and the protein coat. There is evidence from Stewart's laboratory that, like some viruses which infect bacteria, the polyoma virus goes through a latent stage in which it cannot be detected in the cells and during which it presumably does the cells no harm. However, by triggering mechanisms not yet clear, this latent particle can be activated culture,
and
in the
DNA
DNA
to initiate cancer.
From
W. Toolan reported human cancers which have been transanimals. The elusiveness of this agent is em-
the Sloan-Kettering Institute, Dr. Helene
the isolation of a virus from
planted into laboratory
phasized by the fact that it has not been found in the tumors as they occur in the original human victims. It has been found in the liver and spleen of patients suffering from advanced cancer, but not in similar tissues of patients dying viral
from other causes. Most puzzling,
agent causes a disease in hamsters that
to cancer
and shows greater resemblance
to
is
this
same
superficially unrelated
some of the physical mal-
formations associated with mongolian idiocy. It
seems probable
that the viruses
known
to
cause cancer
in
lower
animals, and suspected of causing cancer in man, initiate the disease
process by a variety of mechanisms.
It is
possible that in
some cases
they require activation or triggering by chemical or physical means. In
any case, the virus theory is not likely soon to lead to an effective treatment for most forms of cancer. There is a danger that present enthusiasm for the theory may lead to the uncritical acceptance of unreliable or irrelevant data.
A report prepared early in 1961 for presentation to the American Association for Cancer Research was misleading in that it suggested that a virus extracted from monkeys had been proved capable of growing cancers in human volunteers. This was not the case. The tumors induced by this monkey virus were not malignant. (The common wart is caused by a virus, but is a benign tumor.) The work, therefore, casts no light upon the mechanisms of cancer causation in man. The controversy over the relationship between heavy and prolonged cigarette smoking and the increase in lung cancer, especially among men, continued unabated, but it developed more heat and smoke than light.
ately
320
The factual scientific data were consistently and often delibersubmerged under high-speed press releases designed to discredit
fiifn
mK i^T^WIP
SMOG Smog in
IN
LOS ANGELES may stimulate
inhalation
the development of lung cancer
cigarette smokers
the research reports. The most constructive work during the year under review indicated that there may well be a factor in addition to cigarette smoking that is needed to initiate the cancerous process in the human lung. Smog alone does not appear to be capable of initiating this form of cancer: a careful study of smokers and non-smokers in the Los Angeles area, equally exposed to atmospheric pollution, showed that lung cancer was almost entirely confined to the smokers. But since smog extracts have been found to produce cancer when concentrated and painted upon the backs of mice, the smog inhaled in areas of high atmospheric pollution may serve as a co-carcinogen, and facilitate the cancer-causing process initiated by small quantities of substances known as polycyclic hydrocarbons, found in cigarette tar. It has been suggested that the increase in lung cancer is a natural consequence of the decrease in deaths from tuberculosis. Patients with arrested tuberculosis still have scars in the lung, and two researchers, one in the United States and one in Austria, have voiced the belief that these scars are the sites at which cancer later forms. However, analyses of lung cancer deaths show no appreciable correlation with
previous tuberculous disease. severe influenza
may
so
More
damage
plausibly,
it
was suggested
that
the lung tissues as to prepare a seed-
bed for the later initiation of cancer by hydrocarbons from cigarette smoke. This was first proposed by Professor Milton C. Winternitz, who died in 1959, but it was generally believed to have been disproved. Now, Dr. Dean V. Wiseley and a research team at the University of Southern California have found that whereas mice will not normally develop lung cancer of the human type, many of them do so if they are first exposed to influenza virus. There may be a delayed eff"ect of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic in the increase in lung cancer which be321
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE gan to be noticed during the 1930's.
If this is
confirmed,
possible for researchers to establish whether there
is
it
should be
any connection
between
later epidemics of influenza, in which the disease is more have been accurately diagnosed and recorded in the patient's history, and subsequent cases of lung cancer.
likely to
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS Porpoises
Porpoises and
dolphins have previously been notable mainly for the
pleasure that their aquatic antics accord ocean voyagers, but they
now emerging as important subjects for serious studies of physical performance, communication, and brain capacity. ^°
are
For the somewhat anomalous purpose of finding an improved basis Department of Civil Engineering of the University of California has worked out a co-operative study with the officers of the 5. 5. Monterey, which makes regular passages between San Francisco and Australia. Many sightings of porpoises and related marine mammals have made it possible to check on reports that these animals are capable of swimming at extraordinarily high speeds. One such record, dating from 1936, is of a porpoise clocked at 19.7 knots. The recently collected data from the Monterey's cruises suggest that, for an animal six to eight feet long, this may have been the equivalent of the 100-yard dash. Many observations were made of porpoises (of various species) keeping up with the ^hip at speeds between 19.7 and 21 knots, but in every case the animals dropped behind after about two minutes. Large groups of porpoises were seen swimming in calm seas for as long as 25 minutes at speeds between 14 and 18 knots. The prevalent cruising speed of porpoises for calculating the value of "surface drag coefficient," the
of this size appears to be closer to 12 knots.
The speed of the Cetacea
evidently increases with size in accordance
with a mathematical formula. "Blackfish" (whales, believed to be
Globicephala melana), 12 to 15 feet long, had no difficulty in circling was cruising at 22 knots, and keeping up with it for several days. They readily passed the ship, went well ahead of it, and then dropped astern to look for food. The sustained speed for this species, both as calculated and as observed, comes out to 22.7 knots. One killer whale (Orcinus orca), which is actually a form of porpoise, was observed while travelling at speeds up to 30 knots. This animal was about 18 feet long, and the calculations suggest that 30 knots would be its top speed, and that it would be capable of a sustained speed of as much as 26 knots. How these marine mammals are able to maintain such speeds rea vessel which
10 Aristotle discusses the speed and voice of the dolphin (porpoise) in History of Animals, Vol. 9, pp. 62c-d, 156b-d.Cf. Melville, .Wo^v D/cA., Vol. 48, pp. 104a- 105a.
322
Gilbert
Cant
mains something of a mystery. One suggestion is that the drag associmovement through the water is reduced by either of two methods: through heat transfer to the water, or mechanically, by wrinkling the skin. The forward part of the animals, where the water flow is relatively smooth, is almost bloodless. Toward the tail, where turbulence and drag normally increase, the skin is loose and has a superabundant blood supply. The more generally accepted assumption is ated with fast
that this relatively elastic surface automatically "ripples" in a manner which reduces turbulence as required by the animal's speed and ma-
neuvering. Preliminary observations indicate that a porpoise
of generating ten times as
much horsepower in
proportion to
is
capable
its
muscle
weight as do land mammals, including dogs, horses, and man. No less remarkable than the porpoise's swimming powers are the methods by which it seeks food. An old bull animal which was the subject of research in 1955 "creaked" as he searched for food. This creaking, something like the sound of a rusty hinge, was recorded and found, when played back at reduced speeds, to be actually a series of clicks repeated from 10 to 400 times a second. The most recent work shows that porpoises are capable of making several distinct sounds, including what are commonly referred to as squawks, snorts, whistles, gurgles, and buzzes, as well as squeaks. It is also suggested that these various sounds the alphabet, to
So
may be combined make a "word."
in different orders, like the letters
of
no translation of porpoise language has proved possible, but is confident that he has established the meaning of one porpoise sound. Not surprisingly, this is the distress signal — a protracted squeal which rises and falls in pitch, far,
Dr. John C. Lilly, at the University of Miami,
like the
warbling of some air-raid sirens.
It is
characteristic of the dis-
both birds and mammals that the nature and purpose of the call may be understood by unrelated species, even when the caller is a bird and the hearer is a mammal. Evidently, there is a quality about distress which is almost universally appreciated. What that quality is remains to be determined. A four-year old female porpoise, weighing 180 pounds and 6 feet long, is being intensively studied at the Naval Ordinance Test Station tress calls of
Trained dolphins at play
323
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE in
China Lake, California. Nicknamed "Notty," from the
initials
of the
she has not yet attained speeds higher than 16 knots, but this believed to be because of the size of the tank in which she is kept.
facility, is
She has established a record by making sounds involving frequencies ranging from 750 to 300,000 cycles per second — as compared with the upper limit for human hearing of 20,000 cycles per second. There is no definite proof that porpoises can detect 300,000 cycles per second by conventional hearing, but it seems certain that they must have some receptor mechanism for any sounds they are capable of emitting.
Biological clocks
Research
Antarctica has been concentrating on the "biological
in
clocks" of both plants and animals. Virtually
all
living
organisms
them some intrinsic system for rhythmic regulation of their activities. Just as some plants fold up their leaves at night and open them with the coming of daylight, so the hamster sleeps during the day, but becomes active at night, even though it may be unable to see the change in lighting conditions from the bottom of its deep burrow. Birds migrate each year according to set patterns which have been shown to be independent of weather changes and food supply. There has been much speculation as to whether these rhythmical systems are governed by internal metabolic changes, or whether they are activated and controlled by external factors, such as changes in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, or by the earth's rotation. The influence of the earth's spin was determined close to the South Pole with fruit flies, fungi, and hamsters. The organisms were kept on turntables which could be counterrotated to the earth or rotated at speeds to create a "day" of more or less than 24 hours. Hamsters failed to show any loss of their natural daily rhythm over a period of ten days, although different groups were rotated so as to give them either "no day," or "days" of 20, 24, and 28.8 hours. Evidently, the have
built into
biological clock sible influence all
is
built into the animal, at least in this case.
The
pos-
of light on such a rhythm was eliminated by keeping
the turntables in total darkness for the entire period.
Birds beginning TheNorth
of the year under review brought good news for
ornithologists. On April 3, 1960, and for several succeeding days, a bird which was identified with great care by several competent observers as an Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis) was observed on Galveston Island, Texas. The species had been gen-
American
about a quarter of a century to be extinct. A simihad been seen in the same area a year earlier. The extent to which the characteristic songs of different species of birds are inherited has never been satisfactorily determined. It may erally believed for
lar bird
324
Gilbert
Cant
prove to be variable between species, and certainly between genera and However, James M. Hartshorne of Cornell University has established that for the Eastern Bluebird {Sialia sialis) the characteristic song pattern is not inherited, but acquired early in life. This was determined by isolating bluebirds from families, or other larger groupings.
their parents before hatching. call
notes and what
is
The young were
able to utter the simple
described as the "primary song," but not the
typical song. The possibility that there is some genetically determined imprinting of the bluebird to make it receptive to this particular song pattern is suggested by the fact that young birds, reared in isolation, became extremely excited when they first heard the full adult song. If this exposure occurred before the young were 15 months old, full
they tried to repeat the song with varying degrees of success. After 15 months of isolation, no matter how much the birds were then exposed to the full adult song, they
The migration of
were incapable of acquiring
it.^^
birds remains, as in Aristotle's time, a subject of
layman and of frustration for the scientific investihave been several attempts to explain the long-distance navigation of birds by extrapolating from the ob-
fascination for the
gator.i2 In recent years there
served behavior of individual birds kept captive
planetarium dome.
Many
in
an enclosure with a
of the conclusions reached by early investi-
gators, including the too-simple statement that birds navigate
observation of the
The research
ture.
more
moon and is
stars, are
by direct
now known to have been prema-
continuing, and will have to be enlarged to cover
species, in a greater
number of different
parts of the world, and in
better controlled experimental settings, before any sweeping deductions will be justified.
Probably the most important contribution to ornithology, and cerone with the widest possibilities for application to other forms of life, including man, was a paper by Professor Charles G. Sibley of Cornell University, in Ibis, on a comparison of the proteins contained in the whites of 3,000 eggs representing almost 700 species. tainly the
The
basic concept of using these proteins as a guide to the relationships
is based essentially upon the antigenic quality of eggwhite proteins. This makes some people allergic to influenza vaccine or other vaccines which are prepared by incubating the virus in fertilized hens' eggs. Animal proteins are such complex substances that
between birds
they cannot usually be separated and identified by ordinary analytic methods, but evidence of diff'erences and similarities can be obtained
by paper electrophoresis, in which solutions of the proteins are separated into groups of components which can be "read" by studying their optical density.
In his
1
first
report on 359 species, Sibley
Bird songs are described by
Darwin
in
was able
The Descent of Man, Vol. 49.
pp.
to
confirm some
456b-463a.
12 See History of Animals, Vol. 9, pp. 122b- 123d. Darwin comments on the strength of the migratory instinct in The Descent of Man, Vol. 49, pp. 308a-b, 3()9c-d, 312c-d.
325
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE taxonomic relationships which have been generally accepted on the basis of anatomical characters, and to question a number of others. Flamingos have posed a problem because they resemble the ducks and geese in some ways, but the herons and storks in others. In their eggwhite proteins the flamingos resemble the herons more closely than the ducks, and therefore presumably should be regarded as a family in the same order with herons and storks. On the other hand, the long-winged diurnal birds of prey, the falcons, have generally been assumed to be closely related to the short-winged hawks such as the Goshawk, because of the superficial resemblance of anatomical characteristics which are important in their food-gathering habits. Egg-white protein patterns suggest that the vultures and ospreys, the Secretary Bird and the short-winged hawks are all quite closely related, but that the falcons are sufficiently remote by genetic standards to justify their being accorded a suborder of their own. The inference is that the superficial resemblance between the hawks and falcons is the result of convergent evolution rather than close kinship in descent from a common ancestor. The hybridization of the turkey and domestic fowl, reported in 1960, becomes somewhat less remarkable in the light of the obvious similarities between the egg-white proteins of the two species. Sibley accords the turkeys the status of only a subfamily, not far removed from that to which the domestic fowl is assigned.
Problems of classification
The taxonomy or classification of as of birds, eff'ects
all
highly organized forms of
life,
reasons: (1) the conflicting of divergent and convergent evolution; (2) the fact that closely is
difficult for several
may diff'er in one important anatomical character but be alike in another, and it is largely a matter of the observer's discretion to determine the relative importance of each of these; (3) all the taxonomic groupings, from "kingdoms" through phyla, classes, families, and genera to species, are artificial, and are not recognized by the related species
creatures that
The
man compresses
into them.^^
proteins in the blood are probably as good an index of genetic
relationships as any.
They
are readily available from the sera of human
beings of most races, but not so readily from the sera of
of mammals.
Of
obligingly supplies a sample of shell
many
species
the higher animals, birds are the only class which
and readily available for
its
proteins, neatly
scientific analysis
packaged
in
an egg
without the necessity
been objected that in studying egg-white proteins, investigators are not studying the circulating pro-
for killing or capturing the parent. It has
teins to
13
be found
in the
bloodstream of the adult
bird.
This objection
Aristotle discusses problems of classification in Parts of Animals, Vol. 9, pp. 165d-186c. Classification is a major topic for Darwin; see, for example, Origin of Species, Vol. 49, pp. 207a-217b,
and The Descent of Man, Vol. 49, pp. 331a-350a.
326
i
Gilbert is
not valid. While not
all
Cant
of the adult forms of circulating protein are
present in the egg-white, enough of them are found there for the sam-
method to be adequate and reliable. For application to mammals, and especially to man, the serum proteins must be classified by different standards from those applied to birds, and different factors must be looked for. One of the most famUiar pling
Rh
for the rhesus monkey in occur in the blood of about 85% of the inhabitants of North America. This is important primarily in connection with the development of a severe, and potentially fatal, disease of the newborn, resulting in destruction of blood cells. Early detection of an Rh incompatibility between parents now makes it pos-
protein antigens
which
it
was
first
is
the
found, and
factor,
named
now known
sible for physicians to avert the
to
most serious consequences of
this
antigen-antibody reaction in the great majority of cases.
methods to other human proteins, comparable with those used by Sibley in birds, will depend upon the isolation of such elusive proteins as the "Diego factor." This was first isolated from the blood of a Venezuelan woman who was later found to have had an Amerindian ancestor. Then the factor was found in the Indian community from which this ancestor had been derived. It next appeared in Buffalo, New York, which puzzled hematologists, until they determined that some of the patient's ancestors had lived in Eastern Europe at the time of the Tartar invasion. The assumption is that the Diego factor is characteristic of Mongol and Mongoloid peoples. Further study of this and of other comparable factors should go far to clarify the relationships between the races of man and their subdivisions. No fewer than 36 antigenic proteins which can be used for these studies have already been detected in human blood.
The
application of electrophoretic
for purposes
Flight of insects
While
the
phenomenon of migration by the Monarch butterfly in America is fairly well-known, a more obscure,
eastern North
but no less interesting, example of long-distance travel by one of the
Lepidoptera involves a species found in Great Britain in springtime. theory was that this moth {Nomophila noctuella) had breeding grounds between North Africa and the British Isles. The other theory was that the moths bred only in North Africa, and covered the entire distance to Britain by migration under their own wing power. After the French atomic bomb test in the Sahara early in 1960, Dr. H. B. D. Underwell of Oxford University reasoned that if the moths reaching England that spring had indeed originated in North Africa, it would be possible to confirm this by their radioactivity. This was done at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. This
One
moth evidently was able to travel at least 1 ,500 miles. Another question involving the aerobatics of insects has to do with their wing loading. Many have heavy bodies and such small wings that small
327
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE an aircraft designer would assume that they could never get off the ground. The explanation lies in extraordinarily rapid wing beats, up to at least 1,000 per second. This, however, does not explain the neuromuscular control of such feats. As the nervous system cannot transmit messages at that speed, the activation of the muscles must be by
some other mechanism. Another
British investigator. Professor
reported that the
flight
of midges
is
Vincent B. Wiggles worth,
controlled by two sets of opposed
These work reciprocally, one set them down. The system is essentially automatic, like that of the diesel engine, which requires no electrical ignition system: once it has been started, presumably by a nerve-impulse command, the midge's wing-muscle assembly keeps running until it is switched off by another such command. spring-like muscles in the thorax.
elevating the wings and the other pulling
Boiling of crabs "carcinology," Theas term crabs, used
for the study of large crustaceans such because the same Greek root has been adopted in oncology (the study of tumors) to denote the commonest form of malignant tumor, the carcinoma. A question which agitated carcinologists in 1961 was the most humane way of killing the bigger and hardier crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, and spiny lobsters, which are commonly marketed alive and kept alive until it is time for them to be dropped into the cooking pot. Gordon Gunter of the Texas Game and Fish Commission suggested in Science that the practices of dropping a live crustacean into boiling water, in home or restaurant cooking, and the use of live steam by commercial packers are inhumane. He argued: "Anyone who observes the violent reactions of crustaceans being scalded to death can see that they suffer extreme pain .... Thousands of American housewives will not cook fresh lobsters or crabs for that reason." Gunter proposed as an alternative that the crustaceans be immersed in cold or lukewarm water which, over a slow flame, is raised to a temperature of 40° C. He contended that they then die quickly "without suffering distress." The biological explanation is that most marine invertebrates, and especially those from the colder and deeper layers of ocean, cannot survive in a temperature above 37° C. There was immediate objection to Gunter's argument, on the ground that the "violent reactions" which are distressing to him and to housewives are only assumed, and have not been proved, to be indicative of pain. In all probability, they are like the Galvanic reflexes seen in many lower forms of life, or in the oftencited (but less frequently observed) phenomenon of the "chicken with its head cut off." The correspondence columns of Science then tackled the question whether the crab does not, in fact, suffer more pain, and certainly more prolonged pain, by being brought slowly to a temperis little
ature
328
beyond
its
capacity for survival.
Gilbert
Cant
Photosynthesis century-old attempts Theachievement of nature
by laboratory researchers to match the manufacturing fats, sugars, and other high-energy metabolic fuels from water and carbon dioxide, with the aid of sunlight, took a great step toward fulfillment. Previous eiforts to synthesize chlorophyll had been disappointing, but had laid the basis upon which one of the most brilliant synthetic chemists. Dr. Robert B. Woodward of Harvard University, was to build. Woodward was already noted for his syntheses of quinine, cortisone, and strychnine when he took the commonly available chemical, acetoacetic ester, and broke it down into four constituents. Then he reassembled these to form the skelton of a new molecule which, with appropriate atoms and radicals attached, produced both the active chlorophyll-a and its inert mirror image. Dr. Woodward and his colleagues were able to achieve the difficult separation of these two, and to isolate a minute quantity of the active isomer in pure form. This chlorophyll-a has proved incapable of photosynthesis, presumably because when the same substance is found in the green leaves of plants it has a special structure consisting of thin leaves which are arranged to form laminated discs. In addition, the natural chlorophyll probably depends on the availability of other complex chemicals, including enzymes, to perform the miracle in
of photosynthesis. Dr.
Andrew A. Benson
of Pennsylvania State University reported
that despite previous doubts as to the ability of
most plants
to incor-
porate sulfur in their metabolism, both alfalfa and spinach can do
this.
Their leaves contain a "sulfosugar" which is believed to be one of the biological middlemen in photosynthesis, permitting reactions between substances which are soluble only in oil. Until the laboratory can duplicate such processes, man will remain dependent on the magic of the green leaf.
Animal sensitivity is not only in photosynthesis that nature remains far ahead of man. With the increasing complexity of technical devices and their need for greater sensitivity, researchers are turning to nature in the hope of learning how primitive creatures perform feats of detection and discrimination to which the most sophisticated products of man's technique cannot yet aspire. To this study they have applied the name "bi-
It
onics."
Many
of the phenomena under investigation involve sensory sensiFor example, rattlesnakes have a heat-detecting organ which responds to temperature differences of only .001° C. This enables them to find their warm-blooded prey at night. Similarly, certain tropical fish are believed to be capable of detecting an electric current of only .00000000002 amp. The "sonar" of porpoises has been discussed above. Also in the supersonic range are the higher harmonics of bat tivity.
329
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE squeaks: a moth which is often preyed upon by bats has been found to have an ear so developed that it responds to high-frequency bat trans-
missions in time for the moth to take evasive action. In the laboratory, electrodes have been attached to the auricular nerve of this moth,
making
its
ear the most sensitive microphone
known
for bat detection.
Life on other planets there life on Mars? What is the explanation of the seasonal changes observed on the red planet's surface? UntU recently, there has been a tendency to assume that "life" must resemble, in most if not all essential respects, life as we know it on earth, deriving from a small number of simple basic chemicals, and depending for its survival upon the availability of such substances as oxygen, water, and carbon dioxide. The likelihood that it may soon be possible to obtain samples from the surface of the moon and from some of the nearby planets, without waiting for manned space flight and direct explorations, demands a reevaluation of what is to be regarded as life, and how its manifestations are to be identified. The study of the possibilities of life, in a form that would be so recognized by Homo sapiens, has been named "exobiology." In a thoughtful exploration of the confines of this new science, Dr. Joshua Lederberg, the Nobel Laureate geneticist at Stanford University, pointed out that even to refer to the seasonal changes on Mars as depending upon "vegetation" is misleading. It implies an assumption that life on Mars, if it is ever found to exist, will be organized in an essentially terrestrial pattern. The likelihood must be considered that forms of life, depending on entirely different metabolic systems from any that man has so far been able to envisage, may exist in a habitat no more different from that of earth than that of Mars. If there is to be any recognition of "life" on such markedly more dissimilar planets as Venus and Saturn, a still broader concept of life, embracing still wider
Is
must be accepted. While warning against the dangers of impetuous sallies into space, which may result in contaminating the other planets with earthly life, Lederberg concludes: "Exobiology is no more fantastic than the realidifferences,
zation of space travel itself."
comes
330
into view."
Or
as
Bacon
said:
"A new
universe
BIBLIOGRAPHY following Theliography
not presented as a bib-
is
conventional sense,
in the
nor
designed to be an exhaustive read-
is it
ing list. It is essentially a list of books which have interested the author, with brief reviews of the more important ones and with occasional critical comments on others. They are classified in accordance with the
subdivisions of this essay, although there are inevitably
some
overlaps.
At the undergraduate
level,
and requires
a recollection of algebra that readers
may have
lost.
many
older
Otherwise, ad-
mirably straightforward.
Burnet, Sir (Frank) Macfarlane, The Clonal Selection Theory of Acquired Immunity. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1959
As
scientifically
work
is
clear.
obscure as the preceding for an
Heavy going even
immunologist, but important.
Introduction
Penrose, Lionel Sharples, Recent Ad-
EiSELEY, LoREN, The Firmament of Time. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1960. The author, who is provost of the University of Pennsylvania, takes a poetic
and sometimes
"What
question, it
is
lyrical
view of the "nat-
sciences," but fails to answer the
ural
natural?"
is
However,
a stimulating and provocative work,
taking
much
of
its
tone from Sir
Browne's statement that "God out a
new
creation
.
.
.
may
.
Thomas .
.
with-
effect his ob-
scurest designs." This view affords an interesting
comparison with Bacon's that
man may create a new universe. The Royal Society:
Its Origins and FounHarold Hartley. London: The Society, Burlington House, 1960.
ders. Ed.
by
Sir
Basic Biological Research
Human
vances
in
Brown
& Co.,
Genetics. Boston: Little,
1961.
Williams, Greer, Virus Hunters.
New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1959. By a layman for laymen, this work is as intelligible as it is intelligent. It deserves greater
success
than
Hunters, on which the nately,
The title
Microbe
— but
fortu-
not the content or style — was
patterned.
Anthropology and Psychology Bailey, Percival, "A Rigged Radio Interview" in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Despite an unfortunately flippant title, an acid (and occasionally corrosive) critique, by an eminent neurologist
this is
AsiMOV, Isaac, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science. Vol. II. New York: Basic
trained in psychiatry, of the extreme fa-
Books,
analysis has sometimes developed.
Vol.
Inc., 1960. II
covers the biological sciences,
beginning with the molecular basis of proteins, the cell,
working up
and microorganisms, and body, the species, and
to the
the mind.
Begg, Charles M. M.,An Introduction to Genetics. New York: Macmillan Co., 1959.
naticism to which the cult of psycho-
Bettelheim,
Bruno,
Heart: Autonomy 111.:
A
in
a
The
Informed
Mass Age. Glencoe,
Free Press, 1961. psychiatrist's interpretation, based
personal experience
camp, of the
in
on
a concentration
totalitarian attack
on the
uniqueness of the individual. The danger 331
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE to the individual in the age of
says
remains,
Bettelheim,
"mass man" though
the
Nazi regime is gone. Intellectual integrity, no less than political liberty, exacts the eternal vigilance of those
and would preserve
who cherish
it.
BiBBY, Cyril, T. H. Huxley: Scientist, Humanist, and Educator. Cornwallville. N. Y.: Horizon Press, Inc., 1960.
nine authors approach
man from
the dif-
fering viewpoints of their several specialties. It
has been objected that they do not
Homo
agree even on the age of
sapiens.
Far from being a drawback, this diversity of opinion is an asset, serving to emphasize the gaps remaining in our knowledge of our ancestry, although the oldest acknowledged artifacts of Homo sapiens were dated by geological methods in 1960. The sections on the evolution of tools, speech, agriculture, and industry are workmanlike. More provoc-
Far more than a biography, and an eloquent evocation of the "great debate" of a century ago, in which Huxley was a more effective advocate of Darwin than
ative for the projection of
was Darwin
into the future are those sections dealing
himself.
man's
human
history
which
Evolution After Darwin. Ed. by Sol Tax, 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago
with
The Evolution of Life: II. The Evolution of Man: Mind, Culture and So-
and the population explosion (by Edward S. Deevey, Jr.). The wealth of illustrations, especially the diagrammatic schemes, makes the compilation espe-
Press, 1960. Vol.
Its Origin,
I.
History and Future; Vol.
ciety.
Everything that the comprehensive implies, with luster
title
Sir JuHan Huxley, Harlow Shapley, George Gaylord Simpson, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Niko Tinbergen, and G. F.
Gause. Outline of Man's Knowledge of the Modern World. Ed. by Lyman Bryson.
York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
Inc.,
1960. I,
subtitled
"The Mind and Body of
Man," comprises chapters by four physicians and a psychologist, with emphasis on the mind-body relationship (H. G. Wolff) and the brain as a mechanism
(Ralph W. Gerard). Part II, "The World of Living Things," covers "The Elements
(Hudson
Hoagland), "The Smallest Living Things" (Rene J. Dubos), and "Man and Nature's Balance" (Paul of
Life"
B. Sears).
Other parts deal with physical
sciences, sociology, the law, and the arts.
cially attractive.
Tinbergen, Gull's
World.
American. September, 1960. special issue devoted entirely to "the
Scientific
A
of the
human
era from the
axes
Nikolaas,
New
The Herring York: Basic Books,
Inc., 1961.
A
revised and enlarged edition of a
species," spanning the
Acheulean makers of hand
150,000 B.C.) to the use of transistors in space communications. The {ca.
332
work De-
book
is
essentially a
study in psychology and
is
the outstand-
spite its title, this
ing contribution to date in an area
may
which
eventually prove to be as import-
ant—to the understanding of both animals and man — as Pavlov's work on conditional reflexes. A sensitive observer and an engaging writer, Tinbergen does not anthropomorphize, afraid (as so
many
but
neither
is
he
recent observers have
been) to note the resemblances between the bird and
man and
to interpret the be-
havior of one in the light of what
is
known
about the other. Both species are gregarious, and the nature of their communal organizations produces
some remarkable
gulls' "towns" have areas which are set aside as "clubs" for the passage of leisure time. Most aggression is initiated by the males, but
congruences.
rise
evolution,
hitherto available only in England.
An
Part
present
himself controls (by Dobzhansky),
added by such out-
standing (and readable) contributors as
New
man
if
Herring
the females participate,
it
is
usually at
each others' expense in an equivalent of hair-pulling. The female is the more
Gilbert
active
Although herring
courtship.
in
gulls look alike to the untrained
human
eye, they recognize each other at consid-
and features. Although they are remark-
facial
by
often
distances,
erable
voice
Mind
Searching
Museum By is
Medicine.
in
Cant
London:
Press, Ltd., 1961.
The
the editor of
Practitioner, this
a searching and well-written survey of
current medical research, the tasks con-
show
fronting
flexi-
solutions to the problems in the foresee-
They recognize neighbors and indulge in personal hatreds for no apparent
able future — all interpreted with a schol-
ably adaptable as a species, they
marked
limitations
in
individual
bility.
reason. Like
some human
societies, her-
ring gulls react strongly to the color red.
it,
and the prospects for finding
arly appreciation based
on a keen aware-
ness of the recent past. Dr.
Thomson dis-
cusses both the dangers of radiation and the beneficial uses of radioisotopes; the
Progress
in
biochemistry and chemotherapy of can-
Medicine
For the specialist: A massive monograph on a mosquito which had an influence upon history out of all proportion to its size, and the conquest of which makes one of
and the hope that an similar to an antibiotic, may soon be developed. He does a service by marshaling the evidence on the differences in susceptibility between individuals with different blood groups (A,B, and O) to certain diseases, notably duodenal ulcer — although the interpre-
the great success stories in the annals of
tation of this evidence
medicine. Aedes aegypti
dispute.
cer; virus diseases
Richard, Aedes Sir Christophers, Aegypti (L). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1960.
is
the carrier of
Proosdij, C. van. Smoking:
Its Influence
yellow fever.
ter
on the Individual and Its Role in Social Medicine. Princeton, N. J.: D. Van NostrandCo.,Inc., 1961.
A review of the data on the effects of the tobacco habit upon the human organism, comprising the chemical changes induced by smoking and the ical
social
and psycholog-
aspects of the habit.
Van
Proosdij
disapproves of smoking almost as strongly as
did
James
but he
I,
understanding
in his
respondingly
more
is
far
more
approach and cortemperate in his
judgment.
chemical,
antiviral
He
is still
subject to
also has an interesting chap-
on the influence of climate on working
efficiency; the relationship
is
not as sim-
ple as might be expected.
Special Investigations Biology and Comparative Physiology of Birds. 2 Vols. Ed. by A. J. Marshall. New York: Academic Press, Inc., 1960-61.
The
first
major work
in this field in half a
century.
The Doubleday
Pictorial Library of
ture: Earth, Plants,
Animals.
New
Na-
York:
Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1960. An American edition of a work produced England with an editorial board conmen such as James Fisher, Sir Julian Huxley, Sir Gerald Barry, and J. Bronowski. The nine contributors are all eminent in their specialties. The scope in
Simon, Harold
J.,
Philadelphia, Penn.:
Attenuated Infection. J.
B. Lippincott Co.,
1960.
An
explanation of the fact, which anti-
biotic it is
man
has learned to his sorrow, that
not advisable to try to eliminate
all in-
from the environment — including the internal environment of the human gut and female genitalia. A sci-
fectious microbes
entifically
sisting of
of the work invite tion.
is
Thomson, William A.
R.
(M.D.),
so forbiddingly vast as to
and oversimplificapitfalls have been
However, these
avoided skillfully, so far as is possible where such a high degree of compression
supported plea for "peaceful
coexistence" of man and microbe.
is
childishness
required.
The
lavish illustrations are
not only informative but are, with rare
The
and minor exceptions, as accurate as 333
to-
.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
A
day's knowledge of their subject matter.
poids.
one of the most successful attempts to date to describe all life, from the simplest forms and its earliest beginnings to the complexities of man and
onomic
This work
is
of
all
valuable
table
forms of
overcome
feature
which life
the
is
tax-
offers a classification
-with
illustrations to
most readers have with the highly condensed material in tables and keys.
his relationships with the higher anthro-
the difficulty that
NOTE TO THE READER of the most important subjects Many the biological sciences and medicine
in
are discussed in the preceding review of
Readers interested
developments.
recent
in further investigating
For discussion of the
Evolution la. The
these subjects will
man, see
doctrine
man's
of
special
creation: in body, in soul
much
useful and interesting material Syntopicon and in the selections included in Great Books of the Western World. For a general introduction, the find
origin of
the passsages cited under
lb.
The theory of the evolutionary man from lower forms
in the
origin of
reader should consult the essays
of animal life: descent from an ancestor common to man and the anthropoids
in
the
Syntopicon chapters on Animal, Evolution, and Medicine. For material on specific
subjects, the essays
below
will
and topics
For discussion of the beginnings of passages cited under
listed
Man
be most helpful.
9c.
For discussion of the nature of life, the distinction between the living and the lifeless, and the various grades of life, see the essay on Life and Death, and the passages in Great Books of the Western World cited in the Syntopicon under the following topics:
Continuity and discontinuity scale of animal
and
Life and
life:
in the
Animal 5^.
gradation from
life: the soul organic bodies Continuity or discontinuity between living and non-living things: comparison of
Mind
life in
1^.
(1)
For discussion of genes and the mechanisms of heredity, see the essay on Evolution, and the passages cited under
Animal Heredity and environment: the genetic determination of individual differences
334
Mind as the totality of mental processes and as the principle of meanbehavior stream of thought, consciousness, or experience: the variety of mental operations The topography of mind
ingful or purposive
powers and activities with the potentialities and motions of inert bodies
similarities
brain and nervous system: the
ous impulses
The nature and cause of
and
The
excitation and conduction of nerv-
vital
10.
man; primitive and
man
For discussion of the nature of mind and mental processes, see the essay on Mind, and the passages cited under the following
Death
as the principle of 2.
historic
civilized
lower to higher forms
1
Secular conceptions of the stages of human life: man in a state of nature and in society; prehistoric
topics:
Animal 2c.
civ-
ilization, see the
(2)
The nature of
the
For discussion of dreams, see the passages cited under the following topics:
Memory and Imagination 8.
The nature and causes of dreaming
Gilbert
The
Sb.
and memory
role of sensation
in the
and medicine conGreat Books of the Western World. The most important of these are:
For discussion of genius, see the passages cited under
psychology)
cluding tained
dreams of sleep
Cant
8
in
Aristotle,
and
On
the
Sensible,
the
Soul, On Sense On Memory and
On Sleep and SleepOn Dreams, On Prophesying by Dreams, On Longevity and Shortness of Life, On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing Aristotle, History of Animals, On the Parts of Animals, On the Motion of Animals, On the Gait of Animals, On Reminiscence,
Mind
lessness,
differences
Individual
4a.
degrees
gence:
of
in
intelli-
capacity
for
understanding
For discussion of population see the passages cited under
control,
9
Family 6b. Eugenics:
control
of
the Generation ofAnimals
breeding: 10
birth control
Hippocrates, The Oath, Medicine,
gery,
5d
tions,
psychogenesis
of
bodily
disorders
For discussion of the influence of climate upon health and character, see the passages under
cited
lb.
influence of environmental factors on human characteristics: climate and geography as
For background
to the use of drugs
and
medicines, see the passages cited under
Medicine Medication: drugs, specifics
For discussion of the classifying
in
difficulties
involved
animals, see the essay on
Evolution, and the passages
cited
under
Animal 2a. General
schemes of classification: and major divisions
their principles
For discussion of animal
sensitivity, see
the passages cited under
Animal \a {\)
It
the
On
The
On
On
Fistulae,
the Articula-
Reduction,
of
Law, On Ulcers, Hemorrhoids, On the
Sacred Disease 10
Galen,
On
the
Natural
On
Heart and Blood
the
in
Faculties
Motion of
Animals,
On
On
the
the Circulation of the Blood,
Generation of Animals
Darwin, The Origin of The Descent of Man 53 William James, The Principles of
49 Charles Species,
differences
(2)
Fractures,
Instruments
Aphorisms,
the
The
determinants of racial or national
3d
On
28 William Harvey,
Man
Ancient
in
Medicine The
On
Waters, and Places,
The Book of Prognostics, On Regimen Acute Diseases, Of the Epidemics, On Injuries of the Head, On the Sur-
For discussion of the relation between emotion and illness, see the passages cited under
(2)
On Airs,
Animal sensitivity: and differentiations
its
degrees
may help the reader to be reminded of many works of biological science (in-
Psychology 54 SiGMUND Freud, The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis, Selected Papers on Hysteria, Ch. 1-10, The Sexual Enlightenment of Children, The Future Prospects of Psycho -Analytic
Therapy, Observations on "Wild"
The Interpretation Instincts Narcissism, On Dreams, of and Their Vicissitudes, Repression, The Unconscious, A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, The Ego and the Id, Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, Civilization and Its DisconPsycho-Analysis,
tents,
New
Introductory Lectures on
Psycho-Analysis
335
GEORGE
P.
GRANTwas born in Toronto, Canada, in
Canadian schools
World War
II
until
1918. Heattended
he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship
he served
in
During war he re-
in 1939.
the British merchant navy. After the
turned to Oxford, where he received the Doctor of Philosophy degree 1947.
From 1947
to
1960 he was Chairman of the Philosophy department
in
at
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. Recently he joined the faculty of
McMaster phy
in the
University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Mass Age and
has
made
He
is
author of the book Philoso-
frequent radio and television appearances.
336
J
Philosophy and religion GEORGE P. GRANT
PHILOSOPHY In
recent years, philosophical studies have sounded a hesitant note. this uncertainty is that so many of the leading philos-
The cause of
ophers spend their time pondering the subject matter and the proper method of their study. This is in marked contrast to the biologists and physicists who are not so much concerned with arguing what their science is, as in doing it. Because there is both great disagreement and uncertainty about the nature of the philosophic enterprise, hesitancy is inevitable. Indeed, nowhere is the intellectual incoherence of the Western world more manifest than in the diverse currents of contemporary philosophy.
There has always been argument about the subject matter and method of philosophy. One of the great questions asked by philosophers has been "What is philosophy?" In the first flowering of philosophy among the Greeks, Plato and Aristotle disagreed on the definition of knowledge and its relation to philosophy.^ In a later flowering among the Germans at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the two leading geniuses, Kant and Hegel, were in disagreement about the limits of knowledge and how wisdom is to be attained. 2 Nevertheless, behind these disagreements, which appeared again and again in the history of thought, there lay a profound sense of agreement as to the essential nature of philosophy. There was no
doubt that the philosopher was par excellence the man of knowledge, as distinguished from opinion, and that his ultimate goal was wisdom. Skepticism about these matters was always a minority report. The disagreement about philosophy in the modern scientific era is much more fundamental. There are many who deny that there is any such thing as philosophy as it has been practiced from the dawn of civilization. In its place these modern thinkers substitute a conception of philosophy as criticism and analysis which impHes a radical break with the intellectual tradition of the past. To understand recent philosophy, therefore, it is necessary to describe the traditional conception 1
contrast Plato and Aristotle in their views of philosophy, see The Republic, Vol. 7, pp. 356b40 Id, and Metaphysics, Vol. 8, pp. 499a-5 3d. To contrast Kant and Hegel, see, for example. The Critique of Pure Reason, Vol. 42, pp. 14a22a, c, and The Philosophy of Right, Vol. 46, pp. 9a-20d.
To
1
2
337
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION of philosophy and to compare substituted for
From
it
with the conceptions which are
now
it.
and through most of the histo be the contemplation of reality as a whole. By means of thought, men gained knowledge of the fundamental principles by which the universe and their own existence in particular could be understood. ^ Philosophy was thus the perfecting of man's capacity to know, because it provided knowledge of the most universal kind. Because it led to the understanding of the whole, it could direct human conduct to good as against evil ends. Philosophy was the heart of all education. (The literal meaning of the word is "the love of wisdom," and because all men should love to be wise, all should pursue philosophy as much as their talents and circumstances permit.'*) Philosophy must be carefully distinguished from science and religion. (The distinction between philosophy and science was made particularly sharp in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of our era by the work of such men as Descartes, Hume, and Kant.) The function of the scientist is to inquire into and describe accurately particular aspects of reality — the physical, the living, or the human. Science provides us with knowledge of how events happen in the world. It thus answers different questions from those answered by philosophy, which its
origins in the ancient world
tory of Europe, philosophy
was believed
seeks to comprehend the whole. Religious knowledge, on the other hand, is concerned with answers reached through the help of faith. In the Western world, the religion is that of the Bible — in its majority form. Christian; in its minority form, Jewish. Faith is the trust of the believer that God has answered certain questions
through their
Not
all
by revelation — questions which men cannot answer
own unaided
reason.
the great philosophers, of course, have believed that such
answers are given in religion.^ There are those, such as Spinoza, who believe that philosophy can answer all questions and that there is no need for revelation.^ Hegel affirmed that philosophy could take up into itself all the truth given in more primitive form in religion.'' On the other hand, many philosophers are either Christians or Jews, and believe that revelation completes the pursuit of philosophy. The traditional account of what it is to philosophize is now a minority report in the most influential intellectual circles of the EnglishSee Plato, The Republic, Vol. 7, pp. 370d-373c, 397a-398b; Aristotle, Metaphysics, Vol. 8, pp. 522a-525a; Epictetus, Discourses, Vol. 12, pp. 150a-151b; Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Vol. 19, pp. 3b-4a; Hobbes, Leviathan, Vol. 23, pp. 60a-b, 72a-d; Bd^con, Advancement of Learning, Vol. 30, pp. 40a-c, 42a-46a; Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 451a-455b; Kant, Critique of Judgement, Vol. 42, pp. 463a-465c; and Hegel, Philosophy of History, Vol. 46, pp. 184d-185c. 4 The part of love in the practice of philosophy has never been better described than by Plato in his two dialogues Phaedrus and Symposium. See Vol. 7, pp. 115a-141 a,c, and pp. 149a3
173c.
For a
brilliant attack on supernatural religion as quite outside the bounds of reason, see Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 488d-509d. 6 See Ethics, Vol. 31, pp. 355a-372d. 7 See Philosophy of History, Vol. 46, pp. 360c-369a, c.
5
338
George
P.
Grant
speaking world. Our scientific and pragmatic civilization has been both new view of philosophy. In this view,
the result and the cause of a
philosophy should not try to understand the true
way
of
life
for
man
but should try to criticize the intellectual activities of civilization. Philosophy is not concerned with great speculative systems which give us knowledge of reality as a whole, but with analyzing the logic
which men employ in their various activities. To seek the cause of this new view would involve understanding the modern civilization of progress. For what men consider philosophy to be is a mirror of themselves and of their aspirations. This account of philosophy as criticism sees the relation of the subject to science and religion in a new way. The older philosophy is considered to have arisen in essentially religious societies and therefore to have confused its function with religion. Philosophy is now believed to
be freed from
its
religious origins
and therefore freed from giving meaning of life." Its
authoritative answers to questions about "the essential purpose
is
criticism.^
recognized that, historically, philosophy was the mother of the sciences. As a good mother, however, it has given its children independence and surrendered many of its old functions. Thus the scope of philosophy has gradually contracted. Accurate descriptions of It is
reality are
now
provided by the sciences with their appeal to experi-
ment. The claims of philosophy to provide ontological knowledge beyond that provided by the sciences is a sham. Philosophy is no superscience, but a critical method concerned primarily with logic. The re-
markable developments in mathematics and the sciences in the last hundred years have given the philosophers an enormous task. Symbolic logic has provided new means of analysis. Modern analytical philosophy has indeed been chiefly concerned with the science of logic and the logic of science. One result of the analytical account of philosophy has been to make the subject increasingly professional, which adds to its difficulty and limits its importance. As philosophers are no longer concerned with authoritative answers to the great questions, their importance in society is naturally decreased. This has meant that philosophy plays an increasingly narrow role in the educational system. Unless to be wise is simply to be critical, the new philosophy does not claim to make us wise. Another result of this professionalizing (a result evident in the writing of 1960)
is
that
much
philosophical literature
is
highly technical
and requires great technical competence on the reader's part. In the contemporary Anglo-American world, two forms of this new philosophy are particularly influential — the first more especially in the United States, the second in England. These two schools share certain common origins and interests, but must be distinguished as to what they consider to be the practice of philosophy. 8
Kant was the first philosopher to maintain that the essential task of philosophy Critique of Pure Reason, Vol. 42, pp. 5a- 1 3d.
339
is
criticism.
See
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION The first is particularly concerned with the logic of mathematics and the sciences. Philosophy is thus not essentially different from the sciences, but broader in framework because interested in a logical language which is comprehensive. Some logicians are interested in this pursuit for pragmatic reasons: it helps the scientist to better understand what he is doing and to communicate with his colleagues. The interest of other logicians is a pure interest in simplicity for its own sake. But whether the interest is pragmatic or intellectual, the
The made this account influential in the United Rudolf Carnap, who was a famous Austrian logician be-
philosopher's function chief philosopher States fore
is
coming
who
essentially the logic of the sciences.
is
has
to this country. Its
most distinguished current exponent
is
W. V. Quine of Harvard, who in 1960 published Word and Object. Other notable exponents are Hans Reichenbach, whose posthumous essays, Modern Philosophy of Science, were published in 1959, and Professor Ernest Nagel of Columbia, who brought out Professor
Rudolf Carnap
The Structure of Science; Problems
in
the Logic of Scientific Ex-
planation.
To be
distinguished from this form of analytical philosophy
school of "linguistic analysis" which
England. According to
its
is
the
is
particularly influential
practitioners, to philosophize
is
in
to study the
use we actually make of our linguistic instruments in the course of our business one with another and with the world. This frees us from the conceptual confusions and illusions which become imbedded in unanalyzed language. The "puzzles" of traditional metaphysics {e.g.,
and determinism) will melt away when they are seen to have been caused by linguistic confusions. At its most extreme this scliool has believed that philosophy is simply prolegomena to a future science of language. Unlike the logicians of science, the analytic school does not believe there is any ideal language but only common-sense language. The meaning of language is to be found in its use — whether for scientific, free will
Ludwig Wittgenstein
moral,
artistic,
guage has
its
or religious purposes.
own
unique
Each statement of ordinary
logic, so that
no
ideal or
comprehensive
lan-
logic
is possible. The chief influence in forming this school was the work of another Austrian, Ludwig Wittgenstein. The center of its influence has been in the University of Oxford. Its most notable exponent. Professor J. L. Austin, died in 1959. It is now possible to see very clearly what the linguistic analysts mean by philosophy. The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers, edited by J. O.
Urmson, covers
the whole range of philosophy from Abelard to
Zeno
within the analytic assumptions.
War
II the dominance of these two forms of been almost complete in the English-speaking universities. The older tradition of metaphysics has been carried on, but more and more as a minority report. For instance, in 1959 Professor Paul Weiss of Yale brought out his monumental study in
Since the end of World
analytical philosophy has
340
George
P.
Grant
modern metaphysics, Modes of Being. But such a work can only come from one who does not accept the general climate of the day. In Catholic circles (where authority and tradition are strong) there is still institutional support for traditional philosophy. The support of an
more and more
older tradition has
fallen
on Catholic shoulders, and
has often led to the identification of metaphysics with the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the past year a remarkable example of Catholic metaphysics has appeared in Professor Etienne Gilson's The Elements of Christian Philosophy. this
Analytical philosophy
is
now
the tradition. Criticism, which started
several centuries ago as a revolt against metaphysics,
now
is
itself
the establishment. Its practitioners have been in control of the teach-
two decades at the major intellectual centers, so coming generation is taught to conceive the subject in this way and sometimes to be hardly aware of any other conception. In the 1940's and 1950's much positive work in logical and linguistic analysis was carried on within this established and confident framework. ing of philosophy for
that the
What
is
philosophy?
What characterizes philosophical a return to the question
literature during the past year
"What
is
philosophy?"
A
is
number of
books have been published which turn away from the monolithic cerand question what the philosophic enterprise is all about. Men only stop what they are doing, and ponder what
tainty of the analytic tradition
it is
they are doing,
this
questioning
is
if
they are not entirely
satisfied.
One
past. Indeed, the least endearing aspect of analytical
been
its
indication of
a greater sympathy for the philosophic
readiness to speak of past philosophy as
if it
work of the
philosophy has
had been mostly a
catalogue of errors. This arrogance has faded, and analytical philoso-
phers even write of the past as Professor
if
they had something to learn from
W. V. Quine's Word and Object
heart of analytical philosophy as envisaged by W.
V.
Quine
it.
takes us right into the its
subtlest
American
concerned with inquiring into the mechanism of language, but for the purposes of that inquiry he clearly describes what he considers the nature of philosophy to be. More than in any of his earlier books (such as From a Logical Point of View) the method and scope of analytical philosophy are made plain. Therefore, it is a splendid introduction for anyone who wishes to understand what modern exponent. Quine
is
philosophers are doing.
Quine understands philosophy to be the effort to become clear and all communication, all language, technical and
self-conscious about
otherwise.
Thus
natural
He
describes science as "self-conscious
new vocabulary and formulae found evolution of ordinary language. The
the
common
sense."
therein are seen as a scientist's
attempt to
communicate about the world with the maximum of clarity and economy is the same for Quine as the purpose and method of philosophy. 341
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION The same kind of things essential difference
concern.
ever
It
is
are being done, and in the
same way. The one framework of
that philosophy has a broader
deals not only with particular subjects, but also with what-
we consider
useful to admit into our discourse
Quine then sees philosophy as "an "things" being mainly our
own
effort
on
all
subjects.
to get things clear,"
evolving concept of the world in gen-
own knowledge. But in saying this, must be made clear that he is thoroughly positivist in his assumptions about knowledge and thoroughly behaviorist in his assumptions about human conduct. Scientific method is the way to truth. This is why the study of language is seen as basic. We can watch how people use language in the market place. Therefore, our conclusions from it are ascertainable by all. Only in terms of language can we contemplate our own acts of eral, including
ourselves and our
it
knowing. Any attempt to stand outside our own cognitions (as if firmer ground existed somehow outside the empirically testable, the behaviorally scrutable) is to reduce philosophy to a mere "whistling in the dark." There is no firmer ground outside our world of experience, so no such "cosmic exile" is possible. The failure to understand this was what vitiated traditional metaphysics. The concentration on understanding this world, the belief that this world is completely explainable in its own terms, is an essential aspect of modern philosophy. Quine is indubitably one of such "worldly" philosophers. Philosophy for Quine is thus essentially a semantical undertaking. What he thinks is achieved through such analysis may be elucidated by comparing him with the school of linguistic analysis. In their negative aims they are similar. Both Quine and linguistic analysts belifeve that most metaphysical problems will be dissolved by showing them to be unreal and to have arisen because of faulty use of language.^ But the positive results they hope to achieve through their semantical work
A basic slogan of the linguistic analysts is that every statement has its own logic. Therefore their analysis reveals hidden meanings and subtleties in all statements, rather than one common logic. Quine's aim is quite different. Above all it is to simplify — to clear the ontological slums — to eliminate subtleties rather than to discover them. He rejects the slogan that every statement has its own logic and believes that the purpose of his technique is to reduce all language to certain basic logical constructions. This will enable people to reach a common ground from which they will be able to commuare quite different.
nicate successfully in a
way
previously impossible.
Above
all it will
enable them to clarify and simplify their total world picture.
Quine recognizes
that these basic logical constructions will never
constitute a complete, but only a partial system. But unified logic
which
will
apply to discourse on
all
it
will
subjects
provide a
— not
sep-
9 Distress at the failings of language was voiced by Hobbes in Leviathan, Vol. 23, pp. 54c-6 a. See also Locke, Essay Concernirifi Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 285a-301c; and Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 470d-471c. 1
342
George
P.
Grant
arate logics for each special subject, let alone each separate statement.
In this aim for "a partial notation for discourse on
Quine
is
clearly differentiated
all
subjects,"
from the analytical philosophers of the
Wittgensteinian school.
Quine's unwavering allegiance to the ideal of simplicity and econis hard to reconcile with the pragmatic reference of his thought at other points. Although there has always been in science the motive to explain things as simply as possible and for the sake of simplicity
omy
has been more and more subordinated to the power motive which wants to manipulated^ Quine, for all his positivist assumptions, is so far from any interest in the power motive in science that he seems hardly aware of its existence. There is an almost Platonic ring in his itself, this
constant appeals to the idea of simplicity as the very standard of truth, as the
intellect is drawn. He tries to describe value of his thought in pragmatic enough terms, but these
good towards which the
this central
elucidations deepen our conception rather than clarify
unknown
it.
He
speaks of
mechanism of our drive for simplicity and the overwhelming survival value it must have: simplicity engenders good working conditions for the creative imagination; it tends to the
neurological
enhance the scope of a
scientific theory;
above
all,
"simplicity
is
the
we can ask." This mixture of Platonic and does not make what he means by it any clearer.
best evidence of truth
Darwinian language Its status
within his system remains ambiguous.
In another way, Quine also departs from the positivist tradition.
His conception of philosophy makes a strange kind of room for ontolthe study of reality. According to Quine, we construct logic and produce theories, and in typical modern fashion he says that usefulness is the standard by which we judge the value of these constructions and theories. But at this point he makes a key concession to the metaphysical account of philosophy because he asserts that usefulness is not a chance attribute but grounded in the nature of things. "Such is the nature of reality," he writes, "that one physical theory will get us around better than another." Philosophy is therefore concerned with the nature of things in the same way that science is. Considering how deep the tendency has been to say that science is concerned only with what is and philosophy only with criticism, his is a surprising concession and once more makes ontology
ogy—for philosophy as
central to the philosophic enterprise.
Despite such a concession, however, Quine remains basically in the is entirely unconcerned with another aim
analytical school because he
of traditional philosophy, that of directing
work
human
conduct. Quine's
no more concerned with moral philosophy than is that of any scientist. When he writes that one physical theory will get us around better than another, he means that one theory will perform its task more efficiently than another. Perhaps he just assumes that all civiis
le See Bacon,
Novum Organum.Wol.
30, pp. 107a-b, 120b-c.
343
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION and sensible men know what they ought
to be doing and need no beyond the technical question of means. Indeed most Anglo-American analytical philosophers accept the assumption that questions of right and wrong are not to be answered philosophically. For Quine, philosophy remains a specialized instrument for clarifying and communicating our knowledge of our world and of ourselves. The most important book of 960 which ponders the question "What is philosophy?" would seem to me to be Professor Gustav Bergmann's Meaning and Existence. Bergmann, a professor at the State University of Iowa, came to this country from Austria in 1938. He had studied mathematics there and had been a member of the Vienna Circle — an internationally famous group of analytical philosophers of whom Rudolf Carnap is the most notable. The tenets of logical positivism were formulated by this group. In 1954, Bergmann published The Metaphysics of Logical Positivism. This was a paradoxical title: lized
instruction,
1
Gustav Bergmann
the very basis of logical positivism
is the assertion that metaphysical statements are meaningless because they claim to be about reality and yet cannot be verified in experience. Bergmann argued that behind logical positivism there lies a set of presuppositions which in fact
constitutes a metaphysics.
In
Meaning and Existence, Bergmann discusses contemporary The book is important because it does
analytic philosophy in detail.
not try to reconcile the present crisis as to the nature of philosophy by partisan slogans. At a time when there is such wide
means of easy or
who practice it have the tendency to retreat into their respective ghettos and content themselves with never looking at anything but their own method and system. Thus traditional Thomistic metaphysicians expound what they believe without seeming to recognize the modern analytical attack. Analytical philosophers, on the other hand, seem so content with their new methods that they are hardly aware of those who disagree with them. If they speak at all about non-scientific philosophers it is to misrepresent the past by catchwords. Bergmann's superiority to this ghetto mentahty is that he neither thinks that we can pretend that analytical philosophy does not exist, nor that the great metaphysicians of the past were dealing with meaningless problems. For this reason I consider his book the most interesting and significant philosophic work of 1960. It is indeed difficult reading; but for those who want to know where philosophy stands in the modern world, it will be rewarding. What does Bergmann think philosophy is? First, he recognizes that it is dialectical. That is, a critical examination of the positions a philosopher rejects is a necessary beginning to his arguments for the one he adopts. 1^ His book is therefore much taken up with his reasons for division as to the nature of philosophy, those
1 1
The
idea of philosophy as dialectical in this sense is central to the writings of many of the great philosophers. Plato starts many of his dialogues by stating the inadequate positions of others, and proceeding from them to his own. Several of Aristotle's treatises begin with an examination and criticism of previous thought. Aquinas always examines opinions opposed to his own in the objections that are found in each article of the Summa Theologica.
344
George
P.
Grant
by the linguistic analysts and by the logicians of science such as Quine. One of the essays in Meaning and Existence, "The Revolt against Logical Atomism," analyzes the assumptions and the historical causes of linguistic analysis, and lays bare why Bergmann considers it an inadequate account of the philosophical enterprise. Linguistic analysts are communication theorists, not philosophers. They are interested in explaining how we manage to learn ordinary language and, having learned it, to communicate with each other by means of it. Such an account turns philosophy into the psychology of language practiced by amateurs. rejecting the account of philosophy given
Bergmann
also argues against the logicians of science.
mentally believe or hope that
all
They funda-
philosophical questions belong to the
philosophy of science. According to Bergmann, none of the major philThe philosophy of science has the limited
osophical questions do.
new problems which the work of science presents to should the theory of relativity be interpreted. But this
task of analyzing it
— e.g., how
leaves untouched the analysis of such fundamental notions as change
and identity, meaning, and existence, which have remained with philosophy since its origin.
Through Bergmann's rejection of other accounts, he moves to his own. The chief task of philosophy is ontology — the study of what exists. It is
but platitudinous to say that philosophy is concerned with it does not try to understand language, but rather the
language. Yet
world by means of language. In its task, it employs ideal languages. Bergmann clearly distinguishes between ordinary and ideal languages: "When is a word used philosophically? Some philosophers maintained that bodies do not exist. Either they were raving mad or they used the peculiar way I call philosophical." Ordinary language is not unimportant. Scientific, moral, and other forms of discourse are 'exist' in
on by means of it. But the analysis of such ordinary language always prephilosophical. The function of the philosopher is to improve ordinary language so that it becomes an ideal language. In these essays, Bergmann does not discuss the relation of philosophy to human conduct. In this he follows the analytical tradition which has always showed a lack of interest in moral and social questions. Nevertheless, as Bergmann is so explicit about the relation of common sense to science and of both to philosophy, it would be interesting if he were also explicit about the relation of philosophy to morals, religion, art, and politics. This question is related to the subtle one of progress in philosophy. Can philosophical problems be better explained in 1961 than by Aristotle? Certainly philosophy used to be much concerned with its application to the practical realm. Is the abdication of this concern a sign of progress? A less profound book than Bergmann's but one that points in the same direction is P. F. Strawson's Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics. Here is a leading British analytical philosopher who does not only philosophize about language but also uses it to explain
carried is
345
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION the world. Like Bergmann, Strawson believes that the study of ontology is the heart of the philosophical enterprise, rather than communication theory. Unlike Bergmann, he believes that he can reach ontological conclusions by the analysis of ordinary language rather than by the method of ideal languages. In terms of Strawson's method it is difficult to know when his statements are based on the authority of common sense and when their verification lies elsewhere. Nevertheless, what is significant about this book is that it should be written at all. Ontology has been so long excluded from philosophy that this book is another sign of the reassessment of the nature of philosophy at the
present time.
An
outright and raucous attack
Gellner's
P. F.
Strawson
on
Words and Things. This
linguistic analysis
is
Mr. Ernest
published with an introduction gives his high logical authority unqualifiedly is
by Bertrand Russell, who to the indictment. So complete an attack is this that the English linguistic analysts even refused to review it in their leading journal. Mind. Linguistic analysis had claimed to be one of the great revolutions in the history of thought.
By
its
analysis of ordinary language, the total
and the final extinction of metaphysics claimed to be the apotheosis of the modern humanist vision which would finally be realized by the use of that common sense which the upper-class English think they so uniquely posdissolution of ancient problems
would
at last take place. It
sess.
Gellner's argument is
patent nonsense.
a revolution,
is
is
that this claim to be a revolution in philosophy
On the
contrary, linguistic analysis, far from being
the very death of thought.
It
turns philosophy from
its
basic task of discussing fundamental and genuine conceptual alternatives into the impressionistic study of words as they are used in
English society. Philosophy is misdirected into an unimportant lexicography. In a long analysis of the work of Wittgenstein, Gellner maintains that the whole movement is based on assumptions about the relation of language to truth which are either mistaken or half-truths.
The two most important of these are: (1) the belief that one can argue from the actual use of common-sense language to the answer to philosophical problems; (2) from the variety of uses to which we can it concepts, it is concluded that general assertions about the use of words are impossible. In terms of these basic mistakes, Gellner examines the doctrines that linguistic analysts hold about knowledge, the world, and the practice of philosophy. He ends his book with an anthropological and sociological account of why this trivializing of thought should have become the dominant philosophic tradition of his country. He maintains that it is the last ditch of a tired and secularized ruling elite which wants to be skeptical and antimetaphysical and yet at the same time to avoid any of the dangerous social results which are generally consequent on skepticism. j
Linguistic philosophy has exerted a powerful influence in the universities of
346
America.
If
it is
true that the state of philosophy
is
a very
George
P.
Grant
important mark of the health of any civilization, and if linguistic analis as empty and futile as Gellner makes out, then its influence in
ysis
our culture
is
a sad sign, and
we
should be aware of
justifies Gellner's violence of attack.
Apart from
it.
This perhaps book has
this, the
one advantage rare in philosophical writing. It is very witty. One cannot but be glad that there are still people in the mass society who can be funny about the follies of men — particularly pretentious academics. Yet another book about the proper scope and method of philosophy is Philosophical Systems by Professor E. W. Hall of North Carolina. Hall believes that the traditional questions of philosophy were real questions to be answered neither empirically nor logically. They involved real theoretical dispute. Hall is worried by the difficulty that philosophers have in coming to grips with each other's differing solutions.
He
faces this with the idea of "categorial
commitment by a philosopher
commitment" -the
which are basic to his system. In terms of this he raises the question whether a philosophical system would be possible without categorial commitment and whether to categories
there are neutral categories available to
moves
to his
own
all
systems.
From
this
ordinary language. This
is
a clever book about the dilemma of eternal
philosophic dispute in the midst of a world where science solves
problems.
he
position which rests basically on the analysis of
Its virtue is
its
lessened, however, by the fact that the discus-
sion of philosophical systems
thought, and by the fact that
is
it is
confined almost entirely to modern
addressed to the professional rather
than to the layman.
Of
the books which approach philosophy in the metaphysical man-
ner and do not accept the analytical account of the subject, the one
coming from the most famous pen in 1960 is Professor E. Gilson's The Elements of Christian Philosophy. Here is an account of metaphysics within the
Roman
Catholic tradition.
The
historical writing of
Professor Gilson about the middle ages, and particularly his explication of the thought of St.
dominant influence are disagreements
in
Thomas Aquinas,
Catholic intellectual
among
has recently been the
life
in
America. There
Catholic scholars as to what constitutes
Etienne Gilson
347
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION and many disagree with certain aspects of who disagree with him recognize that he is the greatest of modern Thomistic interpreters and that therefore all accounts of the matter must at least start from his work. Therefore, in this comprehensive recapitulation of his thought we are as close as we can be to the pure milk of Catholic metaphysics. We can see clearly what the practice of philosophy means within the true Thomistic doctrine,
Gilson's interpretation. But even those
Catholic tradition.
Gilson takes the term "Christian Philosophy" not from Aquinas but from the Encyclical Letter "Aeterni Patris" of Pope Leo XIII
1878-79
in
in
which the Pope recommended the study of Aquinas
Catholic institutions. Christian philosophy izing in
a
in
which the Christian
common
faith
is
that
and the human
way
to all
of philosoph-
intellect join forces
investigation of philosophical truth. In the Encyclical,
is singled out as the supreme practitioner of that art, and Gilson accepts him as such. Therefore, the study of the riches of Aquinas is essential for the philosopher who would practice his art
Aquinas
within the
faith.
To Aquinas
there can be no conflict between the purposes of theand philosophical inquiry, because their ultimate object is the same — the knowledge of God.^^ ^^ Gilson writes: "At any rate the
ological
Greek
philosophers — to
consider
Thomas Aquinas knew — were of
the
only
philosophers
the opinion that to
whom
know God was
supreme aim of all true lovers of wisdom." Why is there then a between philosophy based on human reason and sacred doctrine based on faith? Man cannot direct his thoughts and actions to an end unless he first has knowledge of that end. Yet the fact is that man has been directed by God to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason. Therefore, it was necessary for the salvation of man that those truths which are beyond the reach of his reason should be known by divine revelation. And revelation teaches us not only those truths which exceed our unaided reason, but also teaches all persons those truths which only some could reach by reason alone. If God left men to themselves, how many would come to knowledge? Aquinas
the
difference
points out that without revelation, "... the truth about God such as reason could discover would only be known by a few, and that after a long time, and with the admixture of many errors. "^^ The particular merit of Gilson's book is that it takes into account
the misinterpretations that have been placed on the division between
the roles of philosophy and sacred doctrine by Catholics and non-
Catholics alike.
It
shows why these
alternatives are misinterpretations
of the true Thomistic teaching. In terms of this definition of Christian
Gilson proceeds to expound the central notions of Thomistic metaphysics. Looked at historically, the achievement of Aquinas was to interpret philosophy,
12 See 13
Summa
I bid., p.
348
3d
Theologica, Vol. 19, pp. 3b-4a.
George Aristotle in a all
way compatible
P.
Grant
with Christianity and then to interpret
Christian thought before his
own
in the light
of that compatibility.
must be remembered that, since Aquinas, the presuppositions of Aristotle about human and non-human nature have been criticized root and branch. Indeed modern civilization is based on assumptions which were chiefly defined in reaction to the Aristotelian assumptions in the field of science and politics. Therefore, since Aquinas takes Aristotle to be "the" philosopher, the Christian who accepts Aquinas is judging the central principles of modern civilization to be false or But
it
at least radically inadequate.
course for Christianity. Perhaps it is only within broadly Aristotelian principles and perhaps such metaphysical statements are necessary for Christianity. Yet if this be so, Christianity is committed either to a radical reconstruction of modern civilization or to remaining a critical minority in its midst. What is remarkable in Gilson's book is that he does not discuss these questions, but rests in the assumption that Christian philosophy is fundamentally committed to the philosophy of the Greeks and of Aristotle in particular. This philosophical commitment has direct bearing on a practical matter — the reunion of the churches. One of the facts of the last two years is a remarkable move-
Perhaps
possible to
this is the right
make metaphysical statements
in the Catholic church to overcome the divisions between itself and its separated brethren in the Protestant and Orthodox worlds. Yet the life of Protestantism since its origins has been closely identified with the criticism of the Aristotelian view of the world. It is extra-
ment
ordinarily
difficult
for
a
Protestant
to
identify
Christianity
with
ways of thought. Professor Gilson's book therefore raises important nonphilosophic issues for Roman Catholics and other Christians. But above all, its interest is philosophical. Here is metaphysics in the grand traditional manner which draws on the ancient wisdom that mankind inherits from the Greeks and the Jews. What is particularly fine about it is that the metaphysical answers are expounded with lucidity and yet never over-simplified. This is rare in the modern world where there is a wide division between popular and scholarly writing. Popular writing tends to be clear but inaccurate; scholarly writing is accurate but pompously Aristotelian
parades its learning. Gilson parade his great learning.
Moral and
is
in
eff"ects that analytical
man
to think that
It is
philosophy has had
science are matched by the
morals and
criticism.
too wise a
politics.
To
in
in the fields
inhibiting effects
it
has
the analysts, the function of philosophy
therefore not the task of philosophy to think out the
way we use lanAnalysts have ap-
principles of right action, but rather to analyze the
guage
he has to
political philosophy
Theofliberating logic and had
is
our day to day moral and
political actions.
349
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION plied
much
ridicule to the "moralizing"
and "sermonizing" tendencies
of traditional philosophy and its claim to be able to speak about a "good way of life." Indeed most analysts were by conviction humanists and relativists, and therefore believed that there were no objective standards of right and wrong. Such notions were rather matters of perIt is difficult to say which was primary in the analytic traacceptance of a relativist morality or its methodological assumption that philosophy could say nothing substantive about moral
sonal taste.
dition: its
The
questions. ^^
Both
fit
belief
and the methodology
fitted
together as one.
which it is considone standard of conduct is better than
the climate of our pluralist democracies in
ered intolerant to assert that another.
Whether or not these assumptions about morality and philosophy dominance among philosophers inevitably means that
are true, their
is little writing about morals and politics. Insofar as Englishspeaking philosophers have been concerned with these matters, they have been concerned with criticizing ancient standards which claimed universality and with showing that this claim has no rational founda-
there
tion.
The study of human
scientists
who
action has been turned over to the social
generally study
human conduct
within positivist as-
sumptions, which cut it off from questions of value. Both scientists and philosophers have then been largely concerned with conduct as objective observers, criticizing
One
it
from the outside.
increasingly important result of philosophy's losing interest in
moral and political theory is that the discussion of these matters is carried on without the participation of trained philosophers. This is particularly noticeable in the academic world. It is the teachers of law, of history, and of literature who bring out books about the broad principles of right action. The learned lawyers in the United States more and more devote their efforts to defining a doctrine of natural law in terms of which they can judge the justice or injustice of particular legislation. It may indeed be considered a matter of rejoicing that the problems of law or literature lead people back to thought about morality; but it is surely a matter of regret that this movement has had so little support from trained philosophers.
Political philosophy is not surprising that one of the interesting books in political philosophy should be written in the form of history: Political Messianism: The Romantic Phase, by Professor J. L. Talmon. This book is one of several volumes in which Talmon traces what he calls "totalitarian democracy" and the Utopian venture of modern political theory which attempts to bring in the millennium on earth. Talmon studies the de-
It
1
many other matters, analytic philosophers have been greatly influenced by Hume, For Hume's moral relativism, see An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals and also Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, p. 509c-d.
4 in morals, as in
350
George
P.
Grant
velopment of this belief from its background in Rousseau^^ and the French Revolution to its contemporary exemplification in MarxistLeninism. In this volume he covers the period of the early nineteenth century up to the revolutions of 1848. He shows how the heritage of liberal utopianism was gradually taken over by Communism. Talmon's study is explicitly motivated by his belief that political messianism as it gains power turns "from a vision of release into a snare and a yoke." He has lived in the twentieth century and his conservatism leads him to distrust the spirit of absolute political reform which will do anything to human beings in its attempt to change the world. The fear of world Communism is in every word that he writes. What is disappointing in this book, however, is that Talmon has not the philosophical equipment to deal with the spirit of worldly messianism. He is content to say that it should be turned over to the psychologists who could understand it as a manifestation of mental illness. But is this good enough? Messianism is, after all, central to the political philosophy of the West, coming into the tradition through the Judeo-Christian religion. It may indeed have been corrupted into a worldly-tyranny by the Marxists. But surely such a central political idea needs to be discussed philosophically. As great a philosopher as Kant could say that one of the central questions of philosophy is "What may I hope?"^^ This is of course a pressing question of theory now that the political messianism which originated in Europe is sweeping through Asia and Africa under the banner of Communism. Talmon writes as an historian; most of the philosophers of the English-speaking world do not touch such large problems as political messianism. Indeed the title of a book by Mr. Daniel Bell in 1960 characterizes the state of English-speaking political theory: The End of Ideology — On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties. Bell is
more interested in the exhaustion of political ideas in the practical world than in basic political theory. There is, however, perhaps some connection between the two. The analysts have taken the view that the purpose of philosophy is to criticize and therefore to free the educated from illusions. This is certainly a useful negative purpose, but does it mean that such criticism must free our most educated minds from considering anything as a standard to live by? If philosophy is simply critical, must the educated live by a skeptical stoicism and believe that the foundations of a free society rest on such a skeptical stoicism?
The success and limitation of analytical method in political and legal matters can be seen in a large volume from England, Causation in the Law, by H. L. A. Hart and A. M. Honore. Hart is Professor of JurisOxford, and one of the leading linguistic philosophers. Though the last part of the work is concerned with a detailed study of the law, the first chapters are of general philosophic interest. The au-
prudence
1
1
at
See The Social Contract, Vol. 38, pp. 395a-406d. Critique of Pure Reason, Vol. 42, p. 236b
351
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION thors are concerned with the concept of causation as
it
is
applied in
understanding the particular happenings of ordinary life. The book is particularly fascinating because it is such a good example of what political
or legal philosophy becomeswithin the analytical tradition.
In this tradition philosophy
is
a technique to sharpen the instruments
which lawyers or politicians use. Law is firmly defined as positive law — what is on the statute books or in the judicial decisions of any particular society. The philosopher by his theoretical analyses of language tries to help the lawyer make the law run smoothly. He is not concerned with stating what the law is for or what are the standards by which we judge that a law is just. Such ultimate problems about the morality of law or politics are beyond the philosopher's competence. He is
the technician of theory.
Under
of philosophy,
its practitioners might well lend engaged in the business of prostitution. Prostitutes and pimps could presumably carry out their activities more effectively if their linguistic usage was clarified for them by an able theoretician. Political philosophy as technique can serve equally well the smooth operation of a tyrannical or a free society. Because political
this definition
their talents to helping those
philosophy has become a technique, flourishing art in our civilization. Political thinking
which deals
it is
not surprising that
it is
not a
directly with the proper ends of soci-
Our Public Life. Weiss discusses such things as society, state, culture, and civilization. He looks at them in the most general and abstract way — as aspects of the world he has understood as a metaphysician and in which he lives as a man. The skeptic may ask how such an Olympian view of our public life can Help us to get on with running our affairs. Weiss's answer would be that the task of political philosophy is not to be the Emily Post of the practicing politician (how shall we deal with Southeast Asia or medical insurance?). It is rather to help us to understand the meaning of our public life within the perspective of all time and all existence. Only in terms of such meaning can we escape the politics of "ad hoc" decision and quick ideological slogan. This intelligent book is not "an answer to Communism" in the sense that catchwords can be taken from it to indoctrinate our children in high school. But it gives a subtle definition of the ends of public life for a civilized and free society. Weiss's understanding of these ends constitutes for him an answer to the more limited ends of alternative theories such as Marxism. ety
is
found
in
Professor Paul Weiss's
Philosophers in the Catholic tradition also deal with political theory
manner. A representative example of Catholic politiFather J. Courtney Murray's We Hold These Truths. Murray argues that the American system of democratic and republican government finds its basic moral roots in the doctrine of natural law. There are immutable standards of personal and public morality which are to be derived from the proper understanding of man's essential nature. He argues that the basic theoretical justification of natural law is in a substantive
cal theory
352
is
George
P.
Grant
be found in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. ^"^ He asserts that such a doctrine of natural law provides the necessary moral cohesion for a politically and religiously pluralist democracy. One may wonder, of course, what such a product of the Enlightenment as Jefferson would think of connecting his work with that of Thomas Aquinas. "Nature" had come to mean something very different in the eighteenth century, when the American Constitution was written, from what it had meant in the essentially Aristotelian formulation of St. Thomas.^® Nevertheless, this is a book which comes to grips with a central moral issue in our contemporary democracy. What are the grounds of moral cohesion in a society dedicated to the right of free men to disagree religiously and politically? Murray sees that traditional Catholic political theory must be reshaped for the conditions of American liberal democracy. to
Moral philosophy
Moral philosophy has traditionally been made up of two parts:
first,
understand particular subjects of pressing moral concern in terms of first principles, and second, the more theoretical discussion of the presuppositions of morality. There is a contemporary paucity of moral philosophy dealing with special questions. The analytic philosophers make a distinction between ethics and morals. Morals deals with the whole sphere of actions which men call right and wrong. Ethics is the analysis of the logic and language of morals. Philosophy, say the analytic philosophers, is concerned with ethics, not with morals. The result of this has been to inhibit writing about .the attempt to
practical
problems of decision. These problems have largely been
turned over from the moral philosopher to the moral theologian. The thinkers within the various religious denominations cannot avoid the discussion of moral issues, and there is a continual stream of such discussion in the churches. However, such moral theology must be distinguished from moral philosophy. In the field of philosophy proper, the discussion of particular moral problems has been almost non-existent this year.
There have also been few books about the presuppositions of ethics. years ago when the analytic tradition was at its height, there was a steady stream of books applying the new linguistic techniques to the moral language of mankind, usually for the purpose of showing that the old formulations of moral philosophy were unsound. This stream has dried up — perhaps because the analytic philosophers feel that the destructive work has been so thoroughly done. Discussions of the logic of ethics continue in the learned journals but more and more they cen-
Ten
Summa Theologica, Vol. 20, pp. 220d-226b. See, for instance, the un- Aristotelian fashion in which Locke, one of the main influences on the writers of the United States Constitution, interpreted the nature or essence of a thing in Essay-
17 See 18
Concerning
Human
Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 268b-283a.
353
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION ter on small points of contention, and there has been no full-dress book on ethics this year from an analytic philosopher. There have been, however, several books which discuss moral philosophy in a broader framework than the analytic. Two of the best of these have come from England. The English have always been more successful in the practical than in the speculative arts, and they have therefore produced more moral philosophers than metaphysicians. Their dissatisfaction with analytic philosophy arises at the level of the practical, around the question whether analysis can come to terms with man's role as a moral
agent.
and Action is a discussion by one who has been a central figure in English critical philosophy. Hampshire's plea is that philosophy should be concerned with careful thought about art and history, morals and politics, as well as with the science of logic and the logic of science. His book cannot be neatly classified as moral philosophy because it could Professor Stuart Hampshire's Thought
of
man
as a moral agent
as easily be called a study in the philosophy of mind. Hampshire's
main
thesis
is
ing creatures
must come ation
is
that human beings are essentially agents, forward-movwho must decide and act, and that any true philosophy
The moral situour existence than our observations and
to terms with the implications of this fact.
more
at the heart of
speculations about the world.
Hampshire makes his attack on "the myth of comview which presupposes that we can know our situation in the world completely and proceed from that knowledge to action which flows logically from it. The human condition is not like this. Knowledge in any situation is never perfect, and we must act without "complete descriptions." From his analysis of action, Hampshire proceeds to an analysis of intention, and from intention he proceeds to consciousness. Here it is clear that he has read carefully the phenomenological analyses of consciousness and self-consciousness by such French existentialists as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. It is rare these Because of
this,
plete description"
— the
days for a philosopher bred counts of the
human
in the analytic tradition to
take these ac-
condition seriously.
Nevertheless, one thing about this book that
is strange for North unaware of how many of his positions are recapitulations of those held by such American pragmatists as James, Dewey, and Peirce. The idiom is diff'erent, but the substance seems the same. The Europeans (the British included) have never paid sufficient attention to American thought. There has been a contemptuous assumption that Americans might be good at engineering or money-making, but too unsophisticated or too crude to speculate about ultimate questions. In Hampshire's book the price of this superior indiff'erence is evidently paid. Hampshire takes his criticisms
Americans
is
that
Hampshire seems
entirely
of classical philosophy as novel, although they are almost identical with those which have been the current coin of American thought since the turn of the century. Despite this criticism, however, it is a refresh-
354
George
P.
Grant
ing experience to read Hampshire's book. In a world intellectually dominated by the models of science and logic, where an implicit or explicit behaviorism is almost universally present, the book analyzes that which is essentially human in man -his existence as an intentional and therefore as a moral being. Dr. Austin Farrer's The Freedom of the Will probes one of the essential questions of philosophy, though his purpose in discussing the freedom of the will is theological. Farrer does not think that the belief in free will can be proved by some quick syllogism. After all, its existence has been doubted by some of the ablest minds of our civilization.19
The
function of the theistic philosopher, says Farrer,
from a belief
in the
existence of free
with the negative task of clearing
will.
away
He
is
to start
then should proceed
the obstacles which impede
the serious contemplation of that existence and then go on to the positive task
The
of describing coherently what
therefore, carries along through the critics
He
it is
for a person to act freely.
negative and positive tasks are necessary to each other. Farrer,
of free will and his
whole book
own account
his
of creative
answers
human
to the
activity.
deals with the objections arising from the mind-body problem,
the science of physiology, empirical psychology, legal terminology,
and many others. Dimensions of Mind— di series of papers given at New York University, and edited by Professor Sidney Hook -cannot be labelled simply as moral philosophy because it also deals with the philosophy of mind. Hook is a prominent exponent of the scientific philosophy of a generation ago, before it had been refined and clarified by linguistic and logical techniques. He is a skeptical humanist of the old school. The papers he has here assembled around the body-mind problem are concerned with imposing limits on the extreme behaviorism which characterized the scientific philosophy of the 1930's.
Historical
Onegreat
and scholarly works
effect of the uncertainty
about the nature of philosophy
concentration on historical scholarship.
When men
is
a
are
unsure what their subject past and explicate
considered true
in
is, it is both easier and safer to turn to the what great minds have thought than to state what is the here and now. Also, in a period of political and
an intense desire to search out it is a paradox of North American civilization that at one and the same time there is a willingness to experiment in practical affairs, outside the lessons of past wisdom, and a concentration within the universities on antiintellectual flux
how
such as ours, there
is
the past has brought us to the present. Indeed
19 See, for instance, Hobbes, Leviathan, Vol. 23, p. 1 13a-c; Spinoza, Ethics, Vol. 31, pp. 367a-b. 391a-c; Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 183a- 184b; Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 478a-484c.
355
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION is, of course, a perennial need in all societies to touch with the great ideas of the past. Nobody can live effectively in the present without contemplating what the wise men of the past have thought about the same matters. ^^ Nevertheless, if there is too great a concentration on historical scholarship, it may come to be thought of as an end in itself, rather than as a means to help men to the truth in the here and now. Philosophy is not the history of phi-
quarianism. There
keep
in
losophy. tists
We
would
all
know
that science
was
in
a bad
way
if
scien-
spent most of their time studying the history of science.
In 1960, the academic mill turned out an
enormous number of
his-
and scholarly works. It is possible to mention only a few here, singling out those works which are helpful to the layman. A well known American philosopher. Professor J. H. Randall of Columbia, has written a valuable study entitled Aristotle. ^"^ So often these days a concentrated study of Aristotle is confined to those who see him through the eyes of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is therefore helpful to have torical
someone look
at
Aristotle directly.
Randall interprets Aristotle as
being interested in understanding things as they are, not in controlling
them. Such an aim is so alien to our contemporary culture that we are wise to contemplate what is meant by it. The thought of the greatest Christian philosopher and theologian of the ancient world (and perhaps of all times) is described in Father E. Portalie'sy4 Guide to the Thought of St. Augustine.^^ThisworkhsiS long been considered by scholars as the definitive introduction to the understanding of Augustine.
It
has at last been translated and pub-
lished in the United States.
Two
other commentaries deserve mention because they concern
authors included in Great Books of the Western World. Professor C. W. Hendel's Studies in the Philosophy of David Hume is a useful introduction to the most systematic skeptic of the Enlightenment. ^^
Professor L. W. Beck has produced a commentary to Kant's Critique of Practical Reason.^"^ The study of Kant's moral philosophy is indispensable to anyone who would like to understand the moral ideas of modern Europe. This book is a splendid introduction to that very difficult study. It does just what a commentary should: it helps us to find our way through territory very difficult without a map. In modern European philosophy, Father F. Copleston has reached the sixth volume of his History of Philosophy, which covers the end of the eighteenth century. Copleston's early volumes are the most useful of all histories of philosophy in English, and this volume maintains the high standard of its predecessors. It is accurate and scrupulously fair about philosophers with whom, as a Catholic priest, Copleston 20 To help men do this is, of course, the purpose of Great Books of the Western World, the Syntopicon, and The Great Ideas Today. 21 For Aristotle's works, see Vols. 8 and 9. 22 See Vol. 18 for Augustine's Confessions, The City of God, and On Christian Doctrine. 23 See Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 35, pp. 451-509. 24 See Vol. 42, pp. 291-361.
356
George
P.
Grant
cannot agree. His fairness is particularly evident in this volume, a great part of which is devoted to Kant — a philosopher who summed up the traditions of the Enlightenment and Protestantism, both of which are alien to Copleston's own. The Western Intellectual Tradition by J. Bronowski and B. Mazlish covers a broader sweep in the history of thought -from Leonardo to Hegel.
nology.
It
stresses particularly the interaction of ideas and tech-
Compared
to Copleston's book,
however,
it
shows the mark of
the enthusiastic amateur.
1959 was the centenary of John philosophers honored his memory.
Dewey and in that year American One result of the centenary did not
appear until 1960: John Dewey: His Thought and Influence — 3. series of papers on Dewey given at Fordham University. These papers are particularly interesting because Catholics have generally not been favorable to Dewey's pragmatism.
which they cannot
It is
part of the
American
tradition
always instructive to follow the discussion of a philosopher by those whose tradition is very different.
Both
easily accept. It
is
parties to the dialogue are illumined thereby.
Several books on Ludwig Wittgenstein have been published. This
name
is
modern philosophy. The best of these books is Professor E. Stenius' commentary on Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Stenius' work is not a word by word commentary on this book, but rather is an exploration not surprising, as Wittgenstein's
is
the holiest
in
of the various themes of Wittgenstein's thought. Stenius envisages C. D.
Broad
Wittgenstein as a critical philosopher of the same school as Kant, terested in the limits of
what can be
said clearly about the world
in-
and
our existence in it. Professor P. A. Schilpp of Northwestern has brought out another of the enormous volumes in his series, The Library of Living Philosophers. This time it is The Philosophy ofC. D. Broad, one of the most influential of English analytical philosophers from Cambridge. The earlier volumes have already covered such leading figures of the twentieth century as Whitehead, Russell, Dewey, and Jaspers. The volumes include articles by the leading exponents and opponents of the philosopher in question. They also include an intellectual autobiography by the philosopher himself, and answers by him to the questions raised by his critics.
Foreign philosophy of opinion about the nature of philosophy within Thethediff'erences English-speaking world are mirrored by an equal fragmentation of the subject within various geographic areas.
There
is
no
inter-
community in philosophy as there is in science. In 1960 this point was made in detail by Professor Jose Ferrater Mora in his Philosophy Today — Conflicting Tendencies in Contemporary Thought. According to Ferrater Mora, the dominant definitions of philosophy national
357
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION Western Europe, in Russia, and in the AngloAmerican world. The marked lack of interest within the various areas in what the others are doing means that there is little cross-fertilization. are quite different in
In Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, philosophy is understood as the exposition and furtherance of Marxist-Leninism. This official philosophy claims to be able to direct human conduct to its
proper end of building a truly human industrial society. In Western European philosophy there has been a greater diversity of philosophical practice than in either Soviet Marxism or Anglo-American anal-
This diversity, however, finds its center in the concern with the condition which is so marked in both existentialism and phenomenology. Indeed, because of this concern, philosophy in Western Europe is in touch with the older tradition in a way that has not been ysis.
human
the case in either Russia or the United States or England. The lack of communication between the various areas is in sharp contrast to the situation in the sciences, where despite the limitations of the Cold War the discoveries of one continent soon become the property of the international community. To gain knowledge of what is happening philosophically in Eastern Europe and Asia is particularly difficult. Luckily in 1960 a joint international work by the United Nations, Philosophy in the Mid-Century, was completed. The fourth and last volume is concerned with an account of developments in Eastern Europe and
Asia.
The communication in philosophy between America and Western Europe is better than the communication between Western Europe and England. The American interest of a few years ago in French existentialism seems now to be replaced by a considerable interest in phenomenology. Phenomenology is the "logos" or science of all that appears. Its purpose and method as a school of philosophy is to allow our experience to reveal its essence and structure. The philosopher must go to the facts in all their innocent power and learn from them. This school of philosophy has been very influential in Germany and France since World War I, and from it existentialism sprang as a subsidiary movement. Mr. R. M. Chisholm has edited an able introduction to the whole movement in Realism and the Background of Phenomenology, a volume in the very useful series "The Library of Philosophical Movements." He includes the early classics of the movement by Meinong and Husserl as well as a careful discussion of its aims and methods. The growing interest in phenomenology among professional philosophers in America may be taken as another mark in limitation of the dominance of analytical philosophy. The purpose and canon of phenomenology place it close to the older tradition. French existentialism continues to be plagued by divisions over social policy. The movement has been rent since 1947 by great strife on the subject of Marxism in general and the Communist party in particular. Jean-Paul Sartre, the father of the movement, produced in 1960 his first large scale theoretical work in twenty years: Critique 358
J
George
P.
Grant
de la Raison Dialectique. In this volume he appears to be making a complete capitulation to Marxism. He argues that Marxism has correctly analyzed the objective situation in the world, and that all philosophy must accept that analysis. Total secularism is the truth, and Marxism is the fullest understanding of that secularism. Such a line of thought is foreign to English-speaking people. Nevertheless, it is of interest to see how a philosopher of remarkable intellectual equipment reaches his Marxist conclusions. In reading it, one can better understand the power of Marxism over the European liberal intelligentsia. Within existentialism, the leader of the opposition to Sartre's surrender to Marxism was from the beginning Albert Camus, the novelist and Nobel prize winner. Last year Camus was killed, in his early forties. His posthumous essays, Resistance, Rebellion and Death, are a paean of praise to human freedom and the impossibility of controlling
man completely, however perfect human technology. These
essays
are not profound or subtle philosophical analyses, but they go to the
heart of political existence in a
way
that
is
often missed by
more com-
prehensive thinkers.
German
existentialism has
much greater theoretical
subtlety than the
French variety, though it lacks the latter' s social passion. This year two works by the leading German existentialist, Martin Heidegger, have been brought out in English translation: Essays in Metaphysics andy4« Introduction to Metaphysics. It is difficult to assess Heidegger's appeal for a return to the point of view of Greek philosophy prior to Plato and Aristotle. But, as always, his writings are filled with penetrating observations on philosophy and the human condition.
RELIGION There
is a wide variety of intellectual pursuits, all of which fall under the category "religion." The chief cause of this diversity is that the study of religion may be approached from two different poles — the scientific and the theological. In the scientific study of religion, men describe systematically all those activities, whether past or present, which we call religious. It is possible to examine the outward forms of worship in ancient Greece or China, in the contemporary Congo or Los Angeles, without asking what is true about God and his relation to the universe. One can study Buddhism or Christianity, either as a believer in one or an unbeliever in both, simply for the purpose of knowing how these religions have expanded, changed, and developed throughout the centuries. On the other hand, the theological or philosophical approaches to religion seek to understand what is true about God. This intellectual approach cannot, however, be freed from faith or commitment of the will.^^ This element
25
The
place of the will
in faith is
discussed
in Pascal,
Pensees, Vol. 33,
p.
217b-225a.
359
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION of commitment exists
however, God's existence, the knowledge of him is what should most concern us, and, therefore, it is something about which we cannot be neutral. To those who deny his existence, belief in him is a superstition and therefore neutrality is equally impossible. The scientific and theological approaches must, however, be seen simply as poles. At one pole there is the student who measures the Temple of Apollo: at the other, the saint who writes of the journey of the mind to God. Between these two there are all kinds of studies and methods: the history of religion, its psychology and sociology, systematic theology, and the writing necessarily at
its
in
all
intellectual
height in religion.
To
activities.
those
who
It
is,
affirm
of prayers.
The
differing
approaches to religion must be kept separate because
seek answers to such different questions. Nevertheless, the answers reached in one area of study affect the course of study in they
For example, in the last five hundred years Western peohave reached out to make new contacts with the rest of the world. In the course of that reaching out, they have accumulated new information about other peoples' religions. At first this was only in the form of explorers' tales. But in the nineteenth century a great effort was made to systematize this information and to understand the religions of other civilizations. In our universities there grew up such studies as comparative religion and the history of religion. This new scientific knowledge inevitably raised new questions and intensified others. the others. ples
What mous
is
the relation of Christianity to other religions?
Does
the enor-
and doctrines mean that there is no uniquely true religion? Such questions cannot be answefed by science but only by theology and philosophy. The historian of religion can tell us what Hinduism or Christianity have said about divergent paths to salvation. But only the theologian (be he Hindu, Christian, or other) can take this information from the scientist and discuss what is true and what is false in it. diversity
among
religious practices
Ancient religion
With the increase
in his knowledge of the religions of the world, one of the problems that faces modern man is to define religion. What is the common essence of all those activities which range from the cult of stones to the goodness of St. Francis, from ecstatic sexual orgies to the pure contemplation of the Hindu mystic? One approach to this problem is to attempt to discover the beginnings of religion in the primitive world and, from knowledge of those beginnings, to under-
stand religion as a whole.
Thus there has
ancient religions. This interest in
modern depth psychology
is
arisen a great interest in the
further fortified by the recognition
that primitive
myths survive
in the
uncon-
scious.
Professor E. O. James of
360
London brought out
in
1960 The Ancient
George
Gods, which incorporates the
scientific findings of a
P.
Grant
generation about
He covers the period from the Neolithic era to the beginnings of Greek philosophy, when rational speculation about the deities superseded the ancient myths. His book covers the period when men still apprehended the the religion of the
Near
East, the cradle of the faiths.
divine immediately in myths, without the analysis of the
myth by
thought.
In the last ten years Professor Mircea Eliade of Chicago has pro-
duced a
series of
books which have not only described and compared
the religions of the world, but have also attempted to define their
meaning in the history of the race and their significance for the peoWestern civilization. In his most recent book, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, he analyzes the practices of many religions, and shows that myths are the means by which men apprehend the reality of the sacred. He defines religion as "an experience of existence in its totality, which recalls to a man his own mode of being in the world." ples of
In terms of that definition, he looks at that experience in the cults
and Mircea Eliade
beliefs of religions,
both simple and sophisticated, so that he can
show the meaning of existence in both traditional and modern societies. The purpose of Eliade's book is to explore the confrontation of two types of mentality — the traditional and the modern. The first is characteristic of
man
man
and Oriental
in archaic
societies: the second,
modern societies of the Western type. The West is now no longer the only maker of history. Western peoples are therefore forced to encounter traditional societies which are becoming impregnated of
in
with the history-making tural
the
Eliade believes that certain great culthe
West
for this encounter —
various revivals of religion, depth-psychology,
abstract art,
He
spirit.
movements of this century prepare
surrealist
and
sciences of comparative religion and ethnology.
the
believes that myths and mysteries are always homologous to the
activities of the
unconscious
in
dreams and
that the understanding
among the most important disModern societies are living uncon-
of the myth will one day be counted coveries of the twentieth century.
sciously by the decadent remains of primitive mythologies. Because
of their gradual loss of the perennial myths, they
fall
prey to such
myths as historicism, fascism, and communism, which leave them open to the deepest anxieties about nothingness and death. Eliade believes that Western man needs to comprehend the religious values of other cultures in order to understand his own anxiety. Western man's anguish about nothingness and death will be better understood as he discovers how older societies coped with the same problem in their rituals of initiation, rebirth, and resurrection. He will revivify his own decadence only by looking at the spiritual resources of religions which are not decadent. There is, however, one question which Eliade's book raises but partial
and
tragic
does not answer.
He
believes that the spiritual content of the cults 361
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION of initiation and the myths of regeneration must be brought back into the West if its culture is to be reanimated. He also thinks this can
occur only as Christianity drinks at the fountains of the East. Yet Eliade does not explain how Christianity will learn from the East without ceasing to be Christianity.
Eastern religions
W
'orks about Eastern religions
must be
clearly divided
between
scholarly works which attempt to give us an accurate picture of
works intended to convince Western people of the truth of these religions. ^^ This division must be made chiefly because of the wide popular influence that Buddhism is now exerting in the West, and particularly in the United States. Buddhism, of course, has been influential among the educated elite of Europe for many years. But now in the United States it has ceased to be a small movement among scholars and has become a wide-spread and prestigious cult. Courses on Zen Buddhism are taught in the universities; its phrases are constantly heard in "beat" communities. Zen artists paint Zen pictures and Zen poets compose Zen poems. The voice of Zen is heard in the novels of J. D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac. It is always an immensely difficult exercise to enter into the religion of another civilization or to know when one is learning the truth about that religion. This situation has become acute in the case of Buddhism because of the spate of popular books on the subject. How does one know where one can discover real Buddhism and when one is getting a dish made stimulating for the jaded palates of those who seek a new the religions of the Eastern world, and missionary
D.
T.
Suzuki
cult for the
The
West?
Buddhism in the United States is, of course, Twenty years ago Dr. Suzuki produced Studies in
chief missionary of
Dr. D. T. Suzuki.
Zen Buddhism,
the credentials of which are found in the fact that it has been acclaimed by learned men in the East and in the West. But since that time it has been questioned whether in spreading Zen in the West, Dr. Suzuki is still concerned with the authentic article. He more and
more
identifies
Zen with
philosophical negation, the belief that the en-
lightened person must have freed himself from
all
ideas. This position
makes Zen very popular with the contemporary
irrationalism of the
West.
It is
very attractive to the "beat generation" because
it
frees
them from the need of intellectual discipline. Dr. Chang Chen-Chi, in his The Practice of Zen, makes a forceful plea against Dr. Suzuki's identification of Zen with intellectual negation, and maintains that Zen rests on a more intelligible foundation than its cult in the West would allow. 26 One of the
first
Western philosophers
Vol. 46, pp. 233b-235c.
362
to discuss
Buddhism was Hegel. See Philosophy of History,
George
P.
Grant
Those who are interested in the influence of Buddhism in the West should have enough respect both for Buddhism and Western civilization to care that we should be influenced by the real thing and not by
some come
bastard article. If this
is
not done, Western Buddhism will be-
a superficial cult for sensationalists rather than a source of dis-
ciplined spiritual riches.
It is,
therefore, essential to distinguish be-
tween the accurate and the inaccurate even in popular works. To do this, one must take books recommended by serious scholars. Dr. E. Conze's Buddhist Scriptures has been widely praised as a fair, popular translation of the essential documents. Dr. Chang's book. The Practice of Zen, is also well recommended. It is a question of signal importance whether Christianity and Buddhism should be separated, as has been suggested by Arnold Toynbee. Dr. Hendrick Kraemer of the Princeton Theological Seminary discusses this question in his World Cultures and World Religions: The Coming Dialogue. This is an analysis of the eff'ects that Western secular civilization and the Eastern religious cultures have had, are having, and will have on each other. Kraemer is forthright in condemning certain aspects of Western colonialism, but he does not condemn Western technological culture. He sees the tryanny that the West sometimes imposed on its weaker neighbors and yet considers that the Christian missionaries accomplished much that was good. Kraemer is a believing Christian, and does not make the liberal assumption that all religions are really the same — alternative expressions of a pleasant humanism. He is concerned about the cultural invasion of the West by the East, now in its early stage. He singles out the psychologist C. G. Jung and the historian Arnold Toynbee as the chief hidden persuaders of the invasion. Toynbee and Jung are "Asian sages," because, though they are friendly to Christianity, their basic position is "naturalistic monism," the common denominator of Indian and Chinese religion.
Judaism
The
From its Beginnings to the Babylonian^ by Yehezkel Kaufman, is a famous Hebrew classic on the character of Israelite religion up to the exile. The first seven volumes of the original Hebrew work have been condensed into one and translated by Moshe Greenberg. This is, of course, a book for scholars -those interested in Old Testament theology or the history of Israel. For those who want a simpler introduction to the history of Judaism Religion of Israel:
Exile,
as a whole. Professor
Leon Roth's Judaism— A
ommended. The main
object of Roth's book
ing about Judaism.
He
is
attempts to present
Portrait
is
highly rec-
to stimulate fresh thinkits
irreducible religious
which has made the Jews the "community of holiness" which at their best they have always been. The Jews are the Chosen People because it is their vocation to bear witness to all men of the revelation God has given them. Roth sums up their affirmation, the transmitting of
363
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION history as "the balance, often an uneasy one, between the universality of the doctrine and the particularity of the transmittors." If he is right about the essence of Judaism, then modern Judaism is in large measure
throwing away
its
treasure.
Roth discusses the gradual disintegration of the Jewish religious community in terms of two writers, themselves both formative of the process and observers of it. The first is Moses Mendelssohn. In Mendelssohn's system there was room for everything but holiness. Roth sees the process that was started by Mendelssohn in the eighteenth century as completed in our own time by sociological and psy-
He God
Ahad Haam
chological doctrine.
singles out
fluence in making
a mere subjective manifestation of national
as the greatest in-
consciousness. Roth paraphrases the words of Micah into the new language: "What doth the National Spirit require of thee but to do justly
and
to love kindness
and
to
walk humbly with thy National Will
to Survive?"
The
In
origins
the West,
there
is
of Christianity where Christianity has been the predominant
an intense interest
in the scientific investigation
religion,
of the
ori-
been two major discoveries which have completely revolutionized our knowledge of that gins of Christianity. Since the last war, there have
A fragment from
the
Dead Sea
7;v,W(»fU( tf^^a
Scrolls
v^v, \^'!yA
iWHWiUii
M»wM*H>t v.?w
itrU^hM
i
iVi^
v^ 0^ wjtac «?u^ M*,cv A^w>vfil
ivu iwy tf -^hv
^
./»«v
vrisr/;^
iK^^m
oh ^ a,isiu
ott
,
u^/jm ,4^,,^ vWv
v,>, aw
wnvna •;vU
r/tk 9 1 wr/?^
a^^^v*.
lU^
v^
ucW aUI
^
Ruins of the Essene Monastery of Qumran, with the Dead Sea in the background. A short distance away are the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
subject.
The discovery of
the
Dead Sea
evidence for understanding the religious Jesus lived. The
Dead Sea documents
Scrolls provided
life
much new
of the Palestine in which
not only gave us the earliest
Old Testament books, but also an account of the religious life of the Essene monks of Qumran, covering the crucial period from 150 B.C. to 68 A.D. They also provided a remarkable account of the great Essene leader, the Teacher of Righteousness. Since these discoveries, scholars have not only been deciphering the documents but have been trying to piece together what they tell us of Jewish history and religion. What is their meaning for the truths of religion? What was the relation between the religion of the Essene monks and that of apostolic Christianity? How is the Teacher of Righteousness to be conceived in relation to Jesus Christ? Hypothesis and counter-hypothesis about both the historical and theological interpretations have been offered to a bewildered public. Laymen such as the literary critic Edmund Wilson put forward the wild hypothesis that these documents had disproved the uniqueness of Christianity. Recently, Pravda has maintained that the Scrolls proved that Jesus Christ texts of certain
365
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION was a mythical figure. The public could not know what to believe, or which book to read as objective and reliable. By 1960 this period of confusion came to an end. It is now possible to state with clarity what the documents tell us historically and what questions they raise for theological speculation. E. F. Sutcliffe, an English Jesuit, produced an account of the whole matter which has received high praise from scholars of different persuasions. His book. The Monks of Qumran: As Depicted in the
Dead Sea
Scrolls, with translations in English, states the
consensus
of scientists as to the nature of this religious community and of the Teacher of Righteousness.
monastery in the second and the death of the Teacher of Righteousness somewhere between the years 140-120 B.C. On the identity of the Wicked Priest, who was the adversary of the Teacher of Righteousness, he is at odds with the majority of scholars, however. What was the influence of the Essene sect in general and of this community in particular upon the origins of the Christian Church? Sutcliffe approaches this question cautiously by confining himself to the documents - the Scrolls and the New Testament. The result of this method is to avoid the pitfalls of reading the New Testament into the monastery, or vice versa. His conclusion is that there must have been many real links between the two, but also that there is a wide theological difference between the two communities. For instance, the Sutcliffe places the establishment of the
half of the second century B.C.,
strong Sabbatarianism of the
of Jesus on the matter.
The
monks
is
at variance
with the teachings
strong asceticism of the
monks
is
also not
present in the Gospels.
Equally important for the study of Christian origins are the Gnostic Nag-Hammadi in 1945-
writings discovered in the Egyptian desert at
These have not aroused the same public
Dead Sea our understanding of the history of early Christianity. Gnosticism had previously been considered a rival religion to Christianity with which Christianity had had to do battle in its early years. The word gnosis means knowledge, and the Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge, divinely 46.
Scrolls, yet they are of equal
importance
interest as the
in enlarging
imparted, and not available to ordinary men.
God
They believed
that the
unknowable without such knowledge. The true God is not the creator of this world of imperfection which was in fact created by an imperfect God. Man can only free himself from the evil tyranny of this imperfect world by a secret gnosis which returns him to the perfect God. The first words of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas are: "These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke." In the light of these documents, it is now clear that the relation between Gnosticism and Christianity was much closer than a simple rivalry. Christianity developed in reaction against Gnosticism and was much more influenced by it than had previously been believed. In untrue
is
derstanding Gnosticism 366
we
are therefore able to
come much
closer to
George
P.
Grant
understanding the development of Christianity and the causes of that development.^'^ In 1960 there were
some of them
concerned with the the
best
many books about
these Gnostic documents —
giving English translations of the documents, others light
introduction
to
they throw on religious history. Probably the
facts
by W. C. van Unnik. This
is
Newly Discovered Gnostic
what has been found, and reaches certain tentative conclusions about the meaning of these discoveries. The newly discovered Gnostic book on the sayings of Jesus, The Gospel according to Thomas, was translated in 1959. It is a valWritings,
states
uable document. Unlike the four canonical gospels of the Bible, its fundamental interest is in the words rather than the deeds of Christ. The knowledge imparted by the Savior to free men from this evil world
was the
work in the world. It is imporwhat the Gnostics considered the teaching of Jesus to be, and from that to try to determine how deeply imbedded in original Christianity were the Gnostic elements. Years of interpretation will, of course, be necessary for us to evaluate the evidence. A broad look at the whole question, however, has been taken by Dr. R. M. Grant in six lectures given at Columbia University and now published as Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Dr. Grant discusses the Gnostic influence in the official documents of the New Testament and the conflict of the early Church with Gnosticism as a rival religion. His theory is that Gnosticism gained power over essential thing, rather than his
tant to see
men because
of the shattering of apocalyptic enthusiasm about the
coming of God to the world after the fall or falls of Jerusalem. As the worldly hope failed, people of the Jewish faith moved towards the other-worldly salvation of Gnosticism. Grant takes the official position of Christianity that the early Church was right to spurn Gnosticism as heretical because
its
other-worldliness did not allow
it
to give
an ade-
quate answer to the problems of human existence: true Christianity must take worldly history much more seriously than Gnosticism did,
and this requires the apocalyptic vision. Grant emphasizes the difference between Gnosticism and Christianity, and is inclined to dismiss any thought that Christianity might have originally had deeply Gnostic elements. This, of course, raises questions which are theological rather than scientific. How much is Christianity a worldly religion and how much an other-worldly religion? Did the official Church, by spurning Gnosticism and its recrudescences through the ages, maintain the true faith, or was something essential to the original Gospel lost? The discussion in the
What
first
century illuminates our discussion
in the twentieth:
value should the religious believer put upon the events of time
and history? Whether one is a believer or not, Semitic religion has exerted such an enormous influence that one must understand it if one is
27 For Gibbon's account of the relation between Gnosticism and Christianity, see The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 40, pp. 183a- 184b.
367
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION to understand the
Western world. For those who are beUevers, the im-
portance of these discoveries is even greater. They must rethink terms of indubitable evidence what it is in which they believe.
By
far the leading contribution to the study of the Bible in
in
our time
work of Professor Rudolf Bultmann in Germany. His book This World and the Beyond, which appeared in 1960, is not one of his major systematic works, but it is a good introduction to his religious thought. Bultmann's method of exegesis is demythologizing. He cuts away the
is
the
elements in the New Testament which reflect the ancient conception of the world and thinks that by doing so he is making the authentic Gospel available to modern men. His demythologizing of the New Testament stems mainly from his dissatisfaction with liberal Christianity.
Such liberalism maintains
sists in
a collection of religious truths immanent in the
that the essence of the
Gospel con-
human mind.
This leads to a sentimental approach to the Gospel and to the worship of man rather than to the worship of the transcendent God. According to Bultmann, God in his transcendence has no need to justify himself to
man.
The modern person able to
is
man
to
whom
Bultmann
is
making the Gospel
avail-
defined in existentialist terms. Bultmann ties Christianity
Heidegger's existentialism as closely as
St.
Thomas
tied
it
to
and anguish of historical existence comes the word of God from the beyond. A stream of books and articles continues to appear every year as commentaries on Bultmann's work. This year, two particularly good books have been produced about him, one by a Protestant, the other by a Catholic. Professor David Cairns's A Gospel without Myth Concentrates on Bultmann's challenge to the practical preacher. Can a modem preacher really present the Gospel in a relevant way to his hearers without making it seem mythical? Father L. Malevez's The Christian Message and Myth is an extremely able account of Bultmann by a trained Catholic theologian. Malevez separates those aspects of Bultmann's thought which can be reconciled with Catholic doctrine from those which cannot. Aristotle. Into the loneliness
Religious theory our century religion and philosophy are more widely separated than at any time in civilized history. Yet there are still many to whom thought is a holy art and religion at least partly an intellectual
In
activity;
takes
they therefore theorize about their religion. Such theory forms; from the philosophy of religion in which men spec-
many
own, to systematic theology, expounded coherently. In all such activities the lives of intellect and faith mingle, and it is difficult to draw a hard and fast line between philosophy proper and reulate about
all
religions, including their
where the creeds of particular
ligious speculation; for
368
religions are
example,
in
an earlier section of
this essay,
George
Grant
P.
Professor Gilson's Elements of Christian Philosophy was discussed example of traditional metaphysics. Gilson philosophizes as
as an
a believing Christian, but what he produces he claims to be pure philosophy, not theory about his religion.
An
interesting
book
in
which philosophical methods are used
to dis-
cuss religious questions is Freedom and Immortality by I. T. Ramsey, Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford. Ramsey, using the method of linguistic analysis, analyzes the two ideas in his
title,
which he considers central
to the Christian under-
He
is aware thsit freedom and immortality are two concepts which have been criticized by modern analysts as meaningless. His purpose is to show why men use these concepts, and why they have to use them to talk realistically about the
standing of man. His purpose
human
He
condition.
apologetic.
is
finds that traditional religious language,
some skeptics have maintained. Ramsey maintains that both freedom and immortality make
analyzed,
is
that certain
not as
silly
human
when
as
situations cannot be fully explained
served in sense experience.
the claim
by what
is
ob-
these situations which justify a belief
It is
freedom and immortality. A situation in which a person transcends behavior and makes a decision in response to an objective challenge called "duty" or "obligation" is one which justifies a belief in freedom. Such a situation also offers discernments of immortality because when we are "free," when we exhibit what we call "personal decision," we are "alive" in a sense which mortality cannot exhaust. In terms of these situations, Ramsey analyzes the way in which religious people use these two concepts. In a certain sense, Ramsey is only paraphrasing Kant's great dictum that the three postulates of morality are God, freedom, and immortality. ^^ Indeed he pays his debt to Kant when he writes: "I think Kant was abundantly right insofar as he suggested that even Christian doctrines only receive an adequate logical placing when they are given in in
his public
relation to a situation which, in
some very important
respects,
is
simi-
which we discern duty." Yet Ramsey uses this great insight of Kant in a way which carries the discussion of immortality (though not freedom) much farther than Kant did. There is one point where this book, and indeed the whole method of linguistic analysis, is not convincing. The book appeals to ordinary language, and from that ordinary language moves to the meaningfulness of popular religious affirmations. But is ordinary language really lar to that in
as static a thing as
Ramsey
suggests?
If,
for example, the peoples of
the United States and Great Britain continue to break with the Judeo-
Christian tradition, will their ordinary language remain the
same
as
it
is now, with their centuries of religious belief behind them? Would the concept of duty become gradually less recognizable in ordinary speech? Would it then be proper for Ramsey to appeal to that change?
28 See Critique of Practical Reason, Vol. 42,
p.
348b-c.
369
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION Knowledge and Faith
Relativism,
is
by a young theologian at It is a book quite
Vanderbilt University, Professor G. D. Kaufman.
modern Protestant thinking. It deals with the relKaufman sees as essential to the human condition. To
characteristic of
ativism which
be human
be
to
is
a situation of insecurity because there
in
men can be
of which
rationally certain.
is
nothing
Kaufman has been profoundly
influenced by existentialism and it,
if
fore
you
we
its insistence that our freedom (call our existence) can never be explained, and that thereare thrown into a world where there is no settled comfort.
will,
Kaufman's existentialism shows the influence of Paul Tillich, the leading Protestant theologian of North America. Protestantism and existentialism are inevitably close in origin and conviction because of their mutual appeal to the authentic freedom of the individual, which no rational scheme can encompass. Indeed, existentialism has become the philosophic framework in which most Protestants expound their theology.
Kaufman
is
also indebted to the
losopher, Wilhelm Dilthey,
who
German
insisted
nineteenth-century phi-
upon the
relativity of all
phenomena, including the philosophical. Since philosophy cannot reach truths which transcend the historical situation, man can historical
find the absolute only in faith.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The second of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin' s books was brought out in English in 1960: The Divine Milieu. The degree of interest in Teilhard' s thought is manifest in the fact that since the publication of his first book. The Phenomenon of Man, in 1959, four books about him have appeared in English. Also hundreds of articles have appeared about him in learned journals and newspapers by philosophers, scientists, and theologians. In France a foundation has been established to see to the editing and publication of all his papers. The focus of this interest was an extraordinary person — a Jesuit who was also a geologist, paleontologist, and anthropologist of international reputation. His best known scientific work was his part in the discovery and reconstruction of Peking man — a foundation stone in modern evolutionary theory. As Teilhard grew older, he gave less of his time to scientific investigation and turned to reflection on the meaning of modern science and the interpretation of
He seems
its
discoveries in the light of his
have had an intense desire to influence the scientific community, most of whose members interpreted the data of their work in a strictly positivistic and even mechanistic way. He Christian faith.
desired to
show them
to
that a true understanding of the findings of
mod-
ern science must lead to a "mystical vision" and an acceptance of the truth of Christianity.
new
At
the
same
time, he wished to confront theo-
show them added incalculably to man's knowledge. Teilhard died in 1955. His writings have been published posthumously and without the usual imprimatur of his Church. The Divine Milieu is of much smaller compass than the earlier work, logians with the
that the
370
new
facts
discoveries of the world of science, to
George
P.
Grant
The Phenomenon of Man. The latter had the enormous canvas of the whole history of evolution. Teilhard tried to show this history in detail as a dynamic work of creation. Evolution converges on what he called the "Omega Point" where God will be all in all. Teilhard's intention was to take all of modern scientific knowledge and derive from it the meaning of the whole. He claimed that, in doing so, he was writing as a scientist, and not as a theologian or a philosopher. The Divine Milieu is quite different, both in scope and method. It is subtitled "an essay on the interior of life," and treats of the ascent of
man
to
God
in Christ. It is difficult to
describe Teilhard's position pre-
There is no single synonym in English for the French word milieu, which can mean both the surroundings and the midst. Both of these conceptions are included in what Teilhard means by the divine. God is revealed everywhere as "a universal milieu" in which we all live, but at the same time he is also the center towards which all beings move. In terms of this essentially traditional view of God, Teilhard discusses the divinization of our activities and of our passivities. Teilhard's distinction between activities and passivities follows Aristotle, and his use of the word "divinization" shows the essentially Christian framework of his humanism: "God became man in order that man might become God." In this sense the Incarnation is the cisely.
focal point for
all
divinization as
is
possibilities
and
human
activity.
The
ascetic
participation in the world.
life is
The
as necessary to
affirmation of
life's
their renunciation are not to be seen as excluding
each
harmony of harmony of con-
other, for both are necessary to the attainment of the final
man and God.
Indeed,
God
is
seen always as the
traries. It is is
of the essence of Teilhard's thought that the pattern of history The world is still moving to its final goal. The
not yet complete.
theologians -both Protestant and Catholic
-who
find this
Redemptive
Evolution unacceptable, do so because they feel it denies the basic claim of Christianity that the final goal of history has already been revealed once and for
deny
that there
is
all
in
Jesus Christ. Those
any contradiction between
who
this fact
accept Teilhard
and
his doctrine
of an emerging pattern.
Whether these criticisms be cogent or not, Teilhard is worth reading because he has undertaken a synthesis of science, philosophy, and theology on the grand scale, and his synthesis is essentially optimistic. Most modern religious thinking of any distinction has been profoundly pessimistic. Men are asked to turn to God because of the horror of the human condition, or because progress has been exposed as a myth, or because the world of nature is essentially tragic. To be optimistic about nature and the future is to belong to the nineteenth century. It is therefore fascinating to read a work such as Teilhard's which is cosmically optimistic. It is a continuation of the Alexandrian tradition of Christian theology which emphasized the Incarnation of God rather than the fall of man. 371
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bell, Daniel, The End of Ideology; On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties. Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1959.
Bergmann, Gustav, Meaning and
Exist-
Ferrater Mora, Jose, Philosophy Today: Conflicting Tendencies in
Thought.
New
Contemporary
York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 1960.
ence.
Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960. The Metaphysics of Logical Positivism. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.,
Gellner, Ernest, Words and Things; A Critical Account of Linguistic Philosophy and a Study in Ideology. Boston: Beacon
Inc., 1954.
GiLSON, Etienne, Elements of Christian Philosophy. New York: Doubleday &
Bronowskl Jacob and Mazlish, Bruce, The Western Intellectual Tradition, from Leonardo to Hegel. New York: Harper &Bros., 1960. Buddhist Scriptures. Trans, by Edward Conze. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1959.
BuLTMANN, Rudolf,
This World and the
Beyond. Trans, by Harold Knight.
New
York:
1960.
Charles
Scribner's
Sons,
Cairns, David, A Gospel without Myth? Bultmann's Challenge to the Preacher. London: S. C. M. Press, 1960.
Camus, Albert, Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. Trans, by Justin O'Brien.
New
York: Alfred A. Knopf,
Chang, Chen-chi, The
New York:
Harper
Inc., 1961.
Practice of Zen.
& Bros.,
Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers. Ed. by James O. Urmson. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1960.
CoPLESTON, Frederick Charles, A History of Philosophy, Vol. VI. WestminMd.:
Newman
University Press, 1960.
Mircea, Myths, Dreams, and
Mysteries. Trans, by Philip Mairet.
York: Harper
& Bros.,
Farrer, Austin, Will.
New
Sons, 1960.
372
New
Charles
University of Chicago
Chicago:
tems.
Press, 1960.
Hampshire, Stuart, Thought and Action.
New York: Hart, H.
Viking Press, 1960.
A. and Honore, A. M., Causation in the Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. L.
Heidegger, Martin, An Introduction to Metaphysics. Trans, by Ralph Manheim. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Essays
Metaphysics;
in
New James,
Identity
and
Trans, by Kurt Leidecker.
Difference.
York: Philosophical Library, 1960.
Edwin
O.,
The Ancient Gods; The
History and Diffusion of Religion in the Ancient Near East and the Eastern
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1960. John Dewey: His Thought and Influence. Ed. by John Blewett. New York: Fordham University Press, Kaufman, Gorden Knowledge and
1961.
The Freedom of
York:
Columbia University Press, 1959. Hall, Everett W., Philosophical Sys-
Mediterranean.
Press, 1960.
Dimensions of Mind: A Symposium. Ed. by Sidney Hook. New York: New York Eliade,
Co., Inc., 1960.
Grant, Robert McQueen, Gnosticism and Early Christianity. New York:
Press, 1959.
1959.
The
ster,
Press, Inc., 1960.
the
Scribner's
sity
1960. D.,
Relativism,
Faith. Chicago: Univer-
of Chicago Press, 1960.
Kaufman, Yehezkel, The Religion of Israel: From its Beginnings to the
George Babylonian Exile. Trans, and abridged by Moshe Greenberg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.
Kraemer, Hendrik, World Cultures and World Religions; The Coming Dialogue. London: Lutterworth Press, 1960.
Malevez, Leopold, The Christian Message and Myth; The Theology of Rudolf Bultmann. Trans, by Olive Wyon. Westminster, Md.:
Newman
Press, 1960.
Murray, John C, We Hold These Proposition.
New
Truths;
American York: Sheed & Ward,
Catholic Reflections on
the
Nagel, Ernest, The Structure of Science; Problems
the Logic of Scientific Ex-
in
New
planation.
& Co., Inc.,
York: Harcourt, Brace
1961.
The Philosophy ofC. D. Broad. Ed. by Paul A. Schilpp. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1960.
Philosophy Ed.
in
the Mid-century;
A
Survey.
by Raymond Klibansky. 4 Vols.
Firenze:
"La Nuova
Italia"
editrice,
1958.
QuiNE, WillaRd Point
Van Orman, From of
View.
a
Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953.
Word and Object. New York: John Wiley
&
Sons, Inc., 1960.
Ramsey, Ian Thomas, Freedom and Immortality. London: S. C. M. Press, 1960. Randall, John H., Aristotle. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960. Realism and the Background of Phenomenology. Ed. by Roderick M. Chisholm. Glencoe,
of Science. Trans, and ed. by Maria Reichenbach. New York: Humanities Press, Inc., 1959.
Roth, Leon, Judaism: A Portrait. London: Faberand Faber, 1960. Sartre, Jean-Paul, Critique de la Raison Dialectique. Paris: Gallimard,
111.:
1
960.
Stenius, Erik, Wittgenstein's 'Tractatus': A Critical Exposition of its Main Lines of Thought. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1960.
Strawson, Peter
F., Individuals;
An
York: Humanities Press, in
Es-
New
Descriptive Metaphysics.
in
Studies
Inc., 1960.
the Philosophy of David
Hume.
by Charles W. Hendel, Jr. York: Liberal Arts Press, Ed.
New Inc.,
1960.
SuTCLiFFE, Edmund, The Monks ofQumran; As Depicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1960.
Suzuki, Daisetz ish
PoRTALiE, Eugene, A Guide to the Thought of St. Augustine. Trans, by Ralph J. Bastian. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1960. Logical
Reichenbach, Hans, Modern Philosophy
say
Inc., 1960.
Grant
P.
T., Studies in
Book Centre,
Talmon,
L.,
J.
Zen. Brit-
Inc., 1955.
Political
Messianism:
The Romantic Phase. London: Martin Seeker
& Warburg, Ltd.,
1960.
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre, The vine Milieu,
New York:
Harper
&
Di-
Bros.,
1960.
The Phenomenon of Man. New York: Harper & Bros., 1959. Unnik, Willem C. van. Newly Discovered Gnostic
Hoskins.
by H. Alec R.
Trans,
Writings.
Naperville,
111.:
Allenson, Inc., 1960.
Weiss, Paul, Modes of Being. Carbondale, 111.: Southern Illinois Press, 1958. Our Public Life. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press, 1959.
Free Press, 1960.
NOTE TO THE READER of the central issues of philosophy Many are touched upon and religion
in
issues will find
much
valuable material in
the Syntopicon and in the selections in-
Readers
cluded
further discussion of these
World.
review of recent developments. interested
in this
Great Books of the Western For a general introduction, the
in
373
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION reader should consult the essays in the Syntopicon chapters on Philosophy and Religion. For discussions of specific issues, the essays and topics listed below will
Being
on
4fl.
1.
For discussion of issue concerning science
and
ages cited under
between experimental and philosophical science, or between empirical and rational science The relation between science and
Dialectic
religion:
the conception of sacred
dialectic in philosophy,
see the essay on Dialectic, and the pass-
philosophy: the distinction and relation
2a.
The
dismissal or satirization of metaphysics as dogmatism or sophistry Ab. Reconstruction of metaphysics: critical philosophy as a propaedeutic to metaphysics
ology or religion
The
Being as the pervasive object of mind, and the formal object of the first philosophy, metaphysics, or
Conceptions of the highest human science: dialectic, first philosophy, metaphysics, natural theology, transcendental philosophy Aa.
,
\c.
the
dialectic
Philosophy The definition and scope of philosophy \a. The relation of philosophy to theScience
and
Metaphysics
Syntopicon under the following topics:
1
Metaphysics,
Being
be most helpful.
For discussion of the nature of philosophy and the relationships between philosophy, religion, and science, see the Syntopicon essays on Philosophy, Religion, and Science, and the passages in Great Books of the Western World cited in the
and
passages cited under the following topics:
4.
Dialectic in relation to philosophy and science
For discussion of the relation between and reason, see the passages cited
faith
theology as a science
under
For discussion of the importance and value of linguistic analysis and a background to modern analytic philosophy, see the essays on Language and Sign and Symbol, and the passages cited under the
Knowledge 6c. (5)
following topics:
The
distinction between natural and supernatural knowledge: knowledge based on sense or reason distinguished from knowledge by faith or through grace and inspiration
Language 5.
\a. The role of language in thought The imperfections of language 5a. The abuse of words: ambiguity,
imprecision, obscurity 5^.
Insignificant speech:
on State, and the passages cited under the following topics:
meaningless-
ness, absurdity 6.
For discussion of political philosophy and the ends of political society, see the essay
The improvement of speech:
the ideal
Philosophy 2c. The nature and branches of practical or moral philosophy: econom-
of a perfect language
ics, ethics,
Sign and Symbol 4c.
The nature and
utility
of semantic
analysis: the rectification of ambiguity;
the clarification and preci-
sion of meanings
For discussion of ontology and metaphysics, and a background to the
modern
anti-metaphysical attitude, see the essays
374
politics,
jurisprudence;
poetics or the theory of art
State la.
Definitions of the state or political
community:
its
form and purpose
For discussion of moral philosophy and on Duty and Good and Evil, and the pass-
the foundations of ethics, see the essays
George cited
ages
under
following
the
judgments
The concept of duty or
1
obligation:
its
and the determingood for man: the real
and the apparent good; particular goods and the good in general 6d. The possibility of moral knowledge: the subjectivity or conventionality of judgments of good and evil
For discussion of freedom of the will, see Will and the passages cited
the essay on
under the subtopics of will
Charmides, Lysis, Laches, Euthydemus, Cratylus, Phaedrus, Ion, Symposium, Meno, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Gorgias, The Republic, Timaeus, Critias, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus, Laws, The Seventh Letter 8 Aristotle, Logic, Metaphysics, On the Soul 9 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 12 Lucretius, On the Nature of Things Epictetus, The Discourses Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations 1 Plotinus, The Six Enneads
For discussion of the
18 role of
myth
19
The use of metaphors and myths
Confessions,
Theologica,
I
Thomas Aquinas, Summa VOL
23
For discussion of the grounds for belief in immortality, see the essay on Immortality and the passages cited under
Thomas HoBBES, L6'v/«r/2fl/7 Learning.
31
Bacon,
Advancement
Rene Descartes, Rules Method,
for the Di-
on
Meditations
First
Phi-
Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics Pascal, The Provincial
Let-
losophy
immortality: argu-
33 Blaise to recent histories of re-
passages cited under
ters,
35
ligious beliefs, institutions,
For discussion of the relativism of the condition, see passages cited under
human
Truth truth:
impossibility of
the
knowing the
restriction
of
human
Understanding Principles of
Human Knowledge David Hume, An Enquiry Human Understanding
and contro-
versies
The
John Locke, An Essay Concerning
George Berkeley, The
Historical observations concerning re-
la.
Pensees
Human
Religion 7.
of
Novum Organum
rection of the Mind, Discourse on the
ments for and against personal survival
ligion, see the
Theologica,
II
30 Francis
For background
The
Christian Doctrine
in
science and philosophy
Immortality 2. The knowledge of
The
On
Thomas Aquinas, 5wmma VOL
20
Sign and Symbol
Augustine, City of God,
in
man's conception of the world, see the passages cited under 4J.
Plato,
Protagoras,
Good and Evil 3a. Human nature
Will 5. The freedom of the
may help the reader to be reminded of many works of philosophy and religion
included in Great Books of the Western World. The most important of these are: 7
moral significance
ation of the
It
the
Duty
to
ability; the denial
jurisprudence;
poetics or the theory of art
Grant
degrees of probof axioms and of the possibility of demonstration
topics:
Philosophy 2c. The nature and branches of practical or moral philosophy: economics, ethics, politics,
P.
42
Concerning
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical 375
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION Elements of Ethics, General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals, The Critique ofJudgement 43 John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism 46 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
376
The Philosophy of History 54
Sigmund Freud. Beyond
the Pleasure Principle, Thoughts for the Times
on War and Death, Civilization and Discontents
Its
PART
IV
ADDITIONS TO THE
GREAT BOOKS LIBRARY
Experience and Education by John Relativity: the Special
Dewey
and General Theory by Albert Einstein The School for Wives by Moliere Three Essays by Arnold Toynbee
John
Dewey
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION
JOHN DEWE^ Painting hy Child
theme of discussion in any civiis concerned that its young people receive the proper education for citizenship; on the other hand, parents want to be certain their children are being given sound intellectual and moral training. This was as true in the Athens of Plato's time as it is today. Plato's Republic deals with the problems of education from the public point of view, while in the Laches, Plato shows us Athenian parents anxious to have their boys educated in the right manner. Since then — 400 B.C. — books on education have ap-
Education
constitutes a constant
lized society.
peared
in
On
the one hand, the state
ever increasing numbers.
In recent years, educational problems have acquired greater ur-
gency than ever before as a result of two major causes. The first cause is the much discussed "population explosion" which in the United States has meant increasing pressure on all educational institutions — elementary, secondary, and higher — to provide more classrooms and more teachers. The United States must find a way of meeting its educational obligations to all its future citizens, not simply because they are entitled to free public schooling, but also because a democratic form of government requires an informed and educated citizenry. The second cause is a growing doubt that schools today are adequately training our young people, especially in the natural sciences. In the context of the Cold War, this doubt causes considerable anxiety. Will we produce enough able scientists and technicians to compete successfully with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries? Some competent educators answer this question affirmatively, while others just as competent answer it negatively. Still a third group of authorities maintains that it is a mistake to measure the value of our educational system in terms of its ability to produce scientists and technicians who can out-perform the Russians. Many critics of our schools and colleges blame John Dewey and his theory of progressive education for the weakness of our educational system. Critics such as Admiral Rickover (in his recent book, Education
and Freedom) maintain
that progressive education has diluted
the curriculum of our schools by substituting "life-adjustment" courses for the study of the liberal arts
380
and neglecting basic subjects
like
math-
Introduction
ematics, science, and foreign languages. Furthermore, there has been insufficient
emphasis,
in the
opinion of these
critics,
on
discipline in the
schools — either the internal discipline that the child needs in order to study and learn effectively, or the external discipline needed to make the learning process possible at
In the light of such criticism,
all. it is
interesting to note that John
Dewey
himself realized that the zeal of his followers had introduced a number of excesses and defects into progressive education. tells
us in Experience
and Education,
to
schools can to a very large extent ignore the past"
chides those of his followers
education
who
difficult
one.
.
a mistake, he
(p.
412).
Dewey
think that the road of progressive
On
an easy one to follow.
is
more strenuous and
It is
think that "progressive
.
.
the contrary, this road
The
is
"a
greatest danger that attends
is, I believe, the idea that it is an easy way to follow, so easy course may be improvised, if not in an impromptu fashion, at least almost from day to day or from week to week" (p. 418). Progressive education calls for careful planning and organization of sub-
its
future
that
its
development of methods of teaching suitable to if these things were neglected, progressive education would be subjected to the very criticisms which have arisen twenty years later. (See, for instance, p. 416.) Dewey's own faith in progressive education never wavered. Its excesses and defects might well deserve criticism, but basically it was sound. He dismissed efforts to return to former methods of schooling as perhaps "... temporarily successful in a period when general inse-
ject matters and the
the student.
Dewey
curity, emotional
Yet we must
predicted that
and
intellectual as well as
realize that
Dewey
economic,
is
did not foresee a time
rife" (p. 416).
when our
en-
would seem insecure because of the failures of our educational system. In his day, Dewey was concerned primarily with education for citizenship in a democracy. Perhaps today, when we are fighting not only for democracy but also for our national survival, tire
future as a nation
he might see some merit
in
recent proposals for modifying progressive
education.
born in 1859 in Burlington, Vermont. He was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1879; in 1884, he received the Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He taught philosophy at the University of Minnesota in 188889 and at the University of Michigan from 1889 to 1894. Then he left Ann Arbor and went to The University of Chicago to become head of
John Dewey was
combined departments of philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy. At Chicago, Dewey established the Laboratory School which he directed until 1904. In that year he went to Columbia University as prothe
fessor of philosophy, a position he retained until his retirement in
1
930.
Education was a subject that occupied Dewey's thought all his life. In 1899 he wrote The School and Society, though this is by no means 38!
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION, INTRODUCTION book or his first writing on education. Some other important books dealing with the subject are Interest and Effort in Education (1913), Democracy and Education (1916), and The Sources of a Science of Education (1929), which was the first lecture in the series of which Experience and Education is the tenth. This last work constitutes Dewey's most mature thought on the philosophy of education. In 938, when Experience and Education first appeared, Dewey was 79 years old. Nevertheless, the bibliography of his writings in The Philosophy of John Dewey (edited by Paul Schilpp; New York, 1951) 2 publications for that year and even more for the following year. lists So great was his vigor as a writer and thinker that the total bibliography of his writings in the work mentioned takes 72 pages. Dewey left a permanent mark on American thought, especially in the fields of logic, aesthetics, and the philosophy of education. He his first
1
1
died in 1952.
Dewey surrounded by some of the children
upon whose
lives
he has exerted such an influence
382
CONTENTS JOHN DEWEY, EXPERIENCE AND
EDUCATION
I
II
Progressive Education
384
TheNeedof a Theory of Experience
387
Criteria of Experience
3 90
Traditional
vs.
1 1 1
Social Control
399
The Nature of Freedom
405
The Meaning of Purpose
408
IV
V VI
V1 VIII
1
Progressive Organization of Subject Matter
Experience — The Means and Goal of Education
41
418
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION It is in
this
context that
at the close of this little
who
are looking ahead to a
in education,
new
for a
movements involve
have suggested that those
new movement
adapted to the existing need
social order, should think in terms
of Education
PREFACE
I
volume
itself
rather than in terms of
some
'ism about education, even such an
'ism
as
"progressivism." For in spite any movement that thinks and acts
conflicts
of
itself
which are reflected intellectually in It would not be a sign of health if such an important social interest as education were not also an arena of struggles, practical and theoretical. But for theory, at least for the theory that forms a
in
terms of an 'ism becomes so involved
All
social
.
controversies.
philosophy of education, the practical con-
and the controversies that are conducted upon the level of these conflicts, only set a problem. It is the business of an intelligent theory of education to ascertain flicts
reaction against other 'isms that
it is
in
unwit-
by them. For it then forms by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities. Whatever value is possessed by the essay presented in this little volume retingly controlled
principles
its
sides in
its
attempt to
call attention to the
and deeper issues of Education so as suggest their proper frame of reference.
larger to
the causes for the conflicts that exist and
John Dewey
then, instead of taking one side or the other, to indicate a plan of operations proceeding
from a
level
deeper and more inclusive than
represented by the practices and ideas of the contending parties. is
TRADITIONAL VS. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
This formulation of the business of the philosophy of education does not mean that the latter should attempt to bring about a
compromise between opposed schools of thought, to find a via media, nor yet
make
Mankind
out hither and yon from
means a
new order
modes of it is
schools.
of conceptions leading to
practice. It
It
is
new
for this reason that
so difficult to develop a philosophy of
education, the
tom
all
the necessity of the introduction of
moment
are departed from.
that the
and cus-
for this reason
conduct of schools, based upon a
new order difficult
tradition It is
of conceptions,
than
which walk
movement
is
in
is
so
much more
the management of schools beaten paths. Hence, every
in the direction
of a
new
order
of ideas and of activities directed by them
sooner or later, a return to what appear to be simpler and more fundamental calls out,
ideas and practices of the past — as
is
ex-
emplified at present in education in the at-
tempt
to revive
the principles of ancient
Greece and of the middle
384
ages.
likes to think in
treme opposites.
an eclectic combination of points picked
lating its beliefs in
tween which possibilities.
it
It is
terms of ex-
given to formu-
terms of Either-Ors, be-
recognizes no intermediate
When
forced to recognize that
the extremes cannot be acted upon, still
inclined to hold that they are
theory but that
in
cal
^
when
it
comes
all
it
is
right
to practi-
matters circumstances compel us to
compromise. Educational philosophy
is
no
The history of educational themarked by opposition between the
exception.
ory
is
development from
idea that education
is
within and that
formation from with-
it
is
it is based upon natural endowments and that education is a process of overcoming natural inclination and substituting in its place habits acquired under ex-
out; that
ternal pressure.
At present, the opposition, tical
aff"airs
so far as prac-
of the school are concerned,
John Dewey tends to take the form of contrast between traditional and progressive education. If
have not made
I
the underlying ideas of the former are formulated broadly, without the qualifications
philosophy.
required for accurate statement, they are found to be about as follows: The subject
itself
matter of education consists of bodies of information and of skills that have been
of the
worked out
lows:
in the past; therefore, the chief
business of the school
new
to the
is
to transmit
them
generation. In the past, there
have also been developed standards and of conduct; moral training consists in forming habits of action in conformity
rules
with these rules and standards. Finally, the general pattern of school organization (by
which
I
mean
the relations of pupils to one
another and to the teachers) constitutes the school a kind of institution sharply marked off
from other
social institutions. Call
up
imagination the ordinary schoolroom,
in its
brief
this
summary
for the purpose of criticizing the underlying
The
rise
of what
education and progressive
new
called
of
is
a product of discontent with tradi-
tional education. In effect
is
is
schools
When
latter.
is
it
a criticism
the implied criticism
made explicit it reads somewhat as folThe traditional scheme is, in essence,
one of imposition from above and from outside. It imposes adult standards, subject matter, and methods upon those who are only growing slowly toward maturity. The gap is so great that the required subject matter, the methods of learning and of behaving are foreign to the existing capacities of the young. They are beyond the reach of the experience the young learners already possess. Consequently, they must be imposed; even though good teachers will use devices of art to cover up
time-schedules, schemes of classification, of
the imposition so as to relieve
examination and promotion, of rules of order, and I think you will grasp what is meant
viously brutal features. But the gulf between the mature or adult
by "pattern of organization." If then you contrast this scene with what goes on in the family, for example, you will appreciate what is meant by the school being a kind of institution sharply marked off from any other form of social organization. The three characteristics just mentioned fix the aims and methods of instruction and discipline. The main purpose or objective is to prepare the young for future responsibilities and for success in life, by means
products and the experience and of the young uation
instruc-
sit-
participation
active
is
to
Learning here means acquisition of is incorporated in books and in the heads of the elders. Moreover, that which is taught is thought of as essentially
die.
what already
static.
it
Since the subject matter as well as
much
what is do — and learn, as it was the part of the six hundred to do and
information and prepared forms of tion.
abilities
so wide that the very
the development of
in
Theirs
taught.
with
which comprehend the material of
forbids
by pupils
of acquisition of the organized bodies of skill
is
of ob-
it
It
little
was
is
taught as a finished product,
regard either to the ways
originally
that will
up or
built
to
in
which
changes
surely occur in the future.
to a large extent
It
is
the cultural product of
pupils are brought into effective connection
assumed the future would and yet it is used as educational food in a society where change is the rule, not the exception. If one attempts to formulate the philosophy of education implicit in the practices of the newer education, we may, I think, discover certain common principles amid
with the material. Teachers are the agents
the
through which knowledge and
are
existing.
To
of conduct en-
opposed
expression
standards of proper conduct are handed
down from
the past, the attitude of pupils
must, upon the whole, be one of docility, receptivity,
and obedience. Books, espe-
cially textbooks, are the chief representa-
tives of the lore
and wisdom of the
past,
while teachers are the organs through which
communicated and forced.
rules
skills
societies
be
much
that
like the past,
variety
from
imposition
and
now
schools
of progressive
above
cultivation
individuality; to external discipline
385
is
is
of op-
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION posed texts
learning from free activity; to and teachers, learning through ex-
perience: to acquisition of isolated skills
progressive organization of
What
results follow
of
which make direct
neglect
appeal; to prep-
its
contents?
the materials of
experience are not progressively organized? A philosophy which proceeds on the basis
and techniques by drill, is opposed acquisition of them as means of attaining ends vital
when
rejection,
these
more or less remote future opposed making the most of the opportunities of present life; to static aims and materials is opposed acquaintance with
of organization
a changing world.
to discover
of
sheer
opposition,
questions.
will
It
will
tend to
aration for a
suppose that because the old education
is
was based on ready-made organization,
Now,
principles
all
by themselves are
They become concrete only
abstract.
in
which result from their application. Just because the principles set forth are so fundamental and farreaching, everything depends upon the interpretation given them as they are put into practice in the school and the home. the consequences
It is at this
point that the reference
made
therefore
to
suffices to reject the principle
it
in toto,
instead of striving
what it means and how it is be attained on the basis of experience.
We
might go through
all
the
points of
between the new and the old education and reach similar conclusions. difference
When
external
control
is
the
rejected,
problem becomes that of finding the factors of control
that
When
perience.
are
inherent
within
external authority
ex-
is
re-
philos-
does not follow that all authority should be rejected, but rather that there is need to search for a more effective source
ophy of the new education may be sound,
of authority. Because the older education
and yet the difference
imposed the knowledge, methods, and the mature person upon the young, it does not follow, except upon the basis of the extreme Either-Or philosophy, that the knowledge and skill of the mature person has no directive value for
earlier to
Either-Or philosophies becomes
peculiarly
will not
The
pertinent.
decide the
general
in abstract principles
way
in
which the moral
and intellectual preference involved shall be worked out in practice. There is always the danger in a new movement that in rejecting the aims and methods of that which it would supplant, it may develop its principles
negatively
rather
than
positively
and constructively. Then it takes its clew in practice from that which is rejected instead of from the constructive development of its own philosophy. I
the
take
it
that the fundamental unity of
newer philosophy
is found in the idea an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education. If this be true, then a positive and constructive develop-
that
there
ment of
its
is
own
basic idea depends
upon
having a correct idea of experience. Take, for example, the question of organized subject in
some
matter- which detail later.
gressive education
will
be discussed
The problem for proWhat is the place
is:
and meaning of subject matter and of organization within experience? How does subject matter function? Is there anything inherent in experience which tends towards
386
jected,
it
rules of conduct of the
the experience of the immature.
On
the
upon personal experience may mean more multiplied and more intimate contacts between the mature and the immature than ever existed contrary, basing education
and consequently more, rather than less, guidance by others. The problem, then, is: how these contacts can be established without violating the principle of learning through personal experience. The solution of this problem requires a well thought-out philosophy in the traditional school,
of the social factors that operate
in
the
constitution of individual experience.
What marks
is
is
indicated in the foregoing re-
that the general principles of the
new education do not of themselves solve any of the problems of the actual or practical conduct and management of progressive schools. Rather, they set new problems which have to be worked out on the basis of a
new philosophy
of experience.
The
John Dewey matic which is not based upon critical examination of its own underlying principles. Let us say that the new education emphasizes the freedom of the learner.
Very well. A problem is now set. What does freedom mean and what are the conditions under which it is capable of realization? Let us say that the kind of external imposition which was so common in the traditional school limited rather than pro-
moted the intellectual and moral development of the young. Again, very well. Recognition of this
serious defect sets a prob-
lem. Just what
"... the
new education emphasizes
the freedom
is
the role of the teacher
and of books in promoting the educational development of the immature? Admit that traditional education employed as the subject matter for study facts and ideas so bound up with the past as to give little
of the learner"
help in dealing with the issues of the pres-
problems are not even recognized, to say nothing of being solved,
sumed
that
it
when
ent and future.
Very
well.
Now we
have
as-
the problem of discovering the connection
suffices to reject the ideas
which actually exists within experience between the achievements of the past and the issues of the present. We have the
it
is
and practices of the old education and then go to the opposite extreme. Yet I am sure that you will appreciate what is meant when I say that many of the newer schools tend to
make
little
or nothing of
problem of ascertaining how acquaintance with the past tent
may be
translated into a po-
dealing
effec-
We may reject
knowl-
instrumentality
for
organized subject matter of study; to pro-
tively with the future.
ceed as if any form of direction and guidance by adults were an invasion of individual freedom, and as if the idea that edu-
edge of the past as the end of education and thereby only emphasize its importance as a means. When we do that we have a problem that is new in the story of edu-
cation should be concerned with the present
and future meant that acquaintance little or no role to play education. Without pressing these de-
with the past has in
fects to the point of exaggeration, they at
cation:
How
the acquaintance
is
cational
not too
much
philosophy
to say that
which
professes
to
For any theory and
set of practices
is
dog-
ac-
such a way that a potent agent in appre-
II
THENEED OF ATHEORY OF EXPERIENCE
an edu-
be based on the idea of freedom may become as dogmatic as ever was the traditional education which is reacted against.
is
young become in
ciation of the living present?
least illustrate what is meant by a theory and practice of education which proceeds negatively or by reaction against what has been current in education rather than by a positive and constructive development of purposes, methods, and subject matter on the foundation of a theory of experience and its educational potentialities. It
shall the
quainted with the past
short, the point
Inrejection tice
of
am making
of traditional education sets a
difficult
who
I
is
that
of the philosophy and prac-
new
type
educational problem for those
believe in the
new type of 387
education.
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION
We
shall
we
until
operate blindly and in confusion recognize this fact; until we thor-
oughly appreciate that departure from the old solves no problems.
following pages to indicate
is,
What
is
said in the
accordingly, intended
some of the main problems with newer education is confronted
esting,"
and yet
their disconnectedness
generate
artificially
dispersive,
The consequence
grated, centrifugal habits.
of formation of such habits control future experiences. taken, either by
way
may
disinte-
is
inability to
They
are then
of enjoyment or of
which the and to suggest the main lines along which their solution is to be sought. I assume that amid all uncertainties there is one perma-
discontent and revolt, just as they come.
nent frame of reference: namely, the organic connection between education and per-
examples of experiences of the kinds just
sonal experience; or, that the
new
philos-
ophy of education is committed to some kind of empirical and experimental philosophy. But experience and experiment are ideas.
self-explanatory
not
Rather, their
problem to be explored. To know the meaning of empiricism we need to understand what experience is.
meaning
is
part of the
Under such circumstances,
mentioned.
even
It is
a great mistake to suppose,
tacitly, that the traditional
schoolroom
was not a place in which pupils had experiences. Yet this is tacitly assumed when progressive education as a plan of learning
by experience
is
sition to the old. is
in
sharp oppo-
The proper
line of attack
placed
that the experiences
which were had, by were largely of a
pupils and teachers alike,
wrong
Experience and education cannot be directly equated to each other. For some experiences are mis-educative. Any experience is mis-educative
of the
educative.
idle to talk
Traditional education offers a plethora of
The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally
it is
of self-control.
How many
kind.
students, for ex-
ample, were rendered callous to ideas, and
how many lost the impetus to learn because way in which learning was experienced by them? How many acquired spe-
may be such as to engender callousness; it may produce lack of sensitivity
by means of automatic drill so power of judgment and capacity to act intelligently in new situations was limited? How many came to associate, the learning process with ennui and boredom? How many found what they did learn so
and of responsiveness. Then the possi-
foreign to the situations of
that has the effect of arresting or distorting
the growth of further experience.
An
ex-
perience
bilities
to
over the latter? How many came to associate books with dull drudgery, so that they were "conditioned" to all but flashy reading matter? If I ask these questions, it is not for the sake of wholesale condemnation of the old education. It is for quite another purpose.
increase a person's automatic
a particular direction and yet tend to
narrow the
experience
field
of further experience.
may be immediately
enjoy-
able and yet promote the formation of a slack
outside the
Again, a given ex-
may
land him in a groove or rut; the effect again
An
life
school as to give them no power of control
perience
is
that their
of having richer experience in the
future are restricted.
skill in
cial skills
and careless
attitude;
this
attitude
It is
to
emphasize the
young
fact, first, that
schools do have expe-
then operates to modify the quality of sub-
people
sequent experiences so as to prevent a person from getting out of them what they have
riences; and, secondly, that the trouble
may be so disconnected from one another that, while each is agreeable or even exciting in itself, they are not linked cumulatively to one another. Energy is then dissipated and a person becomes scatterbrained. Each experience may be lively, vivid, and "inter-
defective and
to give. Again, experiences
388
in traditional
is
not the absence of experiences, but their
wrong character — wrong and
defective from the standpoint of connection
with further experience.
of this point
is
The
positive side
even more important
in
nection with progressive education.
conIt
is
not enough to insist upon the necessity of experience, nor even of activity in expe-
John Dewey rience. Everything
depends upon the qual-
of the experience which is had. The quality of any experience has two aspects. ity
an immediate aspect of agreeableness or disagreeableness, and there is its
There
is
upon later experiences. The first is obvious and easy to judge. The effect of an experience is not borne on its face. It influence
plans and programs were handed down from the past, it does not follow that progressive education
a matter of planless
is
improvisation.
The traditional school could get along without any consistently developed philosophy of education. About all it required in that line was a set of abstract words like
sets a problem to the educator. It is his business to arrange for the kind of experiences
culture, discipline, our great cultural heri-
which, while they do not repel the student, but rather engage his activities are, never-
not from them but from custom and es-
more than immediately enjoyable
theless,
tage,
actual guidance
etc.,
being derived
tablished routines. Just because progressive
schools cannot rely upon established tradi-
promote having desirable future experiences. Just as no man lives or dies to himself, so no experience lives and dies to itself. Wholly independent of desire or intent, every experience lives on in further experiences. Hence the central problem of an education based upon experience is to
tions
select the kind of present experiences that
for a kind of organization based
since they
and creatively
live fruitfully
in
subsequent
more
shall discuss in
I
detail the
made
are
articulate
philosophy
the traditional school constitutes a
I
principle for the
this
osophy of education, to
be stated it
in
like
words,
in
any theory, has symbols. But so
more than verbal
is
A phil-
it is
a plan for
demand
upon
ideas.
think that only slight acquaintance with is
that educational reformers
alone have
importance of
Revolt against
the kind of organization characteristic of
of education. Those
far as
and coherent, form a
of education.
what may be called the experiential continuum. Here I wish simply to emphasize philosophy of educative experience.
they must
more or less haphazardly or be directed by ideas which, when they
principle of the continuity of experience or
the
habits,
institutional
the history of education
experiences. Later,
and
either proceed
felt
needed to prove and innovators
the need for a philosophy
who adhered
to the
established system needed merely a few
fine-sounding words to justify existing prac-
The real work was done by habits which were so fixed as to be institutional. tices.
The it
lesson for progressive education
is
that
requires in an urgent degree, a degree
conducting education. Like any plan, it must be framed with reference to what is to be done and how it is to be done. The
more pressing than was incumbent upon former innovators, a philosophy of education based upon a philosophy of expe-
more
rience.
definitely
education
is
and sincerely
it is
held that
a development within, by, and
for experience,
the
more important
it
is
that there shall be clear conceptions of what
experience
is.
Unless experience
ceived that the result
is
is
so con-
a plan for deciding
upon subject matter, upon methods of instruction and discipline, and upon material equipment and
social organization of the
in the air. It is reduced form of words which may be emotionally stirring but for which any other set of words might equally well be substituted un-
school,
it
is
wholly
to a
less
they indicate operations to be initiated
and executed. Just because cation
traditional edu-
was a matter of routine
in
which the
remarked incidentally that the philI osophy in question is, to paraphrase the saying of Lincoln about democracy, one of education of, by, and for experience. No one of these words, of, by, or for, names anything which is self-evident. Each of them is a challenge to discover and put into operation a principle of order and organization which follows from understanding what educative experience signifies. It is, accordingly, a much more difficult task to work out the kinds of materials, of methods, and of social relationships that are appropriate to the is
new education
the case with traditional
389
than
education.
I
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION think in
many
of the difficulties experienced
terms of the
AmJ of organization, whether
of content (or subject matter), or of meth-
of the criticisms leveled against them
ods and social relations, that mark traditional education. I think that a good deal
many
from
arise
The
this source.
difficulties are
aggravated and the criticisms are increased when it is supposed that the new education is
in
the conduct of progressive schools and
somehow
easier than the old. This belief
imagine,
is,
I
it
illustrates
more or
less current.
Perhaps
the Either-Or philos-
again
of the current opposition to the idea of organization
due
is
to the fact that
it
is
so
hard to get away from the picture of the studies of the old school.
ganization"
The moment
"or-
mentioned imagination goes
is
ophy, springing from the idea that about all which is required is not to do what is done
almost automatically to the kind of organi-
in traditional schools.
against that
I admit gladly that the new education is simpler in principle than the old. It is in harmony with principles of growth, while
very idea of any organization.
there
very
is
much which
is artificial
in the
zation
that
familiar,
is
we
and
revolting
in
are led to shrink from the
On
the other
hand, educational reactionaries,
now
who
are
gathering force, use the absence of
adequate
intellectual
moral
and
organi-
newer type of school as proof
old selection and arrangement of subjects
zation in the
and methods, and artificiality always leads to unnecessary complexity. But the easy and the simple are not identical. To discover what is really simple and to act upon the discovery is an exceedingly difficult task. After the artificial and complex is once institutionally established and ingrained in custom and routine, it is easier to walk in the paths that have been beaten
not only of the need of organization, but
than to
it
is,
after taking a
work out what
the
new
is
new
point of view,
practically involved in
point of view.
The
old Ptolemaic
system was more complicated with its cycles and epicycles than the Copernican system. But until organization of actual astronomical phenomena on the ground of the latter principle had been effected the easiest course was to follow the line of least resistance provided by the old intellectual habit. So we come back to the idea that a coherent theory of experiastronomical
ence, affording positive direction to selec-
and organization of appropriate educational methods and materials, is required by the attempt to give new direction to the work of the schools. The process is a slow and arduous one. It is a matter of growth, and there are many obstacles which tend to obstruct growth and to deflect it into
to identify
of experimental science. Failure to develop a conception of organization upon the empirical
I
shall
that the empirical sciences
organization. All that is
is
to say later
needed, perhaps,
to say that
from the tendency
390
about
we must escape
to think of organization
re-
now
offer the
best type of intellectual organization which
can be found in any field shows that there is no reason why we, who call ourselves empiricists, should be "pushovers" in ,the matter of order and organization.
Ill
CRITERIA
OF EXPERIENCE If
there
is
any truth in what has been need of forming a theory
said about the
of experience in order that education
may
be intelligently conducted upon the basis of experience, it is clear that the next thing in
order
discussion
in this
principles that are ing this theory.
I
most
is
to present the
significant in fram-
shall not, therefore, apol-
ogize for engaging in a certain
have something
at this point
and experimental basis gives
actionaries a too easy victory. But the fact
tion
wrong lines.
any and every kind of organi-
zation with that instituted before the rise
amount of
which otherwise might be out of place. I may, however, reassure you to some degree by saying that this analysis is not an end in itself but is enphilosophical
analysis,
John Dewey gaged in for the sake of obtaining criteria to be applied later in discussion of a number of concrete and, to most persons, more interesting issues.
have already mentioned what
I
called
I
the category of continuity, or the experiential
as
I
continuum. This principle is involved, pointed out, in every attempt to dis-
between experiences that are worthwhile educationally and those that are not. It may seem superfluous to argue that this discrimination is necessary not only in criticizing the traditional type of education but also in initiating and conducting a different type. Nevertheless, it is advisable to pursue for a little while the idea criminate
it is necessary. One may safely assume, suppose, that one thing which has recom-
that I
mended
movement
the progressive
that
is
seems more in accord with the democratic ideal to which our people is committed than do the procedures of the traditional school, since the latter have so much of the autocratic about them. Another thing which it
has contributed to that
is
its
its
favorable reception
methods are humane
in
com-
that democratic social arrangements promote a better quality of human experience, one which is more widely accessible and enjoyed, than do non-democratic and anti-democratic forms of social life? Does lief
not the principle of regard for individual
freedom and
human
decency and kindliness of come back in the end to
for
relations
the conviction that these things are trib-
utary to a higher quality of experience on
number than are methods of repression and coercion or force? Is it not the reason for our preference that we believe that mutual consultation and the part of a greater
convictions,
make
reached through persuasion,
possible a better quality of experience
than can otherwise be provided on any
wide scale? If the answer
to these questions
is
in the
do not see how we can justify our preference for democracy and humanity on any other ground), affirmative (and personally
I
the ultimate reason for hospitality to pro-
gressive education, because of
its
reliance
upon and use of humane methods and
its
kinship to democracy, goes back to the
parison with the harshness so often attend-
fact that discrimination
ing the policies of the traditional school.
inherent
The question 1 would raise concerns why we prefer democratic and humane arrange-
nuity of experience as a criterion of dis-
which are autocratic and
ments
to those
harsh.
And by "why,"
for
I
mean
the reason
preferring thern, not just the causes
which lead us to the preference. One cause may be that we have been taught not only in the schools but by the press, the pulpit, the platform, and our laws and law-making bodies that democracy is the best of all social institutions. We may have so assimilated this idea from our surroundings that it has become an habitual part of our mental and moral make-up. But similar causes have led other persons in different surroundings to widely varying conclusions — to prefer fascism, for example. The cause for our preference
the reason
is
not the same thing as
why we should prefer it.
my
purpose here to go in detail But I would ask a single question: Can we find any reason that does not ultimately come down to the beIt is
into
not
the reason.
So
I
is
made between
the
values of different experiences.
come back
to the principle of conti-
crimination.
At bottom,
this principle rests
upon the
when habit is interpreted bioThe basic characteristic of habit
fact of habit, logically.
is that every experience enacted and undergone modifies the one who acts and undergoes, while this modification aflfects, wheth-
er we wish it or not, the quality of subsequent experiences. For it is a somewhat different person who enters into them. The
principle of habit so understood obviously goes deeper than the ordinary conception of a habit as a more or less fixed way of
doing things, although as one of
its
it
includes the latter
special cases.
covers the
It
formation of attitudes, attitudes that are emotional and intellectual; it covers our basic sensitivities and
responding to
all
meet
From
in living.
ways of meeting and
the conditions this point
which we
of view, the
principle of continuity of experience
391
means
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION that every experience both takes
up some-
thing from those which have gone before
and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after. As the poet states it,
".
.
.
all
Gleams
experience
is
an arch wherethro'
untraveled world, whose
that
margin fades
For ever and
for ever
when
1
move."
however, we have no ground for among experiences. For the principle is of universal application. There is some kind of continuity in every case. It is when we note the different forms in
So
far,
we get the basis of among experiences. I may
discriminating
that
what meant by an objection which has been brought against an idea which I once put illustrate
is
forth
— namely,
that the educative process
can be identified with growth when that is understood in terms of the active participle,
specialized limited application. I
now
return
ity as
Growth, or growing as developing, not only physically but intellectually and morally, is one exemplification of the principle
The
objection
made
is
that
growth might take many different directions: a man, for example, who starts out on
between experiences which are educative and those which are mis-educative. As we have seen, there is some kind of continuity in any case since every experience affects for better or worse the attitudes which help decide the quality of further experiences,
by
up certain preference and averand making it easier or harder to act for this or that end. Moreover, every exsetting
sion,
perience influences in some degree the ob-
may grow in that direcand by practice may grow into a highly expert burglar. Hence it is argued that "growth" is not enough; we must also specify the direction in which growth takes place, the end towards which it tends. Before, however, we decide that the objection is conclusive we must analyze the case a
learns to speak has a
facility
But he has also widened the exterof subsequent learning. When he learns to read, he similarly opens up a new environment. If a person decides
become
a teacher, lawyer, physician, or
stockbroker,
when he executes
his inten-
tion he thereby necessarily determines to
some extent
the environment in which he
He has rendered himand responsive to certain conditions, and relatively immune to those things about him that would have been stimuli if he had made another choice. will act in the future.
self
more
sensitive
But, while the principle of continuity ap-
in efficiency as a
some way
every case, the quality
burglar, as a gangster, or as a corrupt pol-
plies in
cannot be doubted. But from the standpoint of growth as education and education as growth the question is whether growth in this direction promotes or retards growth in general. Does this form of growth create conditions for further growth, or
of the present experience influences the
does it set up conditions that shut off the person who has grown in this particular direction from the occasions, stimuli, and opportunities for continuing growth in new
and objects cater
itician,
392
who
and new
conditions
nal
to
further.
new
desire.
tion,
That a man may grow
which further ex-
periences are had. For example, a child
a career of burglary
little
to the question of continu-
a criterion by which to discriminate
jective conditions under
growing.
of coatinuity.
is
direction
special
discrimination
which continuity of experience operates
What
the effect of growth in a upon the attitudes and habits which alone open up avenues for development in other lines? I shall leave you to answer these questions, saying simply that when and only when development in a particular line conduces to continuing growth does it answer to the criterion of education as growing. For the conception is one that must find universal and not
directions?
in
way
which the principle applies. We speak of spoiling a child and of the spoilt child. The
in
effect of overindulging a child
uing one.
It
sets
up an
attitude
is
a contin-
which oper-
demand
that persons
to his desires
and caprices
ates as an automatic
makes him seek the kind of situation that will enable him to do what he feels like doing at the time. It renders him in the future. It
averse to and comparatively incompetent
which require effort and perovercoming obstacles. There no paradox in the fact that the principle
in situations
severance is
in
of the continuity of experience may operate so as to leave a person arrested on a low plane of development,
a
in
way which
limits
later capacity for growth.
On
the other hand,
if
an experience ainitiative, and
rouses curiosity, strengthens
up desires and purposes that are sufintense to carry a person over dead places in the future, continuity works in a very different way. Every experience is a moving force. Its value can be judged only on the ground of what it moves toward and into. The greater maturity of experience which should belong to the adult as educator puts him in a position to evaluate each experience of the young in a way in which the one having the less mature experience cannot do. It is then the business of the educator to see in what direction an experience is heading. There is no point in his being more mature if, instead of using his sets
ficiently
The teacher must have "that sympathetic understanding which gives him an idea of what is actually going on in the minds of those who are learning" .
.
.
posing a merely external control.
On one
tions of the experience of the immature, he
be on the alert to see what attitudes and habitual tendencies are being created. In this direction he must, if he is an educator, be able to judge what
throws away his
attitudes
greater insight to help organize the condi-
insight. Failure to take the
moving force of an experience into account so as to judge and direct it on the ground of what it is moving into means disloyalty to the principle of
experience
disloyalty operates in
educator
is
two
false to the
itself.
directions.
understanding that
he should have obtained from his experience. fact that
all
social: that
nication.
He
is
own
also unfaithful
human experience it
is
to
past the
ultimately
involves contact and
The mature
The The
commu-
person, to put
it
in
moral terms, has no right to withhold from the young on given occasions whatever capacity for sympathetic understanding his
own
experience has given him.
No
sooner, however, are such things said
is a tendency to react to the other extreme and take what has been said as a
than there plea for
some
sort of disguised imposition
from outside. It is worthwhile, accordingly, to say something about the way in which the adult can exercise the wisdom his own wider experience gives him without im-
side,
it
is
his business to
actually
are
conducive
to
con-
tinued growth and what are detrimental.
must,
in
He
addition, have that sympathetic
understanding of individuals as individuals which gives him an idea of what is actually going on learning.
in
the minds of those
It is,
among
who
are
other things, the need
on the part of the parent and teacher which makes a system of education based upon living experience a more difficult affair to conduct successfully than
for these abilities
it
is
to follow the
patterns of traditional
education.
But there is another aspect of the matter. Experience does not go on simply inside a person. It does go on there, for it influences the formation of attitudes of desire and purpose. But this is not the whole of the story. Every genuine experience has an active side which changes in some degree the objective conditions under which experiences are had. The difference between civilization and savagery, to take an example on a large scale, is found in the de-
393
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION gree in which previous experiences have changed the objective conditions under which subsequent experiences take place.
The existence of roads, of means of rapid movement and transportation, tools, imple-
in
sibility
of educators
A
imposition. is
primary respon-
that they not only
external
conditions, but that they also recognize in the cQncrete what surroundings are conducive to having experiences that lead to growth. Above all, they should know how
Destroy
illustrations.
the
re-
lapse into that of barbaric peoples. In a word, in
we
live
from
birth to death
a world of persons and things which in
measure is what it is because of what has been done and transmitted from prelarge
vious
human
activities.
ignored, experience
is
When
this fact is
treated as
if it
were
to
utilize
the surroundings, physical and
social, that exist so as to extract all
have
that they
up experiences
from them
to contribute to building
that are worthwhile.
education did not have to face this problem; it could systematically Traditional
something which goes on exclusively inside an individual's body and mind. It ought not to be necessary to say that experience does not occur in a vacuum. There are sources outside an individual which
dodge this responsibility. The school environment of desks, blackboards, a small school yard, was supposed to suffice. There was no demand that the teacher
give rise to experience.
the
fed
from these springs.
It
is
No
constantly
one would
question that a child in a slum tenement
has
a different experience from that of
a child in a cultured home; that the country lad has a different kind of
experience
should become intimately acquainted with conditions of the local community,
physical,
cational resources. A system of education based upon the necessary connection of education with experience must, on the
contrary,
such facts for granted as too commonplace
why
port
is
But when
their educational im-
recognized, they indicate the sec-
the educator
can direct the experience
of the young without engaging in imposition"
economic, occupaorder to utilize them as edu-
historical,
tional, etc., in
from the city boy, or a boy on the seashore one different from the lad who is brought up on inland prairies. Ordinarily we take to record.
.
gaging
conditions of present civilized experience,
light
and for a time our experience would
.
which the educator can direct young without en-
be aware of the general principle of the shaping of actual experience by environing
are
.
in
the experience of the
and power,
ments, furniture, electric
"
ond way
if
faithful
to
its
principle, take
these things constantly into account. This tax
upon the educator
is
to carry
system.
another reason
more difficult on than was ever the traditional
progressive education
is
John Dewey It is
cation
possible to frame schemes of edu-
systematically
pretty
that
subor-
this
respect,
she draws upon past expe-
riences of experts as well as her
own
for
whenever the place and
upon what experiences are in general most conducive to the normal development of infants. Instead
function of the teacher, of books, of appa-
of these conditions being subordinated to
ratus and equipment, of everything
which represents the products of the more mature
the
of elders, is systematically subordinated to the immediate inclinations and feelings of the young. Every theory
about.
dinate objective conditions to those which reside in the individuals being educated.
happens
This
experience
which assumes that importance can be attached to these objective factors only
expense of imposing external conand of limiting the freedom of indi-
at the trol
upon the notion
viduals rests finally
experience
is
truly experience only
subordinated to
conditions are
objective
that
when
what goes on within the individuals having the experience. I
do not mean
that
is
it
supposed that
objective conditions can be shut out.
It
recognized that they must enter
so
is
much concession able fact that we
is
made
in:
to the inescap-
live in a world of things and persons. But I think that observation of what goes on in some families and some schools would disclose that some parents and some teachers are acting upon the idea
of subordinating objective conditions to internal ones.
not only that the latter in
assumed are primary, which
In that case,
one sense they
it
is
are, but that just as they
temporarily exist they
fix
the whole edu-
Let
me
illustrate
from the case of an
The needs of a baby
for
food,
and activity are certainly primary and decisive in one respect. Nourishment must be provided; provision must be made for comfortable sleep, and so on. But these facts do not mean that a parent shall feed the baby at any time when the baby is cross or irritable, that there shall not be a program of regular hours of feeding and sleeping, etc. The wise mother takes rest,
account of the needs of the infant but not in a way which dispenses with her own responsibility for regulating the objective
conditions satisfied.
under
And
if
immediate internal condition of the baby, they are definitely ordered so that a particular kind of interaction with these immediate internal states may be brought
The
word "interaction," which has been used, expresses the second chief principle for interpreting an experience in educational function and force. It its
just
assigns equal rights to both factors in exinternal conand perience—objective Any normal experience is an interplay of these two sets of conditions. Taken together, or in their interaction, they form
ditions.
what we
call
The trouble with was not that it em-
a situation.
traditional education
phasized the external conditions that enter into the control of the experiences but that it
paid so
little
attention to the internal
which also decide what kind of
factors
experience
is
had.
violated the principle
It
of interaction from one side. But this violation is no reason why the new education
should violate the principle from the other side — except upon the basis of the extreme
philosophy
Either-Or educational has been mentioned.
The
drawn from
illustration
the
which need
for regulation of the objective conditions
cational process.
infant.
the light that these shed
which she
is
the
needs
are
a wise mother in
of a baby's development indicates, that
first,
the parent has responsibility for ar-
conditions
ranging
the
infant's
experience
under which an
of food,
sleep,
etc.,
occurs, and, secondly, that the responsibility
is
fulfilled
by
utilizing
the funded
experience of the past, as this is represented, say, by the advice of competent physicians and others special
who have made
a
study of normal physical growth.
Does it limit the freedom of the mother when she uses the body of knowledge thus provided to regulate the objective condiand sleep? Or does
tions of nourishment
the enlargement of her intelligence in fulfilling
her parental function widen her free-
395
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION dom? Doubtless
if
a fetish were
made of came
performing.
The environment, whatever conditions
in
other
the advice and directions so that they
words,
be inflexible dictates to be followed under every possible condition, then restriction of freedom of both parent and child would occur. But this restriction would also be a limitation of the intel-
and capacities to create the experience which is had. Even when a person builds a castle in the air he is interacting with the objects which he constructs in fancy.
to
ligence that
In what respect does regulation of ob-
baby?
its
in-
of experience. Different situations succeed
one another. But because of the principle of continuity something is carried over from the earlier to the later ones. As an individual passes from one situation to another, his world, his environment, expands or contracts. He does not find himself living in another world but in a different part or aspect of one and the same world. What he has learned in the way of knowledge and skill in one situation becomes an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situations which follow. The process goes on as long as life and learning continue. Otherwise the course of experience
does not get food
is
put
in
its
crib,
to continue playat the
moment
it
tinuity of developing experience.
The statement
that
said that they live in these situations,
the meaning of the word "in" is different from its meaning when it is said that pennies are "in" a pocket or paint is "in" a can. It means, once more, that interaction is going on between an individual and objects and other persons. The conceptions of situation and of interaction are inseparable from each other. An experience is always what it is because of a transaction taking place between an individual and
what, at the time, constitutes his environment, whether the latter consists of topic
whom
he
is
talking about
or event, the subject talked
about being also a part of the situation; or the toys with which he is playing; the book he is reading (in which his environing conditions at the time
may be England
or
ancient Greece or an imaginary region); or the materials of an experiment he is
396
disorderly,
is
individuals live in
a world means, in the concrete, that they live in a series of situations. And when
persons with
They
certainly
limitation
when it is time when it wants
some
and
immediate movements and
Some
the
would like it, or when it isn't picked up and dandled when it cries for attention. Restriction also occurs when mother or nurse snatches a child away from an open fire into which it is about to fall. I shall have more to say later about freedom. Here it is enough to ask whether freedom is to be thought of and adjudged on the basis of relatively momentary incidents or whether its meaning is found in the con-
is
principles of continuity
intercept and unite. They are, so to speak, the longitudinal and lateral aspects
limit
inclinations
it
purposes,
desires,
freedom of
conditions
placed upon at a
needs,
interact
teraction are not separate from each other.
jective
ing, or
personal
The two
exercised in personal judg-
is
ment.
the
with
is
since the individual factor
that enters into
A
split.
making an experience
is
divided world, a world whose parts
and aspects do not hang together, is at once a sign and a cause of a divided personality. When the splitting up reaches a certain
we
point
call the
person insane.
A
fully in-
tegrated personality, on the other hand, exists
only
when
successive experiences are
integrated with one another.
It can be built up only as a world of related objects is
constructed.
Continuity and interaction in their active union with each other provide the measure of the educative significance and value of an experience. The immediate and direct concern of an educator is then with the situations in which interaction takes place.
The it,
is
individual,
what he
who
is
enters as a factor into
at a given time. It
is
the
other factor, that of objective conditions,
which sibility
lies to
some extent within
the pos-
of regulation by the educator.
As
has already been noted, the phrase "objective conditions" covers a wide range.
John Dewey It includes what is done by the educator and the way in which it is done, not only words spoken but the tone of voice in which
they are
spoken.
includes equipment,
It
books, apparatus, toys, games played. It includes the materials with which an individual interacts, and,
most important of all,
the total social set-up of the situations in
which a person
When
is
it
engaged.
is
said that the objective con-
ditions are those
which are within the power
subject that is in and of itself, or without regard to the stage of growth attained by the learner, such that inherent educational
value can be attributed to it. Failure to take into account adaptation to the needs
and capacities of individuals was the source of the idea that certain subjects and certain methods are intrinsically cultural or intrinsically good for mental discipline. There is no such thing as educational value in the
the experience of others and thereby the
The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts and truths possess educational value in and of themselves is the reason
education they obtain places upon him the
why
of the educator to regulate,
is
it
meant, of
course, that his ability to influence directly
duty
of
determining
environment
that
which will interact with the existing capacities and needs of those taught to create a worthwhile experience. The trouble with traditional education was not that educators took upon themselves the responsibility for providing an environment. The trouble
was
that they did not consider the other
factor in creating an experience: namely,
the powers and purposes of those taught. It
was assumed that a certain set of condiwas intrinsically desirable, apart from
tions its
evoke a certain quality of reindividuals. This lack of mutual
ability to
sponse
in
made
adaptation
the process of teaching
and learning accidental. Those to whom the provided conditions were suitable managed to learn. Others got on as best they
abstract.
traditional
education
reduced
the
material of education so largely to a diet of predigested materials. According to this notion, tity
was enough
it
and
difficulty
to regulate the
quan-
of the material provided,
scheme of quantitative grading, from month to month and from year to year. Otherwise a pupil was expected to take in a
doses that were prescribed from left it instead of taking it, if he engaged in physical truancy, or in the mental truancy of mind-wanderin the
it
without. If the pupil
ing
and
up an emotional rewas held question was raised as
finally
built
vulsion against the subject, he
be at fault. No whether the trouble might not lie in the subject matter or in the way in which to to
was makes it
offered. it
The
principle of interaction
clear that failure of adaptation of
could. Responsibility for selecting objective
material to needs and capacities of individ-
conditions carries with
uals
sibility for
it,
understanding the needs and ca-
pacities of the individuals at a
then, the respon-
given time.
It is
who
are learning
experience to be non-
much
The
principle
cational
of continuity
application
tive with other individuals at other times.
that the future has to
There must be a reason
at
they will function
in
for thinking that
generating an experi-
as failure of an
individual to adapt himself to the material.
not enough that certain
materials and methods have proved effec-
may cause an
educative quite as
in
its
edu-
means, nevertheless, be taken into account
every stage of the educational process.
This idea
is
easily misunderstood
and
is
ence that has educative quality with par-
badly
ticular individuals at a particular time.
assumption is, that by acquiring cerand by learning certain subjects which would be needed later (perhaps in college or perhaps in adult life) pupils are as a matter of course made ready for the needs and circumstances of the future.
It
is
infants.
It
is
the
first
or
that
fifth
is
not fed to
we do
conducive
not teach
grade of school.
not the subject per se that that
is
not an invidious reflection
upon trigonometry in
it
to
is
It
it
is
educative or
growth. There
in
traditional
education.
Its
no reflection upon the nutritive
quality of beefsteak that
distorted
is
no
tain skills
Now
"preparation"
is
a treacherous idea.
In a certain sense every experience should
397
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION One
them. matter
trouble
lation;
was
it
put, as
compartment.
tight
it
gone
iso-
the question
become of
it,
is
where
answer is that it compartment was originally stowed away. If to, the right
there in the special
is
still
in
which
exactly
subject in
were, in a water-
it
When
asked, then, what has
has
the
that
is
was learned
question
in
it
same conditions recurred
the
as
under which it was acquired, it would also recur and be available. But
those
it
was segregated when
and hence
was acquired
it
so disconnected from the
is
rest of experience that
is
it
not available
under the actual conditions of
life.
It
is
contrary to the laws of experience that
"The most important attitude that can be formed that of desire to go on learning"
is
do something
to prepare a person for later
experiences of a deeper and more expansive quality.
That
is
the very
meaning of
growth, continuity, reconstruction of experience. that
the
But
may be
is
a mistake to suppose
mere acquisition of a certain
amount of etc., which it
it
arithmetic, geography, history, is
taught and studied because
useful at
has this effect, and
some time it
is
in the future,
a mistake to sup-
pose that acquisition of skills in reading and figuring will automatically constitute preparation for their right and effective use under conditions very unlike those in which they were acquired. Almost everyone has had occasion to look back upon his school days and wonder what has become of the knowledge he was supposed to have amassed during his years of schooling, and
why
learning of this kind, no matter how thoroughly engrained at the time, should give genuine preparation. Nor does failure in preparation end at this point. Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is
studying at the time. Collateral learn-
ing in the attitudes,
and often
way
of formation of enduring
of likes and dislikes, is
much more
the spelling lesson or lesson in geography
or history that
is
learned.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. If impetus in this direction is
future.
weakened
instead of being intensified, something much more than mere lack of
preparation takes place.
course of his
life.
who have had
little
is
lucky
who does
make
progress, in order to go ahead intel-
not find that in order to
The
pupil
is
ac-
robbed of native capacities which otherwise would enable him to cope with the circumstances that he meets in the tually
that the techni-
it
For these ^atti-
tudes are fundamentally what count in the
he acquired have to be learned over again in changed form in order to stand him in good stead. Indeed, he is cal skills
may be
important than
We
often see persons
schooling and in whose
case the absence of set schooling proves to
be a positive
asset.
retained their native
They have
common
power of judgment, and
its
at least
sense and exercise in
much
the actual conditions of living has given
of what he learned in school. These ques-
them the precious gift of ability to learn from the experiences they have. What avail is it ta win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process
lectually, he
does not have to unlearn
tions cannot be disposed of
by saying
that
the subjects were not actually learned, for they were learned at least sufficiently to enable a pupil to pass examinations in
398
John Dewey the
individual
his
appreciation
own
loses his
of
loses
soul:
of the values to which these things are
he loses desire to apply what
relative; if
he has learned and, above all, loses the meaning from his future experiences as they occur?
ability to extract
What, then, aration
the
is
the
in
place,
first
young or perience
it
in
is
it.
for
it
When
him
prepara-
When
hap-
this
pens, the actual preparation for the future
missed or distorted. The ideal of using present simply to get ready for the
the
contradicts itself. It omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared for his future. We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in
future
This
the future.
the
in
the only preparation
is
long run amounts to any-
thing.
means
All this
must
that attentive care
be devoted to the conditions which give each present experience a worthwhile meaning. Instead of inferring that it doesn't
make much
present experience
difference as long as
is
joyed, the conclusion
Here
site.
is
which
has a favorable effect upon the future. Education as growth or maturity should be an ever-present process.
IV
what the it
en-
is
the exact oppo-
is
another matter where
it
SOCIAL CONTROL
at
the controlling end, then the
to a supposititious future.
which
for the kind of present experience
meaning of prepscheme? In means that a person,
potentialities of the present are sacrificed
is
re-
the conditions
instituting
educational
that there
made
is
for
the true
the time in which he has tion
sponsibility
old, gets out of his present exall
upon them devolves the
cordingly,
worthwhile,
things
is
have said that educational plans and seeing education in terms of life-experience, are thereby committed to framing and adopting an intelligent theory or, if you please, philosophy of experience. Otherwise they are at the mercy of every intellectual breeze that happens to blow. I have tried to illustrate the need for such a theory by calling attention to two principles which are fundamental in the con-
I
projects,
stitution
of experience:
the
principles of
and of continuity. If, then, I am asked why I have spent so much time on expounding a rather abstract philosophy, it is because practical attempts to develop schools based upon the idea that education is found in life-experience are bound to exhibit inconsistencies and confusions unless they are guided by some conception of what experience is, and what marks off educative experience from non-educative and mis-educative experience. I now come to a group of acinteraction
tual
educational questions the discussion
of which
will,
hope, provide topics and
I
material that are
more concrete than
the
easy to react from one extreme to the other. Because traditional schools tended to sacrifice the present to a remote and
interaction as criteria of the value of ex-
more or it comes
it
has
less
to
little
present
unknown
future,
therefore
be believed that the educator
responsibility
experiences
But the relation is not an
the
for
kind
of
young undergo. of the present and the the
The present affects the future anyway. The persons who should have some idea of
future
the
those
connection
Either-Or
between
who have achieved
affair.
two
are
maturity.
Ac-
the
discussion up to this point.
The two
and
of continuity
principles
perience are so intimately connected that is
not easy
to
tell
just
what special
educational problem to take up
first.
Even
the convenient division into problems of
methods
subject matter or studies and of
of teaching and learning in
is
likely to fail us
selection and organization of topics to
discuss. Consequently, the beginning
sequence of topics 1
shall
is
somewhat
commence, however, with 399
and
arbitrary.
the old
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION question of individual freedom and social
on
control and pass
grow
to the questions that
naturally out of
ing out, of selection of sides, as well as for
human
considering
citizen
1
take
that
it
as a matter of fact subject to a
is
of social control and that a
deal
considerable
Even
freedom.
of this control
part
involve
to
edu-
no the ordinary good
situations.
one would deny that
felt
it,
In
by tempor-
other
great
unfair action.
ignoring the school and thinking of
it.
in
cational problems to get a start arily
a violation of
is
some one-sided and
the third place, the rules, and hence the conduct of the game, are fairly standardized. There are recognized ways of count-
well
often
is
It
but to what he claims to
of
restriction
the
is
not
personal
movements
positions to be taken,
be
to
These rules have the sanction of tradition and precedent. Those playing the game have seen, perhaps, professional matches and they want to emulate their made,
etc.
elders.
An
element that
is
conventional
is
theoretical anarchist,
pretty strong. Usually, a group of young-
whose philosophy commits him to the idea that state or government control is an un-
change the rules by which they play the adult group to which they look for models have themselves made a change in the rules, while the change made by the elders is at least supposed to conduce to making the game more skillful or
mitigated
believes
evil,
with aboli-
that
tion of the political state other social control
opposition
forms of
would operate: indeed, governmental
to
his
regulation
sters
when
only
springs from his belief that other and to him more normal modes of control would
more
operate with abolition of the
draw
state.
Without taking up this extreme position, us note some examples of social control that operate in everyday life, and then look for the principle underlying them. Let us let
interesting to spectators.
Now, is
the
conclusion
general
by the whole
effected
individuals
in
share and of which they are co-operative or interacting parts. For even in a competitive
Children at recess or after school play games, from tag .and one-old-cat to base-
participation, of sharing in a
ball and football. The games involve rules, and these rules order their conduct. The games do not go on haphazardly or by a succession of improvisations. Without rules there is no game. If disputes arise there is an umpire to appeal to, or discussion and a kind of arbitration are means
those
game is broken up and comes to an end. There are certain fairly obvious controlling features of such situations to which I want to call attention. The first is that the game. They are not no game; different rules, then a different game. As long as the game goes on with a reasonable smoothness, the players do not feel that they are rules are a part of the
outside of
it.
No
rules, then
submitting to external imposition but that they are playing the game. In the second place an individual
may
at
a decision isn't fair and he angry.
But he
is
400
times feel that
may even
get
not objecting to a rule
which which they
situation in
involved,
are
begin with the young people themselves.
to a decision; otherwise the
would
I
that control of individual actions
is
game
there
Stated
perience.
who
a certain kind of
is
the
other
common
ex-
way around,
take part do not feel that they
are bossed by an individual person or are
being subjected to the will of some outside superior person. When violent disputes do arise,
that
it
is
usually on the alleged ground
the umpire or
other side
is
some
that in such cases
ing to
one
some person on
the
being unfair; in other words,
impose
individual
his individual will
is
try-
on some-
else.
It
may seem
to
be putting too heavy a
load upon a single case to argue that this instance
of social
the
illustrates
control
general
principle
without
of individuals
the violation of freedom. But
if
the matter
were followed out through a number of cases,
I
think
the
conclusion
particular instance does eral
principle
would be
that
illustrate
this
a gen-
Games we took in-
justified.
are generally competitive.
If
stances of co-operative activities in which all
members of
a group take part, as for
John Dewey example
learn
there
one another. They are
in well-ordered family life in which mutual confidence, the point would be even clearer. In all such cases it is not the will or desire of any one person which establishes order but the moving spirit of the whole group. The control is social, but is
individuals are parts of a
outside of
do not mean by
I
community, not
it.
this that there are
occasions upon which the authority
no
of, say,
the parent does not have to intervene and
exercise fairly direct control. But that, in the first place, the
I
do say
number of these
comparison with the which the control is exercised by situations in which all take part. And what is even more important, the occasions
is
slight in
number of those
in
authority in question
when
household
well-regulated
exercised in a or
other com-
munity group is not a manifestation of merely personal will; the parent or teacher exercises it as the representative and agent of the interests of the group as a whole. With respect to the first point, in a wellordered school the main reliance for control of this and that individual is upon the activities carried on and upon the situations in which these activities are maintained. The teacher reduces to a minimum the occasions in which he or she has to exercise authority in a personal way. When it is necessary, in the second place, to speak and act firmly, it is done in behalf of the interest of the group, not as an exhibition of personal power. This makes the difference between action which is arbitrary and that which is just and fair.
Moreover,
it
is
not necessary that the
the
willing
anything,
if
and a reason why the order which was so much a matter of sheer obedience to the will of an adult was because the situation almost forced it upon the teacher. The school was not a group or community held together by participation in common activities. Consequently, existed
normal, proper conditions of control
the
were lacking. Their absence was made up for, and to a considerable extent had to be made up for, by the direct intervention of the teacher, who, as the saying went, '"kept order." He kept it because order was in the teacher's keeping, instead of residing
shared work being done. The conclusion is that in what are called the new schools, the primary source of in the
social
resides in the very nature
control
of the work done as a social enterprise in
which
all
individuals
tunity to contribute
rally
(even
if they cannot articulate it and reduce it to an intellectual principle) between action that is motivated by personal power and desire to dictate and action that is fair, because in the interest of all, is small. I should even be willing to say that upon the whole children are more sensitive to the signs and symptoms of
this
difference
than are adults. Children
and
"sociable."
Isolation
irksome to them than
not
life
organize
have an opporwhich all feel
to
Most children
a responsibility.
be
not feel the difference
often
role
to
who do
Then they
of a picture. But I think it is fair to say that one reason the personal commands of the teacher so often played an undue
tural sociability.
children
suggestions
in lieu
either teacher or the young, in order
of
with
often too
withdraw and when asked why, say that it is because so-and-so "is too bossy." I do not wish to refer to the traditional school in ways which set up a caricature
by
The number
take
to
the attempt at dictation.
community
in experience.
playing
willing,
from one child and let him be a leader if his conduct adds to the experienced value of what they are doing, while they resent
difference should be formulated in words,
felt
when
difference
has
is
to adults.
its
ground
are natu-
even more
A
genuine
in
this na-
But community
itself
in
purely spontaneously.
an It
life
does
enduring
way
requires thought
and planning ahead. The educator is responsible for a knowledge of individuals and for a knowledge of subject matter that will enable activities to be selected which lend themselves to social organization, an organization in which all individuals have an opportunity to contribute something, and in which the activities in which all participate are the chief carrier of control.
401
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION am
enough about the suppose that every pupil will respond or that any child of normally strong impulses will respond on every occasion. There are likely to be some I
young
not romantic
to
when they come
who,
of
victims
already
outside of the school and
come
school,
to
injurious
are
conditions
who have
be-
so passive and unduly docile that
to contribute. There will be who, because of previous experience, are bumptious and unruly and perhaps downright rebellious. But it is cer-
they
fail
others
that
tain
general
the
principle
of social
cannot be predicated upon such cases. It is also true that no general rule can be laid down for dealing with such cases. The teacher has to deal with them control
They
individually.
into general classes,
fall
but no two are exactly alike.
The educator
has to discover as best he or she can the
He
causes for the recalcitrant attitudes. she cannot,
the educational process
if
is
or to
go on, make it a question of pitting one will against another in order to see which is strongest, nor yet allow the unruly and non-participating
nently in the
to
stand perma-
of the educative activi-
Exclusion perhaps
of others.
ties
pupils
way
is
the
only available measure at a given juncbut
ture,
no
is
it
strengthen
solution.
very causes
the
For it may which have
brought about the undesirable anti-social attitude, such as desire for attention or to
show
therefore,
attach
too
much impor-
tance to these exceptional cases, although it is
true at present that progressive schools
are likely often to have fair
more than
share of these cases,
may send last
schools
since
their
parents
children to such schools as a
resort.
control
of sufficiently thoughtful planning advance. The causes for such lack are
lack in
The one which
varied.
I
when
do not think weakness in it is found in progressive in any event from these
peculiarly im-
is
portant to mention in this connection
is
such advance planning is unnecessary and even that it is inherently the
idea
that
hostile to the legitimate
freedom of those
being instructed.
Now,
of course,
is
it
quite possible to
have preparatory planning by the teacher done in such a rigid and intellectually inflexible fashion that it does result in adult imposition, which is none the less external because executed with tact and the semblance of respect for individual freedom. But this kind of planning does not follow inherently from the principle involved. I do not know what the greater maturity of the teacher and the teacher's greater knowledge of the world, of subject matters and of individuals, is for unless the teacher can arrange conditions that are conducive to community activity and to organization which exercises control over individual impulses by the mere fact that all are engaged in communal projects. Because the kind of advance planning heretofore engaged in has been so routine as to leave free
play
little
of individual
room
thinking
for the
or
for
contributions due to distinctive individual
experience,
off.
Exceptions rarely prove a rule or give a clew to what the rule should be. I would not,
exercise control over what this, that, and the other pupil does and how he does it. This failure most often goes back to to
it
does
not
follow
planning must be rejected. trary,
there
is
On
that
all
the con-
incumbent upon the edu-
cator the duty of instituting a
much more
and consequently more difficult, kind of planning. He must survey the capacities and needs of the particular set of individuals with whom he is dealing and must at the same time arrange the conditions which provide the subject matter or intelligent,
content for experiences that
satisfy these
advance
needs and develop these capacities. The planning must be flexible enough to permit free play for individuality of experi-
work (by which I mean all kinds of activities engaged in) which will create situations that of themselves tend
ence and yet firm enough to give direction of development towards continuous power.
arises
exceptional cases. to arise
from
It
is
much more
failure to arrange in
for the kind of
402
likely
Great ideas of western
man
Great Ideas
of
Western
Man
A
ALEXANDER HAMILTON on
If
human
nature and gox'ernment
men were
no government
angels,
would be necessary. to govern
If angels
were
men, neither external nor
internal controls
on government would
be necessary- In framing a government
which
is
to be administered
by men
over men, the great difficulty lies
you must
first
to control the
enable the government
governed; and
next place oblige
•
/m/.
'
_
^^
it eff'ects internal control of impulse through a union of observation and memory, this union being the heart of reflection.
What has been
said explains the
meaning of
well-worn phrase "self-control." The ideal aim of education is creation of power
the
of self-control. But the mere removal of
TiPI
407
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION external control
is
no guarantee for the pro-
duction of self-control.
easy to jump
It is
out of the frying pan into the
fire. It is
easy,
importance portant
how
is;
emphasized, the more imunderstand what a purpose arises and how it functions in
is
it it
is
to
in other words, to escape one form of external control only to find oneself in another
experience.
dangerous form of external control. Impulses and desires that are not ordered by intelligence are under the
impulse. Obstruction of the immediate ex-
more
and
of accidental circumstances. It be a loss rather than a gain to escape from the control of another person only to control
may
find one's
whim and
conduct dictated by immediate caprice; that
is,
at the
mercy
of im.pulses into whose formation intelligent
judgment has not entered. A person whose conduct is controlled in this way has at most only the illusion of freedom. Actually he is directed by forces over which he has no command.
A
genuine purpose always
starts
ecution of an impulse converts
it
with an
into a de-
Nevertheless neither impulse nor desire is itself a purpose. A purpose is an end-view. That is, it involves foresight of sire.
the consequences which will result from acting
upon impulse. Foresight of conse-
quences involves the operation of intelligence. It demands, in the first place, observation of objective conditions and circumstances. For impulse and desire produce consequences not by themselves alone but through their interaction or cooperation with surrounding conditions.
The
impulse for such a simple action as walking is executed only in active conjunction with the ground on which one stands. Un-
have
THEMEANING OF PURPOSE then, a sound instinct
which identifreedom with power to frame purposes and to execute or carry into eifect purposes so framed. Such freedom is in is,
It
fies
turn
with
identical
self-control;
for
the
formation of purposes and the organization of means to execute them are the work of intelligence. Plato
the person
who
once defined a slave as
executes the purposes of
another, and, as has just been said, a person is
also a slave
blind desires. the
who There
is
enslaved to his
is, I
think,
own
no point
in
philosophy of progressive education
which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than
its
failure to
secure the active co-operation of the pupil in
construction of the purposes involved
But the meaning of purposes and ends is not self-evident and self-
in his
studying.
explanatory.
The more 408
circumstances, we do not pay much attention to the ground. In a ticklish situation we have to observe very carefully just what the conditions are, as in climbing a steep and rough mountain where no trail has been laid out. Exercise of observation is, then, one condition ordinary
der
VI
their educational
to
of transformation of impulse into a pur-
As in the sign by a railway we have to stop, look, listen. pose.
crossing,
But observation alone is not enough. We have to understand the significance of what we see, hear, and touch. This significance consists of the consequences that will result when what is seen is acted upon. A baby may see the brightness of a flame and be attracted thereby to reach for it.
The
significance of the flame
brightness but
its
its
power
is
then not
to burn,
as
the consequence that will result from touching it. We can be aware of consequences only because of previous experiences. In cases that are familiar because of many
to
remember
were.
A
we do
not have to stop what those experiences flame comes to signify light and
prior experiences
just
heat without our having expressly to think
of previous experiences of heat and burning.
But
in
unfamiliar cases,
we cannot
John Dewey what the consequences of observed
pulse
conditions will be unless
gives
direction
experiences
we go over past our mind, unless we re-
blind,
while
tell
just
in
upon them and by seeing what is them to those now present, go on to form a judgment of what may be
flect
similar in
expected
in the present situation.
The formation of purposes complex
rather
involves
(1)
intellectual
is,
then, a
operation.
It
observation of surrounding
(2) knowledge of what has happened in similar situations in the past, a knowledge obtained partly by recollection and partly from the information, advice, and warning of those who have had a wider experience; and (3) judgment which puts together what is observed and what is recalled to see what they signify. A purpose differs from an original impulse and desire through its translation into a plan and method of action based upon foresight of the consequences of acting under given observed conditions in a certain way. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Desire for something may be
conditions;
may be
intense. It
so strong as to override
estimation of the consequences that will
follow acting upon
it.
Such occurrences do
not provide the model for education.
The
problem is that of procuring the postponement of immediate action upon desire until observation and judgment have intervened. Unless I am crucial educational
mistaken, this point
is
definitely relevant
conduct of progressive schools. Overemphasis upon activity as an end,
to
the
upon
instead of
intelligent activity, leads
to identification of
freedom with immediate
execution of impulses and desires. This identification is justified by a confusion of impulse with purpose; although, as has is no purpose unless postponed until there is foresight of the consequences of carrying the impulse into execution — a foresight
just
been
said, there
overt action
that
is
is
impossible
without
observation,
and judgment. Mere foreit takes the form of accurate not, of course, enough. The
to
acquire
moving what
force.
gives
ideas
desire
It
then
otherwise
to
is
impetus
and momentum. An idea then becomes a plan in and for an activity to be carried out. Suppose a man has a desire to secure a new home, say by building a house. No matter how strong his desire, it cannot be directly executed. The man must form an idea of what kind of house he wants, including- the number and arrangement of rooms, etc. He has to draw a plan, and have blue prints and specifications made. All this might be an idle amusement for spare time unless he also took stock of his resources. He must consider the relation of his funds and available credit to
the execution of the plan.
investigate
available
sites,
He
has to
their
price,
nearness to his place of business, to a congenial neighborhood, to school facilities, and so on and so on. All of the their
things reckoned with:
his ability
to
pay,
and needs of family, possible locations, etc., etc., are objective facts. They are no part of the original desire. But they have to be viewed and judged in order that a desire may be converted into a purpose size
and a purpose into a plan of action. All of us have desires, all at least who have not become so pathological that they are completely apathetic. These desires are the ultimate moving springs of action. A professional businessman wishes to succeed in his career; a general wishes to win the battle; a parent to have a comfortable home for his family, and to educate his children, and so on indefinitely. The intensity of the desire measures the strength of the efforts that will be put forth. But the wishes are empty castles in
the air unless they are translated into
means by which they may be realized. The question of how soon or of means the
takes the place of a projected imaginative
end, and, since
means are
objective, they
intellectual anticipation, the idea of conse-
be studied and understood if a genuine purpose is to be formed. Traditional education tended to ignore the importance of personal impulse and
quences, must blend with desire and im-
desire
information,
even
if
prediction,
is
sight,
have
to
as
moving
springs.
409
But
this
is
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION why
progressive education impulse and desire with purpose and thereby pass hghtly over the need for careful observation, for wide
no
reason
should
identify
range of information, and for judgment if students are to share in the formation of the purposes which activate them. In
an educational scheme, of a desire and impulse is It is an occasion and a formation of a plan and
the
occurrence
not the
final
demand
end.
for the
method of activity. Such a plan, to repeat, can be formed only by study of conditions and by securing
all
The
occasion
taken
is
freedom resides
in
is
to see that the
advantage
project
whole
The
of.
Since
made to develop by means of the and
contributed
tions
by
into a plan
organized
members of
the
plan, in other words,
suggestion result but
is
and
further sugges-
is
enterprise, not a dictation.
the
into
a
group.
a co-operative
The
teacher's
not a mold for a cast-iron a starting point to be devel-
is
oped into a plan through contributions from the experience of all engaged in the learning process. The development occurs the
through
teacher
also
relevant information.
teacher's business
gestion
to
give.
the purpose
reciprocal
give-and-take,
taking but not being afraid
The
essential
point
is
that
grow and take shape through
the process of social intelligence.
the operations of in-
observation and judgment by which a purpose is developed, guidance given by the teacher to the exercise of the pupils' intelligence is an aid to freedom, not a restriction upon it. Sometimes teachers seem to be afraid even to make suggestions to the members of a group as to what they should do. I have heard of cases in which children are surrounded with objects and materials and then left telligent
VII
PROGRESSIVE
ORGANIZATION OF SUBJECTMATTER Allusion has been made in passing a .number of times to objective conand to
entirely to themselves, the teacher being
ditions involved in experience
what might be done with the materials lest freedom be infringed upon. Why, then, even supply
function in promoting or failing to pro-
some suggestion or other? But what is more important is that the suggestion upon
conditions, whether those of observation,
loath to suggest even
materials, since they are a source of
which pupils act must in any case come from somewhere. It is impossible to understand why a suggestion from one who has a larger experience and a wider horizon should not be at least as valid as a suggestion
arising
from some more or
less
accidental source. It is
and
force
the activity
of the
young
which express the teacher's purpose rather than that of the pupils. But the way to avoid this danger is not for the adult to withdraw entirely. The into channels
way
is,
first,
for the teacher to be intel-
aware of the capacities, needs, and past experiences of those under inligently
struction, and, secondly, to allow the sug-
410
mote the enriched growth of further experience.
By
implication, these objective
procured of memory, of information from others, or of imagination, have been identified with the subject matter of study
and learning; with
or,
speaking more generally,
course of study. Nothing, however, has been said explicitly so far about subject matter as such. That the
topic will tion
possible of course to abuse the office,
to
their
stuff
of the
now be discussed. One consideraout clearly when education
stands
in terms of experience. Anywhich can be called a study, whether arithmetic, history, geography, or one of the natural sciences, must be derived from materials which at the outset fall within is
conceived
thing
scope of ordinary life-experience. In newer education contrasts sharply with procedures which start with facts and truths that are outside the range of the experience of those taught. the
this respect the
John Dewey and which, therefore, have the problem of discovering ways and means of bringing them within experience. Undoubtedly one chief cause for the great success of newer methods in early elementary education has been its observance of the
that of orderly development toward expansion and organization of subject matter through growth of experience,
contrary principle.
be given to solution of this aspect of the educational problem. Undoubtedly this phase of the problem is more difficult than
But finding the within experience
only the
is
learning
for
material
first
step.
condition,
much
receives as
Yet the
attention.
prin-
ciple of continuity of educative experience
requires that equal thought and attention
Those who deal with
the progressive develop-
the other.
already experienced into
school child, with the kindergarten child,
a fuller and richer and also more organized form, a form that gradually approx-
and with the boy and girl of the early primary years do not have much difficulty
imates that in which subject matter is presented to the skilled, mature person. That
in
The next
step
ment of what
is is
this change is possible without departing from the organic connection of education with experience is shown by the fact that this change takes place outside of the school and apart from formal education. The infant, for example, begins with an environment of objects that is very restricted in space and time. That environment steadily expands by the momentum
As
instruction.
the infant
learns to reach, creep, walk, and talk, the intrinsic
subject matter of
widens and deepens.
experience
its
comes
It
into con-
new objects and events which new powers, while the exercise
nection with
out
call
determining the range of past experience
or in finding activities that connect in vital
ways with of
factors
it.
the
With older children both problem oflfer increased
difficulties to the
how
experience
It
is
ciple
a mistake to suppose that the prin-
of the leading on of experience to
something diff'erent is adequately satisfied simply by giving pupils some new experiences any more than it is by seeing to it that they have greater skill and ease in dealing with things with which they are the
The
environ-
new
and
grows larger and, so
thicker.
made
receives the child at
ideas.
The educator who
speak,
the end of this period has to find
doing consciously and what "nature" accomplishes
for
ways
deliberately in the earlier
the
is
first
been the
also essential that
is
this in It
means
hardly
necessary to
insist
upon
of the two conditions which have
specified.
It
is
a cardinal precept of
newer school of education
that
the
of instruction shall be made with the experience learners already have;
beginning
and the capacities that developed during its course
some advance
that there be
conscious articulation of facts and
becomes
thus
the office of the
educator to select those things within the range of existing experience that have the
promise
and
potentiality
new problems which by
years. It
It
objects and events be related in-
tellectually to those of earlier experiences,
ment, the world of experience, constantly to
and better organized
fields.
already familiar.
life-durations are expanded.
be directed so as
shall
to lead out to larger
content of
experience. Life-space and
harder to
It is
the subject matters already contained
in that
of these powers refines and enlarges the its
educator.
background of the experience of individuals and harder to find out just find out the
inherent in experience itself without aid
from scholastic
of
presenting
stimulating
He must constantly won not as a
ready
regard
what
an agency and instrumentality for opening new fields which make new devation and of intelligent use of
I
am
all
further
not so sure that the other
al-
as
mands upon
provide the starting point for
is
fixed possession but
have
learning.
new
ways of observation and judgment will expand the area of further experience.
that this experience
been
the pre-
powers of obsermemory. growth must be his
existing
Connectedness
in
constant watchword.
411
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION The educator more than any other profession
is
the
member
concerned
The physician may
a long look ahead.
of
have
to
feel
job done when he has restored a patient to health. He had undoubtedly the oblihis
gation
of advising
him how
to
so
live
as to avoid similar troubles in the future.
But, after
own
all,
affair,
the conduct of his
his
life is
not the physician's; and what
more important
present point
for the
that as far as the physician
is is
does occupy
himself with instruction and advice as to the
future
of his patient he takes upon
himself the function of an educator.
The
occupied with winning a
suit
lawyer
is
for his client or getting the latter out of
some complication himself.
If
it
into
which he has got
goes beyond the case pre-
sented to him he too becomes an educator. The educator by the very nature of his work is obliged to see his present work
the material to be learned
was
settled
upon
outside the present life-experience of the learner. In
the past; to
men
site
it
consequence, it had to do with was such as had proved useful
in past ages.
By
reaction to an oppo-
extreme, as unfortunate as
it
was prob-
ably natural under the circumstances, the
sound idea that education should derive materials from present experience and should enable the learner to cope with the problems of the present and future has often been converted into the idea that progressive schools can to a very large extent ignore the past. If the present could be cut off from the past, this conclusion would be sound. But the achievements of the past its
provide the only means at
command
for
understanding the present. Just as the individual has to draw in memory upon his own
than for
past to understand the conditions in which he individually finds himself, so the issues and problems of present social life are in such intimate and direct connection with the past that students cannot be prepared to understand either these problems or the best way of dealing with them without
The
delving into their roots in the past. In other
had indeed to look ahead. But unless his personality and enthusiasm took him beyond the limits that hedged in the traditional school, he could content himself with thinking of the next examination period or the promotion to the next class. He could envisage the future in terms of factors that lay within the requirements of the school system as that conventionally existed. There is incumbent upon the teacher who links education and actual experience together a more serious and a harder business. He must be aware of the poten-
words, the sound principle that the objectives of learning are in the future and its immediate materials are in present experience can be carried into effect only in the degree that present experience is stretched, as it were, backward. It can expand into the future only as it is also enlarged to
in
terms of what
it
accomplishes, or
to accomplish, for a future
whose
fails
objects
are linked to those of the present.
Here, again, the problem for the progressive educator
is
more
difficult
the teacher in the traditional school. latter
tialities
for leading students into
new
fields
which belong to experiences already had, and must use this knowledge as his criterion for selection and arrangement of the conditions that influence their present
experience.
Because the studies of the traditional school consisted of subject matter that was selected and arranged on the basis of the judgment of adults as to what would be useful for the young sometime in the future.
412
take in the past. If
time
permitted,
discussion
of
the
and economic issues which the present generation will be compelled to face in the future would render this general statement definite and concrete. The nature of the issues cannot be understood political
save as
The
we know how
they
came
about.
and customs that exist in the present and that give rise to present social ills and dislocations did not arise overnight. They have a long history behind them. Attempt to deal with them simply on the basis of what is obvious in the present is bound to result in adoption of superficial measures which in the end will only render existing problems institutions
John Dewey
more acute and more
solve.
to
difficult
framed simply upon the ground of knowledge of the present cut off from Policies
past
the
carelessness
way
counterpart of heedless
the
is
the past an end in itself
with
quaintance
understanding
problem continue.
On
reactionaries
a
and
ideas
practices
will
claim
that
main,
the
is
On who
the other hand, there will be those
should ignore the past and
deal only with the present and future.
That up
to the present time the
point in progressive schools
matter
subject
lectual
is
weakest
is,
I
mat-
in the
and organization of
ter of selection
intellectual
utilized.
the chief material of learning.
Unless a given experience leads out into
transmission of the cultural heritage.
we
is
a field previously unfamiliar no problems
not the sole, business of education
hold that
freedom. But there is a decided difference between using them in the development of a continuing line of activity and trusting to them to provide there
out, the present clash
the one hand, there will be that
wherever
They should be
this
Until
present.
worked
is
to
is
past
the
the
of educational
if
The made make acmeans of
conduct.
individual
in
out of scholastic systems that
cursory manner. Occasions which are not and cannot be foreseen are bound to arise
think,
problems are the stimulus to That the conditions found in present experience should be used as sources of problems is a characteristic which differentiates education based upon experience from traditional education. For in the latter, problems were set from outside. Nonetheless, growth depends upon arise, while
thinking.
overcome Once more,
the presence of difficulty to be
by the exercise of
intel-
it
inevi-
to
is
intelligence.
part of the educator's responsibility
see equally to two things:
First, that
under the circumstances. It is as inevitable as it is right and proper that they should break loose from the cut and dried material which formed the staple
the problem grows out of the conditions
of the old education. In addition, the
such that
table
of experience in
very wide and
is
it
field
varies
contents from place to place and
its
A
from time
to
time.
studies for
all
progressive schools
of the question;
it
single
course of is
out
would mean abandoning
of the experience being had in the present,
and that
it is
application
hardly more than a generation in which
history.
with
to
develop.
tainty
A
and of
certain
and organiwhat no ground for
laxity in choice
zation of subject matter
was
amount of unceris,
therefore,
it
with
ent
arouses
the is
past
in the learner
is
a
principle
whose
not restricted to a study of
Take natural science, for example. Contemporary social life is what it is in very large measure because of the results of application
of physical
science.
The
be expected. It is fundamental criticism or complaint. It is a ground for legitimate criticism, however, when the ongoing movement
experience of every child and youth,
of progressive
processes.
nize
to
that
the
education
fails
to
recog-
problem of selection and
organization of subject matter for study
and learning is fundamental. Improvisation that takes advantage of special occasions prevents teaching and learning from being stereotyped and dead. But the basic material of study cannot be picked up in a
is
an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented. The process is a continuous spiral. The inescapable linkage of the presit
fundamental principle of connection life-experiences. Moreover, progressive schools are new. They have had the
within the range of the capac-
of students; and, secondly, that
ity
the country and the city, its
is
what
it
is
in in
present actuality because of appliances
which
and chemical does not eat a meal
utilize electricity, heat,
A
child
does not involve in its preparation assimilation chemical and physiological principles. He does not read by that
and
artificial
light
or take a ride in a motor
car or on a train without coming into contact with operations
and processes which
science has engendered.
413
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION is
It
sound educational principle that
should be introduced to sciensubject matter and be initiated into
students tific
and laws through acquaintance everyday social applications. Adherence to this method is not only the most facts
its
with
avenue
direct itself it
is
to understanding of science
but as the pupils grow
more mature
also the surest road to the understand-
ing of the economic and industrial problems of present society. For they are the products to a very large extent of the application of science in production and distribution of commodities and services, while
the
latter
processes are the most impor-
tant factor in determining the present re-
lations of to
human
one another.
beings and social groups
It is
absurd, then, to argue
that processes similar to those studied in
laboratories
and
institutes
of
research
are not a part of the daily life-experience
of the young and hence do not the scope of education based
come
within
upon expe-
That the immature cannot study facts and principles in the way in which mature experts study them goes without saying. But this fact, instead of exempting the educator from responsirience.
scientific
bility
for
using
that learners
may
present
experiences
so
gradually be led, through
extraction of facts and laws, to experience
of a scientific order, sets one of his main problems.
For
if it
is
true that existing experience
and also on a wide scale is what it is because of the application of science, first, to processes of production and distribution of goods and services, and then to the relations which human beings sustain socially to one another, it is impossible to obtain an understanding of present social forces (without which they cannot be mastered and directed) apart from an education which leads learners into knowledge of the very same facts and principles which in their final organization constitute the sciences. Nor does the importance of the principle that learners should be led in detail
acquaintance
with
science also point the way to the measures and policies by means of which a better social order can be brought into existence. The applications of science which have produced in large measure the social conditions which now exist do not exhaust the possible field of their application. For so far science has been applied more or less casually and under the influence of ends, such as private advantage and power, which are a heritage from the institutions of a prescientific age.
We
is
it
impossible for
beings to direct their gently.
many human
are told almost daily and from
sources that
We
common
intelli-
life
are told, on one hand, that the
complexity of human relations, domestic and international, and on the other hand, the fact that
human
beings are so largely
make
creatures of emotion and habit, possible
large-scale
social
im-
planning and
direction by intelligence. This view
would
be more credible if any systematic effort, beginning with early education and carried on through the continuous study and learning of the young, had ever been undertaken with a view to making the method of in
exemplified
intelligence,
supreme
in
education.
There
in is
science,
nothing
the inherent nature of habit that pre-
method from becoming and there is nothing in the nature of emotion to prevent the development of intense emotional allegiance to the method. The case of science is here employed as an illustration of progressive selection vents
intelligent
itself habitual;
of subject matter resident in present experience towards organization: an organization which
is free, not externally imposed, because it is in accord with the growth of experience itself. The utilization of subject matter found in the present life-experience of the learner towards science is perhaps the best illustration that can be found of
the
basic principle of using existing ex-
perience as the
on
to
a wider,
means of carrying learners more refined, and better
subject
organized environing world, physical and
matter cease with the insight thereby given
human, than is found in the experiences from which educative growth sets out.
to
scientific
into present social issues.
414
The methods of
John Dewey Hogben's recent work, Mathematics for the Million, shows how mathematics, if it is treated as a mirror of civilization and as a main agency in its progress, can contribute to the desired goal as surely as can physical
the
The
sciences.
underlying
any case is that of progressive organization of knowledge. It is with reference to organization of knowledge that ideal
we
are likely to find Either-Or philosophies In
active.
many words,
so
it
is
practice,
if
not
often held that
upon a conception of organization of knowledge that was almost completely contemptuous since traditional education rested
of
however, that
intellectual
not an end in
itself
living
education
present
experience,
therefore
based upon living experience
but
organization
is
the
is
means by
which social relations, distinctively human and bonds, may be understood and
ties
more
intelligently ordered.
When
in
most acutely in
of organization, always bearing in mind,
education
out
is
saying
that
in
theory and
it
goes with-
based
upon experience,
practice
the
organized
subject
matter of the adult and the specialist cannot provide the starting point. Nevertheless,
it
represents the goal toward which
education is
should
continuously
move.
It
hardly necessary to say that one of the
most fundamental principles of the scientific organization of knowledge is the principle
of
cause-and-effect.
The way
violent shift of the center of gravity. But
which this principle is grasped and formulated by the scientific specialist is certainly very different from the way in which it can be approached in the experience of the young. But neither the relation nor grasp of its meaning is foreign to the experience of even the young child. When a child two or three years of age learns not to approach a flame too closely and yet to draw near enough a stove to get its warmth he is grasping and using the causal relation. There is no intelligent activity that does not conform to the requirements of the relation, and it is intelligent in the degree in which it is not only conformed to but consciously borne in mind. In the earlier forms of experience the causal relation does not offer itself in the abstract but in the form of the relation of means employed to ends attained; of the relation of means and consequences. Growth in judgment and understanding is essentially growth in ability to form purposes and to select and arrange means for their realization. The most elementary experiences of the young are filled with cases of the means-consequence relation. There is not a meal cooked nor a source of illumination employed that does not
one of the outstanding problems of edu-
exemplify
this
cation, as of music,
modulation. In the case of education, modulation means move-
education
is
ment from a social and human center toward a more objective intellectual scheme
in
should be contemptuous of the organization of facts and ideas.
When
moment ago
I called this organmeant, on the negative side, that the educator cannot start with knowledge already organized and proceed
a
ization an ideal,
to ladle
it
I
out in doses. But as an ideal the
active process of organizing facts and ideas
an ever-present educational process. experience is educative that does not tend both to knowledge of more facts and entertaining of more ideas and to a better, a more orderly, arrangement of them. It is
No
is
not true that organization
foreign
to
is
a principle
experience. Otherwise experi-
ence would be so dispersive as to be chaThe experience of young children centers about persons and the home. Disturbance of the normal order of relationotic.
is now known by psychibe a fertile source of later menand emotional troubles — a fact which
ships in the family atrists to tal
testifies
to the reality of this kind of or-
ganization.
One
of the great advances in
early school education, in the kindergarten
and early grades, is that it preserves the social and human center of the organization
of experience, instead of the older
is
in
in
relation.
The
trouble with
not the absence of situations
which the causal relation is exemplified means and consequences.
the relation of
Failure to utilize the situations so as to
415
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION lead the learner
on
to grasp the relation
the given cases of experience
in
ever, only too
common. The
is,
how-
logician gives
names "analysis and synthesis" operations by which means are
the the
to se-
There are signs of
zation.
ready
evidence.
in
We
this reaction al-
are told that our
schools, old and new, are failing in the
main
task.
They do not develop,
capacity
the
for
it
is
said,
discrimination
critical
The
lected and organized in relation to a pur-
and the
pose.
think
This principle determines the ultimate foundation for the utilization of activities
lation of miscellaneous ill-digested informa-
in
school.
Nothing can be more absurd
educationally than to
make
a plea for a
variety of active occupations in the school
while decrying the need for progressive of information and ideas.
organization Intelligent
activity
is
distinguished
aimless activity by the fact that selection of
it
from
involves
means -analysis -out of the
and arrangement — synthesis — to reach an intended aim or purpose. That the more immature the learner is, the simpler must be the ends held in view and the more rudimentary the means employed, is obvariety of conditions that are present,
their
But the principle of organization in terms of some perception of the relation of consequences to means applies even with the very young. Otherwise an activity ceases to be educative because it is blind. With increased maturity, the problem of interrelation of means becomes more urgent. In the degree in which intelligent observation is transferred from the relation of means to ends to the more complex question of the relation of means to one another, the idea of cause and effect becomes prominent and explicit. The final justification of shops, kitchens, and so on vious.
the school
is
not just that they afford
opportunity for activity, but that they provide opportunity for the kind of activity or for the acquisition of mechanical skills
which leads students to attend to the remeans and ends, and then to con-
lation of
sideration of the
one another is
the
same
to
way
things interact with
produce definite
in principle
effects. It
as the ground for
ability
to reason.
smothered,
we
ability
to
accumu-
are told, by
and by the attempt to acquire forms which will be immediately useful in the business and commercial world. We are told that these evils spring from the influence of science and from the magtion,
of
skill
nification of present requirements at the expense of the tested cultural heritage from the past. It is argued that science and its method must be subordinated; that we must return to the logic of ultimate first principles expressed in the logic of Aristotle and St. Thomas, in order that the young may have sure anchorage in their intellectual and moral life, and not be at the mercy of every passing breeze
that blows. If the
of activity
in
is
method of science had ever been
and continuously applied throughout the day-by-day work of the school in all subjects, I should be more impressed by this emotional appeal than consistently
I am. I see at bottom but two alternatives between which education must choose if it is not to drift aimlessly. One of them is expressed by the attempt to induce educators to return to the intellectual methods and ideals that arose centuries before scientific method was developed. The appeal
may be temporarily successful in a period when general insecurity, emotional and as well as economic,
intellectual
rife.
is
For under these conditions the desire to lean on fixed authority is active. Nevertheless,
it
is
conditions it
is
folly to
The other
so out of touch with
of modern
seek salvation alternative
zation of scientific
laboratories in scientific research.
and
Unless the problem of intellectual organization can be worked out on the ground
exploitation of the in
ideal
that
life
is
I
all
the
believe
in this direction.
systematic
method
utili-
as the pattern
of intelligent exploration and potentialities inherent
experience.
sure to occur to-
The problem involved comes home with
ward externally imposed methods of organi-
peculiar force to progressive schools. Fail-
of experience, reaction
is
416
\
John Dewey ure to give constant attention to develop-
ment of the
intellectual content of experi-
ences and to obtain ever-increasing organization of facts and ideas may in the end merely strengthen the tendency toward a
been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with further experiences.
The present
is
not the
time nor place for a disquisition upon
sci-
method. But certain features of it are so closely connected with any educational scheme based upon experience that they should be noted. In the first place, the experimental entific
method
of
attaches
science
more
im-
portance, not less, to ideas as ideas than do
other methods. There
experiment action
The
is
in
no such thing as
some leading idea. employed are hy-
directed by
fact that the ideas
potheses, not
why
is
the scientific sense unless
final
truths,
is
the reason
more jealously guarded and science than anywhere else. The
ideas are
tested in
the
the disciplined mind.
reactionary return to intellectual and moral authoritarianism.
It is
organization and of
heart of intellectual
have been forced
I
and
to
speak
general
in
But what has been said is organically connected with the requirement that experiences in order to be educative must lead out into an expanding world of subject matter, a subject matter of facts or information and of ideas. This condition is satisfied only as the educator views teaching and learning as a continuous process of reconstruction of experience. This condition in turn can be satisfied only as the educator has a long look ahead, and views every present experience as a moving force in influencing what future experiences will be. I am aware that the emphasis I have placed upon scientific method may be misleading, often
may
abstract
language.
result only in calling
up the spe-
moment
for
in
cial
that
is conducted by specialists. But the meaning of the emphasis placed upon scientific method has little to do with specialized techniques. It means that scientific method is the only authentic means
they are taken to be first truths themselves there ceases to be any reason for scrupulous examination of them. As fixed truths they must be accepted and is
the end of the matter. But as hy-
potheses, they must be continuously tested
and revised, a requirement that demands they be accurately formulated. In the second place, ideas or hypotheses are tested by the consequences which they produce when they are acted upon. This fact means that the consequences of action must be carefully and discriminatingly observed. Activity that is not checked by observation of what follows from it may be temporarily enjoyed. But intellectually it leads nowhere. It does not provide knowledge about the situations in which action occurs nor does it lead to clarification and expansion of ideas. In the third place, the
gence
manifested
in
method of the
intelli-
experimental
method demands keeping track of
ideas,
and observed consequences. Keeping track is a matter of reflective review and summarizing, in which there is both discrimination and record of the sigactivities,
nificant features of a
To
developing experience.
reflect is to look
back over what has
it
technique of laboratory research as
that
at
our
command
for
getting
at
the
sig-
nificance of our everyday experiences of
we live. It means that method provides a working pattern of the way in which and the conditions under which experiences are used to lead ever onward and outward. Adaptation of the method to individuals of various the world in which scientific
degrees of maturity
is
a problem for the
educator, and the constant factors
in
the
problem are the formation of ideas, acting
upon ideas, observation of the conditions which result, and organization of facts and ideas for future use. Neither the ideas, nor the activities, nor the observations, nor the organization are the same for a person six years old as they are for one twelve or eighteen years old, to say nothing of the adult scientist. But at every level there is an expanding development of experience if experience is educative in eff"ect. Consequently, whatever the level of ex-
417
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION we have no
perience,
operate
choice but either to
accord with the pattern
in
pro-
it
vides or else to neglect the place of intelligence
development and conand moving experience. the
in
of a living
trol
in the world so severe as the discipline of experience subjected to the tests of in-
development and direction. Hence can see for even a tem-
telligent
the only ground
porary
reaction
I
against
the
standards,
aims, and methods of the newer education is
the failure of educators
who
professedly
adopt them to be faithful to them in practice. As 1 have emphasized more than once, the road of the new education is not
VI]
EXPERIENCE-
an easier one to follow than the old road but a more strenuous and difficult one. It
THE MEANS AND GOAL OF EDUCATION
will
remain so until it has attained its maand that attainment will require many
jority
what
have said
I
Ingranted
have taken for
I
the soundness of the principle
accomplish
that education in order to
its
years of serious co-operative work on the part of that
ends both for the individual learner and for society must be based upon experience
easy that
— which
if
always the actual life-experience of some individual. I have not argued for the acceptance of this principle nor attempted to justify it. Conservatives as is
well as radicals in education are profoundly
discontented with the present educational
taken as a whole. There
situation
much agreement among
this
least
ligent
of both
persons
schools
is
at
intel-
of edu-
adherents.
its
attends
idea that
it
its is
its
The
future
is,
greatest danger I
believe,
the
an easy way to follow, so course may be improvised,
not in an impromptu fashion, at least
almost from day to day or from week to week. It is for this reason that instead of its principles, I have confined myself to showing certain conditions which must be fulfilled if it is to have the successful career which by right belongs
extolling
to
it.
have used frequently in what precedes words "progressive" and "new" education. I do not wish to close, however, I
The educational system must move one way or another, either
the
backward
without recording my firm belief that the fundamental issue is not of new versus old education nor of progressive against traditional education but a question of what anything whatever must be to be worthy of the name education. I am not, I hope and believe, in favor of any ends or any methods simply because the name progressive may be applied to them. The basic question concerns the nature of education with no qualifying adjectives prefixed. What we want and need is education pure and simple, and we shall make surer and faster progress when we devote ourselves to finding out just what education is and what conditions have to be satisfied in order that education may be a
cational thought.
the
to
and moral
intellectual
standards of a prescientific age or forward
ever
to
method
greater
utilization
of
scientific
development of the possibilities of growing, expanding experience. I have but endeavored to point out some of the conditions which must be satisin the
factorily
fulfilled
if
education
takes
the
latter course.
For ties
I
am
so confident of the potentiali-
of education
when
directed
telligently
it
is
treated as in-
development
possibilities inherent in ordinary
that
I
do not
feel
it
of
the
experience
necessary to criticize
here the other route nor to advance argu-
ments
in
perience.
favor of taking the route of ex-
The only ground
ing failure
my mind
in
for anticipat-
taking this path resides to
and not a name or a slogan. It is I have emphasized the need for a sound philosophy of
reality
danger that experience and the experimental method will not be ade-
for this reason alone that
quately conceived. There
experience.
in the
418
is
no discipline
NOTE TO THE READER the reader who would like to compare John Dewey's opinions on education with those of the authors of Great
or skill: the contrast between the empiric and the artist
Fir
Books of the Western World, there are several convenient places at which the comparison may begin. The introductory essays to the Syntopicon chapters on Education and Experience will be helpful.
The
3b.
issue concerning the role of
experience
in science
works in Great Books of the Western World are the richest sources of material on education, learning, and teaching: Plato, Meno and The Republic, Vol. 7,
The
following
pp. 174a-190a,c, 295a-441a,c
In
from 5.
the entire group of topics
Education, 5 to
8, pp.
5/ should be consulted.
The improvement of the mind by ing
teach-
and learning
5a.
The
5b.
The means and methods of
5c.
5d.
The nature of learning: its modes The order of learning: the
5e.
The emotional aspect of
profession of teaching: the relation of teacher and student teach-
ing
several
548d
Marcus Aurelius,
Meditations,
organi-
pleasure, desire, interest
Learning apart from teachers and books: the role of experience
I,
Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind and Discourse on the Method, Part
I,
Vol. 31, pp. la-44c Summa Theologica, Part
I,
Q.
117, Art. l,Vol. 19,pp. 595d-597c
Montaigne, Essays, "On learning:
Bk.
Vol. 12,pp. 253a-256d
Aquinas,
zation of the curriculum
5/.
I, Ch. I, Vol. 499a-500b. Politics, Bk. VII, Ch. 13; Bk. VIII, Ch. 7, Vol. 9, pp. 536b-
Aristotle, Metaphysics, Bk.
the Education
of Children," Vol. 25, pp. 62a-80b James, Principles of Psychology, Ch. IV (habit), Ch.
XI (attention), Ch. XII
(conception),
Ch.
XIII
(discrimin-
and comparison), Ch. XIV (association), Ch. XXII (reasoning).
ation In
Experience
topics
is
Dewey
a
little
the choice of relevant
more
difficult.
Because
talks at length about the notion of
experience
itself,
it
may be
of interest to
Various conceptions of experience. In relation to education. Experi-
consult topic
ence
1
:
Vol. 53, pp. 68a-83b, 260a-395a, 664a-
693b
The reader should
Both
3-3/? are richest:
also consult the intro-
ductory essays to the chapters on Education and Experience in the Syntopicon. will
be helpful
in
providing him with a
general background of what the authors of 3.
Experience knowledge: 3«.
in
art
relation
to
organized
and science
Particular experiences and general rules
as conditions of expertness
Great Books of the Western World have to say on these topics. For additional readings, there are lists at the end of both of the chapters mentioned above.
419
Albert Einstein
RELATIVITY THE SPECIAL
AND GENERAL THEORY Translated by Robert W. Lawson
Einstein as a
young man
the fourth century B.C., Aristotle developed a theoretical system of physics. Almost 2,000 years elapsed before a physicist of eminence comparable to Aristotle arose. He was Sir Isaac Newton, and in his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy he offered new
In
laws of motion that completely replaced Aristotle's. But less than 300 years elapsed before Newtonian physics was challenged. This is all the more remarkable when we remember how successful
Newton and his followers were physical phenomenon in terms of
in explaining
known
almost every
the motion of material particles and
the gravitational forces which they exert
on one another. Yet
it
became
apparent during the latter half of the nineteenth century that certain phenomena — electrical, optical, and astronomical — could not be rationally explained by the principles of classical mechanics. The need to
account for these phenomena gave
rise to relativity physics.
Einstein and his theory of relativity revolutionized the fundamentals
of physics. In a series of papers published during the Isaac
Newton
the twentieth century, Einstein overthrew such
first
decade of
Newtonian concepts
as
absolute space, absolute time, and action-at-a-distance. Space and time
were now of a
to
be understood as relative to an observer; the conception
of force replaced the notion of action-at-a-distance. theory of relativity substitutes its own absolutes for those of
field
The Newtonian physics. The most notable of these new absolutes is the speed of light; relativity physics shows that it is the absolute limit of speed that any body might even theoretically attain. The theory of relativity also
stipulates
an unvarying characteristic
in the
laws of
nature:
Every general law of nature must be so constituted that it is transformed into a law of exactly the same form when, instead of the space-time variables ... of the original co-ordinate system ... we introduce new space-time variables ... of a [new] co-ordinate system {Relativity, p. 442) .
.
.
This is Einstein's way of telling us that the form of a general law of nature is independent of the reference system in terms of which it is stated. If the
tem and 422
laws of nature are independent of a particular reference systhe speed of light is absolutely invariant, certain other quan-
if
Introduction tities
which had been considered invariant
become variable or body. "The inertial mass of essarily
stant, but varies
A
few become famous (p.
443).
relative.
mechanics nec-
in classical
Among
these
the
is
mass of a
a body," Einstein writes, "is not a conin the energy of the body" announces the equation which has
according to the change
lines later, Einstein in
our time,
E = mc^. The
energy of a body,
this
equa-
equal to the mass of the body multiplied by the square of the speed of light. Einstein's way of indicating the equivalence between E and mc^ is as follows: "We see that the term mc^ ... is nothing else tion says,
is
than the energy possessed by the body For better or worse, the equation E
.
.
." (p.
444).
= mc^ opened the door of the whole new generation of scientists
atomic age in 1945. By this time, a had come to the forefront, and the theory of relativity itself had almost been pushed into the background by a host of new theories and discoveries. Nevertheless, Albert Einstein remains the father of relativity and the symbol of the atomic age. The work which we here reprint is his own elementary and popular exposition of his scientific achievement.
Albert
Einstein
Lfamily
was born at Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. His to Munich shortly thereafter, and his education
moved
began there. Later, when the family moved
to Italy,
he continued his
studies in Switzerland, training at the Polytechnic School in Zurich to
be a teacher of mathematics and physics.
He was
unable to obtain a
teaching position and began to work in the Swiss Patent Office. The performance of his duties still allowed him time to continue his studies in mathematics and physics and to reflect upon their basic foundations.
At
the age of 26, in 1905, Einstein published four papers, each pre-
new
physical hypothesis: (1) the special theory of relativity; (2) the equivalence of energy and mass: (3) the explanation of Brownian motion in liquids; and (4) the foundation of the photon theory of senting a
light.
These discoveries launched
his
academic career.
He became
a
professor of physics at the University of Zurich, then accepted the chair of theoretical physics at Prague in 1910, and returned to Zurich
1912 to be a professor at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, where he had been a student. Finally, he went to Berlin in 1913 as a professor at the University of Berlin and a member of the Kaiser
in
Wilhelm Institute and the Royal Prussian Academy of Science. These positions gave Einstein the stimulation of association with other leading physicists. He published numerous technical papers in an eff'ort to integrate the theory of relativity and the theory of gravitation. This work culminated in his formulation of the General Theory of Relativity
The
in
1916.
General Theory of Relativity was a favor, but its general acceptance by the
logical consistency of the
strong recommendation in scientific
its
world awaited experimental confirmation.
A
British scientific
423
Albert Einstein
expedition under Sir Arthur Eddington undertook to test Einstein's hypothesis, based on the General Theory, that light rays from distant
bend as they pass near the sun because of the sun's gravitational The analysis of photographs made by the expedition during the solar eclipse of 1919 confirmed Einstein's hypothesis. Einstein lived in Berlin throughout World War I, but his personal inclinations and the fact that he had become a Swiss citizen in 1900 allowed him to remain neutral. In 1922, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Thereafter, he travelled extensively, lecturing on his theory and assisting causes devoted to the promotion of peace ^and works of humanity. Returning to Berlin, he continued to participate in the advanced theoretical work in which men like Bohr, de Broglie, Schrodinger, Bom, and Heisenberg were now pioneering. Meanwhile, the international situation was worsening, and, in Germany, the stars
attraction.
Weimar Republic was
rapidly crumbling.
this
Advanced Study
anti-Semitic National
power under Adolf
New Jersey.
Here he worked for many on a theory which would give gravitational and electromagnetic forces.
at Princeton,
years, even after he
was formally
a unified explanation of
He
The
Hitler in 1933. At time Einstein decided to join the newly founded Institute for
Socialist Party finally attained
all
retired,
also continued his critical examination of the probabilistic inter-
pretation of
On
quantum mechanics. World War II, refugee
the eve of
scientists in the United States were concerned about the use of nuclear energy to make a tremendously powerful bomb. Fearing that German Nazi scientists might be working in this direction, they wished the United States to undertake such a project also. In order to interest the government in the pro-
they solicited Einstein's support. Einstein's letter to President Roosevelt led to the initiation of the "Manhattan Project" and ultimately to the development of nuclear weapons. Einstein died in Prince-
ject,
ton on April 18, 1955.
424
CONTENTS ALBERT EINSTEIN, RELATIVITY
PART
THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY
427
PhysicalMeaningof Geometrical Propositions
427
The System of Co-ordinates
428
Mechanics
430
System of Co-ordinates
431
I
II
Space and Time
III
The
IV
V
The
Galileian
The Theorem
Incompatibility of the
in Classical
Mechanics
433
Law of Propagation of Light
with the Principle of Relativity
433
On the
Idea of Time in Physics
434
Relativity of Simultaneity
436
Relativity of the Conception of Distance
437
The Lorentz Transformation
438
Motion
439
Theorem of the Addition of Velocities. The Experiment of Fizeau
440
Heuristic Value of the Theory of Relativity
442
VIII
IX
X
On the
XI
X XIII
43
of the Addition of Velocities
Employed
The Apparent
in Classical
Principle of Relativity (in the Restricted Sense) VI
VII
I
1 1
The
The Behavior of Measuring-Rods and Clocks
XIV
The
XV XV
I
in
General Results of the Theory
442
Experience and the Special Theory of Relativity
444
Minkowski's Four-dimensional Space
446
XVII
PART
II
THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY XVIII
Special and
G eneral XIX
XX as an
Principle of Relativity
The
The Equality of Inertial and
Gravitational Field Gravitational
448 448
449
Mass
Argument for the General Postulate of Relativity
450
1
RELATIVITY, CONTENTS XXI
In
what Respects are the Foundations of Classical Mechanics and of the Special Theory of Relativity Unsatisfactory?
A Few
XXII
Inferences from the General Principle of Relativity
XXIII
Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Continuum
XXV XXVI
The Space-time Continuum of the
Gaussian Co-ordinates
Special
457 458
460
The Space-time Continuum of the General Theory of Relativity
XXVII
is
XXVIII
not a Euclidean Continuum
Exact Formulation of the General Principle of Relativity
XXIX
PART
XXX XXXII
The
Cosmological
Possibility of a "Finite"
The
462
463
III
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE
XXXI
46
The Solution of the Problem of Gravitation
on the Basis of the General Principle of Relativity
465
Newton's Theory
465
and yet "Unbounded" Universe
466
Difficulties of
Structure of Space According to the General Theory of
I
Relativity
468
APPENDICES
469
Simple Derivation of the Lorentz Transformation
469
Minkowski's Four-dimensional Space ("World") [Supplementary to Section
1 1 1
455
Theory of Relativity
Considered as a Euclidean Continuum
II
454
Behavior of Clocks and Measuring- Rods
on a Rotating Body of Reference
XXIV
453
The Experimental Confirmation of the General Theory
426
of Relativity
471
472
Motion of the Perihelion of Mercury
472
by a Gravitational Field
473
Displacement of Spectral Lines Towards the Red
474
{a)
(b) Deflection of Light (c)
XVIL]
PREFACE
The
intended, as far as
should repeat myself frequently, without
paying the slightest attention to the elegance of presentation. I adhered scru-
is
theory of Relativity
the ers
present book
possible, to give an exact insight into
who, from a general
to
those read-
scientific
and
phil-
the theory, but
who
theoretical
are not conversant with
cording to
the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics.
pulously to the
in
osophical point of view, are interested
The work presumes a standard of
to I
be
precept of that brilliant
physicist,
whom
Boltzmann, ac-
L.
matters of elegance ought
the tailor and to the cobbler.
left to
make no pretence of having withheld from
education corresponding to that of a uni-
the reader difficulties which are inherent to
versity matriculation examination, and, de-
the
spite the shortness of the
book, a
fair a-
On
subject.
the other hand,
I
have
purposely treated the empirical physical
mount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The author has spared
foundations
himself no pains
in his endeavour to premain ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they ac-
miliar with physics
sent the
wanderer who was unable to see the forest for trees. May the book bring some one a few happy hours of suggestive thought!
tually originated.
ness,
it
of the theory in a "stepmotherly" fashion, so that readers unfa-
may
not feel like the
In the interest of clear-
appeared to
me
inevitable that
A. Einstein December, 1916
I
PART
I
THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY osition of this science to be untrue. But
PHYSICAL MEANING OF GEOMETRICAL PROPOSITIONS your schooldays most of you who read book made acquaintance with the noble building of Euclid's geometry, and you remember — perhaps with more
In
this
respect than love — the magnificent struc-
on the lofty staircase of which you were chased about for uncounted hours by conscientious teachers. By reason of your past experience, you would certainly regard everyone with disdain who should pronounce even the most out-of-the-way propture,
perhaps this feeling of proud certainty would leave you immediately if some one were to ask you: "What, then, do you mean by the assertion that these propositions are true?" Let us proceed to give this question a
little
consideration.
Geometry
from certain con"point," and "straight line," with which we are able to associate more or less definite ideas, and from certain simple propositions (axioms) ceptions
sets
such as
out
"plane,"
we
are in-
clined to accept as "true." Then,
on the
which,
in virtue
of these ideas,
basis of a logical process, the justification
427
RELATIVITY of which
we
ourselves compelled to
feel
remaining propositions are shown to follow from those axioms, i.e., they are proven. A proposition is then correct
admit,
all
when
("true")
it
has been derived
the
in
recognized manner from the axioms. The question of the "truth" of the individual propositions
geometrical
thus reduced
is
to one of the "truth" of the axioms. Now it has long been known that the last ques-
tion
not only unanswerable by the meth-
is
two points on a practically rigid body always correspond to the same distance (line-interval), independently of any changes in position to which we may subtion that
ject the body, the propositions of Euclid-
ean geometry then resolve themselves
on the possible
propositions
to
as to the "truth" of geometrical proposi-
justified in asking
things called "straight lines," to each of
ideas. In less exact terms
is
uniquely
uated on
way, since we are whether these proposi-
tions interpreted in this
are
tions
satisfied
we have
for those
things
real
associated with the geometrical
by saying
ascribed the property of being
this
determined by two points sitit. The concept "true" does not
understand
tally with the assertions of pure geometry, because by the word "true" we are eventually in the habit of designating always the correspondence with a "real" object; geometry, however, is not concerned with
Ge-
position of practically rigid bodies. ^
ometry which has been supplemented in this way is then to be treated as a branch of physics. We can now legitimately ask
ods of geometry, but that it is in itself entirely without meaning. We cannot ask whether it is true that only one straight line goes through two points. We can only say that Euclidean geometry deals with
which
in-
relative
we can
express
by the "truth" of a
that
geometrical proposition in this sense its
we
validity for a construction
with ruler and compasses.
Of course
the conviction of the "truth"
of geometrical propositions
in
this
sense
to
founded exclusively on rather incomplete experience. For the present we shall assume the "truth" of the geometrical
objects of experience, but only with the
propositions, then at a later stage (in the
the relation of the ideas involved in
logical
connection of these ideas
it
among
themselves. It
spite
is
not
of
difficult to
we
this,
understand why,
in
is
general theory of relativity)
we
that this "truth"
and we
is
limited,
consider the extent of
its
feel constrained to call
Geomore or less
II
metrical ideas correspond to
THE SYSTEM OF CO-ORDINATES
exact objects in nature, and these last are undoubtedly the exclusive cause of the genesis of those ideas.
give to logical
The
On
body
is
lodged deeply in our habit
We
are accustomed further to
tablish
on a For all,
If,
in
pursuance of our habit of thought,
we now supplement
the
propositions of
Euclidean geometry by the single proposi-
428
which has been
in-
are also in a position to es-
distance between two points body by means of measurements.
the
rigid this
purpose
(rod S) which
regard three points as being situated on a straight line, if their apparent positions can be made to coincide for observation with one eye, under suitable choice of our place of observation.
we
dicated,
some-
is
the basis of the physical interpreta-
tion of distance
practice, for example,
practically rigid
thing which
of thought.
to
order to
a "distance" two marked posi-
in
on a
in
structure the largest possible
unity.
of seeing tions
Geometry ought
from such a course, its
shall
limitation.
the propositions of geometry "true."
refrain
shall, see
is
we to
require a "distance" be used once and for
and which we employ as a standard If, now, A and B are two points
measure.
1
it follows that a natural object is associated also with a straight line. Three points A, B and C on a rigid body thus lie in a straight line when, the points A and C being given, B is chosen such that the sum of the distances and BC is as short as possible. This incomplete suggestion will suffice for our pres-
AB
ent purpose.
Albert Einstein
on a
rigid
body,
we can
construct the line
them according to the rules of geometry; then, starting from ^, we can mark off the distance S time after time until we reach B. The number of these operations required is the numerical measure of the
joining
AB. This is the basis of all measurement of length.^ Every description of the scene of an distance
event or of the position of an object in space is based on the specification of the
on a
point
body (body of reference)
rigid
with which that event or object coincides.
This applies not only to scientific description, but also to everyday life. If I analyze the place specification "Trafalgar Square, London, "2 I arrive at the following result.
The
earth
is
the rigid
body
to
which the
specification of the place refers; "Trafalgar
Square, London"
is
a well-defined point,
which a name has been assigned, and with which the event coincides in space. This primitive method of place specification deals only with places on the surface of rigid bodies, and is dependent on the existence of points on this surface which are distinguishable from each other. But we can free ourselves from both of these to
limitations
without altering the nature of
our specification of position. stance, a cloud
is
we can determine
Square, then
to the
tion relative
If,
for
in-
hovering over Trafalgar its
it
reaches the cloud.
The
place
the
1
the basis of this
Here we have assumed that there is nothing left i.e., that the measurement gives a whole number. This difficulty is got over by the use of divided measuring-rods, the introduction of which does not
demand any fundamentally new method. have chosen this as being more familiar to the English reader than the "Potsdamer Platz, Berlin," which is referred to in the original. (R.W.L.) 3 It is not necessary here to investigate further the significance of the expression "coincidence in space." This conception is sufficiently obvious to ensure that differences of opinion are scarcely likely 1
to arise as to
its
is
sup-
referred,
in
by the completed
rigid
body.
In locating the position of the ob-
(b)
we make use
ject,
number (here
of a
the
length of the pole measured with the measuring-rod)
of
instead
designated
points
of reference. (c) We speak of the height of the cloud even when the pole which reaches the cloud has not been erected. By means of optical observations of the cloud from diff'erent positions on the ground, and taking into account the properties of the propagation of light, we determine the length of the pole we should have required in order to
reach the cloud.
From
consideration
this
be advantageous
will
of position,
tion
it
we in
if,
should
see that
it
the descrip-
be
by means of numerical measures
possible to
make
ourselves independent of the existence of
marked positions (possessing names) on body of reference. In the physics of measurement this is attained by the the rigid
application
of the
Cartesian
system
of
This consists of three plane surfaces
each other and rigidly Referred to a system of co-ordinates, the scene of any event will be determined (for the main perpendicular to
attached
applicability in practice.
to
a rigid body.
by the specification of the lengths
of the three perpendiculars or co-ordinates
illus-
over,
2
in
such a manner that the object whose position we require is reached
part)
On
specification
plemented
of the position of the foot of the
supplies us with a complete place
specification.
manner
surface of the earth
ard measuring-rod, combined with the spec-
pole,
are able to see the
co-ordinates.
length of the pole measured with the stand-
ification
we
which a refinement of the conception of position has been developed. (a) We imagine the rigid body, to which
posi-
by erecting a pole perpendicularly on the Square, so that
tration,
{x,
y,
z)
which can be dropped from the
scene of the event to those three plane surfaces. The lengths of these three perpendiculars can be determined by a series
of
manipulations
with
rigid
measuring-
rods performed according to the rules and
methods In
laid
down by Euclidean geometry.
practice,
the
rigid
surfaces
which
constitute the system of co-ordinates are
generally
not available; furthermore, the
magnitudes
of the
actually determined
co-ordinates
are
not
by constructions with
429
RELATIVITY rods, but
rigid
by indirect means.
If the
of physics and astronomy are to
results
maintain
their
clearness,
physical
the
meaning of specifications of position must always be sought in accordance with the above considerations. "*
We
thus
obtain
the
following
Every description of events
in
result:
space
in-
It
not clear what
is
is
to
be understood
here by "position" and "space." at the
window of
I
stand
a railway carriage which
is travelling uniformly, and drop a stone on the embankment, without throwing it. Then, disregarding the influence of the air
resistance, straight
see the stone descend in a
I
A
line.
pedestrian
who
observes
volves the use of a rigid body to which
the misdeed
such events have to be referred. The
the stone falls to earth in a parabolic curve.
re-
sulting relationship takes for granted that
the laws of Euclidean geometry hold for
"distances,"
sented
the
physically
"distance" being repre-
by means of the con-
vention of two marks on a rigid body.
I
now
The
purpose of mechanics is to deshow bodies change their posispace with time." I should load
cribe tion
in
my
the "positions" traversed
the considerations of the previous section
we
SPACE AND TIME IN CLASSICAL MECHANICS
Do
ask:
that
by the stone lie "in reality" on a straight line or on a parabola? Moreover, what is meant here by motion "in space"? From the answer
Ill
from the footpath notices
is
self-evident. In the first place,
shun the vague word "space," of which, we must honestly acknowledge, we cannot form the slightest conception, and we replace it by "motion relative to entirely
body of reference." body of reference (railway carriage or embankment) a
practically
The
rigid
positions relative to the
conscience with grave sins against the sacred spirit of lucidity were I to formulate the aims of mechanics in this way,
preceding section. If instead of "body of reference" we insert "system of coor-
without
dinates," which
serious
explanations.
reflection
and
detailed
Let us proceed to disclose
these sins.
have already been defined
to say:
A
refinement and modification of these views does not become necessary until we come to deal with the general theory of relativity, treated in the second part of this book.
A man drops a
a useful idea for math-
ematical description, relative
4
is
The stone to
we
430
are in a position
traverses a straight line
a system of co-ordinates
rig-
idly attached to the carriage, but relative
to a
system of co-ordinates rigidly attached ground (embankment) it describes
to the
stone from a moving railway carriage to the embankment. Disregarding
he sees the stone descend in a straight line. As seen from the embankment, however, the stone falls in a parabolic curve air resistance,
in detail in the
Albert Einstein a parabola. With the aid of this example it is clearly seen that there is no such thing
independently existing trajectory "path-curve"^), but only a trajectory relative to a particular body of reference.
an
as
(lit.
In order to have a complete description of the motion, we must specify how the
body
alters
position
its
time;
with
i.e.,
on the trajectory it must be stated at what time the body is situated there. These data must be supplemented by such a definition of time that, in virtue of this definition, these time-values can be regarded essentially as magnitudes (results of measurements) capable of observation. If we take our stand on the ground of classical mechanics, we can satisfy for every point
this
requirement for our illustration in the We imagine two clocks
following manner.
of identical construction; the railway-carriage
window
them, and the
man on
is
man
are
bodies for which the law of inertia
certainly holds to a high degree of approx-
radius
we have
of the
With
velocity
this
by the
finiteness
of propagation of
light.
and with a second difficulty prewe shall have to deal in de-
adhere to
this
which the fixed stars do not A system of co-ordinates of which the state of motion is such that the law of inertia holds relative to it is called a "Galileian system of co-ordinates." The laws of the mechanics of GalileiNewton can be regarded as valid only for a Galileian system of co-ordinates. relative
move
to
in a circle.
THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY IN THE RESTRICTED SENSE order to In clearness,
is
a straight line. This law not only says something about the motion of the bodies, also indicates the reference-bodies
mechanics, which can be used
ical
Let
description.
The
visible
permissible in
That
is,
a curve along which the
call
its
although
the
car-
position relative to the
its
does not rotate in so a raven flying
yet
it
us
imagine
air in
such a manner that
its
uniform and
mechan-
fixed
body moves.
in a straight line. If
we were
observe the flying raven from the moving railway carriage, we should find that the to
motion of the raven would be one of
differ-
ent velocity and direction, but that
would
still
be uniform and in a straight in an abstract manner we
pressed If a
line
mass
it
line.
Ex-
may
say:
m is moving uniformly in a straight
with respect to a co-ordinate system
K, then and in a
it
will also
stars is
be moving uniformly
second provided that the
straight line relative to a
co-ordinate system latter
1
because
changes
in
in
We
motion, as observed from the embankment,
well
of co-ordinates,
supposed
to be motion a uniform translation ("uniform" because it is of constant velocity and direction,
through the
known, the fundamental law the mechanics of Galilei-Newton, which is known as the law of inertia, can be stated thus: A body removed sufficiently far from other bodies continues in a state of rest or of uniform motion
it
us return to our example
uniformly.
travelling
doing).
THE GALILEIAN SYSTEM OF CO-ORDINATES
systems
attain the greatest possible let
railway carriage
of the
embankment IV
or
inertia.
motions only to systems of co-ordinates
riage
but
is
ment of the law of
"translation"
tail later.
is
opposed to the stateSo that if we law we must refer these
day, a result which
the footpath the
vailing here
ASLof
immense
at the
not taken account of
the inaccuracy involved
a circle of
the course of an astronomical
in
holding one of
holding in his hand. In this
is
use a system of co-
rigidly attached to the
is
earth, then, relative to this system, every
Each of the observers determines the position on his own reference-body occupied by the stone at each tick of the connection
we
if
fixed star describes
other.
clock he
Now
imation.
ordinates which
K\
executing a uniform translatory
motion with respect
to K.
In
431
accordance
,
with the discussion contained
ceding section, If a: is
it
in the
pre-
a Galileian co-ordinate system,
then every other co-ordinate system K'
is
a Galileian one, when, in relation to K,
it
a condition of uniform motion of trans-
is in
lation. Relative to
accuracy
domain of mechanics. But
in the
that a principle of such
follows that:
broad generality
in one domain of phenomena, and yet should be in-
should hold with such exactness valid for another,
a priori not very prob-
is
able.
We now
K' the mechanical laws
proceed
to the
we
second argument,
of Galilei-Newton hold good exactly as
to
they do with respect to K.
of relativity (in the redoes not hold, then the Galileian co-ordinate systems K, K' K" etc., which are moving uniformly relative
We
If
advance a step farther
ization
when we express
in
our general-
the tenet thus:
If,
K, K' is a uniformly moving coordinate system devoid of rotation, then natural phenomena run their course with respect to K' according to exactly the same general laws as with respect to K. This relative to
statement
called
is
the principle
of
rel-
ativity (in the restricted sense).
As
was convinced that all phenomena were capable of rep-
long as one
natural
resentation with the help of classical me-
was no need
which, moreover, the
shall return later.
principle
sense)
stricted
,
to
each other,
will
not be equivalent for the
description of natural phenomena. In this
case
we
should be constrained to believe
that natural laws are capable of being for-
mulated in a particularly simple manner, and of course only on condition that, from
among
possible
all
systems,
we
Galileian co-ordinate
should have chosen one (Kq)
of a particular state of motion as our body
We
doubt the validity of this principle of relativity. But in view of the more recent development of electrodynamics and optics it became more and more evident that classical mechanics affords an insufficient foundation
of reference.
for the physical description of
railway carriage would be a system K,
chanics, there
phenomena. At
this
to
all
natural
juncture the question
of the validity of the principle of relativ-
became
and it did not appear impossible that the answer to ity
this
ripe for discussion,
question might be in the negative.
Nevertheless, there are two general facts at the outset speak very much in favor of the validity of the principle of rel-
which
Even though
(because of natural
should then be justified
merits for the description of
its
phenomena)
systems
K "in motion."
embankment were ative to
which
simplicity
carriage
would be due
we must
of the velocity of the carriage would nec-
rection of travel
it
that emitted
short of wonderful.
relativity
The
principle of
must therefore apply with great
432
We
should expect, for
instance, that the note emitted
it
little
"really")
reference to K, the magnitude and direction
grant
supplies us with the actual motions of the heavenly bodies with a delicacy of detail
to the fact that the
with respect to Kq. In the general laws of nature which have been formulated with
a considerable measure of "truth," since
still
rel-
would hold
K would be in motion {i.e.
pipe placed with
physical phenomena,
for instance, our
than with respect to Kq. This diminished
basis for the theoretical presentation of
all
If,
system
other Galileian
less simple laws
essarily play a part.
classical
all
the system Kq, then our
mechanics does not supply us with a sufficiently broad
ativity.
in calling this
"absolutely at rest," and
if
its
by an organ-
axis parallel to the di-
would be
different
from
the axis of the pipe were
placed perpendicular to this direction.
Now
motion in an orbit round the sun, our earth is comparable with a railway carriage travelling with a velocity of about in virtue
of
its
30 kilometres per second. If the principle of were not valid we should therefore expect that the direction of motion of the earth at any moment would enter into the laws of nature, and also that physical systems in their behavior would be dependent on the orientation in space with respect to the earth. For owing to the alteration in relativity
the
embankment
We
shall see later that this result,
presses
in
the second considered.
which extheorem of the addition of employed in classical mechanics,
the
velocities
cannot be maintained; in other words, the law that we have just written down does not hold in reality. For the time being, how-
we
ever,
shall
assume
its
correctness.
direction of the velocity of revolution of
VII
the earth in the course of a year, the earth cannot be at rest relative to the hypothetical system Kq throughout the whole year.
THE APPARENT INCOMPATIBILITY OF THE LAW OF PROPAGATION OF LIGHT WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY
However, the most careful observations have never revealed such anisotropic properties in terresirial
physical space,
i.e.,
a
physical non-equivalence of different directions.
This
is
a very powerful
argument
There
is
hardly a simpler law of physics
than that according to which light
in
this
in
propagation takes place
with a velocity c
OF VELOCITIES EMPLOYED IN CLASSICAL MECHANICS
all
events
is the same for all colors, were not the case, the minimum of emission would not be observed
that this velocity
because
Let us suppose our old friend the railway carriage to be travelling along the rails v,
and that a man
traverses the length of the carriage in the direction of travel with a velocity
quickly, or, in other words, with locity
W
does the
man advance
in straight lines
= 300,000 km. /sec. At we know with great exactness
THE THEOREM OF THE ADDITION
with a constant velocity
is
empty space. Every child at school knows, or believes he knows, that
propagated
favor of the principle of relativity.
\\\
How
what ve-
relative to
if this
simultaneously for different colors during the eclipse of a fixed star by bor.
By means
its
dark neigh-
of similar considerations
based on observations of double stars, the Dutch astronomer De Sitter was also able to
show
that the velocity of propagation
The
of light cannot depend on the velocity of
only possible answer seems to result from
motion of the body emitting the light. The assumption that this velocity of propagation
the
the
embankment during following
the process?
consideration:
the
If
man
were to stand still for a second, he would advance relative to the embankment through a distance v equal numerically to the velocity of the carriage.
quence of
his walking,
As
a conse-
however, he trav-
erses an additional distance
w
relative to
is is
dependent on the direction "in space" in itself
improbable.
In short, let us
assume
that the simple
law of the constancy of the velocity of light c (in vacuum) is justifiably believed by the child at school. Who would imagine that
the carriage, and hence also relative to the
this
embankment,
tiously thoughtful physicist into the great-
w
in this
second, the distance
being numerically equal to the velocity
with which he
is
Thus
walking.
covers the distance
W
=
v
-\-
w
in total
he
relative to
simple law has plunged the conscien-
est intellectual difficulties?
Let us consider
how these difficulties arise. Of course we must refer
the process of
433
RELATIVITY the propagation of light (and indeed every
other process)
to
a rigid reference-body
(co-ordinate system).
As such
a system
let
us again choose our embankment. We shall imagine the air above it to have been removed. If a ray of light be sent along the embankment, we see from the above that
of the ray will be transmitted with
the tip
the velocity c relative to the
Now
let
riage
is
us suppose that our railway caragain travelling along the railway
lines with the velocity v,
tion
is
but
its
embankment.
same
the
and that
its
direc-
as that of the ray of light,
much
velocity of course
Let
less.
us inquire about the velocity of propagation
of the ray of light relative to the carriage. It is obvious that we can here apply the consideration of the previous section, since the
ray of light plays the part of the
W
bankment of
of the
is
man
walk-
to the intellect
simple.
The
to
smaller than
to the principle of relativity.
The develop-
theoretical physics shows,
ment of
we cannot pursue
ever, that
The epoch-making
how-
this course.
theoretical
investiga-
on the electrodynamical and optical phenomena connected with moving bodies show that experience in this domain leads conclusively to a theory of electromagnetic phenomena, of which the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo is a necessary consequence. Prominent theoretical physicists were therefore more inclined to tions of H. A. Lorentz
reject
of the fact that no empirical data had been
embankment, w
carriage
is
the principle of relativity, in spite
found which were contradictory
to
this
principle.
At
juncture the theory of relativity
this
entered the arena.
As
a result of an analysis
of the physical conceptions of time and thus
comes out
space, is
it
became evident
that in reality- there
not the least incompatibility between the
principle of relativity-
c.
comes
so natural and
is
em-
and we have w - c - V. the
it
the propagation of light
The
velocity of propagation of a ray of light
relative
because
The law of
in vacuo would then have to be replaced by a more complicated law conformable
the required velocity of light with respect to the carriage,
retain the principle
relative to the
here replaced by the velocity
light relative to the
we should
the carriage.
ing along relatively to
velocity
man
expect that
of relativity, which appeals so convincingly
and
the law of prop-
the principle of relativity set forth in Section
agation of light, and that by systematically holding fast to both these laws a logically
V. For, like every other general law of
rigid
nature, the law of the transmission of light
has been called the special theory- of relativity- to distinguish it from the extended
But
in
this result
into conflict with
vacuo must, according to the principle of be the same for the railway car-
relativity,
riage as reference-body as
when
the rails
are the body of reference. But. from our above consideration, this would appear to
be impossible.
If
every ray of
agated relative to the
light is
it
theory, with which the following pages
—a
we shall deal later. In we shall present the
fundamental ideas of the special theory of relativity.
VIII
the
ON THE IDEA OF TIME
would
appear that another law of propagation of light must necessarily hold with respect to the carriage
result contradictory to the
IN
In view of this dilemma there appears to be nothing else for it than to abandon either
PHYSICS
Lightning has struck the
principle of relativity.
>
B
way embankment
far distant
at
rails on our railtwo places A and
from each other.
I
additional assertion that these
make two
the
light-
ning flashes occurred simultaneously. If
the principle of relativity or the simple law of the propagation of light in vacuo. Those of you who have carefully followed the
ask you whether there
preceding discussion are almost sure to
decided "Yes." But
434
This theory-
at.
prop-
embankment with
velocity c, then for this reason
theory could be arrived
ment, you
will
is
my
answer if
sense
I
I
in this state-
question with a
now approach you
Albert Einstein
me
with the request to explain to
more
of the statement after
some consideration
to this
question
you find the answer
that
not so easy as
is
the sense
precisely,
it
the observer perceives the
If
simultaneous.
appears
am
I
very pleased with
but for
at first sight.
After some time perhaps the following
answer would occur
"The
to you:
cance of the statement
signifi-
clear in itself and
is
needs no further explanation; of course
it
two flashes
of lightning at the same time, then they are
that
all
as quite settled, because
would certainly be
definition
only
feel constrained
I
knew
that the light
M
flashes travels along the length
events took place simultaneously or not."
B
cannot be
satisfied
with this answer for the
following reason. Supposing that as a result
of ingenious considerations an able meteor-
were must always
ologist
to discover that the lightning
strike the places
multaneously, then
we
A and B
si-
ity. all
We
accordance with the
encounter the same
difficulty
until
whether or not case.
We
it
is
fulfilled in
After a
an actual
thus require a definition of simul-
taneity such that this definition supplies us
consideration
further
somewhat
my
he has the possibility of discovering
— and
you declare: "I maintain
cause
in
reality
nothing about
mand
be made of the definition of simulnamely, that in every real case it must supply us with an empirical decision as to whether or not the conception that has to be defined is fulfilled. That my definito
whether or not both the lightning strokes
erse the path
long as this
allow my-
I
be deceived as a physicist (and of
self to
course the same applies icist),
As
when
I
am
if I
imagine that
I
not a phys-
am
able to
(I
would ask the reader not
proceed farther
on
until
he
is
fully
to
convinced
After thinking the matter over for some time you then offer the following suggestion with which to test simultaneity. By meas-
should be measured up and an observer
placed at the mid-point
M
of the distance
AB. This observer should be supplied with an arrangem.ent
{e.g., two mirrors inclined which allows him visually to observe both places A and B at the same time.
at
90°)
indisputable.
in reality neither a
is
to trav-
as for the path
supposi-
nor a hypothesis about the physical nature of light, but a stipulation which I can make of my own freewill in order to arrive at a definition of simultaneity." clear that this definition can be used
It is
an exact meaning not only
to give
events, but to as
many
events as
to
we
and independently of the
two care
posi-
tions of the scenes of the events with re-
spect to the
I
uring along the rails, the connecting line
AB
>M
>M
A
is
same time
tion
to choose,
this point.)
demand
light requires the
B
attach a meaning to the statement of simultaneity.
assumes absolutely There is only one de-
taneity,
tion satisfies this
not satisfied,
it
light.
That
is
cast
me — and
previous definition nevertheless, be-
present case, he can decide by experiment
requirement
you
disdainful glance at
with the method by means of which, in the
occurred simultaneously.
>M
A
circle."
rightly so
concept does not exist for the physicist
perceives the lightning
^M. But an examination of this supwould only be possible if we already had at our disposal the means of measuring time. It would thus appear as though we were moving here in a logical
with
The
I
position
real-
physical statements in which the con-
ception "simultaneous" plays a part.
if
with the same velocity as along the length
should be faced with
the task of testing whether or not this theoretical result is in
the observer at
right,
by means of which
would require some consideration if I were to be commissioned to determine by observations whether in the actual case the two I
"Your
following objection:
the
raise
to
this suggestion,
cannot regard the matter
I
body of reference^ (here the
We
suppose further
and
C
that,
'\i
A
is
that,
when
three events A,
B
places in such a manner simultaneous with B, and B is simultane-
take place
in different
C (simultaneous in the sense of the above the criterion for the simultaneity of the pair of events A, C \s also satisfied. This assumption is a physical hypothesis about the law of propagation of light; it must certainly be fulfilled if we are to maintain the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo. ous with
definition), then
435
RELATIVITY
We
People travelling
led
dicated in Fig.
also to a definition of "time" in physics. For this purpose we suppose that clocks
train will with
of identical construction are placed at the points A, B and C of the railway line (co-
they regard
ordinate system), and that they are set in such a manner that the positions of their
along the line also takes place at a par-
pointers are simultaneously (in the above
tion of simultaneity
railway
embankment).
are
thus
a rigid
train.
we understand by
the
takes place
Also the definican be given relative
same way
As
as with
a natural
consequence, however, the following ques-
imme-
diate vicinity (in space) of the event.
reference to the
in
respect to the embankment.
the reading (position of the hands) of that is in
events
all
Then every event which
to the train in exactly the
the "time" of an event
one of these clocks which
in this
ticular point of the train.
Under these conditions
sense) the same.
1.
advantage use the train as reference-body (co-ordinate system);
tion arises:
In
Are two events
{e.g., the two strokes of and B) which are simultaneous
this
manner a time-value is associated with every event which is essentially capable
lightning
of observation.
also simultaneous relatively to tHe train?
This stipulation contains a further physhypothesis, the validity of which will
We be
hardly be doubted without empirical evidence to the contrary. It has been assumed
A
if
all
these clocks go at the
same
rate
they are of identical construction. Stated
more
When two
exactly:
clocks arranged
embankment
with reference to the railway
ical
that
A
show directly
shall
answer must
that the
in the negative.
When we say that the lightning strokes and B are simultaneous with respect to
embankment, we mean: the rays of emitted at the places A and B, where the lightning occurs, meet each other at the
light
M
of the length
A
^B
at rest in different places
the mid-point
body are
of the embankment. But the events
of a referencesuch a manner that a particular position of the pointers of the one clock is simultaneous (in the above sense) with the
set in
same
position of the pointers of
B
also correspond to positions
distance
A
when
the other clock, then identical "settings"
Just
are always simultaneous (in the sense of the
this point
above
point
definition).
M' be
the train. Let
M,
A and A and B on
the mid-point of the
^B on the
travelling^ train.
the flashes^ of lightning occur,
M'
naturally coincides with the
but
moves towards
it
the right in
the diagram with the velocity v of the train. If
an observer
sitting in the position
M'
in
the train did not possess this velocity, then
IX
he would remain permanently
THE RELATIVITY OF SIMULTANEITY
Up
to
A and B would i.e.,
now
our considerations have been
referred to a particular
erence, which
embankment."
we have
We
body of
ref-
styled a "railway
suppose a very long
train travelling
along the
stant velocity
v
and
in
rails
with the con-
the direction in-
M, and the
reach him simultaneously,
they would meet just where he
uated.
Now
reference
he
at
rays emitted by the flashes of lightning
light
is
reality
in
the
to
(considered
is sit-
with
embankment)
railway
hastening towards the
beam
of light
coming from B, while he is riding on ahead of the beam of light coming from ^4. Hence the observer will see the
emitted from
B
earlier than
emitted from A. Observers
beam of he
light
will see that
who
take the
railway train as their reference-body must EMBANKMENT
Fig.
I
therefore
1
436
come
As judged from
to the conclusion that the
the
embankment.
Albert Einstein
B
lightning flash
took place earlier than
the lightning flash A.
We
ON THE RELATIVITY OF THE CONCEPTION OF DISTANCE
thus arrive at
the important result:
which
Events reference
are
the
to
simultaneous
embankment
with not
are
simultaneous with respect to the train, and vice versa (relativity of simultane-
Every
ity).
system) has
we
reference-body its
own
(co-ordinate
particular time; unless
are told the reference-body to which
the statement of time refers, there
meaning
in
is
no
a statement of the time of an
Now
before the advent of the theory
had always
of relativity
it
assumed
physics
tacitly
been
that the statement an absolute significance, i.e., that it is independent of the state of motion of the body of reference. But we have just seen that this assumption is incompatible with the most natural definition of simultaneity; if we discard this assumption, then the conflict between the law of the propagation of light in vacuo and the principle of relativity (developed in Section VII) disappears. We were led to that conflict by the considerations of Section VI, which are now no longer tenable. In that section we concluded that the man in the carriage, who traverses the distance w per second rel-
time
in
had
same the embank-
ative to the carriage, traverses the
distance also with respect to
ment
embankand inquire as
the train^ travelling along the
ment with the velocity
v,
We
to their distance apart.
that
already
know
necessary to have a body of
is
it
ref-
erence for the measurement of a distance, with respect to which body the distance
can be measured up.
It
is
the simplest
plan to use the train itself as the reference-
event.
of
US consider two particular points on
Let
in
each second of time. But, ac-
cording to
the
foregoing considerations,
body (co-ordinate system). An observer in the train measures the interval by marking off
measuring-rod
his
in
a straight line
along the floor of the carriage) as
(e.g.,
many times as is necessary to take him from the one marked point to the other. Then the number which tells us how often the rod has to be laid down is the required distance.
a different matter
It is
when
the distance
has to be judged from the railway the following method suggests
we
call
A
line.
and B' the two points on the
'
whose distance apart
is
Here
itself.
If
train
required, then both
of these points are moving with the velocity
V along the
we
place
embankment. In the
first
require to determine the points
A and B
embankment which are by the two points A' and 5' at a particular time /—judged from the embankment. These points A and B of the embankment can be determined by of the
just being passed
by a particular occurrence with respect to the carriage must not be considered equal to the duration of
applying the definition of time given in
same occurrence as judged from the embankment (as reference-body). Hence
peated application of the
the time required
the
that the man in it cannot be contended walking travels the distance w relative to the railway line in a time which is equal to one second as judged from the embankment.
Moreover, the considerations of Section are based on yet a second assumption,
VI
Section VIII. points
A
and
The
B
distance between these
is
then measured by re-
measuring-rod
along the embankment.
A
it is by no means certain that measurement will supply us with the same result as the first. Thus the length of the train as measured from the embankment may be different from that obtained by measuring in the train itself. This circumstance leads us to a second objection
priori
this last
which, in the light of a strict consideration, appears to be arbitrary, although it was always tacitly made even before the introduction of the theory of relativity.
1
€.}>.
the middle of the
first
and of the hundredth
carriage.
437
RELATIVITY Can we conceive
which must be raised against the appar-
other words:
ently obvious consideration of Section VI.
between place and time of the individual
Namely,
man
the
if
in the carriage
covers
a unit of time — measured train, — then this distance — a^
w
the distance
in
from the measured from
embankment— is
the
not
events relative to both reference-bodies, such that every ray of light possesses the velocity of transmission c relative to the
embankment and This
necessarily also equal to w.
of a relation
question
relative
leads
to
a
to
the
quite
train? definite
positive answer, and to a perfectly definite
last
law for the space-time magnitudes of an event when changing over from one body of reference to another. Before we deal with this, we shall introduce the following incidental consideration.
of the law of propagation of light
Up to the present we have only considered events taking place along the embankment,
transformation
THE LORENTZ TRANSFORMATION results of the three sections Theshow that the apparent incompatibility
with
the
of relativity (Section
principle
VII) has been derived by means of a consideration
which borrowed two
unjustifi-
which had mathematically
to
function of a straight
In the
indicated in
able hypotheses from classical mechanics;
this
these are as follows:
ally
(1)
The
time-interval
two events
is
(time)
between
independent of the
condition of motion of the
body of
reference. (2)
The
space-interval
(distance)
be-
body is. independent of the condition of motion of the body of reference. If
we drop
rigid
these hypotheses, then the
dilemma of Section VII disappears, because the theorem of the addition of velocities derived in Section VI becomes invalid.
The
possibility
presents itself that
the law of the propagation of light in vacuo
may be compatible
with the principle of
and the question arises: How have we to modify the considerations of
relativity,
Section
VI
in
order to remove the apparent
disagreement between these two fundamental results of experience? This question leads to a general one. In the discussion of
Section VI we have to do with places and times relative both to the train and to the embankment. How are we to find the place and time of an event in relation to the train,
when we know
the place and time of the
event with respect to the railway embankment? Is there a thinkable answer to this
by means of
in a vertical direction
a framework of rods, so that an event which takes
with
place
anywhere can be localized
reference
ilarly,
tween two points of a
assume the manner
II we can imagine supplemented later-
Section
reference-body
and
line.
we can
to
this
framework. Sim-
imagine the train travelling
with the velocity v to be continued across the whole of space, so that every event,
no matter how far off it may be, could also be localized with respect to the second framework. Without committing any fundamental error, we can disregard the fact that in reality these frameworks would continually interfere with each other, owing to impenetrability
the
of
every such framework surfaces
marked
solid
we
bodies.
In
imagine three
each other, to and designated as "co-ordi-
perpendicular out,
nate planes" ("co-ordinate system").
K
ordinate system
A co-
then corresponds to the
embankment, and a co-ordinate system K' to the train. An event, wherever it may have taken place, would be fixed in space with respect to K by the three perpendiculars jc, y, z on the co-ordinate planes, and with regard to time by a time-value /. Relative to K' the same event would be fixed in respect of space and time by corresponding values x' ,y' z', t' which of course are ,
,
,
not identical with
jc,
y, z,
t.
It
has already
question of such a nature that the law of transmission of light in vacuo does not
tudes are to be regarded as results of phys-
contradict
ical
the
principle of relativity?
438
In
been
set forth in detail
measurements.
how
these magni-
Albert Einstein
Obviously our problem can be exactly in the following manner. What are the values x',y', z', t' of an event with respect to K' when the magnitudes x, y, z, t
formulated
,
K
are
must be so chosen
that
of the same event with respect to
given?
The
relations
the law of the trans-
mission or
light
^.
m
^
Aided by the following illustration, we can readily see that, in accordance with the Lorentz transformation, the law of the transmission of light in vacuo is satisfied both for the reference-body K and for the reference-body K' A light-signal is sent along the positive x-axis, and this light.
stimulus advances in accordance with the
-
vacuo is satisfied for one and the
equation
same ray of
i.e.,
X =ct,
light
with the velocity
According
c.
to the
(and of course for
equations of the Lorentz transformation,
every ray) with
this
spect to
For
K
the
orientation
re-
of fact,
relative in
simple relation between x and
volves a relation between
and K' space
of the
co-ordinate
systems indicated in the diagram (Fig. 2), problem is solved by means of the
in
the
if
we
first
x'
substitute for
and .v
/'.
t
in-
In point
the value ct
and fourth equations of the
Lorentz transformation,
we
-
v)t
this
(c
obtain:
equations:
x-vt
V'-^ y z'
-y =z
^
"-4
This system of equations
is
from which, by division, the expression x' = ct'
known
as the
"Lorentz transformation."^ If in place of the law of transmission of light we had taken as our basis the tacit assumptions of the older mechanics as to the absolute character of times and lengths, then instead of the above we should have obtained the following equations:
immediately follows. If referred to the system K', the propagation of light takes place according to this equation. We thus see that the velocity of transmission relative to the reference-body K' to c.
The same
result
is
also equal
obtained for rays
in
any other direction
Of course
this is not surprising,
of light advancing
whatsoever.
is
=x- vt
since the equations of the Lorentz trans-
formation
z'
=y =z
t'
=
x'
y'
this point
were derived conformably
to
of view.
t.
XII
This system of equations is often termed the "Galilei transformation." The Galilei transformation can be obtained from the
THE BEHAVIOR OF MEASURING-RODS AND CLOCKS IN MOTION
Lorentz transformation by substituting an large value for the velocity of
infinitely
light c in the latter transformation.
place a metre-rod in the .x'-axis of K' in such a manner that one end (the beginning) coincides with the point x' = 0, while
I 1
A is
simple derivation of the Lorentz transformation given in Appendix I.
the other end (the end of the rod) coincides
439
RELATIVITY with the point
=
x'
\.
What
is
the length of
the metre-rod relatively to the system
K?
In order to learn this, we need only ask where the beginning of the rod and the end
of the rod lie with respect to A: at a particular time t of the system K. By means of the first equation of the Lorentz transformation the values of these
time
/
=
two points
at the
can be shown to be
•^(beginning of rod)
-V'-T^
^(endofrod)=l'
W
i
_
-i_
from the equations of transformation, for the magnitudes x, y, z, t are nothing more nor less than the results of measurements obtainable by means of measuring-rods and clocks. If we had based our considerations on the Galilei transformation we should not have obtained a contraction of the rod as a consequence of its motion. Let us now consider a seconds-clock which is permanently situated at the origin (jc' = 0) of /C'. r' = and /' = 1 are two successive ticks of this clock. The first and fourth equations of the Lorentz transformation give for these two ticks: /
=
and
the distance between the points being
v^
VH But the metre-rod ity
V relative to
K.
It
therefore follows
that the length of a rigid metre-rod in the directio n
V
is
of
As judged from K,
moving with the veloc-
is
its
moving
length with a velocity
Vl — v^/c^ of a metre. The rigid rod is when in motion than when at
thus shorter
with the velocity
tween two strokes of the clock
second, but
,2
and the more quickly it is moving, the shorter is the rod. For the velocity v = c
we should have
\/
1
— v^/c^ =
0,
and
From
imaginary. in the
this
for
still
becomes
we conclude
that
theory of relativity the velocity c
the clock
moving
is
as judged from this ref-
erence-body, the time which elapses beis
not one
seconds,
i.e.,
a
V
rest,
greater velocities the square root
v;
larger time. As a consequence of motion the clock goes more slowly than
somewhat its
when
at rest.
Here
also the velocity c plays
the part of an unattainable limiting velocity.
plays the part of a limiting velocity, which
can neither be reached nor exceeded by any real body. Of course this feature of the velocity c
THEOREM OF THE ADDITION OF VELOCITIES. THE EXPERIMENT OF FIZEAU
as a limiting velocity also clearly follows
from the equations of the Lorentz transformation, for these if
become meaningless
we choose values of v greater than c. If, on the contrary, we had considered
a metre-rod at rest in the jf-axis with respect to K, then we should have found that the
can move NOWmeasuring-rodswe only with in practice
that are small
hence
we
of
siderations.
as being very singular,
A
we must be
to
light;
compare the
velocities
compared with the velocity
would have been Vl - v^ / c^; this is quite in accordance with the principle of relativity which forms the basis of our conlength of the rod as judged from K'
clocks and
shall
hardly be able
results of the previous sec-
tion directly with the reality. But,
on the
other hand, these results must strike you
and for that reason
now draw
able to learn something about the physical
another conclusion from the theory, one which can easily be derived
behavior
from
priori
it is
of
quite clear that
measuring-rods
440
and clocks
I
shall
the
foregoing
considerations,
and
Albert Einstein
which has been most elegantly confirmed by experiment. In Section VI we derived the theorem of the addition of velocities in one direction in the form which also results from the hy-
travel in the direction of the
potheses of classical mechanics. This the-
flowing through the tube with a velocity v?
orem can
also be
place of the riage,
we
man
(Section
XI).
By means of
the
it
In accordance with the principle of rela-
we shall certainly have to take for granted that the propagation of light always tivity
In
w
takes place with the same velocity
introduce a point moving rela-
x'
quickly does
arrow in the tube T (see the accompanying diagram, Fig. 3) when the liquid above mentioned is
walking inside the car-
tively to the co-ordinate system K' accordance with the equation
How
particular velocity w.
deduced readily from the
transformation
Galilei
Light travels in a motionless liquid with a
with
respect to the liquid, whether the latter
in
motion with reference
in
The
not.
=wt'
is
to other bodies or
velocity of light relative to the
and the velocity of the latter relative the tube are thus known, and we require
liquid
and fourth equations we can exterms of x and /, and we
first
of the Galilei transformation
to
press x' and
the velocity of light relative to the tube.
/'
in
It is
then obtain
Section
x = (v + w)t.
clear that
VI
we have
This equation expresses nothing else than the law of motion of the point with refer-
ence to the system K (of the man with erence to the embankment). We denote velocity
the problem of
again before us.
The tube
plays
r
ref-
this
by the symbol W, and we then
Fig. 3
obtain, as in Section VI,
relativity. In the
we must /,
plays the part of the carriage or of the co-
equation
= wt'
plays the part of the carriage, or of the
then express x' and t' in terms of making use of the first and fourth
ent section. If
we
is
then obtain
which corresponds
theorem of addione direction accord-
to the
ing to the theory of relativity.
now
arises as to
rems
is
On
we
The question
are enlightened by a
important experiment which the
most
brilliant
performed more than and which has been repeated since then by some of the best experimental physicists, so that there can be no doubt about its result. The experiment is concerned with the following question. physicist
moving point
we denote
along the
in the pres-
the velocity of
W, then
this
as
the Galilei transformation or the
which of these two theo-
the better in accord with experience.
this point
finally, the light
Lorentz transformation corresponds to the facts. Experiment^ decides in favor of equation (B) derived from the theory of relativity, and the agreement is, indeed, very exact. According to recent and most excellent measurements by Zeeman, the influence of the velocity of flow v on the
•(B),
tion for velocities in
and
man walking
given by the equation (A) or (B), accord-
ing
the equation
w
,
the light relative to the tube by
equations of the Lorentz transformation. Instead of the equation (A)
embankment or
railway
of the co-ordinate system K, the liquid ordinate system K'
x'
X and
part of the
the
W=v+w (A). But we can carry out this consideration just as well on the basis of the theory of
1
Fizeau is
...(,-i,) II W ^w-^v ^|. where
found
the index of refraction of the liquid.
hand, owing to the smallness of
—
On as
"
=
—
the other
compared
Fizeau
half a century ago,
with
1,
we can
W = (w +
I
)|
1
-
replace (B)
—I
proximation by » +
,
i
in
the
first
place by
or to the same order of apll
^1.
which agrees with
Fizeau's result.
441
RELATIVITY propagation
of
light
is
represented
by
law of exactly the same form when, instead x, y, z, t of the original co-ordinate system K, we introduce
formula (B) to within one per cent. Nevertheless we must now draw attention to the fact that a theory of this phenomenon was given by H. A. Lorentz long be-
of the space-time variables
fore the statement of the theory of relativity. This theory was of a purely electro-
tion the relation
new space-time
variables x'
,
y'
,
z'
t'
,
of
a co-ordinate system K'. In this connec-
between the ordinary and is given by the Lorentz transformation. Or, in brief: Gen-
the accented magnitudes
dynamical nature, and was obtained by the use of particular hypotheses as to the electromagnetic structure of matter. This cir-
eral
cumstance, however, does not in the least diminish the conclusiveness of the experiment as a crucial test in favor of the the-
that the theory of relativity
ory of relativity, for the electrodynamics of
ory becomes a valuable heuristic aid
Maxwell-Lorentz, on which the original theory was based, in no way opposes the theory of relativity. Rather has the latter been developed from electrodynamics as an
search for general laws of nature. If a gen-
astoundingly simple combination and generalization of the hypotheses, formerly in-
dependent of each other, on which electrodynamics was built.
This
Our
pages can be epitomized in the
fol-
eral
law of nature were
demands of
a
in the
be found which
to
one of the two fundamental assumptions of the theory would have been disproved. Let us now examine what general results the latter theory has hitherto evinced.
XV GENERAL RESULTS OF THE THEORY
It
is
clear from our previous considera-
tions
lowing manner. Experience has led to the
and
ciably
that the (special) theory
optics. In these fields
altered
ciple of relativity holds true,
but
the other
oretical
it
o^
rel-
has grown out of electrodynamics
ativity
conviction that, on the one hand, the prin-
and that on hand the velocity of transmission of light in vacuo has to be considered equal to a constant c. By uniting these two postulates we obtained the law of transformation for the rectangular co-ordinates x, y, z and the time t of the events which constitute
a definite mathematical condition
did not satisfy this condition, then at least
THE HEURISTIC VALUE OF THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY thought in the foregoing
is
natural law, and in virtue of this, the the-
XIV
train of
laws of nature are co-variant with
respect to Lorentz transformations.
the
it
has not appre-
predictions of theory,
has considerably simplified the thestructure,
laws, and — what
i.e.,
the derivation of
incomparably more important—it has considerably reduced the number of independent hypotheses formis
ing the basis of theory.
The
special theory
of relativity has rendered the Maxwell-
the processes of nature. In this connection
Lorentz theory so plausible, that the
we
would have been generally accepted by physicists even if experiment had decided
did not obtain the Galilei transforma-
tion, but, differing ics,
from
classical
mechan-
the Lorentz transformation.
The law of transmission of
light,
less unequivocally in
the ac-
ceptance of which is justified by our actual knowledge, played an important part in this process of thought. Once in possession of the Lorentz transformation, however, we can combine this with the principle of relativity, and sum up the theory thus: Every general law*of nature must be so constituted that it is transformed into a
442
its
favor.
Classical mechanics required to be ified
before
it
could
latter
come
mod-
into line with the
demands of the special theory of relativity. For the main part, however, this modification affects only the laws for rapid motions, in
which the
velocities of matter v
are not very small as velocity of light.
We
compared with the have experience of
such rapid motions only
in
the case of
Albert Einstein electrons and ions; for other motions the variations from the laws of classical
about, and what meaning to
is
to
be attached
it.
The
make themselves
chanics are too small to
We
me-
principle of relativity requires that
not consider
the law of the conservation of energy should
the motion of stars until we come to speak of the general theory of relativity. In accordance with the theory of relativity the
dinate system K, but also with respect to
evident in practice.
shall
mass no longer given by the well-known ex-
kinetic energy of a material point of
m
is
pression
m
hold not only with reference to a co-or-
every co-ordinate system K' which
—
transformation
2
transition
is
the deciding factor in the
from one such system
to another.
conclusion from these premises,
v^ must therefore always rehowever great may be the energies used to produce the acceleration. If
velocity
less than c,
we develop
energy
in the
mc^
form of a
+m—-H
—
is
m 8
ation without suffering an alteration in velocity in the process, has, as a
consequence,
energy increased by an amount
its
small
series,
—
we
V'
compared with
in
Eo
+ ••••
is
unity,
always small
comparison with the second, which alone considered
obtain
c2
the third of these terms
The
A body moving with the velocity v, which absorbs^ an amount of energy Eq in the form of radi-
the expression for the kinetic
2
When
con-
the electrodynamics of Maxwell: infinity as the
velocity v approaches the velocity of light
The
in
junction with the fundamental equations of
This expression approaches
main
a
By means of comparatively simple considerations we are led to draw the following
but by the expression
c.
is in
uniform motion of translation relative to K, or, briefly, relative to every "Galileian" system of co-ordinates. In contrast to classical mechanics, the Lorentz state of
classical
In consideration of the expression given
in
last is
mechanics.
term mc^ does not contain the velocity, and requires no consideration if
above for the kinetic energy of the body, the required energy of the body comes out be
to
first
C2 C2
we are only dealing with the question as to how the energy of a point-mass depends on the velocity.
We
shall
speak of its essential
significance later.
The most important
result of a general
character to which the special theory of
concerned with the conception of mass. Before the advent of relativity, physics recognized two conservation laws of fundamental importance, namely, the law of the conservation of energy and the law of the conservation of mass; these two fundamental laws appeared to be quite independent of each other. By means of the theory of relativity they have been united into one law. We shall now relativity
has led
Thus
consider
how
this unification
came
body has the same energy as a
body of mass
is
L^j
^ E^\ moving with the ve-
V. Hence we can say: If a body takes up an amount of energy Eq, then its iner-
locity
tial
mass increases by an amount —r
inertial
mass of a body
is
;
the
not a constant,
but varies according to the change in the
energy of the body. The inertial mass of a system of bodies can even be regarded as a I
briefly
the
is the energy taken up, as judged from a co-ordinate system moving with the body.
£„
443
:
RELATIVITY measure of
its
energy.
The law of
XVI
the con-
EXPERIENCE AND THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY
mass of a system becomes
servation of the
law of the conservation only valid provided that the system neither takes up nor sends out energy. Writing the expression for the enidentical with the
of energy, and
is
TO what
This question
ergy in the form
is the special theory of supported by experience?
extent
relativity is
not easily answered for the
reason already mentioned
connection
in
with the fundamental experiment of Fizeau.
The
V
1
-—
from the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of electromagnetic phenomena. Thus all
we
special theory of relativity has crys-
tallized out
see that the term mc^, which has hither-
facts of experience
electromagnetic
support the
As being
of particular
our attention, is nothing else than the energy possessed by the body^ before it absorbed the energy Eq. A direct comparison of this relation with
theory of relativity.
experiment
ing us
to attracted
time,
is
owing
not possible at the present
to the fact that the
changes
in
energy Eq to which we can subject a system are not large enough to make themselves perceptible as a change in the inertial
in
mass of the system. _^
is
too small
comparison with the mass m, which was
present before the alteration of the energy.
owing to this circumstance that classical mechanics was able to establish successfully the conservation of mass as a law of independent validity. Let me add a final remark of a fundamental nature. The success of the FaradayMaxwell interpretation of electromagnetic
importance,
I
which support the
theory also
mention here the fact that
the theory of relativity enables us to pre-
produced on the light reachfrom the fixed stars. These results are obtained in an exceedingly simple manner, and the effects indicated, which are due to the relative motion of the earth with reference to those fixed stars, are found to be dict the effects
in
accord with experience.
yearly
movement of
We
refer to the
the apparent position
of the fixed stars resulting from the motion of the earth round the sun (aberration), and
It is
action at a distance resulted in physicists
becoming convinced
that there are
no such
things as instantaneous actions at a dis-
tance (not involving an intermediary medium) of the type of Newton's law of gravitation. According to the theory of relativity, action at a distance with the velocity of light always takes the place of instantaneous action at a distance or of action at a distance with an infinite velocity of transmission. This is connected with the fact that the velocity c plays a
role in this theory. In Part II in
what way
in the
2
this result
fundamental
we
shall see
becomes modified
general theory of relativity.
As judged from a
co-ordinate system moving with
the body.
444
to the influence of the radial
components of
the relative motions of the fixed stars with
respect to the earth on the color of the light
reaching us from them.
The
latter ef-
fect manifests itself in a slight displacement
of the spectral lines of the light transmitted to us from a fixed star, as compared with the position of the
same
spectral lines
when
they are produced by a terrestrial source of
(Doppler principle). The experimental arguments in favor of the Maxwell-Lorentz theory, which are at the same time arguments in favor of the theory of relativity, are too numerous to be set forth here. In light
reality they limit the theoretical possibilities to
such an extent, that no other theory and Lorentz has
than that of Maxwell
been able
to hold
its
own when
tested
by
experience.
But there are two classes of experimental which can be represented in the Maxwell-Lorentz theory only by the introduction of an auxiliary hypothesis, which in itself- i.e., without making use facts hitherto obtained
Albert Einstein theory of relativity — appears ex-
of the
known
It is
and the soby radioactive sub-
that cathode rays
called ^-rays emitted
stances
and the behavior of the electron. rived
traneous.
consist
of negatively
electrified
XIII
a similar conclusion in
at
are faced with the difficulty that
electrodynamic theory of
itself is
unable to
experiments.
We
V
that
in Section
all
attempts of this nature
led to a negative result. Before the theory
of relativity was put forward,
electrical
cult to
repulsions, unless there are forces of another kind operating
between them, the nature
of which has hitherto remained obscure to us.^ If
we now assume
that the relative dis-
tances between the electrical masses conthe
stituting
electron
remain unchanged
during the motion of the electron (rigid con-
in terrestrial
have already remarked
give an account of their nature.
For since masses of one sign repel each other, the negative electrical masses constituting the electron would necessarily be scattered under the influence of their mutual
by
The second class of facts to which we have alluded has reference to the question whether or not the motion of the earth in space can be made perceptible
we
foretold
of drawing on hypotheses as to the
sity
physical nature of the liquid.
trons,
is
the theory of relativity without the neces-
and large velocity. By examining the deflection of these rays under the influence of electric and magnetic fields, we can study the law of motion of these particles very In the theoretical treatment of these elec-
ar-
connection with the experiment of
in
Fizeau, the result of which
particles (electrons) of very small inertia
exactly.
We
Section
become reconciled
result, for
reasons
it
was
diffi-
to this negative
now to be
discussed.
The
inherited prejudices about time and space
did not allow any doubt to arise as to the prime importance of the Galilei transformation for changing over from one body of
reference to another.
Now
assuming that
the Maxwell-Lorentz equations hold for a
reference-body K,
we
then find that they
do not hold for a reference-body K' moving uniformly with respect to K, if we assume
nection in the sense of classical mechanics),
that the relations of the Galileian transfor-
we
mation exist between the co-ordinates of K and K'. It thus appears that of all Galileian co-ordinate systems one (K) corresponding to a particular state of motion is physically unique. This result was inter-
arrive at a law of
motion of the electron
which does not agree with experience. Guided by purely formal points of view, H. A. Lorentz was the first to introduce the hypothesis that the particles constituting
K
the electron experience a contraction in the
preted physically by regarding
direction of motion in consequence of that
with respect to a hypothetical aether of
motion,
being
k
\
the
amount of
proportional
--^-
to
this
the
contraction
expression
This hypothesis, which
is
not
space.
On
the other hand,
all
as at rest
co-ordinate
systems K' moving relatively to K were to be regarded as in motion with respect to the aether. To this motion of K' against the aether ("aether-drift" relative to K') were
justifiable
by any electrodynamical
facts.
suppHes us then with that particular law of motion which has been confirmed with
leads to the
same
law of motion, without requiring any special hypothesis whatsoever as to the structure
1
were supposed ly
to hold relative to
K'
.
Strict-
speaking, such an aether-drift ought also
to be
great precision in recent years.
The theory of relativity
assigned the more complicated laws which
assumed
relative to the earth,
a long time the
devoted
eff"orts
and for
of physicists were
to attempts to detect the existence
of an aether-drift at the earth's surface.
The general theory of relativity renders it likely that the electrical masses of an electron are held together
In one of the most notable of these attempts Michelson devised a method which appears as though it must be decisive. Imagine two mirrors so arranged on a rigid
by gravitational
body
forces.
that the reflecting surfaces face each
445
RELATIVITY
A
Other.
ray of light requires a perfectly
T
from one mirror to the other and back again, if the whole system be at rest with respect to the aether. It is found by calculation, however, that a definite time
to pass
slightly different time T'
process,
required for this
the body, together with the mir-
be moving relatively to the aether.
rors,
And
if
is
yet another point:
it
is
shown by
cal-
theory from this difficulty by assuming that the motion of the
body
relative to the aether
produces a contraction of the body tion being just
the
difference
time mentioned above.
in
Comparison with the discussion in Section XII shows that also from the standpoint of the theory of relativity this solution of
culation that for a given velocity v with ref-
the difficulty
erence to the aether, this time T' is different when the body is moving perpendicularly to
basis of the theory of relativity the
the planes of the mirrors
when
the motion
is
from that resulting
parallel to these planes.
Although the estimated difference between two times is exceedingly small, Michelson and Morley performed an experiment involving interference in which this difference should have been clearly dethese
in the
amount of contracsufficient to compensate for
direction of motion, the
was the
right one.
But on the
method
incomparably more satisfactory. According to this theory there is no such thing as a "specially favored" (unique) co-ordinate system to occasion
of interpretation
is
tectable.
introduction of the aether-idea, and hence there can be no aether-drift, nor any experiment with which to demonstrate it. Here the contraction of moving bodies follows from the two fundamental principles
tive result
of the theory without the introduction of
icists.
But the experiment gave a nega— a fact very perplexing to physLorentz and FitzGerald rescued the
the
particular
hypotheses; and as the prime
factor involved in this contraction
MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT
A beam of light is divided by a half-silvered mirror A which transmits one part to the mirror B and reflects
the other perpendicularly to the mirror C. Both beams are reflected back to a detecting apparatus D. According to classical physics, if the line LB is in the direction of the earth's motion, the time necessary for a beam to traverse the path
LBAD
find,
to
itself,
Thus
the particular case in point.
for a co-
ordinate system moving with the eart;h the
mirror system of Michelson and Morley not shortened, but
should be greater than for LAC D. The experiment revealed that both beams take exactly the same time
we
which we cannot attach any meaning, but the motion with respect to the body of reference chosen in not the motion in
it is
ordinate system which
is
shortened for a cois
at rest relatively
to the sun.
XVII
MINKOWSKI'S FOURDIMENSIONAL SPACE c
The
/
non-mathematician
mysterious shuddering
is
seized by a
when he
hears
of "four-dimensional" things, by a feeling not unlike that awakened by thoughts of the occult.
U-J>
And
yet there
is
no more common-
place statement than that the world in which
we
live
is
a four-dimensional space-time
continuum.
Space
By
this
is
a three-dimensional continuum.
we mean
that
it
is
possible to de-
scribe the position of a point (at rest)
means of three numbers
-----. 446
J, z,
and that there
is
by
(co-ordinates) x,
an indefinite number
Albert Einstein
Moreover, according
to this equation the
of points in the neighborhood of this one, the position of which can be described by
time difference Ar' of two events with re-
co-ordinates such as x^, y^, z^, which may be as near as we choose to the respective
when
spect to K' does not in general vanish, even the time difference Ar of the
values of the co-ordinates x, y, z of the first point. In virtue of the latter property we
events with reference to
speak of a "continuum," and owing to the
to
fact that there are three co-ordinates
speak of
it
we
as being "three-dimensional."
ena which was
world of physical phenombriefly called "world" by
Minkowski
naturally
Similarly, the
in the
is
is
de-
namely, three
x, y, z
many "neighboring" we
events (realized or at least thinkable) as care to choose, the co-ordinates
jc^,
y^,
of which differ by an indefinitely small
amount from those of
the event x, y,
z, t
we have
not
considered. That
originally
been accustomed
to regard the
world
in this
sense as a four-dimensional continuum
is
due to the fact that in physics, before the advent of the theory of relativity, time played a different and more independent role, as compared with the space co-ordinates. It is for this reason that we have been in the habit of treating time as an independent continuum. As a matter of fact, according to classical mechanics, time is absolute, i.e., it is independent of the position and the condition of motion of the system of coordinates. We see this expressed in the last equation of the Galileian transformation {t'=t).
The four-dimensional mode of ation of the "world"
ory of
is
natural
consider-
on the
the-
according to this the-
relativity, since
ory time is
is
robbed of its independence. This
shown by
the fourth equation of the
Lorentz transformation:
results in "time-distance" of the
for the formal
development of the theory of lie here. It is to be found
does not
relativity,
the theory of relativity, in
lationship
essential
to
re-
three-dimensional con-
the
tinuum of Euclidean geometrical space. In order to give due prominence to this relationship, however, we must replace the usual time co-ordinate / by an imaginary magnitude V- 1-cr proportional to it. Under these conditions, the natural laws satisfying the demands of the (special) theory of relativity assume mathematical forms, in
which the time co-ordinate plays exactly same role as the three space co-ordi-
the
Formally, these four co-ordinates
nates.
correspond exactly to the three space coordinates in Euclidean geometry. It must be clear even to the non-mathematician
consequence of this purely formal
that, as a
addition to our knowledge, the theory perforce gained clearness in no
mean measure.
These inadequate remarks can give the reader only a vague notion of the important idea contributed by Minkowski. Without
it
the general theory of relativity, of which
the fundamental ideas are developed in the following pages, would perhaps have got no farther than
work
is
its
long clothes. Minkowski's
doubtless
difficult
one
inexperienced
since
it is
of access to any-
mathematics,
but not necessary to have a very exact in
grasp of this work in order to understand the fundamental ideas of either the special or the general theory of relativity, I shall
it
V
most
its
formal properties, shows a pronounced
at present leave
1
same
.
rather in the fact of his recognition that the
and a time coordinate, the time-value t. The "world" is in this sense also a continuum; for to every
Zj, t^
K
events with respect to K' But the discovery of Minkowski, which was of importance
four-dimensional space-time continuum of
scribed by four numbers,
as
"space-distance" of two events with respect
composed
it is
of individual events, each of which
event there are
same
vanishes. Pure
four-dimensional
space-time sense. For
space co-ordinates
K
1
it
here, and shall revert to
only towards the end of Part Cf. the
pendix
somewhat more
II.
detailed discussion in
II.
447
Ap-
PART
II
THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY we
XVIII
principle rather asserts
SPECIAL AND GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY
formulate the general laws of nature as they are obtained from experience, by making
what follows:
If
use of
The basal principle, which was the pivot
our previous considerations, was the special principle of relativity, i.e., the principle of the physical relativity of all uniform motion. Let us once more analyze its of
all
meaning carefully. It
was
from the conveys to us,
at all times clear that,
point of view of the idea
it
embankment
as reference-body,
{a)
the
(b)
the railway carriage as reference-
body, then these general laws of nature
{e.g.,
the
laws of mechanics or the law of the propagation of light in vacuo) have exactly the same form in both cases. This can also be expressed as follows: For the physical de-
every motion must only be considered as
scription of natural processes, neither of
a relative motion. Returning to the illustra-
the reference-bodies K, K'
tion
we have
frequently used of the em-
bankment and the railway
carriage,
we can
"specially
marked out")
the other. Unlike the
as
is
unique
first, this latter
express the fact of the motion here taking
ment need not of necessity hold a
place in the following two forms, both of
is
which are equally justifiable: The carriage is in motion relative to (a) the embankment. {b) The embankment is in motion relative to the carriage.
In (a) the embankment, in (b) the carriage, serves as the
body of reference
in
our
statement of the motion taking place. If it is simply a question of detecting or of describing the motion involved,
it is
in prin-
state-
priori;
it
not contained in the conceptions of "mo-
tion" and "reference-body" and derivable from them; only experience can decide as to
its
correctness or incorrectness.
Up
to the present, however, we have by no means maintained the equivalence of all
bodies of reference
K
in
connection with
Our course was more on the following lines. In the first place, we started out from the assumption that there exists a reference-body K, whose the formulation of natural laws.
ciple immaterial to
what reference-body we
condition of motion
refer the motion.
As
ian law holds with respect to
already mentioned,
(lit.
compared with
is
such that the Galileit:
A
particle
removed
must not be confused with the much more comprehensive
left
statement called "the principle of relativ-
a straight
ity," which we have taken as the basis of our investigations.
were be as simple as possible. But in addition to K, all bodies of reference K' should be given preference in this sense, and they should be exactly equivalent to K for the
this is self-evident,
The
principle
but
it
we have made use of not we may equally well
only maintains that
choose the carriage or the embankment as our reference-body for the description of
any event
(for this, too, is self-evident).
448
Our
to itself
from
all
and
sufficiently far
other particles line.
moves uniformly
With reference
to
in
K (Galile-
ian reference-body) the laws of nature to
formulation of natural laws, provided that they are in a state of uniform rectilinear and
non-rotary motion with respect to K;
all
these bodies of reference are to be regarded as Galileian reference-bodies.
of the principle of relativity
The vaHdity was assumed
only for these reference-bodies, but not for others
(e.g.,
those possessing motion of a
different kind). In this sense
we speak
of
"general
we wish
principle
ies relative to the
riage.
is
mani-
person
in the railway car-
The mechanical behavior
is
different
to understand
carriage, as hold with reference to the car-
riage
erence K, K',
all
are equivalent for the
phenomena
description of natural
The retarded motion
fested in the mechanical behavior of bod-
the following statement: All bodies of refetc.,
powerful
correspondingly
a
of relativity"
theory of relativity. In contrast to this
experiences
jerk forwards.
from that of the case previously considered, and for this reason it would appear to be impossible that the same mechanical laws hold relatively to the non-uniformly moving
the special principle of relativity, or special
by the
brakes, then the occupant of the carriage
(formula-
when
events
at rest or in
it is
uniform motion. At
clear that the Galileian law
does not hold with respect to the non-uni-
whatever may be their state of motion. But before proceeding farther, it ought to be pointed out that this formulation must be replaced later by a more abstract one, for reasons which will become evident at a later
formly moving carriage. Because of
stage.
sion cannot be maintained.
tion of the general laws of nature),
we
compelled
feel
this,
at the present juncture
to grant a kind of absolute physical reality to
non-uniform motion,
in opposition to the
general principle of relativity. But in what follows
we
shall
soon see that
this
conclu-
Since the introduction of the special principle of relativity has intellect
must
which
feel the
been
justified,
every
XIX
strives after generalization
THE GRAVITATIONAL FIELD
temptation to venture the step
towards the general principle of relativity. But a simple and apparently quite reliable consideration seems to suggest that, for the
present at any rate, there
is little
hope of
success in such an attempt. Let us imagine
we
If why
pick up a stone and then let it go, does it fall to the ground?" The
usual answer to this question
is: "Because by the earth." Modern physformulates the answer rather differently
it is
attracted
ourselves transferred to our old friend the
ics
railway carriage, which is travelling at a uniform rate. As long as it is moving uniformly, the occupant of the carriage is not sensible of its motion, and it is for this reason that he can without reluctance interpret the facts
for the following reason.
of the case as indicating that the carriage
dium.
is
at rest,
but the
embankment
Moreover, according ciple
of relativity,
quite justified also
in motion.
to the special prin-
this
interpretation
is
from a physical point of
view.
motion of the carriage is now non-uniform motion, as for instance by a powerful application of the If
the
changed
into a
As
a result of the
more careful study of electromagnetic phenomena, we have come to regard action at a distance as a process impossible without the intervention of If,
some intermediary me-
for instance, a
piece of iron,
magnet
we cannot be
attracts a
content to re-
meaning that the magnet acts on the iron through the intermediate empty space, but we are constrained to imagine — after the manner of Faraday — that the magnet always calls
gard
this as
directly
into being
something physically real in the it, that something being what
space around
449
RELATIVITY we
a "magnetic field." In
call
magnetic
field
so that the latter strives to
We
the magnet.
its
We
is
indeed a somewhat arbitrary one.
mention that with
shall only
aid elec-
its
much more
than without
and
electromagnetic
of
waves. The effects of gravitation also are regarded
The
in
gravitation
we
The
earth produces in
surroundings a gravitational
field,
then have (Force)
=
(gravitational mass) x (intensity
of the gravitational
field),
where the "gravitational mass"
is likewise a characteristic constant for the body. From
these two relations follows:
according to a quite definite law, as
The law governing
we
pro-
the properties of the
must be a
per-
fectly definite one, in order correctly to rep-
resent the diminution of gravitational ac-
from operative bod-
tion with the distance
something like this: The body {e.g., the earth) produces a field in its immediate neighborhood directly; the intensity and direction of the field at points farther removed from the body are thence determined by the law which governs the properties in space of the gravitational fields ies. It is
themselves. In contrast to electric and magnetic fields, the gravitational field exhibits a
most
re-
markable property, which is of fundamental importance for what follows. Bodies which
moving under the
fall
in exactly the
when they
start off
from
rest or with the
same initial velocity. This law, which holds most accurately, can be expressed in a difform
in
the light of the following
field).
find
to
gravitational
to
its
inertial
It
is
mass of a body
is
equal
mass.
true that this important law had
been recorded in mechanics, but it had not been interpreted. A satisfactory interpretation can be obtained only if we rechitherto
ognize the following
fact:
of a body manifests
itself
The same
quality
according to
cir-
cumstances as "inertia" or as "weight"
(lit.
"heaviness"). In the following section
we
shall
show
the case,
to
what extent
and how
this
this is actually
question
is
connected
with the general postulate of relativity.
XX THE EQUALITY OF INERTIAL AND GRAVITATIONAL MASS AS AN ARGUMENT FOR THE GENERAL POSTULATE OF RELATIVITY
same
vacuo),
is
The
which does not in the least depend either on the material or on the physical state of the body. For instance, a piece of lead and
wood
now, as we
^ (intensity of
mass)
from experience, the be independent of the nature and the condition of the body and always the same for a given gravitational field, then the ratio of the gravitational to the inertial mass must likewise be the same for all bodies. By a suitable choice of units we can thus make this ratio equal to unity. We then have the following law: If
acceleration
sole influence of a
in a gravitational field {in
(gravitational mass)
the gravitational
gravitational field receive an acceleration,
a piece of
=
which motion
ceed farther and farther away from the earth. From our point of view this means: gravitational field in space
(acceleration)
(inertial
on the stone and produces its As we know from experience, the intensity of the action on a body diminishes acts
ferent
now
the cause of the acceleration,
its
of fall.
manner
is
an analogous manner.
action of the earth on the stone takes
place indirectly.
are
"inertial
constant of the accelerated body. If
satisfactorily
this applies particularly
transmission
the
to
it,
= (inertial mass) x (acceleration), mass" is a characteristic
(Force)
where the
tromagnetic phenomena can be theoretically represented
Newton's law of motion,
to
we have
move towards
shall not discuss here the
justification for this incidental conception,
which
According
turn this
operates on the piece of iron,
We
imagine a large portion of empty space, so far
removed from
other appreciable masses that fore
stars
and
we have
be-
us approximately the conditions re-
quired by the fundamental law of Galilei.
consideration.
450
Albert Einstein
An
a uniformly accelerating chest moving upward through empty space will and will observe that a ball released from his hands approaches the floor with an accelerated motion, as though drawn by the force of gravity. He will conclude that he and the chest are at rest in a gravitational field. To an outside, stationary observer, the ball would seem to continue to move upward at the speed of the chest at the moment of release, while the floor of the chest, accelerating, overtakes it
observer standing
in
feel pressure on his feet,
relative to
The chest together move "upwards" with a uniformly accelerated mo-
rest
tion.
It is
then possible to choose a GaHleian
erence-body for
ref-
space (world),
this part of
which points at rest remain at and points in motion continue permanently in uniform rectilinear motion. As
with a constant force.
with the observer then begin to
In course of time their velocity will
reach
values — provided
unheard-of
let
us imagine a spacious
we
chest resembling a
room with an observer
erence-body which
reference-body inside
who
is
equipped with apparatus.
He must
fasten himself with
strings to the floor, otherwise the slightest
is
But how does the man the process? will
The
fixed externally a
lid
of the chest
is
hook with rope attached,
if
in the
chest regard
be transmitted to him by the reaction
take up this pressure by
the middle of the
ref-
acceleration of the chest
slowly towards the ceiling of the room.
will
that
from another
not being pulled with
of the floor of the chest.
To
he does not wish to be
on the
floor.
He
and now a "being" (what kind of a being
in
exactly the
immaterial to us) begins pulling at this
in
a
is
this
cause him to
impact against the floor rise
all
a rope.
Gravitation naturally does not exist for this observer.
are viewing
room of
is
He must laid
out
then standing
same way
therefore
means of
as
his legs
full
length
in the
chest
anyone stands
a house on our earth. If he re-
451
RELATIVITY body which he previously had
lease a
in his
experience
supposing
in
body to be "at rest." Suppose that the man
reason the body will approach the floor of the chest with an accelerated relative motion. The observer will further convince
a rope to the inner side of the
this
himself that the acceleration of the body towards the floor of the chest is always of the same magnitude, whatever kind of body
he
may happen
to use for the experiment.
Relying on his knowledge of the graviit was discussed in the pre-
reference-
his
hand, the acceleration of the chest will no longer be transmitted to this body, and for
in the
chest fixes
lid,
and that
he attaches a body to the free end of the rope. The result of this will be to stretch the rope so that
downwards.
If
it
we
cause of tension
will
hang "vertically"
ask for an opinion of the in the rope, the
man
in
"The suspended body experiences a downward force in the gravthe chest will say:
and
this is neutralized
by the
tational field (as
itational field,
ceding section), the man in the chest will thus come to the conclusion that he and the
tension of the rope; what determines the
chest are in a gravitational field which
is
Of course he
constant with regard to time.
be puzzled for a moment as to why the chest does not fall in this gravitational field. Just then, however, he discovers the hook in the middle of the lid of the chest and the rope which is attached to it, and he consewill
comes
quently chest
to the conclusion that the
suspended
is
at rest in the gravita-
tional field.
Ought we
to smile at the
man and
that he errs in his conclusion?
we ought to if we wish to we must rather admit that
lieve
sistent;
say
do not beremain con-
I
his
mode
of grasping the situation violates neither
reason nor
known mechanical
though
being accelerated with respect
it
is
Even
to the
body attached just large
the rope
is
the inertial
Guided by
We
have thus good grounds for
extending the principle of relativity to
in-
tension of
we
the body."
see that our
extension of the principle of relativity im-
law of the equality and gravitational mass. Thus we
plies the necessity of the
of
inertial
have obtained a physical interpretation of this law.
From our
ing at rest.
The
mass of
example,
this
erated chest
first
it.
enough to effect the acceleration of the body. That which determines the magnitude of the tension of is
considered,
space"
to
the rope
nevertheless regard the chest as be-
to the "Galileian
we can
laws.
magnitude of the tension of the rope is the gravitational mass of the suspended body." On the other hand, an observer who is poised freely in space will interpret the condition of things thus: "The rope must perforce take part in the accelerated motion of the chest, and it transmits this motion
consideration of the accel-
we
see that a general theory
of relativity must yield important results on the laws of gravitation. In point of fact, the
clude bodies of reference which are accel-
systematic pursuit of the general idea of
erated with respect to each other, and as a
relativity has supplied the
result
we have
gained a powerful argument
for a generalized postulate of relativity.
We bility
farther,
must note carefully that the possi-
mode
of this
of interpretation rests
on the fundamental property of the gravitational
same same
field
of
giving
acceleration, or, thing,
all
bodies
what comes
the
to the
on the law of the equality of
and gravitational mass. If this natlaw did not exist, the man in the accel-
inertial
ural
erated chest would not be able to interpret the behavior of the bodies around
him on
the supposition of a gravitational field, and
he would not be justified on the grounds of
452
the gravitational
field.
however,
I
laws satisfied by
Before proceeding
must warn the reader
against a misconception suggested by these
considerations. for the
man
that there
A
gravitational field exists
in the chest, despite the fact
is
no such
field for
the co-or-
Now we
might suppose that the existence of a gravitational field is always only an apparent one. We might also think that, regardless of the kind of gravitational field which may be present, we could always choose another reference-body such that no gravitational field exists with reference to it. This is by dinate system easily
first
chosen.
Albert Einstein
no means true for
gravitational fields,
all
but only for those of quite special form. It is, for instance, impossible to choose a
body of reference such
judged from
we
relativity
therefore
K
differentiate
be-
the gravitational field of the earth (in
tween reference-bodies
entirety) vanishes.
the recognized "laws of nature" can be said
it,
its
that, as
each other. Relative to other referencebodies K the law is not valid. Both in classical mechanics and in the special theory of
We ment
can
now
not convincing,
is
why that arguwhich we brought
appreciate
forward against the general principle of relativity at the end of Section XVIII. It is certainly true that the observer in the railway carriage experiences a jerk forwards as a result of the application of the brake, and that he recognizes in this the non-uniformity of motion (retardation) of the carriage. But he is compelled by no-
body
to refer this jerk to a "real" accel-
eration
(retardation)
He
of the carriage.
relative to
which
hold, and reference-bodies K relative which these laws do not hold. But no person whose mode of thought is logical can rest satisfied with this condition of things. He asks: "How does it come to to
that certain reference-bodies (or their states
of motion) are given priority over other reference-bodies (or their states of motion)?
What is the reason for this preference? In order to show clearly what I mean by this question, I
am
I
shall
make use of a comparison.
standing in front of a gas range.
might also interpret his experience thus:
Standing alongside of each other on the
"My body
range are two pans so
of reference (the carriage) re-
mains permanently at rest. With reference to it, however, there exists (during the period of application of the brakes) a gravitational
field
and which
is
which
is
directed forwards
variable with respect to time.
Under the influence of this field, the embankment together with the earth moves non-uniformly in such a manner that their original velocity in the backwards direction is continuously reduced."
XXI IN
WHAT RESPECTS ARE THE
FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS AND OF THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY UNSATISFACTORY?
We
have already stated several times mechanics starts out
that classical
from the following law: Material particles sufficiently far removed from other material particles continue to
move uniformly
in a
straight line or continue in a state of rest.
much
one Both are half full of water. I notice that steam is being emitted continuously from the one pan, but not from the other. I am surprised at this, even if I have never seen either a gas range or a pan before. But if I now notice a luminous something of bluish color under the first pan but not under the other, I cease to be astonished, even if I have never before seen a gas flame. For I can only say that this bluish something will cause the emission of the steam, or at least possibly it may do so. If, however, I notice the bluish something in neither case, and if I observe that the one continuously emits steam while the other does not, then I shall remain astonished and dissatisfied until I have discovered some circumstance to which I can attribute the different behavior of the two pans. Analogously, I seek in vain for a real something in classical mechanics (or in the special theory of relativity) to which I can
may be mistaken
alike that
for the other.
attribute the different behavior of bodies
considered with respect to the reference-
systems
K
and K'.^ Newton saw
this
ob-
We
have also repeatedly emphasized that this fundamental law can only be valid for bodies of reference K which possess certain unique states of motion, and which are in uniform translational motion relative to
The objection is of importance more especially when the state of motion of the reference-body is of such a nature that it does not require any external agency for its maintenance, e.g., in the case when the reference-body
is
rotating uniformly.
453
RELATIVITY jection and attempted to invalidate
it,
With respect to the Galileian referencebody K, such a ray of light is transmitted
but
without success. But E. Mach recognized it most clearly of all, and because of this objection he claimed that mechanics must be
new
placed on a
we
of by means of a physics which is conformable to the general principle of relrid
chest
we
this
hold for every body of reference, whatever state of motion.
can
It
straight line
same
when
with reference to the accel(reference-body
conclude, that,
light are
may be its
it
c.
that the path of the
no longer a
is
consider
erated
equations of such a theory
ativity, since the
shown
ray of light
can only be got
basis. It
with the velocity
rectilinearly
easily be
in
K').
From
general, rays of
propagated curvilinearly in gravitwo respects this result
tational fields. In is
of great importance. In the
place,
first
it
can be compared with
XXII A FEW INFERENCES
the reality. Although a detailed examination
FROM THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE
of the question shows that the curvature
OF RELATIVITY
of light rays required by the general the-
ory of relativity
The
considerations of Section
XX
show
is
only exceedingly small
for the gravitational fields at our disposal in
that the general principle of relativity
practice,
its
estimated magnitude for
rays passing the sun at grazing inci-
puts us in a position to derive properties of
light
the gravitational field in a purely theoret-
dence is nevertheless 1.7 seconds of This ought to manifest itself in the
manner. Let us suppose, for instance, that we know the space-time "course" for any natural process whatsoever, as regards ical
manner in which it takes place in the Galileian domain relative to a Galileian body of reference K. By means of purely theoretical operations {i.e., simply by cal-
lowing way.
known
we
are then able to find
how
this
process appears, as seen from a reference-body K' which is accelnatural
erated relatively to K. But since a gravitational
field
new body
with respect to this
exists
of reference K'
how
ation also teaches us field
,
our consider-
the gravitational
influences the process studied.
For example, we learn is in
that a
stars appear to be in the neighborhood of the sun, and are thus capable
K
with respect to
accordance with the law of Galilei) is executing an accelerated and in general curvilinear motion with respect to the accelerated reference-body K' (chest). This acceleration or curvature corresponds to the influence on the moving
body of the
(in
gravitational field prevailing
known
relatively to
K'
tional
influences
field
.
It is
the
that a gravita-
sun. At such times, these stars ought to appear to be displaced outwards from the sun by an amount indicated above, as compared with their apparent position in the sky when the sun is situated at another part of the heavens. The examination of the correctness or otherwise of this deduction is a problem of the greatest importance, the early solution of which is to be expected
of astronomers.^ In the second place our result shows
according to the general theory of law of the constancy of the
that,
relativity, the
velocity of light in vacuo, which constitutes one of the two fundamental assumptions in the special theory of relativity and to which we have already frequently referred, cannot claim any unlimited validity. A curvature of rays of light can only take place
when
the velocity of propagation of light
movement of
bodies in this way, so that our consideration supplies us with nothing essentially new.
However, we obtain a new result of fundamental importance when we carry out the analogous consideration for a ray of light. 454
of observation during a total eclipse of the
body which
a state of uniform rectilinear motion
fol-
seen from the earth, certain
fixed
the
culation)
As
arc.
1
By means of the star photographs of two expeditions equipped by a Joint Committee of the Royal and Royal Astronomical Societies, the existence of the deflection of light demanded by theory was confirmed during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. (Cf.
Appendix
III.)
Albert Einstein
Now we might think consequence of this, the special theory of relativity and with it the whole theory of relativity would be laid in the dust. But in reality this is not the case. We can only conclude that the special theory of relativity cannot claim an unlimited domain of validity; its results hold only so varies with position.
investigation of the laws satisfied
that as a
gravitational
we
long as
are able to disregard the influ-
ences of gravitational ena (^.^., of light). Since
on the phenom-
fields
opponents of the theory of the
special
relativity that
theory of relativity
thrown by the general theory of it
is
over-
relativity,
perhaps advisable to make the facts
is
of the case clearer by means of an appropriate
comparison.
Before
develop-
the
ment of electrodynamics the laws of electrostatics were looked upon as the laws of electricity. At the present time we know that electric fields can be derived correctly from electrostatic considerations only for the case, which is never strictly realized, in which the electrical masses are quite at rest relatively to each other, and to the co-ordinate system. Should we be justi-
reason electro-
fied in saying that for this
statics is
overthrown by the field-equations
of Maxwell in electrodynamics? least.
Electrostatics
We
itself.
by the
Let us consider
moment.
are acquainted with space-time do-
mains which behave (approximately) in a "Galileian" fashion under suitable choice of reference-body, i.e., domains in which gravitational fields are absent. If
we now
domain to a reference-body K' possessing any kind of motion, then re-
refer such a
to K' there exists a gravitational which is variable with respect to space
lative
has often been contended by
it
this for a
field
is
Not
in the
contained in elec-
field
and time. 2 The character of this field will of course depend on the motion chosen for
According
K'.
lativity,
must be
field
fields
to the general theory of re-
the general law of the gravitational satisfied for all gravitational
obtainable in this way.
Even though
by no means all gravitational fields can be produced in this way, yet we may entertain the hope that the general law of gravitation will be derivable from such gravitational fields of a special kind. This hope has been realized in the most beautiful manner. But between the clear vision of this goal and its actual realization it was necessary to surmount a serious difficulty, and as this lies deep at the root of things, I dare not withhold it from the reader. We require to extend our ideas of the space-
time continuum
farther.
still
trodynamics as a limiting case; the laws of the latter lead directly to those of the former for the case in
which the
No
iable with regard to time.
tiny could
XXIII
fields are invar-
BEHAVIOR OF CLOCKS AND MEASURING-RODS ON A ROTATING BODY OF REFERENCE
fairer des-
be allotted to any physical theit should of itself point out
ory, than that
the
way
to
the introduction of a
comprehensive theory,
in
which
it
more on
lives
as a limiting case.
In the example of the transmission of light just dealt with,
we have
seen that the
I have purposely refrained from speaking about the physical interpretation of space- and time-data in
Hitherto
the case of the general theory of relativity.
As a consequence,
general theory of relativity enables us to
slovenliness
derive
know from
theoretically
gravitational field
the
influence
of
a
on the course of natural
is
guilty of a certain
we
the special theory of relativity,
from being unimportant and pardonis now high time that we remedy defect; but I would mention at the outthat this matter lays no small claims
able.
known when
absent.
this
But the most attractive problem, to the solution of which the general theory of relativity supplies the key, concerns the
set,
field is
am
far
processes, the laws of which are already
a gravitational
I
of treatment, which, as
It
2 This follows from a generalization of the discussion in
Section
XX.
455
,
RELATIVITY on the patience and on the power of abstrac-
We
start
off again
from quite special
we have
frequently used be-
cases, which fore.
Let us consider a space-time domain
which no gravitational reference-body
a
to
in
of the circular disc, and the other on the
field exists relative
edge of the disc, so that they are at rest relative to it. We now ask ourselves whether both clocks go at the same rate from the standpoint of the non-rotating Galileian reference-body K. As judged from this body, the clock at the center of the disc has no velocity, whereas the clock at the edge of the disc is in motion relative to K in consequence of the rotation. Ac-
K
whose
of
state
K
motion has been suitably chosen.
is
then a Galileian reference-body as regards
domain considered, and the
the
results of
the special theory of relativity hold relative
K. Let us suppose the same domain rebody of reference K' which is rotating uniformly with respect to
ferred to a second
K. In order to fix our ideas, we shall imagine K' to be in the form of a plane circular disc, which rotates uniformly in
to
own plane about server who is sitting
its
its
An
center.
ob-
on the disc K' is sensible of a force which acts outwards in a radial direction, and which would be interpreted as an effect of inertia (centrifugal force) by an observer who was at
rest
eccentrically
with respect to the original
ref-
erence-body K. But the observer on the disc may regard his disc as a reference-body
which
doing
and
"at rest";
on the basis of the gen-
principle of relativity he
eral in
is
The
this.
in fact
on
all
based on his observations. What will be experience in this enterprise? To start with, he places one of two identically constructed clocks at the center his
tion of the reader.
is
justified
force acting on himself,
other bodies which are at
rest relative to the disc,
he regards as the
effect of a gravitational field. Nevertheless,
the space distribution of this gravitational field is of a kind that would not be possible on Newton's theory of gravitation. ^ But
cording to a result obtained it
that a general law of gravitation can be formulated — a law which not only explains
the motion of the stars correctly, but also the field of force experienced by himself.
The observer performs experiments on his circular disc with clocks
permanently slower than that of the clock
observed from K.
at
it is
and measuring-
exact definitions for the signification of disc
K'
,
It
as
is
Thus on our circular disc, or, to make more general, in every gravitational field, a clock will go more quickly or less disc.
the case
quickly, according to the position in which
the clock
reason
it is
is
situated
(at
rest).
For
this
not possible to obtain a reason-
able definition of time with the aid of clocks
which are arranged at to the body of reference.
rest with respect
A similar difficulty
presents itself when we attempt to apply our earlier definition of simultaneity in such a case, but I do not wish to go any farther into this question.
Moreover, of the
space
co-ordinates
unsurmountable applies
his
rod which
is
stage the
this
at
definition
also
diflflculties. If
presents
the observer
measuring-rod
standard
(a
compared with the
short as
radius of the disc) tangentially to the edge
of
the
disc,
then,
as
judged from the
Galileian system, the length of this rod
be
less
than
1,
since,
according to
his intention to arrive
time- and space-data with reference to the circular
i.e.,
obvious that the same effect would be noted by an observer whom we will imagine sitting alongside his clock at the center of the circular
will
rods. In doing so,
Section XII,
at the center of the circular disc,
since the observer believes in the general
theory of relativity, this does not disturb him; he is quite in the right when he believes
in
follows that the latter clock goes at a rate
these definitions
being
Section XII, moving bodies
suffer a short-
ening in the direction of the motion. the
other
hand,
the
measuring-rod
On will
not experience a shortening in length, as
judged from K, 1
The
disappears at the center of the disc and increases proportionally to the distance from the center as we proceed outwards.
if
it
is
applied
to
the
field
456
disc in the direction of the radius.
the
observer
first
If,
then,
measures the circum-
Albert Einstein
We
ference of the disc with his measuring-
"jumps"
rod and then the diameter of the disc,
press this property of the surface by de-
on dividing the one by the other, he
scribing the latter as a continuum.
not obtain as quotient the familiar 7r
=
3.
14
.
.,
.
will
number
but a larger number,^ whereas
of course, for a disc which
is
at rest with
Let us little
(if
he
not too pedantic).
is
now imagine that a large number of
rods of equal length have been made,
their lengths being small
compared with the
respect to K, this operation would yield
dimensions of the marble
propo-
they are of equal length,
TT
This
exactly.
proves
the
that
Euclidean geometry cannot hold
sitions of
exactly on the rotating disc, nor in general in a gravitational field, at least if
we
attri-
bute the length 1 to the rod in all positions and in every orientation. Hence the idea of a straight line also loses
its
meaning.
We
ex-
can be
laid
slab.
When
mean
I
say
one on any other without the ends
We
overlapping.
I
that
next lay four of these
little
rods on the marble slab so that they constitute a quadrilateral figure (a square), the
To enwe make square we
diagonals of which are equally long. sure the equality of the diagonals,
are therefore not in a position to define
use of a
exactly the co-ordinates
add similar ones, each of which has one rod in common with the first. We proceed in like manner with each of these squares until finally the whole marble slab is laid out with squares. The arrangement is such, that each side of a square belongs to two squares and each corner to four squares. It is a veritable wonder that we can carry
to the disc
x,
y,
z relative
by means of the method used
in
discussing the special theory, and as long as the co-ordinates and times of events
have not been defined we cannot assign an exact meaning to the natural laws in which these occur.
Thus all our previous conclusions based on general relativity would appear to be called in question. In reality we must
make
a subtle detour in order to be able to
apply the postulate of general relativity exactly.
shall
I
prepare the reader for this
in the following paragraphs.
testing rod.
To
this
out this business without getting into the greatest difficulties.
We
only need to think
of the following. If at any
moment
three
squares meet at a corner, then two sides of the fourth square are already laid, and as a
consequence, the arrangement of the remaining two sides of the square is already completely determined. But I am now no longer able to adjust the quadrilateral so
XXIV
that
EUCLIDEAN AND NON-EUCLIDEAN
surface of a marble table
is
spread
can get from any one point on this table to any other point by passing continuously from one point to a "neighboring" one, and repeating this proc-
number of times, or, in other words, by going from point to point without executing "jumps." I am sure the reader appreciate
what
I
with
rods about which
fully surprised.
many such
We
I can only be thankmust needs experience
surprises
if
the construction
is
I
ess a (large)
will
may be equal. If they are own accord, then this is an
diagonals
especial favor of the marble slab and of the little
out in front of me.
its
equal of their
CONTINUUM
The
little
sufficient
clearness
mean here by "neighboring" and by
to
be successful. If everything has really gone smoothly,
then
I
say that the points of the marble slab
constitute a Euclidean continuum with re-
spect to the
little
rod,
which has been used
By choosing one corner of a square as "origin," I can as a "distance" (line-interval).
characterize every other corner of a square
with reference to this origin by means of 2
Throughout Galileian
this consideration
(non-rotating)
we have
system
K
as
to use the
reference-
body, since we may only assume the validity of the results of the special theory of relativity relative to K (relative to K' a gravitational field prevails).
two numbers. I only need state how many rods I must pass over when, starting from I proceed towards the "right" and then "upwards," in order to arrive at
the origin,
457
RELATIVITY corner of the square under considThese two numbers are then the
the
eration.
"Cartesian co-ordinates" of this corner with reference to the "Cartesian co-ordinate system" which is determined by the arrangement of Httle rods. By making use of the following modification of this abstract experiment, we rec-
ognize that there must also be cases in which the experiment would be unsuccess-
without our proceeding being
in the highest
measure grossly arbitrary? The method of Cartesian co-ordinates must then be discarded, and replaced by another which does not assume the validity of EucHdean geometry for rigid bodies.^ The reader will notice that the situation depicted here cor-
responds to the one brought about by the general postulate of relativity (Section XXIII).
We shall suppose that the rods "expand" by an amount proportional to the in-
ful.
crease of temperature.
We
heat the central
XXV GAUSSIAN CO-ORDINATES
part of the marble slab, but not the periphery, in
which case two of our
little
rods can
be brought into coincidence at every on the table. But our construction
still
rods on the central region of the table expand, whereas those on the outer part do
to Gauss, this combined anaand geometrical mode of handling the problem can be arrived at in the following way. We imagine a system of arbitrary curves (see Fig. 4) drawn on the sur-
not.
face of the table.
position
of squares must necessarily
come
into dis-
order during the heating, because the
With reference
to
fined as unit lengths
our
— the
little
rods
marble slab
longer a Euclidean continuum, and
no longer
also
little
— deis
we
no are
in the position of defining
Cartesian co-ordinates directly with their since the above construction can
aid,
no
longer be carried out. But since there are
other things which are not influenced in a similar
not at is
manner to the little rods (or perhaps by the temperature of the table, it
all)
possible quite naturally to maintain the
point of view that the marble slab
is
manner by making a more stipulation about the measurement or
satisfactory
the comparison of lengths.
But
if
material)
rods of every kind
were
to
regards the influence
{i.e.,
of every
same way as of temperature when
behave
in
the
they are on the variably heated marble slab,
and
if
we had no
other means of detecting
the effect of temperature than the geomet-
behavior of our rods in experiments analogous to the one described above, then our best plan would be to assign the disrical
tance one to two points on the slab, pro-
vided that the ends of one of our rods could
be made to coincide with these two points; for
how
else should
458
we
L
lytical
These we designate as uthem by means of a number. The curves u = 1 « = 2 and w = 3 are drawn in the diagram. Between the curves u = 1 and w = 2 we must imagine an infinitely large number to be drawn, all of which correspond to real numbers lying between 1 and 2. We have then a system of M-curves, and this "infinitely dense" system covers the whole surface of the table. These w-curves must not intersect each other, and through each curves, and
we
indicate each of
,
^
a "Eu-
clidean continuum." This can be done in a
subtle
According
define the distance
1
Mathematicians have been confronted with our problem in the following form. If we are given a surface {e.g., an ellipsoid) in Euclidean three-dimensional space, then there exists for this surface a twodimensional geometry, just as much as for a plane surface. Gauss undertook the task of treating this two-dimensional geometry from first principles, without making use of the fact that the surface belongs to a Euclidean continuum of three dimensions. If we im.agine constructions to be made with rigid rods in the surface (similar to that above with the marble slab), we should find that different laws hold for these from those resulting on the basis of Euclidean plane geometry. The surface is not a Euclidean continuum with respect to the rods, and we cannot define Cartesian co-ordinates in the surface. Gauss indicated the principles according to which we can treat the geometrical relationships in the surface, and thus pointed out the way to the method of Riemann of treating multi-dimensional, non-Euclidean continua. Thus it is that mathematicians long ago
solved the formal problems to which the general postulate of relativity.
we
are led by
Albert Einstein
Fig. 4
point of the sur-
co-ordinates are simply Cartesian ones.
face one and only
is
one
curve
pass.
Thus a
must per-
fectly definite val-
sidered, of such a nature that numerical
ue of u belongs to every point on the surface of the mar-
values
ble
slab.
In like
manner we imagine a system of v-curves drawn on the surface. These satisfy the same conditions as the w-curves, they are provided with numbers in a corresponding manner, and they
may
likewise be of arbi-
trary shape. It follows that a value of u
and
a value of v belong to every point on the surface of the table. We call these two numbers the co-ordinates of the surface of the table (Gaussian co-ordinates).
the point
P in
co-ordinates w points
spond
P and
For example,
the diagram has the Gaussian
=
P'
3, v
=
1.
Two
neighboring
on the surface then correu,v
P':
u
So far, these considerations hold for a continuum of two dimensions. But the Gaussian method can be applied also to a continuum of three, four or more dimensions. If, for instance, a continuum of four dimensions be supposed available, we may represent it in the following way. With every point of the continuum we associate arbitrarily four numbers, x^, x^, x^, x^, which are known as "co-ordinates." Adjacent points correspond to adjacent values of the co-ordinates. If a distance ds
ated with the adjacent points
where g^, gi2. 822 ^re magnitudes which depend in a perfectly definite way on u and V. The magnitudes g^^, g^^ and ^22 determine the behavior of the rods relative to the w-curves and v-curves, and thus also relative to the surface of the table. For the case in which the points of the surface considered form a Euclidean continuum with reference to the measuring-rods, but only
in
draw the w-curves attach numbers to
possible to
and v-curves and to them, in such a manner, that we simply have:
= g,,dx^^ +
associP'
,
this
fol-
= du^ +
dv^.
conditions, the w-curves and
in the sense of Euclidean geometry, and they are perpendicular to each other. Here the Gaussian
v-curves are straight lines
Ig^^dx^dx^ ....+ g^^dx^,
where the magnitudes g^^, etc., have values which vary with the position in the continuum. Only when the continuum is a Euclidean one is it possible to associate the coordinates x^. .x^ with the points of the continuum so that we have simply
In this case relations hold in the four-di-
mensional continuum which are analogous to those holding in our three-dimensional
measurements.
However, the Gauss treatment for ds"^ which we have given above is not always possible.
It is
only possible
when
suf!icient-
small regions of the continuum under consideration may be regarded as Euclidean
ly
continua. For example, this obviously holds in the case of the marble slab of the table
and
local variation of temperature.
perature ds^
is
P and
distance being measurable and well-defined
ds^
signify very small nummanner we may indicate the distance (line-interval) between P and P', as measured with a little rod, by means of the very small number ds. Then according to Gauss we have
Under these
"in space."
+ du,v + dv,
bers. In a similar
it is
very slightly from each
lowing formula holds:
where du and dv
this case,
differing
other are associated with neighboring points
from a physical point of view, then the
to the co-ordinates P:
It
Gauss co-ordinates are nothing more than an association of two sets of numbers with the points of the surface conclear that
is
The tem-
practically constant for a small
part of the slab, and thus the geometrical behavior of the rods is almost as it ought to be according to the rules of Euclidean ge-
ometry.
Hence
the
imperfections of the
construction of squares in the previous sec-
459
.
RELATIVITY form the basis for the defrom the special theory of relativity, and in themselves they
do not show themselves clearly until is extended over a con-
tion
valid.
siderable portion of the surface of the table.
We
can sum
this
invented a method
up as follows: Gauss for the
("distances"
"size-relations"
neighboring points) are defined.
last
of deductions
are nothing
more than the expression of the
universal validity of the law of transmission
mathematical
treatment of continua in general,
These
rivation
construction
this
which between
of light for
in
Galileian systems of refer-
all
ence.
Minkowski found
To every many
that the Lorentz trans-
point of a continuum are assigned as
formations
numbers (Gaussian co-ordinates) as the continuum has dimensions. This is done in such a way, that only one meaning can be attached to the assignment, and that numbers (Gaussian co-ordinates) which diifer by an indefinitely small amount are assigned to adjacent points. The Gaussian coordinate system is a logical generalization
conditions. Let us consider
of the Cartesian co-ordinate system.
for these
satisfy
two neighboring events, the relative position of which in the four-dimensional continuum is given with
dz and the time difference
It is
two events are
condition^
"size" or "distance," small parts of the
dx^ dx'^
tion follows
notice.
express this
The
is
mine an event or — in the
four-dimensional
to
by
c^dt^,
two adjacent points of the
jCj, jCr
space-time all
continuum,
selected (Galile-
we
Xo, X.,
replace x, y, z, also obtain
we
/,
V-
we can
1
ct instead of the
regard the space-
time continuum — in accordance with the special theory of relativity — as a "Euclid-
t,
continuum,
independent of the choice of the body of We call the magnitude ds the
imaginary variable
which deterother words — a point z,
ct,
real quantity
ordinate systems." For these systems, the y,
the
"distance" apart of the two events or fourdimensional points. Thus, if we choos e as time-variable the
called these "Galileian co-
jc,
dt'
reference.
of the four-dimensional, space-time
four co-ordinates
,
the result that
tems are given preference for the descrip-
We
dz'
fulfil
formulate
ory of relativity, certain co-ordinate sys-
of
= dx^ + dy^ ^ dz^ -
ian) reference-bodies. If
more exactly the idea of Minkowski, which was only vaguely indicated in Section XVII. In accordance with the special the-
continuum.
,
this condition.
has the same value for
1
dy'
Lorentz transformaWe can as follows: The magnitude
from
four-dimensional
THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM OF THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY CONSIDERED AS A EUCLIDEAN CONTINUUM
,
validity of the
ds^
tion
refer-
+ dy^ + dz^ - c^dt^ = + dy'^ + dz'^'-c^dt'^.
which belongs
XXVI
dx'
magnitudes always
these
continuum under consideration behave more nearly like a Euclidean system, the smaller the part of the continuum under our
We
With
dt.
ence to a second Galileian system we shall suppose that the corresponding differences
but only when, with respect to the defined
in a position to
by
the space co-ordinate differences dx, dy,
Then
now
K
respect to a Galileian reference-body
also applicable to non-Euclidean continua,
are
simple
following
the
ean" four-dimensional continuum, a result which follows from the considerations of
are
defined physically in a simple manner, as
the preceding section.
set forth in detail in the first part of this
book. For the transition from one Galileian
system to another, which is moving uniformly with reference to the first, the equations of the Lorentz transformation are
460
1
Cf. Appendices I and II. The relations which are derived there for the co-ordinates themselves are valid also for co-ordinate differences, and thus also for co-ordinate differentials (indefinitely small differ-
ences).
Albert Einstein this
We refer the four-dimenspace-time continuum in an arbi-
difficulty.
XXVII
sional
THE SPACE-TIME
trary
CONTINUUM OF THE GENERAL THEORY
assign to
OF RELATIVITY
ordinates),
IS
NOT A EUCLIDEAN
first
part of this
book we were able
XXVI, can be
regarded as four-
dimensional Cartesian co-ordinates. This was possible on the basis of the law of the
constancy of the velocity of according to Section
XXI,
we
But
light.
the general the-
ory of relativity cannot retain the contrary,
co-ordinates.
We
jCg,
x^, x^ (co-
which have not the
least direct
x^^,
physical significance, but only serve the
use of space-time co-ordinates which allowed of a simple and direct physical interpretation, and which, according
to Section
Gauss
to
every point of the continuum
(event) four numbers,
CONTINUUM
In tothemake
manner
this law.
On
arrived at the result that
purpose of numbering the points of the continuum in a definite but arbitrary manner. This arrangement does not even need to be of such a kind that We must regard x^, x^, Xq as "space" co-ordinates and x^ as a "time" co-ordinate. The reader may think that such a description of the world would be quite inadequate. What does it mean to assign to an event the particular co-ordinates jc^, X2, JC4, if in themselves these co-ordinates have no significance? More careful con-
Xq,
sideration shows, however, that this anx-
according to this latter theory the velocity
iety
of light must always depend on the co-
instance, a material point with any kind of
ordinates ent.
when a
gravitational field
is
In connection with a specific
tration in Section
XXIII, we found
presence of a gravitational
which led us
to
motion. If this point had only a momentary existence without duration, then
field invalidates
in the
special theory of relativity.
In view of the results of these considerations
we
are led to the conviction that,
according to the general principle of ativity, the
rel-
space-time continuum cannot be
regarded as a Euclidean one, but that here we have the general case, corresponding to
marble slab with local variations of temperature, and with which we made acquaintance as an example of a two-dimenthe
sional
continuum. Just as
impossible
it
was there
construct a Cartesian co-
to
ordinate system from equal rods, so here is
it
impossible to build up a system (refer-
ence-body) from rigid bodies and clocks, which shall be of such a nature that measuring-rods
and
clocks,
arranged
rigidly
with respect to one another, shall indicate
Such was the we were Section XXIII.
position and time directly.
essence of the
difficulty
with which
confronted in But the considerations of Sections
and
XXVI
show us
the
way
to
Let us consider, for
illus-
that the
our objective
unfounded.
pres-
the definition of the co-ordinates and the time,
is
XXV
surmount
be described in system of values
would
it
space-time
by a
x^, X2, x^, x^.
Thus
single its
per-
manent existence must be characterized by an infinitely large number of such systems of values, the co-ordinate values of which are so close together as to give continuity;
corresponding to the material point,
we
thus
have a (uni-dimensional) line in the fourdimensional continuum. In the same way, any such lines in our continuum correspond to
many
points in motion.
The only
state-
ments having regard to these points which can claim a physical existence are in reality the statements about their encounters. In our mathematical treatment, such an expressed
in the fact that the
encounter
is
two
which represent the motions of
lines
points in question have a particular system of co-ordinate values, x^, Xg, x^, JC4, in common. After mature consideration the reader will doubtless admit that in reality such encounters constitute the only actual evidence of a time-space nature with which we meet in physical state-
the
ments.
When we were
describing the motion of
a material point relative to a body of ref-
461
RELATIVITY erence,
we
stated nothing
more than
the
eral not possible in space-time description.
encounters of this point with particular points of the reference-body. We can also determine the corresponding values of the
The Gauss
time by the observation of encounters of the body with clocks, in conjunction with
fundamental
observation of the encounter of the hands of clocks with particular points on
ordinate systems are essentially equivalent
the
same in the case of space-measurements by means of meas-
the dials.
just the
It is
a
as
uring-rods,
little
consideration will
co-ordinate system has to take
the place of the
following
of
ciple
body of reference. The corresponds
statement of
idea
the
prin-
Gaussian
"All
relativity:
the
to
general
co-
for the formulation of the general laws of nature." We can state this general principle of relativity in
yet
still
more
another form, which renders clearly intelligible than
show.
it
following statements hold generally: Every physical description resolves itself
when
form of the natural extension of the special principle of relativity. Ac-
number of statements, each of which two
cording to the special theory of relativity,
The
into a
refers to the space-time coincidence of
A
and B. In terms of Gaussian coordinates, every such statement is expressed by the agreement of their four coevents
ordinates Xj,
JC2,
^3,
X4.
Thus
reality,
in
it
is
in the
the equations which express the general
laws of nature pass over into equations of
same form when, by making use of the
the
Lorentz
we
transformation,
space-time variables
x, y,
K
z-,
replace r
the
of a (Gali-
the description of the time-space continuum by means of Gauss co-ordinates completely
leian)
replaces the description with the aid of a
character of the continuum which has to
body K'. According to the general theory of relativity, on the other hand, by application of arbitrary substitutions of the Gauss variables x^, jCj, JCg, x^, the equations must pass over into equations of the same form;
be represented.
for
body of reference, without the defects of the latter tion;
it
is
not tied
down
suffering
mode
from
of descrip-
to the Euclidean
reference-body
variables x'
,
y' , 7!
,
t'
by the space-time
of a
new
reference-
every transformation (not only the Lorentz transformation) corresponds to the transition of one Gauss co-ordinate system into another. If we desire to adhere to our "old-time" three-dimensional view of things, then we can characterize the development which is being undergone by the fundamental idea
XXVIII
EXACT FORMULATION OF THE
GENERAL PRINCIPLE
of the general theory of relativity as follows: The special theory of relativity has ref-
OF RELATIVITY
erence to Galileian domains, in
We
are
now
in a position to replace the
provisional formulation of the gen-
eral principle of relativity given in Section
XVIII by an exact
formulation.
The form
there used, "All bodies of reference K,
K', etc., are equivalent for the description phenomena (formulation of the
of natural
general laws of nature), whatever their
state
may be
of motion," cannot be main-
tained, because the use of rigid reference-
bodies, in the sense of the in the special
method followed
theory of relativity,
462
is
in gen-
which no gravitational
this
connection
a
i.e.,
field
Galileian
to those
exists.
In
reference-
body serves as body of reference, i.e., a body the state of motion of which is
rigid
so chosen that the Galileian law of the uniform rectilinear motion of "isolated" material points holds relatively to
it.
Certain considerations suggest that
we
should refer the same Galileian domains to non-G alileian reference-bodies also. A gravitational field of a special kind is then present with respect to these bodies
Sections
XX and
XXIII).
(cf.
Albert Einstein In gravitational fields there are
no such
XXIX
things as rigid bodies with Euclidean properties;
ence
thus the fictitious rigid
THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF GRAVITATION ON THE BASIS OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE
body of refer-
of no avail in the general theory of
is
relativity.
The motion
of clocks
is
also
OF RELATIVITY
influenced by gravitational fields, and in such a way that a physical definition of
time which
is
made
directly with the aid of
clocks has by no means the
same degree of
plausibility as in the special theory of rel-
the reader has followed
Ifconsiderations,
all
our previous
he will have no further difficulty in understanding the methods leading to the solution of the problem of
ativity.
For
this
reason
non-rigid
reference-
bodies are used which are as a whole not
any way whatsoever, but which also suffer alterations in form ad lib. during their motion. Clocks, for which the law of motion is of any kind, however ironly moving
in
gravitation.
We
from a consideration of a i.e., a domain in which
start off
Galileian domain,
there
is
no gravitational
relative to
field
The
the Galileian reference-body K.
be-
havior of measuring-rods and clocks with
K
known from
the special
regular,
reference to
We
theory of relativity, likewise the behavior
serve for the definition of time. have to imagine each of these clocks
fixed at a point
on the non-rigid reference
body. These clocks satisfy only the one condition, that the "readings" which are
observed simultaneously on adjacent clocks (in space) differ from each other by an indefinitely small amount. This non-rigid reference-body, which might appropriately be termed a "reference-mollusk," is in the
Gaussian four-dimensional co-ordinate system chosen arbitrarily. That which gives the "mollusk" a certain comprehensibleness as compared with the Gauss co-ordinate system is the
main equivalent
to a
(really unjustified)
formal retention of the
separate existence of the space co-ordinates
opposed to the time co-ordinate. Every point on the mollusk is treated as a spacepoint, and every material point which is at
as
rest relatively to
it
as at rest, so long as the
mollusk
The
is considered as reference-body. general principle of relativity requires
that
all
these mollusks can be used as ref-
erence-bodies with equal right and equal
is
material
of "isolated"
move uniformly and
points;
the latter
straight
in
lines.
Now let us refer this domain to a random to a
"mollusk"
Then with
respect to
Gauss co-ordinate system or as reference-body K'.
K'
there
is
a gravitational field
particular kind).
We
measuring-rods
and clocks material
freely-moving
G
(of a
learn the behavior of
and also of
points
with
ref-
erence to K' simply by mathematical transformation. We interpret this behavior as the
of measuring-rods,
behavior
clocks
and material points under the influence of the gravitational field G. Hereupon we introduce a hypothesis: that the influence of the gravitational field on measuring-rods, clocks and freely-moving material points
continues to take place according to the same laws, even in the case when the prevailing gravitational field is not derivable
from the Galileian special case, simply by
means of a transformation of
The next
step
is
co-ordinates.
to investigate the space-
success in the formulation of the general laws of nature; the laws themselves must be quite independent of the choice of
time behavior of the gravitational field G, which was derived from the Galileian special case simply by transformation of the
mollusk.
co-ordinates. This behavior
The
great
power possessed by
the general
in a law,
which
principle of relativity lies in the
hensive limitation which
the description
laws of nature in have seen above.
compreimposed on the consequence of what we
always
is
valid,
formulated
no matter
the reference-body (mollusk) used in
how
is
is
This law
is
may be chosen.
not yet the general law of the
gravitational field,
since the gravitational
463
RELATIVITY under consideration
field
of a special
is
kind. In order to find out the general law-
we
of gravitation
of-field
require to
still
obtain a generalization of the law as found
above. This can be obtained without caprice, however, by taking into consideration the following (a)
The
generalization
must
likewise satisfy the general pos-
any matter
If there is
under
in the
domain
only
consideration,
XV
in exciting
a
must
satisfy
matter tothe law of
proportional
deviations from the theory of Newton their appearance, practically all of
test of obser-
vation owing to their smallness.
We
must draw attention here
one of
moves round the sun in an which would permanently maintain
theory, a planet ellipse,
position with respect to the fixed stars,
we
could disregard the motion of the fixed
stars
themselves and the action of the other
if
we
correct the observed motion of the planets
on the course of all those
theory be
stars.
is
which have already been fitted frame of the special theory of relativity. In this connection we proceed in principle according to the method which has already been explained for measuringrods, clocks and freely-moving material i.e.,
into the
influences,
strictly
and
correct,
if
is
fixed with reference to the fixed
with great accuracy, has been confirmed for
all
the planets save one, with the pre-
cision that
is
capable of being obtained by
the delicacy of observation attainable at the
present time.
The
sole exception
Mercury, the planet which
lies
sun. Since the time of Leverrier,
known
excels not only in
for the influences
moving the defect attaching to classical mechanics which was brought to light in
XXI; nor in
interpreting the empir-
law of the equality of inertial and gravmass; but it has also already ex-
itational
plained a result of observation in astron-
omy, against which
classical
mechanics
is
powerless. confine the application of the theory
where the gravitational fields can be regarded as being weak, and in which all masses move with respect to the co-ordito the case
nate system with velocities which are small
compared with the velocity of then obtain as a
light,
we
approximation the Newtonian theory. Thus the latter theory
464
first
to
This deduction, which can be tested
The theory of gravitation derived in this way from the general postulate of relativity beauty; nor in re-
Newton's
we ought
points.
its
if
obtain for the orbit of the planet an ellipse,
which
a gravitational field
two
for these
processes which take place according to
we
to
these deviations. According to Newton's
known laws when
If
make
which
planets under consideration. Thus,
permits us to determine the influence of the
ical
we
the conservation of energy (and
gravitational field
Section
the
to
of impulse). Finally, the general principle of relativity
absent,
inversely
is
square of the distance between them. If
its
field.
Gravitational field and
gether
points
its
mass, and thus accordonly its enering to Section gy is of importance for its effect inertial
(c)
Newton had to introduce the hypothesis that the force of attraction between mutually attracting material
must nevertheless escape the
tulate of relativity. (b)
without any particular
here
increase the accuracy of the calculation,
demands:
required
obtained
is
assumption, whereas
is
nearest the it
has been
that the ellipse corresponding to the
orbit of
Mercury,
it has been corrected mentioned above, is not
after
stationary with respect to the fixed stars,
but that
it
rotates exceedingly slowly in the
plane of the orbit and in the sense of the
The value obtained for this movement of the orbital ellipse was 43 seconds of arc per century, an amount
orbital motion.
rotary
ensured to be correct to within a few seconds of arc. This eff"ect can be explained by means of classical mechanics only on the assumption of hypotheses which have little probability, and which were devised solely for this purpose.
On
the basis of the general theory of rel-
ativity,
planet
found that the ellipse of every round the sun must necessarily
it is
rotate in the
manner indicated above;
that
Albert Einstein for
rays by the gravitational field of the sun,^
the planets, with the exception of
all
Mercury,
rotation
this
and a displacement of the spectral lines of light reaching us from large stars, as com-
too small to be
is
detected with the delicacy of observation possible at the present time; but that in the
case of Mercury
must amount
it
pared with the corresponding lines for light produced in an analogous manner terres-
to 43
seconds of arc per century, a result which strictly in agreement with observation.
Apart from
this one,
it
has hitherto been
by the same kind of molecule). do not doubt that these deductions from
trially (i.e.,
is
I
the theory will be confirmed also.
make only two deductions from
possible to
the theory which admit of being tested
by 1
observation, to wit, the curvature of light
Observed by Eddington and others Appendix III.)
PART
in
1919. (Cf.
III
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE UNIVERSE
WHOLE
AS A XXX COSMOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES OF NEWTON'S THEORY
ceed outwards from
Apart from the difficulty discussed in Sectial
XXI,
tion
L
there
a second funda-
is
knowledge, was
first
my
discussed in detail by
infinite
in the infinite
is
isfactory. It
succeeded
The
finite island
ocean of space. ^
This conception
it
it
region of emptiness.
universe ought to be a
stellar
difficulty attending classical celes-
mechanics, which, to the best of
center the group
finally, at great distances,
by an
mental
this
density of the stars should diminish, until
is still
is
in itself
not very sat-
less satisfactory
because
leads to the result that the light emitted
we ponder
by the
over the question as to
how
the universe,
stellar
considered as a whole,
is
to
be regarded,
and also individual stars of the system are perpetually passing out into infinite space, never to return, and
that suggests itself to us
without ever again coming into interaction
astronomer
the
the is
first
Seeliger.
answer
surely this:
the universe
As
regards space (and time) infinite.
is
If
There are
stars
stars
with other objects of nature. Such a
everywhere, so that the density of matter,
come
although very variable in detail,
erished.
is
never-
on the average everywhere the
theless
However far we might travel through space, we should find everywhere an attenuated swarm of same.
fixed
In other words:
stars
of
approximately
the
same
kind and density.
This view
is
not in harmony with the
theory of Newton.
The
latter
theory rather
1
gradually but systematically impov-
Proo/.
- According
number of
to
the theory of
stars
is
a
maximum, and
that as
we
pro-
Newton, the
which come from ina mass m is proportional to
"lines of force"
and terminate in the mass m. If, on the average, the mass-density Po is constant throughout the universe, then a sphere of volume V will enclose the average mass p^ Thus the number of lines of force passing through the surface F of the sphere into its interior is proporfinity
^
For unit area of the surface of the sphere the number of lines of force which enters the sphere is thus proportional to Pq — or to PqR.
tional to p^ V.
F
requires that the universe should have a
kind of center in which the density of the
finite
material universe would be destined to be-
Hence
the intensity of the field at the surface would ultimately become infinite with increasing radius R
of the sphere, which
is
impossible.
465
RELATIVITY In order to escape this dilemma, Seeliger
modification
a
suggested
assumes
law, in which he
of
Newton's
that for great
the all-inclusive reality of their plane. In
Eugeometry can be carried out by
particular, the constructions of plane
clidean
distances the force of attraction between
means of the
two masses diminishes more rapidly than would result from the inverse square law.
struction, considered in Section
way
In this
it
is
possible for the
mean den-
of matter to be constant everywhere,
sity
even
to
infinity,
gravitational
without
fields
large
infinitely
produced.
being
We
contrast
beings it
to
is
room
(surface)
ought to possess something of the nature of a center. Of course we purchase our emancipation from the fundamental difficulties mentioned, at the cost of a modi-
in the
their
infinity.
made up
squares
is
infinite.
universe
number of
of rods,
"plane," there
is
little
on more is
sense that
can perform the constructions of plane Euclidean geometry with their rods. In this connection the individual rods al-
surface instead of on a plane.
principles as
is
they
without our being able to state a reason why one of them is to be preferred to the others; just as
volume
mean
statement, because they
pendently of their position.
general theoretical
identical
these beings say
If
ways represent the same
any one of these laws would be founded
its
i.e.,
and complication of Newton's law
for
In
In their universe there
which has neither empirical nor theoretical foundation. We can imagine innumerable laws which would serve the same purpose,
fication
XXIV.
universe of these
the
for an infinite
ourselves from the distasteful thus conception that the material universe free
ours,
two-dimensional; but, like ours,
extends to
is
rods, e.g., the lattice con-
Let us consider
distance, inde-
now a second two-dimen-
sional existence, but this time
on a spherical
The flat beings
with their measuring-rods and other objects fit
exactly on this surface and they are un-
able to leave
it.
Their whole universe of
observation extends exclusively over the
the law of Newton.
surface of the sphere.
Are these beings
able to regard the geometry of their uni-
XXXI
verse as being plane geometry and their
THE POSSIBILITY OF A "finite" and yet "unbounded" universe
rods withal as the realization of "distance"?
They cannot do curve,
But
speculations on the structure of the
universe also
move
in quite
another
The development of non-Euclidean geometry led to the recognition of the fact, that we can cast doubt on the infiniteness of our space without coming into conflict with the laws of thought or with experience (Riemann, Helmholtz). These questions have already been treated in detail and with unsurpassable lucidity by Helmholtz and Poincare, whereas I can only touch on them briefly here. In the first place, we imagine an existence in two-dimensional space. Flat beings with flat implements, and in particular flat rigid direction.
measuring-rods, are free to
move
in
a.
plane.
For them nothing exists outside of this plane: that which they observe to happen to themselves and to their flat "things" is 466
this.
For
if
they attempt to
realize a straight line, they will obtain a
which we "three-dimensional be-
ings" designate as a great circle,
i.e.,
a
self-
which can be measured up by means of a measurcontained line of definite
finite length,
ing-rod. Similarly, this universe has a finite
area, that can be
compared with the area of
a square constructed with rods.
charm lies in
resulting
from
The
great
consideration
the recognition of the fact that the
universe of these beings
no
this
is finite
and yet has
limits.
But the spherical-surface beings do not need to go on a world-tour in order to perceive that they are not living in a Euclidean universe. They can convince themselves of this on every part of their "world," provided they do not use too small a piece of it. Starting from a point, they draw "straight lines" (arcs of circles as judged in threedimensional space) of equal length
in all
Albert Einstein
They
directions.
will call the line joining
of these lines a "circle."
the free ends
For
on another closed
rather than
choice has
this
of
closed surfaces, the sphere
a plane surface, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, both lengths being measured with the same rod,
that,
is, according to Euclidean geometry of the plane, equal to a constant value tt, which is
ratio of the
independent of the diameter of the circle. On their spherical surface our flat beings
would
find,
unique
all
in
points on
possessing the property that are equivalent.
it
is
all
admit that the
I
circumference c of a circle to its radius r depends on r, but for a given value of r it is the same for all points of "world-sphere";
the
"world-sphere"
for this ratio the value
But
surface.
justification in the fact
its
other words, the
in
a "surface of constant
is
curvature."
To there
this is
two-dimensional sphere-universe
a three-dimensional analogy, name-
the three-dimensional spherical space
ly,
which was discovered by Riemann. i.e:,
a smaller value than-n-, the difference
being the more considerable, the greater
is
the radius of the circle in comparison with
R
the radius
means of
of the "world-sphere."
By
this relation the spherical beings
can determine the radius of their universe ("world"), even when only a relatively small part of their world-sphere is available for their measurements. But if this part is very small indeed, they will no longer be able to demonstrate that they are on a spherical "world" and not on a Euclidean
points are likewise
equivalent.
all
It
Its
pos-
sesses a finite volume, which
is
determined
by
it
possible to
"radius" {2k^R^). Is
its
imagine a spherical space? To imagine a space means nothing else than that we imagine an epitome of our "space" experience,
of
i.e.,
have
in the
In this sense
experience
we can
we can
that
movement of
"rigid" bodies.
imagine a spherical
space.
plane, for a small part of a spherical surface
Suppose we draw lines or stretch strings from a point, and mark off from each of these the distance r with a
only slightly from a piece of a plane
measuring-rod. All the free end-points of
differs
of the same size.
Thus
if
these lengths
the spherical-surface beings are
on a planet of which the solar system occupies only a negligibly small part of the spherical universe, they have no means of living
determining whether they are living in a finite
or in an infinite universe, because the
"piece of universe" to which they have ac-
both cases practically plane, or Euclidean. It follows directly from this discussion, that for our sphere-beings the circumference of a circle first increases with
cess
in
is
the radius until the "circumference of the is reached, and that it thenceforward gradually decreases to zero for
universe"
still
further increasing values of the radius.
During
this
in all directions
process the area of the circle
lie
on a spherical
surface.
We
can specially measure up the area (F) of this surface by means of a square made up of measuring-rods. If the universe is Euclidean, then
then
F
is
F =
always
creasing values of
4rr2;
if it
is
spherical,
less than 4jrr^. r,
F
With
in-
increases from zero
up to a maximum value which is determined by the "world-radius," but for still further increasing values of
r,
the area gradually
diminishes to zero. At
first,
the straight
which radiate from the starting point diverge farther and farther from one another, but later they approach each other, and finally they run together again at a lines
"counter-point"
to
the
starting
point.
Under such conditions they have traversed
continues to increase more and more, until
the
becomes equal to the whole "world-sphere."
that the three-dimensional spherical space
finally
it
Perhaps the reader
will
the total area of
is
wonder why we
have placed our "beings" on a sphere
whole spherical space.
It is
easily seen
quite analogous to the two-dimensional
spherical surface.
It
is
finite {i.e.,
volume), and has no bounds.
467
of
finite
RELATIVITY may be mentioned
It
that there
yet
is
another kind of curved space: "elHptical space." It can be regarded as a curved space in which the two "counter-points"
from each other). An elliptical universe can thus be considered to some extent as a curved universe possessing central symmetry. It follows from what has been said, that are identical (indistinguishable
without
spaces
closed
ceivable.
From among
space (and the
con-
these, the spherical
on
it
and
and that is whether the which we live is infinite, or
it
finite
is
spherical universe.
from being
in the manner of Our experience is
sufficient to enable us to
the far
answer
But the general theory of relour answering it with a moderate degree of certainty, and in this connection the difficulty mentioned in this question.
ativity permits of
Section
XXX finds
its
clude the possibility of the exact validity of Euclidean geometry in our universe. But it
is
conceivable that our universe differs
only slightly from a Euclidean one, and this notion seems all the more probable, since calculations
show
rounding space
is
that the metrics of sur-
influenced only to an ex-
ceedingly small extent by masses even of
We
the magnitude of our sun.
might imag-
but which nowhere departs appreciably from a plane: something like the rippled surface of a lake. Such a universe might fittingly be called a quasi-Euclidean universe. As regards its space it would be infinite. But calculation shows that in a
quasi-Euclidean universe the average density of matter would necessarily be nil. Thus such a universe could not be inhabited by matter everywhere; it would pre-
sent to us that unsatisfactory picture which
solution.
we portrayed in Section XXX. If we are to have in the universe an
XXXII
THE STRUCTURE OF SPACE ACCORDING TO THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY to the general theory of rel-
Lativity, the geometrical properties of
space are not independent, but they are
determined by matter. Thus we can draw conclusions about the geometrical structure of the universe only if we base our considerations on the state of the matter as
aver-
age density of matter which differs from zero, however small may be that difference, then the universe cannot be quasi-Euclidean. On the contrary, the results of calculation indicate that
According
sufficient to ex-
itself is
in
behaves analogously to a surface which is irregularly curved in its individual parts,
in-
physicists,
whether
by the distribution of
i.e.,
This
are equivalent.
teresting question arises for astronomers
universe in
fields,
ine that, as regards geometry, our universe
its
a result of this discussion, a most
As
matter.
sim-
excels in
elliptical)
plicity, since all points
are
limits
tional
if
matter be
distri-
buted uniformly, the universe would necessarily be spherical (or elliptical). Since in reality the detailed distribution of matter is
not uniform, the real universe will deviate
in individual parts
from the spherical,
i.e.,
the universe will be quasi-spherical. But it
will
be necessarily
In fact, the
finite.
chosen
theory supplies us with a simple connection^ between the space-expanse of the
co-ordinate system, the velocities of the
universe and the average density of matter
being something that
from experience
known.
We know
that, for a suitably
stars are small as ity
is
compared with the veloc-
of transmission of
light.
We
in
it.
can thus as
a rough approximation arrive at a conclu-
1
For the "radius"
sion as to the nature of the universe as a
whole,
if
we
of the universe
R^
treat the matter as being at
rest.
We
R
The use of
already
know from our
previous dis-
cussion that the behavior of measuringrods and clocks
468
is
influenced by gravita-
we
obtain the
equation
gives
—
matter.
the
2
KP
C.G.S. system
= 108.IO";p
is
in
this
equation
the average density of the
Albert Einstein
APPENDIX
I
SIMPLE DERIVATION OF THE LORENTZ
TRANSFORMATION [Supplementary To Section
the relative orientation of the co-
For
ordinate systems indicated in Fig. 2,
the constants a and b in place of the constants X
and
/i
where
the x-axes of both systems permanently coincide. In the present case
we can
X +
divide
by considering
the problem into parts
first
Any
such event
and
k -
the abscissa x and the time
t,
K by and with
we
obtain the equations
respect to the system K' by the abscissa
and the time
and
t'
A
t'
when x and
light signal,
.
/
We
require to find
is
the positive axis of x,
We
proceeding along transmitted ac-
is
cording to the equation x
x' ct'
x'
are given.
which
=
/A
represented with
is
respect to the co-ordinate system
x'
/A
->
only events which are localized on the AT-axis.
xi]
= ax- bet act - bx
=
(5). S
should thus have the solution of our
problem,
if
b were from the following
the constants a and
known. These
result
discussion.
ct
or
x'
x-ct =
(D-
For the origin of K' we have permanently = 0, and hence according to the first of
the equations (5) ''^ be t.
Since the same light signal has to be transmitted relative to K' with the velocity c, the propagation relative to the system K'
be represented by the analogous
will
for-
If
we
call V the velocity
origin of K'
is
have
mula
v x'
-ct'
=0
The same
will
be the case when the relation {x'
- ct') =\{x -
equation
fulfilled in general,
velocity ;c-axis)
ct)
(3),
the dis-
appearance of {x - ct) involves the disappearance of (x' - ct'). If we apply quite similar considerations to light rays which are being transmitted Ac-axis,
we
obtain the
condition
By adding and
(4),
if
we
(directed
we can
velocity of the
calculate the velocity
towards
K
+
(or
ct')
=fi{x
+
ct)
subtracting)
(4).
equations
and introducing for convenience
the
/C,
or the
negative
with respect to K'
designate v as the relative
two systems.
Furthermore, the principle of relativity teaches us that, as judged from K, the length of a unit measuring-rod which is at rest with reference to K' must be exactly the
same
as the length, as judged from K'
a unit measuring-rod which
is
how
,
of
at rest rel-
the points
appear as viewed from K, we only require to take a "snapshot" of K' from K\ this means that we have to insert a particular value of t (time of K), e.g., / = 0. of the
(3)
(6).
ative to K. In order to see {x'
then
value v can be obtained from
(5),
of a point of
(3)
where X indicates a
constant; for, according to
along the negative
we
^
of another point of K' relative to
In short, is
=
to K,
(2).
Those space-time points (events) which satisfy (1) must also satisfy (2). Obviously this
with which the
moving relative
jc'-axis
469
RELATIVITY value of
we
this
of the equations (5)
/
Two
this result, to include
events which take place outside the x-axis,
obtained by retaining equations (8) and supplementing them by the relations
is
= ax.
x'
The extension of
then obtain from the
For first
points of the jc'-axis which are sep-
arated by the distance Ax'
=
1
when mea-
(9).
sured in the K' system are thus separated in our instantaneous photograph by the
In
distance
the constancy of the velocity of light in
Ax But
=
(/'
and
if
we
we
satisfy
postulate of
the
vacuo for rays of
light of arbitrary direcboth for the system K and for the system K' This may be shown in the fol-
tion,
eliminate
tions (5), taking into (6),
(7).
the snapshot be taken from K'
if
0),
1
=
way we
this
from the equa-
/
.
lowing manner.
We
account the expression
suppose a
the origin of
obtain
K
out from
light signal sent
at the time
/
=
0.
It will
be propagated according to the equation
•(-7^)
r
we conclude
that two points and separated by the distance 1 (relative to K) will be represented on our snapshot by the distance
From
on the
this
jc-axis
or, if
=
a(^-^)
(7«
\/jc2
we
v2
+ z^= ct,
square this equation, according
x^+y^ + z'-c^t^ =
in
(10).
required by the law of propagation of
conjunction with the postulate of
light, in
transmission of the signal
relativity, that the
But from what has been said, the two snapshots must be identical; hence A.v in (7) must be equal to A.v' in {la), so ihat
+
to the equation
It is
^^
we
=
question should take place — as judged
A^' — in accordance with the corresponding formula
from
obtain
r'
=ct'
or x'2-|->.'2
{lb). 1
The equations constants a and
(6) b.
and {lb) determine the
By
inserting the values
in
(5),
(10«).
In order that equation (10a) may be a consequence of equation (10) we must have
T
of these constants in first
+ ^'2_c2r'2 =
we
x'2+>;'2
+
2'2-c2r'2
= (r{x^
obtain the
and the fourth of the equations given
on the
Section XI.
+ y^ + z^-c^t^)
(11)
Since equation {Sa) must hold for points X-axis,
we
thus have
a
=
It is
1.
easily seen that the Lorentz transformation vt
really
V '-7? (8),
^1-^ C2
Thus we have obtained
the
Lorentz
transformation for events on the x-axis. It satisfies
the condition
satisfies
for (11)
is
equation (11) for
=
1;
(9),
and hence also of (8) and (9). We have thus derived the Lorentz transformation. The Lorentz transformation represented by (8) and (9) still requires to be generalized. Obviously it is immaterial whether the axes of K' be chosen so that they are spatially parallel to those of
K.
It is
also
not essential that the velocity of translation
of K' with respect to direction of the x-axis.
470
a-
a consequence of {Sa) and
K should be in the A simple considera-
Albert Einstein
shows
tion
that
we
are able to construct
expresses
It
the Lorentz transformation in this general
linear
sense from two kinds of transformations,
t
y'
,
we
ing in other directions.
t
we can
generalized
characterize the
Lorentz transformation thus:
z'
terms of
in
t'
,
x,
y,
z,
x'2+y'^ + z'^-c^t'
special sense
Mathematically,
,
of such a kind that the relation
from Lorentz transformations in the and from purely spatial transformations, which corresponds to the replacement of the rectangular co-ordinate system by a new system with its axes pointviz.
x'
homogeneous functions of
x^
satisfied
is
identically.
+ y^ +
z^-c^t^.
That
is
to say:
substitute their expressions in
in
place of x'
,
y'
,
z'
,
(Wa)
jc,
If
y, z,
on the left-hand
t'
side, then the left-hand side
of
(1 la)
agrees
with the right-hand side.
APPENDIX
II
MINKOWSKI'S FOUR DIMENSIONAL SPACE ("WORLD") [Supplementary To Section xvii]
We
can characterize the Lorentz transstill more simply if we in-
formation
troduce the imaginary /
as time-variable.
this,
we
If,
Vin
1
-
ct in place of
accordance with
insert
x^=x x^
x^
= =
z
V^
'
pressed thus:
+x'^+xj^+x:^ = + JCo^ + JC,
(12).
by the afore-mentioned choice of "co-ordinates" (1 la) is transformed into is,
We
see from
( 1
2) that the
x^ enters
of transformation
into
imaginary time
four-dimensional continuum described
by the "co-ordinates" x^, X2, x^, x^ was called "world" by Minkowski, who also termed a point-event a "world-point." From a "happening" in three-dimensional space, physics becomes, as it were, an "existence" four-dimensional "world." This four-dimensional "world" bears a
close
similarity
to
the
three-dimensional
"space" of (Euclidean) analytical geometry. If we introduce into the latter a new Cartesian co-ordinate system ix\, x\, x' with the same origin, then x\, x\, x\ are linear
homogeneous functions of
which
identically satisfy the equation Xi'2
+ jc^'Z + x^^ = X^
We
(12)
is
-h
V+
x^, x^, X3,
X^.
a complete one.
can regard Minkowski's "world"
in a
the condition
formal manner as a four-dimensional Eu-
same way
clidean space (with imaginary time co-or-
in exactly the
as the space co-ordinates x^, x^, x^.
due
x^.
A
The analogy with
this equation.
co-ordinate
same form as the space co-
ordinates x^, x^,
in the
ct,
and similarly for the accented system K' then the condition which is identically satisfied by the transformation can be ex-
That
ural laws in the
It
is
to this fact that, according to the theory
of relativity, the "time" x^ enters into nat-
the Lorentz transformation corresponds to a "rotation" of the co-ordinate system in the four-dimensional "world." dinate);
471
RELATIVITY
APPENDIX
III
THE EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY a systematic theoretical point of view, we may imagine the process of
From
evolution of an empirical science to be a continuous process of induction. Theories are evolved, and are expressed in short
compass as statements of a large number of individual observations in the form of empirical
from which the general
laws,
laws can be ascertained by comparison. Regarded in this way, the development of a science bears
compilation is,
as
But
it
some resemblance
to the
of a classified catalogue.
It
were, a purely empirical enterprise.
this point
of view by no means em-
braces the whole of the actual process; for it slurs over the important part played by
and deductive thought in the development of an exact science. As soon as a science has emerged from its initial stages, theoretical advances are no longer achieved merely by a process of arrangement. Guidintuition
for existence,
ment which
so-called axioms.
thought a
We
theory.
call
the
such a system of
The theory
finds
the
justification for its existence in the fact that it
number of
correlates a large
servations,
and
it
is
"truth" of the theory
just
single ob-
here that the
lies.
of being tested, the agreement between the theories may be so complete, that it becomes difficult to find such deductions in which the two theories diff"er from each able
terest in
As an example, is
a case of general
in-
available in the province of biology,
the Darwinian theory of the develop-
ment of species by selection 472
in the struggle
of acquired
characters.
We have another instance of far-reaching agreement between the deductions from two theories in Newtonian mechanics on the one hand, and the general theory of relativity on the other. This agreement goes so far, that up to the present we have been able to find only a few deductions from the general theory of relativity which are capable of investigation, and to which the physics of pre-relativity days does not also lead, and this despite the profound difference in the fundamental assumptions of the two theories. In what follows, we shall again consider these important deductions, and we
shall
dence
discuss the empirical evi-
also
appertaining
hitherto
them which has
to
been obtained. {a)
Motion of the
Perihelion of Mercury
According to Newtonian mechanics and Newton's law of gravitation, a planet which is revolving round the sun would describe an ellipse round the latter, or, more correctly, round the common center of gravity of the sun and the planet. In such a system, the sun, or the
Corresponding to the same complex of empirical data, there may be several theories, which differ from one another to a considerable extent. But as regards the deductions from the theories which are cap-
other.
transmission
hereditary
the
ed by empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought which, in general, is built up logically from a small
number of fundamental assumptions,
and in the theory of developbased on the hypothesis of
is
gravity, lies in ellipse in
common
one of the
such a manner
center of
foci of the orbital that, in the
course
of a planet-year, the distance sun-planet
grows from a minimum to a maximum, and then decreases again to a minimum. If instead of Newton's law we insert a some-
what
different
calculation,
new in
we
law of attraction into the find that,
according to this
law, the motion would
still
take place
such a manner that the distance sun-
planet exhibits periodic variations; but in this
case the angle described by the line
joining sun and planet during such a per-
,
I
Albert Einstein iod (from perihelion — closest proximity to
the sun — to perihelion)
would
differ
from
of the orbit would not then be a closed one, but in the course of time it would fill up an annular part of the orbital 360°.
The
line
plane, viz.
between the
circle of least
and
the circle of greatest distance of the planet
from the sun. According also to the general theory of relativity, which differs of course from the theory of Newton, a small variation from the Newton-Kepler motion of a planet in its orbit should take place, and in such a
The motion of the perihelion of Mercury (greatly exaggerated)
on Mercury by the remaining was found (Leverrier— 1859 —
exerted planets,
and
it
Newcomb— 1895)
way, that the angle described by the radius sun-planet between one perihelion and the next should exceed that corresponding to one complete revolution by an amount
perihelial
given by
The _247rf£f_
{N.B. — One
complete
responds to the angle 2 tt angular measure customary
e
light,
its
Our
in physics,
and
amount by
eccentricity, c the velocity of
result
may
also be stated as
According to the general theory
follows:
of relativity, the major axis of the ellipse
same sense as planet. Theory reshould amount to
rotates round the sun in the
the orbital motion of the quires that this rotation
to a
empirical
of the
few seconds
result
only.
Deflection of Light by a
(b)
and T the period of revolution of the
planet.
43 seconds of arc per century.
-I-
uncertainty
cor-
which the radius sun-planet exceeds this angle during the interval between one perihelion and the next.) In this expression a represents the major semi-axis of the ellipse,
mentioned
Gravitational Field
in the absolute
the above expression gives the
that an unexplained
of the orbit of Mer-
cury remained over, the amount of which does not differ sensibly from the above-
amounts
revolution
movement
XXII
it has been already according to the general theory of relativity, a ray of light will experience a curvature of its path when pass-
In
Section
mentioned
that,
ing through a gravitational field, this curva-
ture being similar to that experienced
path of a body which gravitational field.
As
is
by the
projected through a
a result of this theory,
we
should expect that a ray of light which is passing close to a heavenly body would be deviated towards the latter. For a ray of light
which passes the sun
A sun-radii from
its
deflection (a) should
43 seconds of arc per century for the planet
^
^
1.7
at a distance of
center, the angle of
amount
to
seconds of arc
.
A
Mercury, but for the other planets of our solar system its magnitude should be so small that it would necessarily escape de-
ry, half of this deflection
tection.^
Newtonian
It
may be added field
that,
according to the theois
produced by the
of attraction
/ *
that the theory of
of the sun, and the other half by the geometrical modifi-
/
to calculate the
cation ("curvature") of space
/ /
that of the delicacy of observation attain-
caused by the sun. This result admits of an experimental test by means of
In point of fact, astronomers have found
Newton does not suffice observed motion of Mercury with an exactness corresponding to able at the present time. After taking ac-
count
of
all
the
disturbing
Especially since the next planet Venus has an orbit is almost an exact circle, which makes it more
that
difficult to locate
/
qJa/ /
/
Oif/oz
influences
of stars during a total eclipse 1
/
the perihelion with precision.
of the sun.
/
The only reason
why we must
wait for a total
473
Fig. 5
RELATIVITY eclipse is because at every other time the atmosphere is so strongly illuminated by the light from the sun that the stars situated
near the sun's disc are invisible.
The
pre-
nents of the observed and of the calculated deviations of the stars (in seconds of arc) are set forth in the following table of results:
dicted effect can be seen clearly from the
accompanying diagram. If the sun (5) were not present, a star which is practically infinitely distant would be seen in the direction Dj, as observed from the earth. But as a consequence of the deflection of light from the star by the sun, the star will be seen in the direction D^, ie., at a somewhat greater distance from the center of the sun than corresponds to
its
Observed
The
is
Calculated
Observed
Calculated
Star
11
-0.19
-0.22
5
-hO.29
+0.31
4
+0.11
3
-H0.20
6
-hO.lO
10
-0.08
2
+0.95
+0.10 +0.12 +0.04 +0.09 +0.85
real position.
In practice, the question
following way.
Second Co-ordinate
First Co-ordinate
Number of the
+0.16 -0.46
+0.02 -0.43
+0.83
+0.74
+ 1.00
+0.87
+0.57
+0.40
+0.35 -0.27
+0.32 -0.09
tested in the
stars in the neighbor(c)
hood of the sun are photographed during a
Displacement of Spectral Lines
Towards
the
Red
solar eclipse.
In Section
In addition, a second photograph of the
same at
stars
is
taken
when
another position
months
the sun
in the sky,
earlier or later.
is
situated
i.e.,
a few
As compared
with
in
XXIII
has been shown that
it
a system K' which
is in
rotation with re-
gard to a Galileian system K, clocks of identical construction,
and which are con-
the standard photograph, the positions of
sidered at rest with respect to the rotating
on the eclipse-photograph ought appear displaced radially outwards (away from the center of the sun) by an amount corresponding to the angle a.
reference-body, go at rates which are de-
the stars
to
We are to the
indebted to the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society for the
pendent on the positions of the clocks. We shall now examine this dependence quantitatively. A clock, which is situated at a distance r from the center of the disc, has a velocity relative to K which is given by
investigation of this important deduction.
Undaunted by the war and by difficulties of both a material and a psychological nature aroused by the war, these societies e-
of rotation of the disc K' with respect to
quipped two expeditions ~ to Sobral (Brazil) and to the island of Principe (West Africa)
the clock per unit time ("rate" of the clock) relative to
— and
the "rate" of the clock {v)
sent several of Britain's
most
cele-
astronomers (Eddington, Cottingham, Crommelin, Davidson), in order to obtain photographs of the solar eclipse of brated
May
29, 1919.
The
where K.
a?
If vo
represents the angular velocity
represents the
relative to
number of
ticks of
K when the clock is at rest, then K
when it is moving
with a velocity
with respect to the disc,
v,
will, in
but at rest
accordance
with Section XII, be given by
relative discrepancies
to be expected between the stellar photographs obtained during the eclipse and the comparison photographs amounted to a
=
"0^1^
or with sufficient accuracy by
few hundredths of a millimetre only. Thus great accuracy was necessary in making the adjustments required for the taking of the photographs, and in their subsequent measurement.
The results of the measurements confirmed the theory in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. The rectangular compo474
This expression following form:
may
also be stated in the
•('-?--?)
Albert Einstein If
we
represent the difference of potential
of the centrifugal force between the position
of the clock and the center of the disc by 0, i.e., the work, considered negatively,
which must be performed on the unit of mass against the centrifugal force in order to transport it from the position of the clock on the rotating disc to the center of the disc, then we have
From
-^
-
= it
follows that
In the
first
we
place,
at
center of the disc. This result
is
from the
is
disc, the latter
hence the result we have obtained generally
we can
will
gravitational
for
r
is
known. an open question whether or not this and at the present time astronomers are working with great zeal towards It is
effect exists,
Owing
to the smallness of the is difficult
it
doubt,
a gravitational field of potential
quite
general
also valid
when
rotating with the disc.
as judged
in
nor the radius
from the
from the standpoint of an observer who
Now,
M
mass
neither the
form an opinion as to its existence. Whereas Grebe and Bachem (Bonn), as a result of their own measurements and those of Evershed and Schwarzschild on the cyanogen bands, have placed the existence of the effect almost beyond
see from this ex-
distances
different
not possible
is
case of the stars, because
to
struction will go at different rates situated
other
investigators,
particularly
John, have been led to the opposite opinion in consequence of their measurements. Mean displacements of lines towards the St.
,
hold
fields.
refrangible end of the spectrum are
less
by
revealed
certainly
investi-
statistical
regard an atom which
gations of the fixed stars; but up to the pre-
emitting spectral lines as a clock, so that
sent the examination of the available data does not allow of any definite decision be-
Furthermore, is
trustworthy calculation
in the
effect in the case of the sun,
pression that two clocks of identical con-
in
A
the solution. this
ing arrived at, as to
er,
and discussed
K
M —
,
where
constant of gravitation, and
K
M
in detail
in reality
The
the effect of gravitation.
to
results
from the stand-
point of the question which has been en-
gaging our attention here,
in a paper by E. Freundlich entitled "Zur Priifung der allge-
meinen
Relativitats-Theorie"
turwissenschaften,
= -
whether or not these
Na-
(Die
1919, No. 35,
p.
520:
Julius Springer, Berlin). is
is
Newton's the
mass
At
all
events, a definite decision will be
reached during the next few years.
If the
Thus a displacement
displacement of spectral lines towards the
towards the red ought to take place for spectral lines produced at the surface of
red by the gravitational potential does not
compared with the spectral lines of the same element produced at the surface of the earth, the amount of this dis-
will
cause of the displacement of spectral lines
placement being
potential, then the study of this displace-
of the heavenly body.
stars as
exist,
then the general theory of relativity
be untenable.
be definitely
ment
will
On
traced
furnish
us
the other hand,
to
the
with
if
the
gravitational
important
in-
formation as to the mass of the heavenly c2
r
bodies.
475
NOTE TO THE READER Einstein
participates significantly in the
"great conversation" that takes place
among
the authors of Great
Western
World.
ideas
basic
Galileo, and
He
Books of the same
discusses the
and problems as Aristotle, Newton. There can be no bet-
ter preparation for
Under Topic 5, "The basic phenomena and problems of mechanics: statics and dynamics," there are several relevant
5e.
Rectilinear motion
Uniform motion: and laws
(1)
understanding Einstein's
thought than to read what his predecessors
is
This
will
help the reader to see what
5/
be consulted
several chapin
connection
are obvious choices as starting points,
but the chapters on
Mechanics and Phys-
ics are also valuable.
the
introductory
Perturbation of motion: the two and three body problems Under Topic 6, "Basic concepts of mechanics," the following topics should prove (2)
rewarding:
In each of these chapters, the reader will find
essays helpful.
6d.
Force:
In (1)
addition,
the
following
topics
the most relevant passages Books of the Western World: to
will in
lead
The
(2)
role of space or place in local
I.
its effects^
mass and
force:
Action-at-a-distance:
the
field
and medium of force The chapter on Physics deals mainly with the nature and method of the natural
motion: the theory of proper places;
sciences.
absolute and relative space
following topics:
Time:
kinds and
relation of
its
The
the law of universal gravitation
Great
Space: 2a.
planets, pro-
Determination of orbit, force, speed, time, and period
(1)
ters that should
Time
Motion about a center: pendulum
jectiles,
concepts.
with the theory of relativity. Space and
causes
fall
revolutionary in Einstein's view of these
The Syntopicon contains
its
Accelerated motion: free
(2)
thought about space, time, motion, mass, etc.
subgroups
of topics:
The reader should
consult the
Physics:
The nature of time: time
as duration or 2.
as the measure of motion; time as a con-
tinuous quantity; absolute and relative
time
Experimental physics and the empirof experimental and philosophical physical natural sciences: the relation
ics
Mechanics: 1 The foundations of mechanics
2a.
la.
Matter, mass, atoms: the pri-
lb.
mary qualities of bodies The laws of motion: the
Ic.
476
derivation of definitions,
and principles from
the philosophy of nature: the
metaphysics of the scientist inertia;
measure of force; action
and reaction Space and time of motion
The
distinctions,
.
2b.
The treatment of causes ics:
in the analysis
in phil-
osophical and empirical physdescription
and explana-
theory and prediction In Great Books of the Western World, tion,
Albert Einstein the following passages contain the tailed treatments
Aristotle, 10-14,
Physics,
Vol.
most de-
of space and time:
8,
pp.
IV,
Bk.
Ch.
287a-292c,
1-5,
297c-
304a,c
This question also occupies a great deal of Faraday's attention. References to this
problem are scattered throughout
his
work.
The following pages will give the reader some indication of his thinking on the subject:
Newton, Natural
Mathematical
Principles
of
Scholium — Defi-
Philosophy,
nition VIII, Vol. 34, pp. 8b- 13a.
in
528c-532a,
Britannica for the articles on Relativ-
Optics, Question 31, Vol. 34,
ity; Relativity: Philosophical Consequences; and Space-Time. The last article was contributed by Einstein himself.
possibility
Newton
tance:
pp.
Researches pp.
dis-
the end of the Optics,
Newton,
45,
of action-at-a-dis-
Human Knowl-
436b
the
Vol.
816b,d-819a,c
edge, Sect. 110-117, Vol. 35, pp. 434b-
At
Experimental
Electricity,
The reader who wishes to read more about space, time, and relativity will find lists of additional readings at the end of the Syntopicon chapters mentioned above. He may also wish to consult the Encyclopcedia
Berkeley, Principles of
cusses
Faraday,
531b-544a
477
Moliere
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Translated by Morris Bishop
Moliere
might surprise a twentieth-century reader to learn that MoHere's in its time and was threatened with suppression because of its language and subject matter. Moliere was subjected to considerable personal criticism, but both play and author found protection at the hands of King Louis XIV, the playwright's enthusiastic but demanding patron. The original production of the play, in which Moliere himself appeared as Arnolphe, was an immediate success. The School for Wives is a love story and comedy which centers around the custom of arranged marriages. Though it is scarcely forty years since women have attained the right to vote in the United States and the United Kingdom, we tend to forget the inferior legal status to which they were relegated throughout the rest of Western history. In seventeenth-century France, the setting for Moliere's play, women not only could not vote or otherwise participate in the affairs of government, but frequently they could not own property and were legally considered to be the wards of their fathers and husbands. Under such circumstances, it was plausible to consider women incompetent to select their own marriage partners. Consequently, Moliere's contemporaries were shocked by the playwright's unfavorable treatment of the custom of arranged marriages. Nor was this the only criticism voiced against The School for Wives. Some playgoers professed to be shocked by the way in which Moliere handled talk about sex. Others claimed that he used the stage merely to mock and humiliate certain of his contemporaries. Some critics claimed that Moliere's play failed to live up to the requirements of classic drama. Moliere considered these charges as sufficiently serious to require an answer:
It
The School for Wives was a controversial play
That
manners and customs, and only indirectly at innot apply these general criticisms to ourselves; and let's profit by the lesson, if we can, without suggesting that we are the objects of it. All these ridiculous exaggerations we see on the stage ought not to be taken to heart. They are public mirrors and if we take offense at reproof, we are making a public confession of our faults.^ sort of satire hits at
dividuals.
So
let's
.
1
The Critique of The School for Wives
in
Modem Library,
13
York: The
480
1957), p.
1
.
.
Eight Plays by Moliere, trans, by Morris Bishop
(New
Introduction
Furthermore, Moliere maintained that
it
is
particularly difficult to
write comic plays: are painting men. you must paint from nature. Everyone Hkenesses resemble reahty; and you haven't accompHshed anything, unless you make your audience recognize the men of our own time. In a word, in serious plays, all you need to do. to escape criticism, is to say reasonable things in good style. But in the lighter plays that isn't enough: you have to amuse. And it's a strange enterprise, to make honest .
.
.
when you
insists that the
folk laugh.
For
Moliere has been acclaimed
his efforts in this "strange enterprise,"
for over three centuries.
Moliere
was born Jean Baptiste Poquelin
in
mid-January, 1622,
the son of a respectable and upper middle-class Parisian crafts-
man, Jean Poquelin. The family had been upholsterers for generations; Moliere's father had the honor to be appointed the official valet tapissier to the King, a position which Moliere inherited but later resigned. The father, ambitious that his son should receive a good education, arranged for him to attend the excellent Jesuit school. College de Clermont. After completing the classical curriculum there, Moliere constudies under the famous priest-philosopher-epicurean, Pierre Gassendi. Gassendi, a critic of Descartes and an exponent of
tinued his
seventeenth-century atomism, was also tutoring the great swordsman and man-about-town, Cyrano de Bergerac. It is thought that Moliere received part of his initiation into the night
life
of Paris in the
company
of Cyrano. In 1643, to the disappointment of his father, Moliere rejected the family business and instead formed a theatrical company with Madeleine Bejart, an actress and business woman who starred in the produc-
company. Here Moliere received his first acting experience. was not a financial success, and Moliere was even imprisoned for a short time by one of the creditors of the com-
tions of his
However,
the adventure
pany. His father
came
to the rescue, but
if
he expected his son to
re-
turn to the upholstery business, he was disappointed. The Illustre Theatre, as the company named itself, having undergone bankruptcy
went on a tour of the provinces, and from 1645 to 1658 Moliere served his apprenticeship in the theatre, progressing from minor to more important roles and presumably trying his hand at writ-
in Paris,
ing.
Although the years had
their hardships, they also
had
their
compen-
The company made money and won the attention and patronage of important people. One of their protectors was the Prince de Conti, a relative of Louis XIV, who served to introduce the company sations.
appearance before the King, Moliere chose to present a tragedy of Corneille's, Nicomede. Although the performance was satisfactory, it was not exceptional. Moliere, sensing his opporto the Court. In his first
2
I bid.,
pp.
115-116
481
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES, INTRODUCTION made a curtain speech in which he asked permission to present then and there one of the entertainments that his group had been offering in the provinces. Permission was granted, and Moliere and his tunity,
company amused and charmed the Court with a comedy, Le Docteur amoureux (Love's the Best Doctor). This was the beginning of an association with the King which lasted until Moliere's death.
was assured. In 1662 he married Armande be the youngest sister of Madeleine Bejart with whom he had begun his career. From 1660 on, Moliere's company was installed at the Palais-Royal and gave regular performances of his comedies, which satirized the manners and customs of the day. Les Precieuses ridicules (The Precious Damsels) mocked the excessive attention given to matters of speech and fashion; L'Ecole des maris (The School for Husbands) satirically treated opposed views of education; Le Misanthrope exposed the vice of being too virtuous to live with the rest of mankind; and a series of plays written while Moliere himself was sick and dying, most notably Le Medecin malgre lui (The Physician in Spite of Himself), caricatured the shortcomings of sevenMoliere's worldly success
Bejart, said to
teenth-century medicine. Moliere's increasing theatrical success was accompanied, however,
by
his physical
at the
decUne.
command
He worked
under great pressure
to turn out,
of the King, Court entertainments, such as the com-
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Would-be Gentleman). Other playwrights, jealous of Moliere's success, severely attacked his work; the Church censored Tartuffe, because of its portrayal of a religious hypocrite, and it took the King to rescue the work from tjireatened oblivion. Though Moliere's health declined, he kept working on a play, Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), about a man with an imagined illness. He performed the leading part in this play on the day of his death. On February 17, 1673, Moliere's wife and friends, observing the poor state of his health, urged him not to go through with that night's performance. He replied that some fifty people were depending on him for work and that he must go on. He did, managing to get through the performance, though convulsed with a fit of coughing at one point. He was carried home and called for a priest. While someone sought in vain for a clergyman to administer the Last Sacraments, Moliere died, cared for by two nuns whom he had invited to stay at his home when they had come to Paris to beg their Lenten alms. According to the custom of the time, an actor had to renounce his profession if he were to become reconciled with the Church. In view of the suddenness of Moliere's death, he did not have the opportunity for this reconciliation, and so he was denied burial in consecrated ground. However, through the intercession of King Louis XIV, in response to the pleas of Moliere's wife, Moliere was given a religious funeral without pomp or ceremony. His grave went unmarked for hisedy-ballet
tory.
482
Moliere and his company ofplayers
THE CHARACTERS also known as Monsieur Delafield AGNES, Arnolphe's ward
ARNOLPHE
HORACE ALAIN, peasant, Arnolphe's servant
GEORGETTE, Alain's wife CHRYSALDE, friend of Arnolphe ENRIQUE, Chrysalde's brother-in-law ORONTE, father of Horace
A NOTARY is a quiet street in a residential section of a provincial city. At the rear, the facade of a house, with practicable second-story casement windows. In front of the house, a small garden with a grilled gate. Outside the
The scene
low enclosure, an arbor, with garden seats and a
ACT
table.
I
CHRYSALDE and ARNOLPHE
are discovered.
CHRYSALDE: And so you say you've come to marry her? arnolphe: I want to get it over by tomorrow. CHRYSALDE: We are alone; we can't be overheard; So let's discuss the matter somewhat frankly. Perhaps you'd care to have a friend's opinion?
Your project is alarming — for your And any way you look at it, I think It's
arnolphe:
sake.
a rash act for you to take a wife.
may well be, Chrysalde, that you have reason To find that marriage is a chancy state; And one who feels the horns upon his brow It
May well believe that they're CHRYSALDE: Fate
inevitable.
plants the horns according to
its
whim;
All one's precautions are a waste of time.
But you're
in special
danger, from your habit
Of making fun of every hapless husband. And you know well no cuckold, high or lowly. Escapes the malice of your mockery.
483
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES
My dear Arnolphe, your greatest pleasure is arnolphe:
To bring to light invisible intrigues — Why, very well is there another town Where husbands are so patient and enduring? ;
We have examples here of every sort Who get their just deserts within the home. One piles up wealth; his wife distributes it To those who undertake to make him cuckold. Another, somewhat happier, I admit. Allows his wife to pocket handsome presents, And never thinks of showing jealousy. Because, she says, they're tributes to her virtue. There's one who shouts and storms, without effect;
Another calmly
lets things
take their course.
And when he sees a gallant come to call. He decently takes his hat and overcoat. One cunning lady tells her faithful spouse About
the foul proposals of her friend.
And so
she
lulls
him, and he smiles and pities
The gallant for his Another lady,
all
pains — which are not wasted.
too prosperous.
Ascribes her purchases to luck at gaming. Her husband doesn't know what game she plays, And renders thanks to heaven for her winnings. So, with such themes for comedy around. May I not, as a witness, be amused?
And not — chrysalde:
Why, yes but he who laughs at others Must fear that others will have their laugh at him. Now, I hear gossip, when the gossipers ;
Recount the current scandals of the town; yet, whatever juicy tales I learn. No one has ever heard me gloat about them. I keep my counsel; even though I may
And
Condemn some manifestations heartily, And though I've no intention of enduring What certain husbands I
don't proclaim
placidly accept,
my purpose openly;
tables may be turned. dangerous to swear what one will do. Or what one won't, in such a circumstance. For if, by some fatality, the horns Of cuckoldry should sprout upon my brow, I think that my behavior will ensure That any mockery will be well hidden. Even, perhaps, some kindly folk will say That my affliction is regrettable. But you, Arnolphe, would find it otherwise; The risk you run is devilishly great. Since you have always joked most savagely About your comrades' marital misfortunes.
For after all, the It's
484
Moliere Since you have chosen to be merciless, take the challenge;
You must beware lest others And any hint of infidelity
Will be the joy of every tattletale.
And
if-
My good Chrysalde, you needn't worry.
arnolphe:
No one is going to make a fool of m^-; For I know all the tricks, all the devices That ladies use to victimize their husbands,
And I know how they work their sleight-of-hand, And so I've taken adequate precautions. The girl
I'll
marry
is
an innocent,
And her simplicity is my protection. chrysalde: And you imagine that simplicity — arnolphe: One isn't simple to take a simple wife. Of course I know your wife But an
intelligent
woman
is
virtuous.
isn't safe.
I know what certain friends of mine have suffered For marrying women with too many talents. I'll
hardly pick an intellectual,
Whose talk is all of literary clubs,
Who writes seductively in prose and verse. While
I
am just the lovely lady's husband,
A saint, of course, but one without worshipers. No,
I
don't care for the blue-stocking type;
books, she knows a lot too much. want her so sublimely ignorant That she won't even know that words can rhyme. Why, if one plays the crambo-game,^ you know"What goes in?" you ask, and expect a rhyme-word I'd gladly have her answer: "A cream tart!" Let her have no accomplishments at all. If she writes I
be satisfied if she knows how say her prayers, and sew and spin, and love me. chrysalde: So it's your whim to have a stupid wife? arnolphe: Exactly. I'd rather have an ugly fool I
shall
To
Than a beautiful woman with
intelligence.
chrysalde: Beauty and charm — Morality's enough. arnolphe: chrysalde: But how do you expect a simpleton Will ever understand morality? I needn't mention what a dreadful bore One's life would be beside a witless wife; But do you think your principle is sound, That it's a guarantee against disaster?
A clever woman may betray her faith; At least, The fool
she has to do so consciously. is
often false without intention,
Hardly aware of what 1
Corbillon, a parlor game in which one a rhyming response.
it is
she does.
side asks a question
demanding
485
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES arnolphe:
Let
me reply by quoting
Rabelais.
Pantagruel answered his friend Panurge:
"Offer me any woman but a fool, And preach and pound from now to Pentecost, And you will be astounded to discover You will not have convinced me an iota."
chrysalde
All right; enough.
arnolphe:
Everyone has his method. have my own; and it applies to marriage. I'm rich enough to do without a dowry; My wife will be dependent upon me. She'll be in no position to allege I
Her property I
noticed her
rights, or
when
her superior birth.
she was four years old.
And I was taken by her modest air. Her mother was destitute, and so I had The idea of asking for her guardianship. And the good peasant woman was delighted To make provision for her daughter's welfare. In a small convent, off the beaten track, I had her educated by my system. That is, I furnished them a set of rules
To cultivate her simple-mindedness. And God be praised, the process was
successful.
Now she is grown; and she's so innocent That
I
bless
heaven which has favored me,
Making a bride
to
fit
my specifications.
my house always open to all sorts of people. And since one always should foresee the worst, I have installed her in that small house yonder. And to preserve unspoiled her natural goodness, I've chosen servants simple as herself. She's out of the convent now; but since Is
You wonder why I tell you this long story? Simply to show how carefully I work. And since you're one of my best and oldest friends, I'd like to have you sup with me tonight. You'll have a chance to examine her a
you will be happy to.
We'll see
chrysalde arnolphe:
I
shall
criticize
if
little;
my choice.
You will be able To judge her person and her innocence.
CHRYSALDE: Well, as
for that,
all
that you've just related
Certainly proves —
arnolphe:
I
have been understating.
Why, her naive remarks are my delight. Some of them make me nearly die with laughing. The other day — and this you'll hardly credit — She was much troubled, and she came to ask me, In absolute and perfect innocence. If children are
486
begotten through the ear!
Moliere
chrysalde: I'm very glad, Seigneur Arnolphe — Now look! arnolphe: Why must you always call me by that name? chrysalde: It's automatic; and despite myself I never think of Monsieur Delafield. Anyway, what possessed you, at the age
Of forty-two,
to unbaptize yourself,
And give yourself an aristocratic name After a stony
arnolphe:
field
on your country place?
The name not only goes with
the property,
But Delafield sounds better than Arnolphe. chrysalde But why should you renounce your father's name, To take one which is only fanciful? The process, to be sure, is all the rage. I am reminded — not by comparison — Of a poor countryman named Peterkin, Who owned a wretched acre or two of land; He dug a muddy ditch around the field. And proudly called himself Monsieur de I'lsle. arnolphe: Such an example has no application.
Remember that my name is It's legally
Delafield.
warranted; besides,
I
like
it.
To call me anything else is disobliging. chrysalde:
It's
hard for people to get used to
it.
Your mail comes mostly to Seigneur Arnolphe. arnolphe:
can accept Arnolphe from the uninformed. But you — I
chrysalde:
All right.
I
shan't insist
upon
it.
do violence to my ancient habit, And call you only Monsieur Delafield. arnolphe: Good-by. I'll merely knock by way of greeting, So that they'll know that I am home again. chrysalde {aside): Really, poor old Arnolphe is off his head! {Exit CHRYSALDE.) arnolphe: On certain subjects he's a little cracked. It's always curious to see how people So desperately cling to their opinions. {Knocking at gate) I
shall
Hola! {The head o/alain appears at upper window. does not at first see arnolphe.) ALAIN:
Who's there?
arnolphe:
Open! {To himself) They I
ALAIN:
arnolphe: ALAIN
GEORGETTE ALAIN:
He
think, to see
will
be pleased,
me after ten days' absence.
Who is it? Me. {without looking at arnolphe, calls to a lower window): Georgette!
head out of lower window and looking up at ALAIN): What? {putting her
Open
the door!
487
:
!
!
!
!
!
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES georgette: You do
it!
No, you do
ALAIN:
it!
georgette: ALAIN:
arnolphe:
Faith,
{Slams window shut.) And I won't neither! (Slams his window shut.) What's
To leave me
I
this
won't!
hocus-pocus?
here outside!
(Pounds knocker) Hola there!
Ho!
GEORGETTE (opening window): Who's there? arnolphe: Your master! GEORGETTE (frightened): Alain! ALAIN What? (opening window): georgette:
It's
Master!
Open the door!
You do
ALAIN:
georgette:
it!
I'm blowing the
fire.
ALAIN:
I'm keeping the cat from catching the canary.
arnolphe:
Whoever doesn't open the door for me
(Both windows slam shut.) Will get no food during four days at least.
GEORGETTE
(ALAIN and GEORGETTE appear, blocking each other in doorway.) (to ALAIN) Why do you come when I am almost :
there?
ALAIN:
Why you, not me? A trick A !
strodagem
georgette: Get out of here
Get out of here
ALAIN:
yourself!
(They emerge from doorway and run to gate.) georgette: I want to open the gate ALAIN: I want to, too (They struggle.) georgette: You won't! ALAIN: Well, you won't neither! georgette: Neither will you ARNOLPHE ( to himself): Surely I have a very patient spirit! (ALAIN and GEORGETTE Open the gate together.) ALAIN: I opened it! georgette: Like fun you did 'Twas me ALAIN Saving the presence of our master here, I'd(alain throws himself on georgette, who dodges behind arnolphe. arnolphe receives alain's !
blow.)
arnolphe:
Curses!
ALAIN:
I
beg your pardon.
arnolphe: ALAIN:
arnolphe: 488
You clumsy fool It's
her
fault, sir!
Now both of you be quiet.
!
Moliere
ALAIN
Answer my questions; let's have no more nonsense. Now, Alain, how have things been going here? Why, things, sir — (arnolphe removes alain's hat from his head: ALAIN, uncomprehending replaces Everything — ,
{Same
it)
business)
Thanks be
to
God,
We've been —
ARNOLPHE
{removes alain's hat and throws
it on ground): you impudent rogue. To wear your hat while speaking to your master? You're right. Now ask Miss Agnes to come down. {Exit ALAIN) Was she unhappy when I went away?
Where
alain:
arnolphe:
did
you
learn,
georgette: Unhappy? No arnolphe: No? georgette: Yes, she was! And how? arnolphe: georgette: Why, she kept thinking you'd be coming back. We didn't hear a horse or mule or ass
arnolphe:
Pass by, without she thought it might be you. {Enter agnes, carrying needlework, and alain.) She has her work in hand; that's a good sign. Well, Agnes, here I am back from my journey.
And are you pleased? agnes:
arnolphe:
Oh yes, sir, God be And I am very pleased to see you too. You've been as
well,
I
praised.
hope, as you appear?
agnes:
Why yes; though the fleas bothered me last night.
arnolphe:
You'll soon have
agnes:
That
arnolphe:
Yes; I imagine What's that you're making?
will
be
someone who
will drive
off.
so.
A linen cap for me.
agnes:
Your nightshirts and your nightcaps arnolphe:
them
nice.
That's excellent.
are
all
done.
Now go upstairs again.
Keep yourself busy.
I
shall
come back
soon.
have important things to talk about. {Exit ALAIN, GEORGETTE, \GNES) Heroines of our time, and learned ladies. Partisans of the simpering, love-sick mode, I defy you and all your prose and poems. Your novels and your billets-doux, to equal This decent, modest, honest ignorance. I'll
{Enter Horace) In marriage, money's not the important thing. If
HORACE:
honor's there - Who's this?
Or maybe not. My dear Ar
It is,
It
can't be -
though! Yes,
it's
Yes
Horace!
489
!
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Horace
arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe:
Arnolphe
What a
surprise!
How long have you been in town? HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe:
Just eight days. Really! I
called
I'd
first
gone
your house, but you weren't there.
to the country.
Yes; two days before. Well,
how young people grow in a few short years!
It's really
HORACE: arnolphe:
at
amazing
to see
you as you
are,
When I remember you no bigger than that! You see — Enough of that. Your father Oronte,
My excellent friend, whom I esteem and honor. What is he up to? He's still gay and hearty? He knows I'm interested in all his news.
We haven't seen each other for four years; In fact,
HORACE:
we haven't written in all that time.
Seigneur Arnolphe, he's gayer than you and
I
are!
He gave me a letter to present to you. But now a later message has informed me He's coming in person; he hasn't told me why. Do you perhaps know of a local man
arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE:
Who's coming home soon with a lot of money He's made in fourteen years in America? No; no. You wouldn't know his name? Enrique.
No;
no.
Well, father speaks of his return
As if I ought to be acquainted with him. And they expect, he says, to travel together To treat an important matter; he doesn't say what. {He hands arnolphe:
I'll
And
HORACE:
arnolphe:
arnolphe.) him again, give him a proper welcome here.
letter to
certainly be glad to see I
shall
{Reads letter, and pockets it) Old friends hardly require such protestations; He needn't waste his time in mere politeness. Without a word from him, I would have offered To let you draw on me, if you need cash. Since you're so cordial, I'll take you at your word. I do in fact need some pistoles. A hundred. Why, it's a pleasure to have you act so frankly; And by a fortunate chance I have them on me. {Hands a fat purse to Horace, who starts to empty it)
Keep the purse,
too.
HORACE: arnolphe:
But
must give you — Nonsense!
Tell me, Horace,
490
I
how do you find our city?
Moliere
HORACE:
Busy and with some very handsome ;
And arnolphe:
I
buildings.
suspect that people enjoy themselves.
Everyone seeks
for pleasures to his taste.
And those they call the gay Find plenty of opportunity
Lotharios
town.
in this
Our women know the tricks of coquetry, And both brunettes and blondes are- very kind. And husbands are uncommonly indulgent. Why, it's a happy hunting ground! I often Get much amusement from the goings-on. Perhaps you've smitten some tender heart already? Some gallant enterprise among the ladies? Good looks like yours get more than money will;
You are the type that manufactures cuckolds. HORACE:
Why, there's no reason I should In fact, I've landed in a
HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE:
hide the truth.
adventure.
tell you, if you'd be amused. can see a spicy story coming, An item I can add to my collection. But please, it must be absolutely secret. I'll
arnolphe:
little
gladly
Good!
I
Of course! You're well aware that If anything leaks out, the affair
is
in these matters.
ended.
I will admit to you in utter frankness That I've been captured by a lovely lady. And my attentions have been so successful That I have taken the first important steps. I mustn't boast, or do her any wrong, But I can say that things look promising.
ARNOLPHE HORACE
{laughing)'.
Who is she?
{pointing to agnes' house):
She's a beautiful
girl
who lives
In this very house, with the red vines on the walls. She is naive; but that's the fault of a man
Who hides her away from contact with the world. Although he tries to keep her ignorant. She shows the most entrancing qualities: A sweet, engaging air, with something tender About her, which is utterly captivating. But possibly you've seen her, that young star
Of love, so radiant with every charm Her name is Agnes. ARNOLPHE
{aside):
Hellfire!
The man's name
HORACE:
Delavan or Delaware or something. wasn't much concerned about his name.
Is I
Rich, so they say, but not intelligent. In fact, they say he's rather ridiculous.
You wouldn't know him? ARNOLPHE
{aside):
HORACE:
You didn't speak?
This
is
too
much
to take
491
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE:
What? Oh He's crazy,
isn't
yes, yes,
I
know
him.
he?
WellIs that your answer? "Well — " That means yes. Also absurdly jealous?
A fool?
I
my
see
information's good.
Agnes fascinates me. She is a lovely and alluring creature. It would be sinful if so rare a creature Should stay in the clutches of that nincompoop. So I shall bend all my most earnest efforts In short, the charming
To winning her heart, despite The money
that
I
the jealous ogre.
borrowed so brazenly
Will serve in bringing
my enterprise to pass.
For you know well that labor's not enough, And money is the key to victory. That pleasant metal has the power to smite And to make conquests, in both war and love. You're looking very solemn. Can it be That you do not in fact approve my purpose?
arnolphe: HORACE:
No;
I
was thinking — I
Good-by.
I'll
call at
am boring you.
your house to state
my thanks.
{Starts to leave.)
arnolphe HORACE
{to himself):
Oh,
it
must be — Again, please be discreet.
{returning):
Kindly don't
tell
my secret to a soul.
{Starts to leave.)
ARNOLPHE HORACE
{to himself):
This
arnolphe:
That
I
must suffer— Especially to
{returning): is
the kind of thing that
my father.
makes him angry.
Yes. {Exit
that
HORACE; ARNOLPHE,
HORACE
is
after a false presentiment
again returning, sinks down on a
bench)
Oh, how I suffered during that interview! Was anyone ever so disturbed in mind How recklessly, and how imprudently. He came and told me all about his dealings! Though my new name was strange to him, no fool Ever ran quite so eagerly In spite of my pain,
To learn
I
into folly!
should have led him on.
exactly what
I
have
to fear.
should have pushed his indiscretion further. To find the purport of their conversations. I
catch him up. He isn't far, I think. need complete disclosure of the facts.
I'll
I
I tremble at my possible misfortunes; Often we seek more than we wish to find.
492
Moliere
Arnolphe: So, you have plotted together to betray me!
ACTII Enter arnolphe.
arnolphe:
Perhaps
it
was a good
thing after
all
and couldn't run him down. For I might well have given him a hint Of my obsessing agony of mind; I might not have contained 'my secret grief. It's best he should remain in ignorance. But I'm not one to take things lying down, And leave the way wide open to that gosling. I'll spoke his wheels! I'll find out right away I
lost his track
How much of an understanding he's obtained. I
my honor, my wife already.
take a notable interest in
And
I
regard her as
So any
fault of hers is
shame
to
And I am chargeable for what
alain:
arnolphe:
me.
she's done.
Curses! Why did I ever go away? {He knocks at gate. The door flies open. Enter ALAIN and GEORGETTE.) Ah, sir, this time Silence! Come here, you two. This way, this way. Come here, come here, I tell you.
georgette
{falling
arnolphe:
You frighten me, sir. Faith, you curdle my blood. So, this is how you obey me in my absence!
on her knees):
So, you have plotted together to betray me! georgette: Don't eat me alive, monsieur, I beg of you! {aside): I vow, a mad dog must have bitten him! ALAIN
arnolphe
{aside):
Ouf!
I
can't speak,
My blood's aboil; {Aloud)
And
so,
I
have such premonitions!
I'd like to pull
you
dirty dogs,
my clothes off. you have permitted
A man to come here! (ALAIN starts
to run
away)
Ha! You would escape! 493
:
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES {To georgette) You must immediately — Don't move! (To alain) I want To have you tell me — Uh! I want you both — (ALAIN and GEORGETTE nse and try to flee) If anyone moves, I swear to God I'll kill him! How did that fellow get into the house? Come on, speak up! Hurry! Quick! Right away! Without delay! ALAIN flAz J GEORGETTE {on their knee s)\ Oh! Oh! My heart has stopped! GEORGETTE: ALAIN:
I'm dead!
ARNOLPHE
{aside):
I'm sweating so, I must cool off. must calm down, and take a little walk. Could I have guessed, when he was just a boy, That he would grow — to this? God, how I suffer! I think it would be best if I could get I
From her own lips I
must attempt
Be
still,
the truth about the matter.
to hide
my heart;
my bitterness. my heart; go
softly,
softly.
{Aloud) Get up, and ask your mistress to descend. No. Stop. {Aside) I'd lose the advantage of surprise. They would inform her of my troubled state. I'll go and ask her to come down myself. {Aloud) Wait for me here. {Exit ARNOLPHE.) GEORGETTE: Oh, isn't he terrible He scared me with his looks, he scared me so! I never saw such a hideous Christian man! ALAIN: The other gentleman made him mad; I told you. georgette: But why does he make such an almighty fuss About our keeping the lady shut in the house? Why does he want to hide her from everyone,
And not let anybody at all come near her? Because such things arouse his jealousy. georgette: But how does it come that he has that idea? ALAIN That comes from the fact — from the fact that he alain:
is
jealous.
georgette: But why alain:
is he jealous? And why does he get so angry? Why, jealousy — now get this well, Georgette —
Jealousy's something which upsets a man,
And makes him chase all other men away. I'm going to give you a comparison
To help you understand the matter better. Isn't it true that when you've got your stew, If a hungry man should come and try to eat it, You would get mad, and poke him on the nose? georgette:
I
understand
that.
alain:
Well,
The woman
is
just the same. stew of man;
it's
in fact the
And sometimes when a man 494
sees other
men
Moliere
Trying to dip their fingers in his stew, Right away he displays a terrible anger. georgette: But why don't everybody act the same?
Why do some husbands look so very pleased ALAIN:
To have their wives out with fine gentlemen? It isn't every man who is so greedy
He wants it all for himself. georgette:
Unless I'm blind,
He's coming back.
Your eyes
ALAIN:
georgette:
Isn't
are good;
him.
it's
he sulky!
ALAIN:
Well, he has his troubles.
arnolphe.) {aside): A Greek once gave (EAz/er
arnolphe
to
Emperor Augustus
A piece of useful, sensible advice. He said that when we're overcome by anger.
We should at once recite the alphabet. To give our fury a chance to spend itself, And to prevent our doing something foolish. That's what I've done, with reference to Agnes. I've asked her to
Under the
come down and join me
here.
pretext of a promenade,
that the sick suspicions of my mind May bring her to the subject casually.
So
Thus
may probe her heart and learn the truth. Agnes, come out. {To alain and georgette)
I
(Calls)
Go in. {Exit
ALAIN
flAl
J GEORGETTE. E^^^r AGNES. The tWO
stroll in silence)
nice to walk.
It's
AGNES:
Very.
The day
arnolphe:
is fine.
AGNES:
Very.
What news?
arnolphe: AGNES:
The kitten's
dead.
Why,
arnolphe:
that's too bad.
But
still.
We are all mortal; we must take our chances. Didn't
AGNES:
it
rain while
I
was
in the
And were you
arnolphe:
bored?
AGNES:
arnolphe:
country?
Oh, no. I'm never bored.
What have you done
during the past ten days?
and half a dozen
AGNES:
Six shirts,
arnolphe:
{after a meditative pause):
I
think,
coifs.
The world, dear Agnes, For people
Some
talk,
is a funny place. and often slanderously.
neighbors say that while
I
was away
A strange young man has visited the house, And you I
received him, listening to his
talk.
put no credit in this ugly gossip,
And I would wager it's entirely false — 495
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES AGNES:
arnolphe: AGNES:
ARNOLPHE
You'd better not, for you would certainly lose. What! It is true that a manOh, absolutely! I vow, he hardly left the house at all! (aside): At least, the admission made with sincerity Indicates the simplicity of her mind.
(Aloud) But if my memory is good, I had forbidden you to see anyone.
AGNES:
arnolphe: AGNES:
arnolphe:
I
think
Yes, but although I saw him, you don't know why. You would have done the same thing in my place. Perhaps. But tell me the story anyway. It's really astonishing, and hard to believe. I'd taken my work to the cool of the balcony. And then I saw, under the nearby trees, A very fine young man. He caught my eye. And he saluted me with a humble bow. And since I didn't wish to be impolite, I made a proper bow in acknowledgment. All of a sudden he makes another bow. And so immediately I make one too. And then he makes another one, his third, So I return a third one of my own. He passes by, comes back; and every time He makes a new and lower reverence. I watched him closely, and to each salute I answered, bowing very civilly. In fact, if the dark of night had not come down, I think I would have been right there forever. I didn't want to yield, and let him think That I could be less courteous than he.
Why, fine. Next day, when
AGNES:
I
was
at the door.
There came an elderly woman, and she said: "My dear, God bless you most abundantly. And keep you ever beautiful and blooming! He did not make you such a pretty person In order to
ill
use his kindly
gifts;
And you must know you have
severely
wounded
A heart which must protest its suffering!" ARNOLPHE AGNES:
496
Oh, cursed agent of the devil himself! "What, I have wounded someone?" I exclaimed. "Yes," she said. "Wounded! Wounded grievously The man you saw from your balcony yesterday." "Now what," I said, "could be the cause of that? Did I let something drop on him carelessly?" "No, it's your eyes," she said, "that did the deed. It's from their glance that all his trouble comes." "Why, I'm amazed!" I answered. "Do my eyes Have some contagious trouble which he's caught?" "Yes, yes," she said; "your eyes have deadly power; They're filled with poison which you're not aware of. (aside):
Moliere In short, he's languishing, the poor dear boy.
And if— "
the charitable lady said,
"If you're so cruel as to refuse He'll certainly be buried in
all
aid,
two days."
"Good heavens!"
I cried. "I should be very sorry! But what assistance can I give to him?" "My child," she said, "he only wants to gain The privilege of seeing and speaking to you. Your eyes alone can save him from destruction; They have the medicine for the hurt they've done."
"Why,
gladly!"
I
replied. "If that's the case,
He can come here as often as ARNOLPHE AGNEs:
he likes."
Oh, cursed witch and poisoner of souls May hell reward your charitable plots! That's how he came to see me, and was cured. Don't you agree I did the proper thing? Could I have had the weight upon my conscience Of letting him die for lack of a little aid, I who can't bear to see poor people suffer. {aside):
And can't help crying, to ARNOLPHE
see a chicken die? This proceeds only from an innocent soul. And I must blame my absence, so imprudent. Which left, without a guide, her natural goodness {aside):
Exposed to the wiles of cunning reprobates. But I'm afraid the enterprising rogue AGNES:
Has carried matters past the joking stage. What is the matter? You seem to be displeased.
Was there anything wrong in what ARNOLPHE: AGNES:
I
told
you about?
Why, no, indeed. But tell what happened then. And how the young man occupied his visits. Oh, dear, if you could see how happy he was,
How he immediately lost his affliction. And the beautiful jewel box he presented me. And the money he gave to Alain and Georgette, ARNOLPHE: AGNES:
ARNOLPHE
You'd love him too, you'd join with us in saying Yes, yes. But what did he do, alone with you? He swore he loved me, with unparalleled love, And said the sweetest things you can imagine, Things like things no one ever heard before. They kind of tickled me inside, and stirred Something which makes me sort of excited still. {aside): Oh, cruel probing of a mysterious evil, Wherein the surgeon suffers all the pain! {Aloud)
AGNES:
Now,
in addition to all these lovely
words.
Didn't he also give you some — caresses? Oh, lots! He took my hands, he took my arms;
He never seemed to tire of kissing them. ARNOLPHE:
And, Agnes, didn't he take something else? (AGNES seems taken aback) Ouf!
AGNEs:
Well, he
497
-
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES What?
arnolphe:
Took —
AGNES:
Uh!
arnolphe:
My
AGNES:
Well?
arnolphe: AGNES:
I I
arnolphe:
No. Yes, you
AGNES:
will!
No, no!
arnolphe:
Then give me your word.
AGNES:
arnolphe:
All right, then.
Well, he took
AGNES:
arnolphe:
daren't!
am afraid you may be angry with me.
my — you'll be mad
!
No.
AGNES:
Yes.
No, no What's
arnolphe:
!
What did he AGNES:
the mystery?
all
take? Well, he
God, how
arnolphe
(aside):
AGNES:
He took my ribbon, the ribbon that you gave me. To tell you
ARNOLPHE
I
suffer!
couldn't stop him.
(subsiding):
We'll If
AGNES:
the actual truth,
I
let
the ribbon go.
I
wanted
to
know
he did anything else than kiss your arms.
Why,
are there other things to do?
ARNOLPHE:
No;
no.
But to cure the pains afflicting him — he says — Didn't he ask some other remedy? No. But you can be sure, if he had asked it, I would have granted everything, to cure him. (aside): Thanks be to heaven, I have got off cheap; And I'll deserve the worst, if I slip again. Enough! (Aloud) Your innocence, Agnes, is at fault. I don't reprove you, and what's done is done. !
AGNES:
ARNOLPHE
I
know that by his flatteries
Wants AGNES:
arnolphe:
AGNES:
arnolphe: AGNES:
arnolphe: 498
to deceive you,
and
the gallant
after,
laugh at you.
Oh, not at all! He's told me a dozen times. Ah, you don't know how little you can trust him! But learn this: that to accept a jewel box. To listen to the wheedling of young dandies. And out of mere passivity, to let them Thus kiss your hands and tickle your insides Is a mortal sin, and one of the very biggest! A sin, you say! And what's the reason, please? The reason? It's the sanctified pronouncement That by such actions heaven is offended. Offended? Why should heaven be offended? Oh, dear! It was all so pleasant and so nice! It's wonderful how one enjoys all that! I didn't know about those things at all. Yes, they're enjoyable, all those endearments,
Moliere
AGNEs:
Those melting words, those softening caresses; But they must be enjoyed in righteousness; Their wickedness must be removed by marriage. And when you're married, it's a sin no more?
arnolphe:
Quite
so.
Then let me
AGNEs:
arnolphe: AGNES:
what you have come back
get married right away.
If that's
desire,
I
to see
Can
it
why,
I
do
too.
about your marriage.
be possible
arnolphe:
Yes.
How happy you'll make me
AGNEs:
don't doubt that you'll be happy in marriage.
arnolphe:
Yes,
AGNEs:
You want to have the two of us —
I
arnolphe:
Exactly.
how
love and kiss you
AGNEs:
If that takes place,
arnolphe:
Aha! And
AGNEs:
never can tell when people are making jokes. You're speaking seriously?
I,
my dear,
I
will
shall reciprocate.
I
Oh, yes;
arnolphe: agnes:
you'll see.
We shall be married?
arnolphe:
Yes.
But when?
agnes:
This evening.
arnolphe: AGNES arnolphe:
(laughing): This evening?
agnes:
Oh,
This evening. So
it
makes you laugh?
yes.
My one desire is to see you happy.
arnolphe:
am so mightily indebted to you How happy I am going to be with him! arnolphe: With whom?
agnes:
I
Why, him.
agnes:
Not
arnolphe:
him.
No,
that's a mistake.
You are a little hasty in picking a husband. No,
it's
another
I
have
in
mind
for you.
And as for that fellow -him- it's my
idea
That though his famous illness should carry him off. You must break off all dealings with him, now. And if he comes to the house, you will salute him By slamming the door politely in his face. And if he knocks, you'll drop a brick from the window,
And thus oblige him to forgo his You understand me, Agnes? I'll agnes:
arnolphe: agnes:
arnolphe:
visits.
be hidden
In a corner, where I'll watch all that you do. Oh, dear! He's so good-looking! No more talk — I shall not have the heart And no more noise
Now go upstairs. But what
agnes:
!
You want Enough.
arnolphe: I'm master here.
I
order; you obey.
499
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES
ACTIII ARNOLPHE, AGNES, With some sewing or other work in hand, alain, georgette. ARNOLPHE:
Yes, everything went well, and I'm delighted. You have obeyed my orders most exactly,
And
put to rout the villainous seducer.
That shows the importance of good management. Your innocence, dear Agnes, was abused. Just see how you were thoughtlessly involved! Had I not intervened, you would have taken The highroad leading to hell and to perdition. We know too well the ways of those young dandies, Their ribbons, plumes, and ruffles at the knee. They have long hair, fine teeth, and ready speech; But as I tell you, the claws are sheathed beneath. They are real Satans, whose insatiable jaws Seek ever to devour the honor of women. But after all, thanks to my care and foresight. You have escaped their hellish wiles unscathed. Your attitude, in throwing the brick at him
And thus demolishing his hopeful projects, Convinces me that we should not defer The wedding I have had But
in
mind for you.
proper I should give you A little serious talk, for your improvement. {To ALAIN) A chair, out here in the cool. {To first, I
think
it
georgette) And you, if ever— georgette: Oh, we'll remember all your lessons well. That other gentleman, he took us in;
Butalain:
arnolphe:
If he gets in, I'll never drink again. He's a fool anyhow; the other time He gave us two gold crowns — light weight; no good. Get what I ordered, then, for supper tonight.
And as
I
told you,
when you're coming back, who lives
You'll bring along the notary
At the comer, to draw up the marriage contract. ALAIN and georgette; arnolphe sits) Agnes, let your work go and hsten to me. Lift up your head a httle. Turn your face. {He puts his finger on his forehead) {Exit
There; look at
And fix well
me there,
while
I
am talking to you.
your mind my slightest word. Agnes, I'm wedding you. And every moment You ought to bless your happy destiny. Reflect upon your original low estate, And realize my own benevolence In raising you from the humble rank of peasant To that of the honorable bourgeoisie,
500
in
Moliere
To
share the bed, to enjoy the love of one
Who has always fled the yoke and bonds of marriage, Who has refused, to eligible partners, The honor which he now confers on
You
should,
I
say,
you.
keep ever before your eyes
Your insignificance without this union, So that this thought may ever the more inspire you To merit the state of life to which I call you, And know yourself, and so act that I may Congratulate myself on my decision. my dear, is not a laughing matter.
Marriage,
The
status of wife binds
And you will not ascend
one
to
solemn duties.
to that position
In order to live a free and easy life. Agnes, your sex is made to be dependent; The beard is the symbol of authority. Although mankind's divided in two halves. Nevertheless these halves are far from equal. One is the major half, the other minor; One is the governing half, the other subject. And what obedience the well-instructed Soldier displays to his appointed captain.
The servant to his lord, the child to his father, The least lay brother to his Superior, Is
Arnolphe: There; look at while I
am
me there,
talking to
you
nothing at
all,
to the docility.
And the obedience, and the humility, And the profound respect that a wife should show To her husband, who is her master, chief, and king. When he confers on her a serious glance. Her duty
is
forthwith to lower her eyes.
And never to dare to look him in the face Till
he vouchsafes to her a pleasant look.
The women today don't understand this
well,
But don't be led astray by others' example. Don't imitate those horrible coquettes Whose escapades the entire city rings with. And don't be caught by the wiles of the Evil One — That is, by listening to some young dandy. Reflect that when I make you half of me. It is
my honor I
entrust to you.
This honor is tender; it is easily hurt. On such a subject there can be no trifling. And down in hell there are some boiling caldrons In which are plunged
women of evil
life.
What I am saying is not just idle talk; You should lay up these lessons in your heart. If
you regard them,
Your But
if
Your
fleeing coquettishness,
lily, white and pure. you take a step away from honor,
soul will be like a
soul will turn a dreadful black, like coal;
You will look horrible
to
everyone.
501
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES And one day you
will
You'll roast in hell to
be the devil's prey; eternity.
all
may God's mercy guard you from that fate! Drop me a curtsy. Now, as in a convent A novice ought to know by heart her office, But
A bride, entering marriage, should do the same. I
have
Which will The writer
AGNES
my
pocket a valuable book you in the office of wife. I don't know; he's some good soul. I want this booklet to be all your study. Here it is. Let me see how well you read it. {reading): "Marriage Maxims; or, The Duties of the Married Woman; with daily exercises. First {Rising)
in
instruct
Maxim;
A woman who's admitted To a matrimonial bed Will be much benefited To get it in her head That when a husband takes her for his own, He does arnolphe:
I
so for his interest alone."
will explain the
meaning of all
that.
But for the present, simply read the
AGNES:
text.
"Second Maxim: She should adorn her face.
And
seek for personal grace
Only as much as her master may decree:
Is
He judges if she's comely; That others find her homely a matter of complete irrelevancy.
Third Maxim:
Let her eschew the ogling glance magnetic, every face cream, powder, and cosmetic Designed the casual passer-by to strike. Such vanities are foes to honor and duty. Let her refrain from worrying about beauty; Good husbands do not care what their wives look
And
like.
Fourth Maxim:
Under her coif, whenever she leaves She must suppress
that look
the house,
which lures and
melts. If
she would give
full
pleasure to a spouse.
She must give none Fifth
to
anybody
else.
Maxim:
Except for those who pay a business She should receive no visitors at all. They'll try
With
all artifices.
offers to assist her;
But what's good for the missis Is no good for the mister. Sixth
502
Maxim:
call,
Moliere gifts she will always refuse, Unless she would pass for a dumb thing; According to present-day views, Men always want something for something. Seventh Maxim: She'll have no paper, pencil, pen, or ink. But have no incommodities, despite it.
Men's
Her husband's If
obligation
is
to think;
anything needs writing, he
will write
it.
Eighth Maxim:
The
gatherings one calls Dances, parties, balls. Often of all corruptions are the den. They ought to be suppressed. For all too many a guest Is plotting there against poor married men. Ninth Maxim:
A woman who is virtuous regards Nothing more evil than to play at cards; For runs of ill luck often make Her lose more than she counted on.
And
she
is
then inclined to stake
What's left when all her money's gone. Tenth Maxim: When one receives a tempting invitation To an entertainment in some fine resort,
Or to a lavish country celebration. One always should decline to join the sport: For in the end, come what come may, The husbands are the ones who pay." arnolphe:
You'll finish them alone, and I'll explain These matters properly and in detail. I have a little business to attend to. It isn't
serious;
won't be long.
I
Go in now; guard the booklet preciously. And
if
{Exit
The
the notary
comes,
tell
him
to wait.
AGNLSj
best thing
I
can do
is
to
marry
her.
my will. She's like a piece of wax I hold in my hand, And I can give her whatever form wish. During my absence I was nearly caught. I'll
mold her
spirit
according to
I
It's true,
And
yet
by her excessive innocence; it's
better that a wife should err
In that direction,
if
she errs at
all.
For such mistakes the remedy's
The simple
And
A
if
soul
is
at hand.
readily teachable;
she leaves the straight and narrow path,
word of censure brings her back
to
it.
But the shrewd woman is quite different; Our lot in life depends upon her whim.
503
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Nothing can turn her from her purposes; Our admonitions get lip service only. She uses her wits to mock our principles, And, often, she makes virtues of her crimes, And, to attain her culpable purposes. She finds devices to trick the cleverest man; There is no way to block her enterprises. There's no intriguer like an intelligent woman. If she makes up her mind to repudiate A husband's honor, he might as well surrender. Plenty of worthy men can tell you that. But that young fool will have no cause to boast; He has undone himself by talking too much — And that's the Frenchmen's ordinary fault.
When they are lucky in a love affair. They can do everything but keep it silly vanity has such a power
secret.
Their
They'd rather be hung than not tell anyone. A woman must be tempted by the devil.
When she puts confidence in these scatterbrains. — But here he is. I must conceal my thoughts, And find out how he's taking his defeat. {Enter Horace.)
HORACE!
arnolphe:
I've just come from your house. It's clearly fated That I should never find you when I call. But I'll continue to pay my formal visits — Now, now, you needn't be punctilious. Our social ceremonies are a bore; I should be glad to see them done away with. Most of us waste three quarters of our time
In these nonsensical formalities.
Now, your love affairs — how they're progressing? was sulky when I left you;
Put on your hat, please.
Good Horace, may I'm sorry I
was
I
distracted.
I
learn
Now my mind is clear.
You took the first steps with amazing speed; I'd like to know how you are getting on. HORACE:
The fact is,
since
I
made you my report,
There's been a setback to
arnolphe: HORACE:
Oho! And how
arnolphe: HORACE:
my enterprise.
that?
A cruel fate Brought back
arnolphe: HORACE:
is
Bad
my lady's master from the country.
luck!
Besides, to my very great regret. He's learned about our secret interviews. And how the devil did he find that out? I couldn't say; but anyway, it's certain. I
thought that
I
would pay,
at the usual time,
A little visit to my charming lady; And all of a sudden, changing their attitude, pair of servants wouldn't let me in;
The 504
Moliere
And arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE:
saying:
"Go away, you troublemaker!" in my face.
They very rudely shut the door The door in your face In
my face. That's going
tried to argue with
I
them,
in the
To all I said they only had one answer: "You won't come in; the master has forbid arnolphe: HORACE:
arnolphe: HORACE:
So they
didn't
far.
doorway; it."
open?
No. And from the window Agnes confirmed that her master had returned By driving me off", with a very haughty tone, Accompanied by a brick she threw at me. A brick, you say?
A brick of the larger size, A most discouraging present for a caller.
arnolphe:
The devil! That's hardly much ado about nothing! The situation's bad, it seems to me.
HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe:
It's true, It
the fellow's return has thrown
makes me sorry
I
me off.
protest.
He upsets everything. You'll find
HORACE:
for you,
must get
I
Why, never mind. come back into favor. information somehow
some way inside
to
To trick the vigilance of the jealous man. arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe:
That should by easy. After all, the girl Loves you? Oh, yes. Well then, you'll find a way. I hope so. You were routed by the brick;
You
shouldn't
let that
stun you.
HORACE:
Certainly not. I
understood the goodman was
at
home.
Secretly organizing the defense.
But what surprised
me — it'll
surprise you, too
—
Was
A
another incident I'll tell you about. bold contrivance of my little beauty.
You wouldn't expect it, from her simple air. You have to admit, love is a splendid teacher. Telling us how to be what we never were. Love
often gives us accurate instructions
How we can change our character in a jiff"y. It
breaks
Its
down all
the obstacles of nature;
transformations seem like miracles.
In a
moment
it
makes a miser generous,
A coward valiant, and a boor polite. It
makes
And
the dullest sluggard enterprising.
gives sagacity to the innocent
girl.
That miracle has taken place in Agnes. She broke off with me outwardly, by saying:
505
.
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES "Sir,
go away.
I
do not want your
visits.
know all you will say, and here's my answer!" And then this brickbat, which surprised you so. I
Fell at
And
my feet, together with a letter. how the letter fits
I'm amazed to see
With her uttered words, and the symbolic brick. Now don't you find this action very surprising? Isn't love
wonderful
in
sharpening wits?
Can you deny love's power to inspire The most amazing things in human hearts? What do you think of the trick and the little
letter?
Don't you admire her readiness of wit? And don't you find it comic to think of the role
Our jealous fellow
plays in the
comedy?
Tell me.
Oh, very comic.
arnolphe: HORACE:
Well, then, laugh.
(arnolphe laughs painfully) That man, the enemy of my amour. Entrenches himself, with bricks for ammunition.
As if I threatened to scale the walls of his house! And then, in his fantastic fear, he rouses All of his household troops, to repel the assailant!
And the girl he tries to keep in ignorance Befools him, in plain sight, with his own contrivance! Why, I admit, although his coming back Has put a nasty obstacle in my path. one of the funniest things I've ever heard cannot even think of it without laughing
It's I
It
arnolphe: HORACE:
.
doesn't
seem
to
of!
.
me you're laughing much.
Forgive me, I'm laughing at it as much as I can. For friendship's sake, I'll have to show you the letter. She's found the way to express what her heart feels In touching terms, displaying
all
her virtue,
Her artless, frank, and innocent affection, In short, in such a way as nature itself Reveals the earliest troubling sting of love.
ARNOLPHE
HORACE
(aside):
So that's what comes of knowing how to write! It was against my orders that she learned to. (reading): "I want to write to you, but I have a lot of trouble knowing how to start. I have some thoughts that I wish you could know about; but I don't know exactly how to tell them to you, and I don't really trust my own words. As I'm beginning to realize that I've always been kept in a
state of ignorance, I'm afraid of putting
down
something wrong, and of saying more than I ought to. To tell the truth, I don't know what is the terrible thing you've done to me, but I feel dreadfully unhappy about what they are making
506
Moliere
me do
to you,
and
it
will
cause
me great distress
would be very glad to be yours. Perhaps there is something wrong in saying that; but anyway I can't help saying it, and I wish not to see you, and
I
could be yours without doing anything wrong. People tell me all the time that young men are deceivers, and that one mustn't listen to them, and that everything you tell me is only to trick me; but I assure you that I haven't yet been able to I
conceive that of you; and I am so touched by your words that I can hardly believe they are lies. Tell me frankly the truth about it; for after all, as I have no evil intentions, you would act very in deceiving me, and of sorrow."
wrongly
ARNOLPHE
I
think
I
would die
(aside):
The snake! HORACE! ARNOLPHE! HORACE!
What's wrong?
What? Nothing.
Have you ever heard
I
was just coughing.
a sweeter utterance?
In spite of all that tyranny could do.
Can a lovelier nature Isn't
it
thus reveal itself?
surely a punishable crime
To corrupt the innate quality of that soul, To try to stifle her natural endowments
ARNOLPHE! HORACE! ARNOLPHE! HORACE!
With a cloak of ignorance and stupidity? Love has begun to tear away the veil. And if, by the aid of favorable fate, I may, as I hope, repay that animal. That traitor, hangman, scoundrel, villainous brute — Good-by. What? Leaving so soon? I've just remembered I must attend to a very urgent matter. Wait! Since they keep her shut in, wouldn't you
know Someone who might have access
to the
Maybe it's an unreasonable request, But friends may be asked to give such
house?
services.
The occupants of the house are hostile to me, And the two servants, when I run across them, Will not
abandon
their mistrustful
manner,
No matter what the blandishments I
Whose
genius, in
In the beginning she served
ARNOLPHE! HORACE!
I
try.
woman. some ways, was superhuman.
did have a useful agent, an old
me
very well.
But just four days ago the poor thing died. Wouldn't you know some intermediary? No, really. You will do all right without me.
Good-by, then.
I
give you
all
my
confidence.
{Exit HORACE.)
507
.
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES arnolphe:
How am forced to suffer in his presence! How must struggle to conceal my pain! How can an innocent girl conceive such tricks? I
I
Either her innocence
Or the
is all
pretended,
devil whispers cunning in her soul.
I thought that fatal letter was going to kill me! That scoundrel has taken possession of her mind, He's forced his way in, and supplanted me. It's anguish to me; it drives me to despair. The theft of her heart inflicts a double wound, For my love suffers, and my honor too. I'm furious to be ousted from my place, And furious that my pains have gone for nothing. I know that I can punish her guilty love
By
letting her evil destiny take its course,
That I'll be avenged on her by her own actions; But it's distressing to lose the one we love. Good God! I picked a wife on policy; Why must I now be so obsessed by her? She has no parents, protectors, property. And she betrays my kindness, pains — and love! love her
I
So
still,
after this evil trick.
cannot do without her love! Have you no shame, fool? Oh, it drives me mad! Oh, I could cudgel myself a thousand times! I will go in a while, but only to see The face she shows, after her foul behavior. God grant my honor may remain unsullied. that
I
.
Or if it's
written that that
is
.
not to be.
Grant that in my misfortune I may show The constancy I see in some about me.
ACT
IV
Enter ARNOLPHE/rom the house.
arnolphe:
I
find
it
very hard to stay
in place.
My mind is troubled by necessary cares. Planning defenses, in the house and out. the purposes of that young coxcomb.
To cross
How unconcernedly she welcomed me! She's not disturbed by
all
her evil acts!
And though It
she brings me to the edge of death, seems to be no business of hers!
The more The more
I
watched her
I
felt
sitting,
cool and calm,
a fury rise in me;
And the upsurging transports of my heart Seemed to redouble all my amorous ardor. I
was embittered, angry, desperate;
And 508
yet she never looked so beautiful.
Moliere
Her eyes had never seemed
so bright and searching, never they roused such sharp desire in me. I feel in my heart that I must burst asunder If the calamity should fall on me. So! I have supervised her education With such precaution and with such affection, I've had her in my house from babyhood,
And
On her
I've built
my tenderest hopes and dreams,
watched her grow
I've fondly
to
be a woman.
For thirteen years I've trained her character, So that a silly youth may catch her fancy.
And carry her off, under my very eyes. When she's already almost married to me! No, no! Good God, no, no! My dear young fool.
notary:
arnolphe
your
games, but I'll be bound, your happy hopes. And you will find you cannot laugh at me! {Enter ^OT\K\.) Why, there you are! I was on my way to see you To draw the contract which you want to make. (oblivious): How shall I do it? Play
I
all
little
will annihilate
notary:
arnolphe notary:
arnolphe notary:
In the regular form.
must take every vigilant precaution. I shall write nothing against your interests. (oblivious): I must protect myself against surprise. If things are in my hands, you needn't worry. (oblivious):
You'll just
The
arnolphe
arnolphe
remember never to endorse till the money has been paid.
contract
But if I act too openly, I fear be cause for gossip in the town. It's easy to prevent publicity; The contract can be kept entirely secret. (oblivious): But how I shall stand with her, that
(oblivious):
There
notary:
I
will
is
the question.
notary:
Her dowry
arnolphe
(oblivious): I
love her;
is
proportionate to yours.
it's
my love that makes the
trouble.
notary:
In that case, she'll expect a
arnolphe
(oblivious):
notary:
The husband pays a sum equivalent to One third of the dowry; but the rule's not
How shall
treat her, in the
I
He can go further, arnolphe
if
little
more.
circumstances?
he wishes
fixed.
to.
(oblivious):
If— (He catches sight 6»/notary.)
notary:
One may
provide for a surviving spouse. husband can endow the wife
In short, the
Just as he pleases.
Eh?
arnolphe: notary:
He can well If
he loves her
much and wishes
serve her,
to benefit her.
509
— !
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Either by jointure, or a settlement is annulled on occasion of her death,
Which
to named heirs; Or according to common law, as specified, Or deed of gift, as stated in the contract, Which may be unilateral or mutual. Why do you make a face? I don't make sense? You think I don't know how a contract's drawn? Then who is going to teach me? No one alive! Don't I know well that consorts hold in common
With or without reversion
Property, chattels, goods, appurtenances.
Unless
this right is formally
renounced?
And don't I know that a third of the bride's possessions
Enter the joint estate-
arnolphe:
Yes, yes, of course
notary:
You know all that. Who said a word about it? You did; you're trying to make me pass for a fool,
arnolphe:
The
notary: arnolphe:
Why,
Shrugging your shoulders, making faces at me. devil take the man and his ugly face Good-by, good-by; we'll have no more of this.
me to draw a contract?
But didn't you send for yes,
I
did; but the matter has
been postponed.
You will be summoned when the time is fixed. You make me sick with your gabble-gabble-gabble. {Exit arnolphe.)
notary:
I
think he's mad;
I
think I'm right to think so.
{Enter alain and georgette)
You've come ALAIN:
Yes,
to fetch
me
at
your master's order?
sir.
notary:
I don't know what you think of him. But kindly give him this important message: That he's a blockhead. georgette: We won't fail to do so. {Exit notary. EAi/^r arnolphe.) ALAIN: Monsieur —
Come here. You are my faithful
arnolphe:
My good, true friends. ALAIN:
I've
servants.
had a report of you.
The notary —
arnolphe:
Don't bother with him now.
Some enemies are plotting against my honor. And what an outrage it would be to you.
My friends, to have your master lose his honor! You'd never dare to appear again in public. For everyone would point at you and jeer!
Notary: I I
think he's
Since
mad;
to think so
it is
your
You must be
think I'm right
affair as
much as mine.
sure to keep such careful guard
That that young gallant can't in any way georgette: We have already learned our lesson well. arnolphe: You mustn't let his fine words take you in. ALAIN:
510
Really, sir—
Moliere
We know how to protect ourselves.
georgette:
arnolphe
{to
ALAIN):
Supposing he says, "Alain, my excellent fellow. " Help me a little to assuage my grief— ALAIN:
"You
are a fool!"
Splendid! {To georgette) "My sweet Georgette, You are so darling and so good by nature — " georgette: "You are a booby!" Good! {To ALAIN) "What harm arnolphe:
ARNOLPHE:
is
In
ALAIN:
there
my honest, upright, virtuous
"You
purposes?"
are a rascal!"
Good! {To georgette) "My
ARNOLPHE: death
is
certain
Unless you pity the agony I endure!" georgette: "You are an impudent lummox!" Excellent! arnolphe:
"Of course,
When
I
don't expect something for nothing:
people serve
So, Alain, here's a
me well,
little
I
don't forget
it.
present for you;
And
Georgette, go and buy yourself a dress. {He holds out money, which the servants take) That's just a sample of my liberal nature.
The only favor that Is
I
ask of you
a moment's conversation with your lady."
georgette {pushing
"You
him):
think I'm crazy?"
Good! arnolphe: "Get out!" {pushing him)'. ALAIN Good!. arnolphe: "Now!' georgette {pushing him): arnolphe: Good — but that's plenty. Didn't I do it right? georgette: ALAIN: That is the way you mean it, isn't it? arnolphe: Except for the money, which you shouldn't have taken.
we didn't remember that part right.
georgette:
I
ALAIN:
Do you want to have us do
guess
it
over?
No.
ARNOLPHE: Enough.
Go back
in
the house.
You've only
ALAIN:
ARNOLPHE:
No, no; go back
in the
house, those are
You can keep the money.
I'll
to say so.
my orders.
join you presently.
Keep your eyes peeled, and lend {Exit ALAIN and georgette)
a hand at need.
think that I'll engage the worthy cobbler At the corner of our street to be my spy. And Agnes will be well shut up in the house. I'll keep good guard. Especially I'll banish All ribbon sellers, and female notion dealers. I
511
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Hairdressers, glovers, peddlers of handkerchiefs. All those who make a business on the side Of encouraging the mysteries of love. I've been around, know their little tricks. My man will have to be extremely clever To get a note or message past my guard. I
(Enter HORACE.)
HORACE:
have great luck
I
in
meeting you
in this quarter.
Well, I've just had a very narrow escape! Just now,
when
I
left
you, what should
I
happen
to
see
But Agnes, appearing alone on her balcony. Enjoying the cool of the overhanging trees! She made me a signal; then she was bright enough To come downstairs and open the garden gate. We went up to her room; but a moment after She heard her jealous guardian mount the stairs. In the face of danger she found the expedient Of shutting me up in a wardrobe, with her dresses. He entered right away. I couldn't see him. But I heard him striding to and fro, unspeaking, But uttering pitiful sighs from time to time, And sometimes smiting the table with his fist,
And kicking a little dog who was sorry for him, And throwing Agnes' garments on the floor. He even broke, with a furious hand, some vases With which my lady adorned her mantelpiece. So
certainly this
man,
this
horned goat.
Must have some inkling of his situation. After a time, when he had thus discharged His anger on these uncomplaining objects, In agitation, but without a word. He left the room, and I my hiding place. Naturally, in fear of the gentleman. We couldn't hazard staying together longer. It
was too dangerous. However,
Late, I
I
shall
am due to
slip into
tonight.
her room.
announce myself by coughing
thrice,
And
she will open her window at the signal. Then, with a ladder and with Agnes' aid. will attempt to wing me to her side. I'm glad to tell it to you, my only friend.
Love
The
heart's delight increases with the telling;
No matter how perfect a person's bliss may be, He's hardly
satisfied if nobody
knows
it.
You will be happy to learn how things are going. Good-by.
I
have
to attend to
my preparations.
(Exit HORACE.)
arnolphe:
And
so the hostile fate which has decreed
My agony, gives me hardly time to breathe! I
512
am to see my prudent vigilance
Moliere
Forever undone by I,
in
their conspiracies!
my ripeness, am to be the dupe
Of a simple girl and
a rattleheaded youth!
For twenty years, a sage philosopher, I've watched the unhappy destiny of husbands, I've counted up the various accidents Which bring the most sagacious to their doom; I've profited by their calamities, And when I chose a wife, I sought for ways
To guard myself against all interlopers. And guarantee that I would be no cuckold. And,
The
to
my ends,
ultimate in
I
thought
human
I
had employed
artfulness!
But fate no doubt has issued a decree That never a husband is to be exempt; For after all my study, after all The experience I've gained upon the matter. After some twenty years of meditation On the precautions I proposed to take
To distinguish myself from all I'm caught with them
No, no! That cursed I
the other husbands,
in the universal trap!
fate shall not
be mine!
secure in my possession. the young fop has robbed me of her heart,
hold her
still
Though I shall make sure that that is all he'll win. The night appointed for their tender triumph Will not pass so delightfully as they think.
And,
in
my griefs, it is some
satisfaction
To be It's
informed of the snare that's nice that this ambitious idiot
Should take
laid for
me.
his rival for his confidant.
{Enter chrysalde.)
chrysalde: arnolphe: chrysalde: arnolphe: chrysalde: arnolphe: chrysalde:
arnolphe:
Good evening. No, not
Shall
we dine, as we agreed?
this evening.
What
is this,
a joke?
Excuse me, please. Some troubles have arisen. Something has happened to your marriage plans? You needn't be concerned with my affairs. My, what a temper! You're in trouble, then? Has some mischance occurred, to interrupt The happy progress of your love addresses? Indeed, from your appearance, I would guess it. Whatever happens, at least I'll have the advantage Of not resembling certain friends of mine
Who calmly admit supplanters to their homes. chrysalde:
It's strange that you, with all your understanding. Should be so sensitive upon this subject. Equating happiness with security. And making honor lie in one point only! Cruelty, greed, baseness and double-dealing Are unimportant, in comparison;
513
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES Regardless of one's life and character, Honor consists in dodging cuckoldry
Why, in all logic, should a man's good name Depend upon this casual circumstance? Why should a sensible man reproach himself For a misfortune which he
Why
can't prevent?
should the actions of a wife determine
If a man is worthy of honor or of blame? And if she's false to her trust, why should we make
A frightful monster of her falsity? A gentleman should properly regard Cuckoldry in a reasonable way. Since no one can ward off the blows of chance, This accident should not be taken to heart. For after all, the trouble comes entirely From the way in which you choose to treat the matter.
To guide oneself among such difficulties One should avoid excess in everything. Don't imitate those too broad-minded people seem complacent with their situation. And proudly name the lovers of their wives. Extolling their talents and their excellence,
Who
Avowing a warm affection for the Attending
all
gallants.
their little dinner parties,
So that society most justly finds That tolerance can turn to effrontery. Such conduct, certainly, we ought to blame, But the other extreme is equally indecent. If I
I
decry the lovers of wives' lovers,
likewise disapprove the turbulent husbands
Whose noisy and imprudent lamentations Arouse the general
curiosity.
Their outbursts are apparently intended
To leave no man in ignorance of their state. Between these courses is a middle way Which
the prudent man, if need be, should adopt. Taking this course, he will not have to blush At the worst a faithless wife can do to him. And thus, in short, the state of cuckoldry
Need not be so appalling, after all. The thing to do is to make the best of it;
And the best, as arnolphe:
I
insist, is
not so bad.
After this speech, the fellowship of cuckolds
Should give a vote of thanks to your noble worship; listens to your discourse Would be delighted to join the fraternity.
And anyone who chrysalde:
I
don't say that, for that's what
But since
One
I
condemn.
our wives. should take marriage as a game of dice; it's
fate that designates
When you don't get the numbers that you want, 514
Moliere Play with the utmost caution, take no chances,
And change your luck by prudence and delay. arnolphe:
In other words, sleep sound and eat your
fill,
And say unfaithfulness is no great matter. chrysalde: You are sarcastic; but quite seriously, I
can see many things more
More
terrifying.
potent of calamity, than this
you so. were given a choice of alternatives, I'd so much rather be - what you're talking of Than spouse of one of those immaculate wives Particular accident which scares
If
I
Whose
spleen makes life a constant inquisition. Dragons of virtue, spotless female devils, Entrenched behind their bulwarks of decorum, Who, on the strength of one fault uncommitted,
Assume the right to vilify the world. And who, on the grounds that they are always
faith-
ful,
Make us endure unnumbered miseries! No, no, my excellent friend; in actual fact The state of cuckoldry is what we make it. It may be welcomed, in some circumstances; It
arnolphe:
has
its
compensations,
like the rest.
You may well choose to make the best of it. But I am in no mood to try it out. And rather than accept that lot, I swear
chrysalde: Don't swear; an oath might lead to perjury. If fate has willed it, you will struggle in vain. You will not be consulted on the subject. arnolphe: I'd be a cuckold, then? Don't take it to heart, chrysalde:
Or be offended.
Plenty of people are,
Who have much less than your advantages Of person, character, and
property.
Don't compare me to such contemptible persons. But anyway, I'm sick of your mockeries. We'll have no more of this, if you please. You're angry. chrysalde: I can't imagine why. Good-by. Remember, Whatever your touchy honor may suggest. That when you swear you'll never do a thing. You've come already halfway toward the goal. (EjC/7 CHRYSALDE.) arnolphe: 1 swear it once again. Immediately I'll take my measures against that accident. {Enter alain and georgette ) My friends, want to beg your kind assistance. I am most happy to know of your affection. And now it must be clearly demonstrated. And if you properly repay my trust. You can be certain of a good reward.
arnolphe:
I
515
!
!
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES The man you know about — but keep this Expects
quiet —
to try his enterprise tonight,
And scale the wall, to force Miss Agnes' room. But we will ambush him, the three of us! have you each take a good stick, he reaches the top rung of his ladder — I will take care to open the window shutters — Both of you land your best blows on this traitor, And leave his back well marked for a souvenir. And teach him not to try such tricks again. However, be sure you do not utter my name. Or indicate that I am standing behind you. You think you'll have the wits to pay him oif? When it comes to beating, sir, we're really good I hit, when I hit, with a very noble hit. I
want
to
And when
ALAIN:
georgette:
My hit, perhaps, doesn't look quite so hard,
arnolphe:
Go in, then. Not a word to anyone.
But everybody says
it
hurts like fury.
ALAIN and georgette ) The young man will receive a useful {Exit
If all the
husbands of our
little
lesson.
city
Should welcome thus the gallants of their wives, list of cuckolds would be much reduced.
The
ACT V Early morning; the stage aA2^
is
nearly dark. Enter alain
georgette; then arnolphe.
arnolphe: alain:
arnolphe:
You rogues, what made you act so violently? sir, we were only doing what you said. There's no use trying to give me that excuse. Why,
My order was to beat him, not to kill him; And on the back, I said, not on the head. You were to land the blows which I commanded. Good God! What accident has fate contrived
How can I bear to go and find him dead Go back into the house.
Don't breathe a word
Of a certain innocent order I may have ALAIN and georgette) nearly dawn. I'll have to lay
given.
{Exit It's
How I
shall act, in the face
Oh, what
will
What will he
my plans
of this disaster.
become of me? And the boy's father. when he learns of this affair?
say,
{Enter Horace.)
HORACE: ARNOLPHE:
I'd better find out
who this fellow is.
No one could have predicted — {Recognizes presence o/horace) What! Who's there?
HORACE: arnolphe: 516
Seigneur Arnolphe,
it's
you? Yes; you —
Moliere
HORACE:
It's
was just going to ask You get up early. I
ARNOLPHE
{aside): Is
HORACE:
I
In fact,
was
I
illusion?
predicament,
in quite a
And I am grateful for heaven's In placing
you
I'm glad to
tell
Horace.
you
don't understand!
An optical
a ghost?
it
a favor of
kindly act
when
I need you. you everything turned out well, Better indeed than I had dared to hope. And by an incident that threatened ruin. Suspicion was aroused, I don't know how, About the meeting which had been arranged. When I had climbed up almost to the window, All of a sudden I saw some people appear. Well armed, and raising clubs to smite me down. They made me lose my footing and fall to the
right here, just
ground;
And though
suffered
I
some bumps and
scratches,
still
My tumble saved me from a mighty clubbing. These people— I think my jealous friend was with them — Supposed my fall resulted from their blows. As I was stunned and startled, and my pains Made me lie
motionless for quite a time.
They thought
And I
that they
the idea filled
had actually
killed
me,
them with alarm.
lay in silence, listening to their noise;
They were accusing each other of violence; They cursed their fate; and then, without a light, They came and felt me, to find if I were dead.
You can imagine that, in the night's darkness, I did my best to imitate a corpse. Then they retreated, frightened out of their I was considering retreating too, When little Agnes, moved by the tragedy.
Came For
running to
all
the talk
my
side, in desperation.
among them,
Was overheard by
wits.
naturally.
her attentive ear;
And, unobserved in the midst of all the tumult. She had escaped quite easily from the house. And when she found that I was safe and sound. She fell into an ecstasy of joy.
To
put
it
briefly, that delightful creature
Is yielding to the dictates
of her love.
She has rebelled against returning home.
And
she's entrusted
Strange
how
all
her fate to me.
her idiot keeper's tyranny
Has forced her innocence to desperate courses! What are the perils which she would encounter. 517
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES If
I
I do Agnes honorably and
did not adore her as
But
I
love
I'd rather die
purely:
than cheat her confidence.
She is the one girl in the world for me; Nothing but death will ever separate us. I can foresee my father will make trouble, But we'll be cautious, and appease his anger. She has completely carried me away, And a man must try to get what he wants in life. Now what I ask of you — you'll be discreet — Is to let me put my lady in your hands; Favor my love by giving her retreat In your own house, at least for a day or two. I have to hide the fact of her escape; No doubt there'll be a terrible hue and cry;
And
naturally a girl of her appearance.
With a young man, arouses dark suspicions. And so, sure as I am of your good will, I've given to you my total confidence. Also to you alone, my generous friend.
arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe:
Can I entrust the partner of my love. Of course, I'm at your service. Yes, of course. You're willing to do me this momentous favor? Why, very gladly, I say. I am delighted By the opportunity to help you out. Oh,
I
thank heaven for
its
gracious
gift!
been so glad to do anything! I'm very grateful to you for your kindness. I was afraid you might make difficulties. But you're a man of the world; you understand And sympathize with the ardor of the young. I have a man who's guarding her at the corner. I've never
HORACE:
arnolphe:
How shall we manage it? It's getting light. meet her here, I may perhaps be seen. if you two should turn up at my house, We'll have the servants talking. The best thing If
I
And
HORACE:
To bring her to me in a
secluded place.
That garden's handy.
shall wait for her there.
So
arnolphe:
HORACE
518
I
All these precautions are
most
is
sensible.
merely hand her over to you. And then I'll go back quietly to my lodgings. (EjC/7 HORACE.) Ah, fortune! Here's a favorable shift To make up for the evils you have done me! {He muffles his face in his cloak, and retreats to the garden entrance. Enter Horace and agi^es .) (/6» AGNES): Don't worry about the place I'm taking you to. I've found a refuge where you'll be secure. You wouldn't be safe a moment in my lodgings. Just go in there, and you'll be taken care of. I
shall
Moliere
AGNES HORACE: AGNES: HORACE: AGNES: HORACE: AGNES: HORACE: AGNES:
(arnolphe, in the garden entrance, takes her hand.) {to HORACE): Why are you leaving me? My dear, I have to. Well, then, come back as soon as possible. That is exactly what my love suggests.
Whenever I don't see you, I'm not happy. And when you're absent, I'm unhappy too. If that
You You
were
true,
you would stay here with me.
my love's not genuine? me as much as love you.
don't suspect don't love
I
(ARNOLPHE tugs at her hand) Someone is pulling me. HORACE:
It's
For us
The man beside you
And AGNES: HORACE: AGNES:
But
HORACE
is
my trusty friend,
he's entirely in our interest. I
know
don't
him, and
—
Don't be afraid. Nothing can happen when you're in his hands. But I would rather be in the hands of Horace And I'd — (To arnolphe, who is pulling her)
You HORACE: AGNES: HORACE: AGNES:
dangerous
to be seen together in this place.
wait!
Good-by.
When will
I
But
be
It's
getting light.
see you?
Certainly very soon. I
shall
in torture until then!
{departing):
Thank heaven,
there's
now no
obstacle to
my
bliss;
4
Agnes:
Why are you leaving
me?
519
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES I
can repose in full security! HORACE.)
{Exit
ARNOLPHE
{disguising his voice):
Come with me. This is not your lodging place. I have prepared a refuge for you elsewhere. There you will be secure — and solitary. {He throws back his cape, and resumes his normal
voice)
You recognize me? Oh!
AGNEs:
My face, you rogue,
ARNOLPHE: Startles
and
terrifies
you, obviously.
You are distressed and pained to I'm the impediment to your love (AGNES looks wildly about)
see
me here;
affair.
You needn't look for help from your paramour; He's now too far away to bring you aid. Aha! So young! Already a double-dealer! In your apparent innocence, you ask If children are
begotten through the ear,
And you appoint a midnight assignation. And plan elopement with your cavalier! 'Odsbody
!
How your tongue runs on with him!
Where did you get your schooling? Who
the devil
Taught you so much, and in so short a time? Haven't you any fear of ghosts and goblins? The visitor in the night has given you courage? Oh, wicked girl, to plot such perfidy! What a reward for all my kindnesses! Serpent, whom I have cherished in my bosom.
AGNES:
Who came to consciousness, only to try To poison me in pay for my caresses! Why are you shouting at me? And why not?
ARNOLPHE: AGNES:
I
wrong in what I've done. follow a paramour?
don't see anything
ARNOLPHE:
Isn't
AGNES:
He tells me that he wants me for his wife. I learned your lessons. You had preached to me
ARNOLPHE: AGNks:
it
wrong to
That one must marry to remove the sin. But I expected to take you for my wife. I thought that I had made that perfectly clear. Yes, but to tell you frankly how I think. He somehow seems to suit me better than you. With you, marriage is very grim and tiresome. And you describe it as a terrible thing. But he — oh, dear! — he makes it so delightful.
He really makes me anxious to get married. ARNOLPHE:
You lovc him, then, you traitor?
AGNEs:
Yes,
I
love him.
ARNOLPHE:
And you're
AGNEs:
Why shouldn't I tell it to you, if it's true?
520
so brazen as to
tell
me that!
Moliere
arnolphe:
You had
AGNES:
arnolphe:
Oh, dear! He's responsible! I didn't really intend to, when it happened. You ought to have suppressed that amorous impulse. But how can one suppress something so nice? Didn't you know that I would disapprove? Oh, not at all! How could it injure you? Why, certainly, I ought to be delighted. So you don't love me, then? Love you? Yes, me.
agnes:
Oh,
couldn't help
I
arnolphe: AGNES:
arnolphe: AGNES:
arnolphe: AGNES:
the right to love him,
it!
no.
What, no?
arnolphe:
You
agnes:
arnolphe: agnes:
minx?
And why
wouldn't have
me
lie?
not love me, impudent, saucy girl?
Oh, dear!
It isn't
me you ought to blame.
Why didn't you make me love you, as he did? I
arnolphe: agnes:
arnolphe:
don't think
I
prevented you at
all.
my best; I tried to do my best. But all my efforts clearly came to nothing. He just knows how, assuredly, better than He had no trouble at all in making me love I
did
Look how
this
One of the
lady wits could do no better!
Oh,
I
you. him.
peasant argues and replies!
misjudged her;
or,
upon
this
theme,
A silly girl knows more than a clever man. Since you've become so keen Tell me,
Have
for
is it
him
that
Oh,
arnolphe
{aside):
no. He'll
Ouch!
pay you back with
me back
in full,
you jade,
The obligations that you owe to me? Maybe the obligations aren't so great.
arnolphe:
It's
agnes:
You certainly did It
nothing, then, to rear you from a child?
was a
You I
I
it
in
a funny way;
pretty kind of education!
think
That
am
I
like it?
I
don't realize
trained to be a simpleton?
am ashamed, myself; and at my age
I've
had enough of passing for a
fool.
So, to escape from ignorance, you want
To have
this
dandy's lessons?
agnes:
Certainly.
He arnolphe:
interest.
How she hits on painful turns of phrase!
{Aloud) But will he pay
arnolphe:
in disputation,
so long
fed and lodged and educated you?
agnes:
agnes:
I
has revealed that
I
think
I
don't
I
could
know
so
much!
owe him more than do you. know what restrains me from rewarding I
I
This insolent speech with a good dressing-down! I'm driven wild by her offensive calm
521
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES It
would do me good
AGNES:
Why, you can
arnolphe:
(aside):
to give her a slap in the face.
slap me,
if it
gives you pleasure.
Somehow she makes my anger disappear. my old affection surges back
And all To obliterate the thought of her wickedness. What a strange thing it is to love! How weak A man can be, knowing he is betrayed! 'Well we know women's faults and imperfections, Their skittish humors and their lack of logic. Their minds are
evil,
and
their souls are frail;
There's nothing weaker, nothing
sillier,
Nothing more faithless; and in spite of all, Man will do everything for those animals. (Aloud) Well,
let's
make
peace.
And
so,
my little traitor,
pardon you everything, and love you again. Thus you can realize how much I love you; Repay my charity by loving me. I'd most devoutly like to give you pleasure. But if I could, it would be terribly hard. I'll
AGNES:
arnolphe:
You can, my dainty darling, if you wish. Why, I am sighing! That was a lover's
(Sighs)
Look at me;
see the torture in
sigh.
my face;
Give up that puppy and his puppy love. He must h^ve cast some evil spell upon you.
You will be so much happier with me You have a passion for fine clothes and gear; You'll have
them always,
And night and day
I'll
Cuddle and coddle you;
And you can do ... I
promise you.
I
I'll
eat
you up!
exactly what you please.
won't explain
(Aside)
that
pet you and caress you.
my meaning.
That's enough.
To what extremities can passion drive us!
(Aloud) In short, no love can match the love
I offer.
what is the proof you ask of me? You want to see me weep? And beat my breast? You want to have me tear out half my hair? Or shall I kill myself? Is that what you want? Oh, cruel girl, I'm ready to prove it so. Ingrate,
iaHvt^
.
Arnolphe: Look at me; see the torture in my face
AGNES:
arnolphe:
Why,
all
your speeches don't engage
my feelings.
Horace could do much more with a couple of words. You've flouted and provoked me long enough! I have my plans for you, you saucy minx. You scorn my wooing, and you drive me mad;
A convent cell will serve for my revenge. (Enter ALAIN.)
ALAIN:
arnolphe:
Excuse me, sir. It's funny, but I think Miss Agnes must have gone off with the corpse. No, here she is. Go put her in my room.
He certainly won't go looking for her there. It's
522
only for a half-hour, anyway.
Moliere I'm off to fetch a carriage, to convey her a securer place. Go, lock up well;
To
let her out of your sight for a single moment. ALAIN and AGNES) Perhaps the change of circumstances may Shake her out of her mad infatuation. (Enter HORACE.)
Don't
(Exit
HORACE:
Arnolphe You see a man in agony Heaven has put the crown on my misfortune! There is a project, cruel and unjust, To separate me from the one I love My father's chosen this morning to arrive. I met him, just descending from the coach. And no one could be more surprised than I was. !
The reason for his visit is that he Has made a marriage for me, without warning, And he's come here to put it in effect! Imagine — you will sympathize, I know — Whether a worse disaster could occur! I told you yesterday about Enrique; He is the one who causes my misfortune. He has arrived with father to destroy me; His only daughter is the bride in question! Hearing them talk, I thought that I would faint. When father spoke of paying you a call, I took no further heed, I hurried here In panic fear, to be the first to warn you. So please, for heaven's sake, don't breathe a word
Of my attachment; it would madden him. And since he has such great regard for you, Try
arnolphe: HORACE:
to dissuade
Why,
Tell
Render this
arnolphe: HORACE: arnolphe: HORACE:
him from
that other match.
yes, indeed.
him
to put things off;
friendly service to
my love.
Certainly.
my hope resides
All
in
you.
Splendid!
You Tell
him
are the truest father to me.
that at
my age—
I
see him coming.
some arguments to use. (HORACE pulls ARNOLPHE to comer of the stage, where they speak confidentially. En/^rCHRYSALDE, ORONTE, and enrique.) Listen; here are
11
ENRIQUE
{to
CHRYSALDE):
that I laid my eyes on you. Without a word 1 would have recognized you. You have the features of your lovely sister,
The moment
Whom was privileged to call my wife. How happy would be, if the cruel fates I
I
Had granted To see again
that she might return with
her
home and
me
relatives
523
!
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES After our sufferings
in a foreign land.
But since the fatal power of destiny Has robbed us of her presence, and forever, We must resign ourselves, and give our thought To the one surviving evidence of our love. You are concerned; I should not venture to Settle her fate without your warm approval. The son of Oronte's an honorable choice. But it must please you as it pleases me. chrysalde: You have a poor opinion of my judgment If you can doubt that I approve of Horace. ARNOLPHE {to HORACE): Yes, I will properly defend your cause.
HORACE
{to
ARNOLPHE):
And keep my ARNOLPHE
secret —
Oh, depend on that! (ARNOLPHE leaves HORACE, joins the others, and em(r