A Rational Critique of Marxism and Communism - V
(Selections from the book: "POLITICS POWER AND
PARTIES" by M. N. Roy.) - I
1. "Notwithstanding the pragmatically proved errors and inadequacies of the Marxist political theories and social doctrines, I was confirmed in the conviction that Materialism is the only possible philosophy. But my conviction is based on intellectual Judgment; it is not a dogmatic faith. Therefore, it did not prevent me from admitting the force of the recent challenges to Materialism, particularly to its cosmology. It is also contended that Materialism cannot have an ethics; that there is no logical relation between a philosophy of nature and a moral philosophy; that even if Materialism could successfully meet the challenge to its cosmology, that would not quality it to offer a logically deduced system of ethics, and therefore, materialist philosophy could not indicate the way out of the crisis of our time, which is a moral crisis. But I submit that a secular, rationalist system of ethics can be logically deduced from a materialistic cosmology. A moral philosophy which can do without a transcendental and super-sensual sanction is the crying need of our time." (Pages 2,3)
2. "The scientific mode of thought, having driven religion from pillar to post, is meeting the final assault of the vanquished adversary. The sophisticated philosophies waging war against Materialism with "scientific" weapons, are all in the last analysis rationalized religion, Denying the possibility of man ever knowing anything, they preach a neo-mysticism and revive the teleological view of life, which is the expression of Man's loss of faith in himself. That is the central feature of the crisis of our time. To come out of it, mankind must therefore have a philosophy which places man in the centre of the Universe, as the maker of his destiny, and celebrate the final triumph of science over religion." (Pages 3, 4)
3. "Ever since the ancient thinkers abandoned physical enquiry for metaphysical speculation, philosophy was vitiated by the fallacy of dualism. Modern science finally enabled Materialism, a naturalist system of ideas, to conceive a monistic picture of the world. If the Universe is a cosmos, it is arbitrary to break it up into matter and mind. A monistic naturalism does not allow evolutionary ethics to distinguish a world of values from a world of facts. A monistic philosophy cannot have a dualist ethics. Values are sui generis; they are born in our conscience; they are not deduced from facts; they are facts." (Page 10)
4. "Different branches of science had surveyed various aspects of nature. The object of each branch of scientific knowledge was not the whole of reality. The fallacy was to make the partial view of physics, for example, a picture of the whole of reality. That picture was to be sought in an integration of knowledge acquired by the different branches of science. To build that picture of reality was the function of philosophy. But academic philosophy, except in the short period of Enlightenment, had never fully broken away from religious or metaphysical traditions. Therefore, it failed when the time came for it to take over the leadership of human progress. The root of the crisis of our time is to be traced in that failure of philosophy to justify itself. Therefore I call it an intellectual crisis; intellectually bankrupt men are naturally demoralized. Having lost faith in themselves, they project their moral crisis on to the world." (Pages 13, 14)
5. "Modern science knows a good deal about man's emotions, and can trace them wholly to physico-chemical processes. Once you know these processes, you can actually change the emotions of men. We can therefore make the hypothetical assertion that emotions have no extra-physical origin or significance. Of the soul, however, nothing is known for the obvious reasons that there is no such thing. But if it is identified with man's highest emotions, then it is reduced to a part of man's psycho-physiological nature.
Much emphasis is laid in modern theories on instincts and intuitions. On which moral judgment is supposed to be based in preference to man's reason and intelligence. But if we trace the biological development of man back beyond the appearance of the human species, you can find rudimentary forms of the power of thinking and reasoning and even of moral judgment already in the lower animals. Instinct and intuition are nothing mysterious, but an undifferentiated form of rationalism, which can however teach us a good deal about the working of man's reason. So long as the cortex in the cerebral processes was not sufficiently differentiated, these functions took place in the neural system as a mechanical biological reaction. Therefore they cannot be analysed in terms of conscious thought. But the cerebral activity was there in elementary form even before the appearance of homo sapiens." (Page 137)
6. "But scientific knowledge as learned in schools and colleges is not enough to make a Humanist. You may learn something about physics and yet not be a scientist. There may be even recognized scientists who have not necessarily imbibed the scientific spirit. Knowledge in our days has become departmentalized. But true scientific knowledge presupposes an understanding and coordination of all the departments of science. The function of philosophy is precisely that. It must supply a coherent picture of the various branches of knowledge acquired by human experience at a given time. An integrated picture of the knowledge of modern science leads to an integral scientific Humanism, because it can explain man." (Page 136, 137)
7. "We can trace the biological evolution of man further through the entire process of natural evolution back to inorganic matter. There is supposed to be a hiatus somewhere. This hiatus is, so to say, the last leg on which the doctrine of creation stands today, of which the assumption of the soul is a part. Assuming that there is a "missing link', the problem is of an adequate hypothesis. Two hypotheses are possible. One is the old hypothesis of creation, according to which a God took it in his head to create the world. The other hypothesis is that, out of the background of inanimate nature, life evolved through a certain combination of material substances under particular circumstances and conditions. This hypothesis is logically more plausible and there is more empirical evidence in its favour than for the former hypothesis, even if it is not yet conclusively proved." (Page 138)
8. "All the religious philosophers of the Middle Ages were frank dualists. The rationalist rebels against theology – Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant - also could not get out of the vicious circle of dualism. Entangled in that vicious circle, you cannot conceive of man being free. In the context of a dualist philosophy, the only logically consistent ideology which can offer security is religion, and the religious man must always bow before the will of God or the moral law of a teleological order. Morality is equated with absence of freedom." (Page 10)
9. "Religion can be very sophisticated; it may do away with the anthropomorphic conception of God and reduce deity to a disembodied cosmic consciousness. Yet, religion is not religion unless it assumes some superhuman existence. The basic principle of Humanism is the primacy of man. Manhood is the beginning of human existence, and man is an end in himself. Evidently, Humanism cannot be based on the belief that there is something higher than man." (Page 104)
10. "The naturalist Humanism of the Renaissance was also ultimately defective. It represented man's conscious or unconscious revolt against God, yet could not explain man. The belief in God was replaced by a belief in man. Man became the object of belief, not an object of knowledge. God was dethroned, to be replaced by Man, conceived as a mystic entity, essentially not different from the metaphysical concept of Soul deduced from the belief in God.
The naturalist Humanism of the Renaissance was certainly an advance on the religious Humanism of the earlier period. But because of its mystic implication, because human being and becoming could not as yet be placed in the context of the physical world, it also could not satisfy the human mind. Subjected to the searching skepticism of seventeenth century rationalism, it was again relegated to the lumber-room of history. Ultimately, the tradition of the naturalist yet mystic Humanism found a fresh expression in Feuerbach, the disciple of Hegel, who became the spiritual father of Karl Marx." (Pages 104, 105)
11. "The evolution of life having been traced into the depths of physical nature, and the animal ancestry of the human species established, man ceased to be a mystic and mysterious phenomenon specially created by God as a vehicle for the operation of the Providential Will.
At that moment, Karl Marx stepped in with his partially valid criticism of Feuerbach; but instead of improving upon him he buried Humanism for a long time to come. Karl-Marx seized on that defect of Feuerbach's philosophy and tried to set it right. He said that man was a social being, having his being and becoming in society. An effort to improve on Feuerbach ultimately led to the burial of the individual man, who was submerged in the collective being of society.
Yet, Marx began as a Humanist, pursuing the age-old idea towards a point where development of the individual would mean development for all. The humanist tradition of modern civilization was too strong for a prophetic reformer to ignore. But a correct rejection of the mystic conception of man led him to a negation of his own ideal. Man is a social animal; he cannot have his being and becoming in isolation; ergo, argued the Hegelian, social reorganization is the condition for the liberation of man. The perverted utopia of Communism became a new religion; an imaginary collective ego-social interest or social progress-replaced the old God, to be propitiated by the sacrifice of the individual. Man must surrender his freedom as an individual to regain it in a collective existence.
That was a throwback. Modern political theories, developed in the seventeenth century, all started from the individual. The problem was regarding the origin of society; how was civil society founded? The creation of modern political institutions was to be guided by the knowledge of the origin of civil society. In the last analysis, the problem was about the nature of man. The origin of society was explained variously by the different thinkers who applied themselves to the problem. They all assumed, implicitly, the rationality of man. The doctrine of Social Contract ultimately became the Bible of democracy. Philosophically, it was interpreted differently. Rousseau's interpretation differed from that of Locke. Liberalism based on Locke's doctrine retained the humanist principle of the sovereignty of the individual. But Rousseau became the prophet of totalitarianism, which was heralded by his doctrine of the General Will, deduced from the hypothesis of an original contract.
Thus, a metaphysical concept of popular sovereignty replaced the mediaeval doctrine of the Diving Right of Kings. If kings ruled by divine right, Rousseau's democracy also rested on a metaphysical sanction, which ultimately led to a situation in which the creation had greater importance than the creator, to the extent that it was entitled to claim the creator for its first victim."(Pages 105, 106)
12. "The Marxian theory is also teleological : history is made by the operation of the productive forces; there is little man can do about it; he must recognize necessity and then he is free. Once you realise that you cannot be free, that you are bound hand and foot to some mysterious forces of production, then you are free! The Marxist conception of freedom means slavery for the individual, and a society composed of voluntary slaves can never be free, except in imagination or propaganda literature. As a matter of fact, by the conversion to the modern faith of Marxism, man willingly surrenders his right to freedom, and cultivates a cynical attitude to morality. The exposure of the contradiction between the theories and practice of the optimistic nineteenth century helped the spread of Marxism, and the spread of this Jesuitic cult has aggravated the crisis of our time. It has discredited Materialism as antagonistic to moral behavior and ethical values and has thus played into the hands of the prophets of a religious revivalism." (Pages 8, 9)
13. "According to Marxism, dialectics is believed to be the spring of all progress. Dialectics is process by contradiction. Applied to society, dialectics means that the contradiction between classes is the cause of all social progress. Karl Marx went to the extent of saying that human history is the history of class struggle.
Now, if we visualise that after the establishment of Socialism or Communism classes will disappear, what will be the logical corollary to that in terms of dialectis? Dialectics itself would cease to operate, and social progress would come to a standstill! So, if we are consistent dialecticians, we shall have to say that, on the attainment of Communism, humanity commits suicide; because if mankind does not progress any more, if there is to be no further room for social evolution, then there is stagnation, and under conditions of stagnation life disintegrates.
As that theoretical deduction from a certain Marxian hypothesis could not be corroborated by the actualities of life, social development did not take place as predicted by Karl Marx, even after the working-class captured power and established its dictatorship in one sixth of the earth." (Pages 25, 26)
14. "Humanism is an old philosophy. Humanists have always approached all problems of life from the assumption of the sovereignty of man. But man remained unexplained, veiled in mystery. Now we know approximately what makes man a man, what is the source of his sovereignty, his creativeness. It is his capacity of knowing, as distinct from the common biological property of being aware; and knowledge endows him with power – not to rule over others, but to create for the benefit of the race, and pursue the ideal of freedom further and further. As the content of knowledge is truth, the enlightened man finds in himself the sanction of the moral values cherished by him. The humanist mission, therefore, is the pursuit of knowledge and dissemination of knowledge already acquired." (Pages 12, 13)
15. "Man must regain faith in himself if the civilized world is to get out of the crisis of our time. But he cannot be self-reliant unless he outgrows the time-honoured prejudice that, if he is ever to shine, he can do so only in the reflection of a Divine Light. New Humanism maintains that modern science, particularly the science of life and man, that is, biology, has destroyed the foundation of this prejudice. The foundation was ignorance. The light of scientific knowledge has revealed the truth about human nature. Man is essentially a rational being. His basic urge is not to believe, but to question and to know. He gropes in the darkness of ignorance, a helpless victim of blind faith in forces beyond his control, until the light of knowledge illumines his path. The only truth accessible to man is the content of his knowledge. Anything beyond the reach of his knowledge is nothing-an illusion."(Pages 107, 108)
16. "To spread enlightenment in all the dark corners of our social life, where superstitions lurk and prejudice breeds, is the most fundamental task of all. It is the precondition for any better society, particularly for a democratic society and for a higher cultural level. If authoritarian mentality is so prevalent, it is because of the cultural backwardness of the people. If we want to avoid the danger of totalitarianism, we must change that mentality of the people. That can be done only if those who are at least partially enlightened, conscious of their own responsibility contribute to this effort." (Page 178)
17. "There are people who are above corruption. But politics as it is practiced today repels them. They stay out of the scramble for power because it might corrupt even the best of men. Nevertheless, they are not necessarily unconcerned with public affairs. They try to do small things in their quiet manner, and the cumulative effect of their silent endeavour may keep the morale of society from a complete collapse. To raise politics above corruption, it must be free from the lust for power. A constitutional structure based upon an even distribution of power alone can purify politics, and such a genuine democratic system is possible if the individual is restored to his place of primacy." (page 184)
18. "What is clear in our minds can be expressed in clear and plain words. We must speak the language of the people, look at problems from their point of view, from the experience of daily life. Scientific knowledge and its significance for them can be brought to them in simple language. The old theories of the nineteenth century may be naïve for the highbrow who cannot see the relation between science and life. Steam still creates power; electricity can be harnessed for the benefit of man; medicine cures and prevents disease; biology explains a whole lot of things of daily experience; Darwinism is still to go to the masses, particularly in backward countries; psychology throws light on the mysteries of mental life. The people, particularly in our country, require this kind of knowledge. It will give them a sense of power, the power to do, to act; their moral stamina will be reinforced in proportion as knowledge liberates them from the traditional bondage of ignorance fostered on the authority of religion.
Nor is it necessary for the people to grasp the intricate problems of sociology ; the breakdown of the economic system is a matter of their daily experience. It is not necessary for them to understand economic theories. They experience want in the midst of plenty. Once they are made conscious of their experience, they will feel the need for a reconstruction of the present state of affairs. Political problems can be made similarly accessible to them through their experience. Finally, we shall show them how they can take things in their own hands. But all these seemingly easy steps presuppose man's faith in himself. They will gain that faith in the experience of doing things.
The crisis is a creation of those people who were to lead mankind. They have failed. A mighty resurgence of the common men and women only can save modern civilization. To inspire that resurgence, organize it, guide it to fruition-that is the mission of a new humanism of our time." (Pages 14,15)
19. "Philosophy could not claim the honour of a science, which it does claim, unless it was monistic, unless it could cover all the various aspects of life under its logical system of thought. To my knowledge, only materialist philosophy can substantiate that claim. The synthesis which is possible on the basis of philosophic Materialism, in so far as it recognizes the objective validity of ideas, provides a new philosophy which can satisfy the modern man. With this new philosophy it should be possible to convince even the more intelligent among the followers of Karl Marx, if they really know their prophet.
The last of Karl Marx's famous Theses on Feuerbach was that until now philosophers had only interpreted the world in different ways ; now had come the time for philosophers to remake the world. It is possible that the world can be remade in various ways. But if the standard is that of freedom to be enjoyed by individual human beings, then we are interested only in that way which will lead to such freedom, and to achieve that we must have a philosophy to guide us on that way. Such a monistic materialist-realist philosophy leads in the sphere of social theory to a Humanist Radicalism, or Radical Humanism. It recognises the dynamics of ideas and the decisive role which the dynamics of ideas has played throughout the entire history of social evolution, and reconciles these with the dialectics of economic and social development." (Page 31)
(To be continued)
2. "The scientific mode of thought, having driven religion from pillar to post, is meeting the final assault of the vanquished adversary. The sophisticated philosophies waging war against Materialism with "scientific" weapons, are all in the last analysis rationalized religion, Denying the possibility of man ever knowing anything, they preach a neo-mysticism and revive the teleological view of life, which is the expression of Man's loss of faith in himself. That is the central feature of the crisis of our time. To come out of it, mankind must therefore have a philosophy which places man in the centre of the Universe, as the maker of his destiny, and celebrate the final triumph of science over religion." (Pages 3, 4)
3. "Ever since the ancient thinkers abandoned physical enquiry for metaphysical speculation, philosophy was vitiated by the fallacy of dualism. Modern science finally enabled Materialism, a naturalist system of ideas, to conceive a monistic picture of the world. If the Universe is a cosmos, it is arbitrary to break it up into matter and mind. A monistic naturalism does not allow evolutionary ethics to distinguish a world of values from a world of facts. A monistic philosophy cannot have a dualist ethics. Values are sui generis; they are born in our conscience; they are not deduced from facts; they are facts." (Page 10)
4. "Different branches of science had surveyed various aspects of nature. The object of each branch of scientific knowledge was not the whole of reality. The fallacy was to make the partial view of physics, for example, a picture of the whole of reality. That picture was to be sought in an integration of knowledge acquired by the different branches of science. To build that picture of reality was the function of philosophy. But academic philosophy, except in the short period of Enlightenment, had never fully broken away from religious or metaphysical traditions. Therefore, it failed when the time came for it to take over the leadership of human progress. The root of the crisis of our time is to be traced in that failure of philosophy to justify itself. Therefore I call it an intellectual crisis; intellectually bankrupt men are naturally demoralized. Having lost faith in themselves, they project their moral crisis on to the world." (Pages 13, 14)
5. "Modern science knows a good deal about man's emotions, and can trace them wholly to physico-chemical processes. Once you know these processes, you can actually change the emotions of men. We can therefore make the hypothetical assertion that emotions have no extra-physical origin or significance. Of the soul, however, nothing is known for the obvious reasons that there is no such thing. But if it is identified with man's highest emotions, then it is reduced to a part of man's psycho-physiological nature.
Much emphasis is laid in modern theories on instincts and intuitions. On which moral judgment is supposed to be based in preference to man's reason and intelligence. But if we trace the biological development of man back beyond the appearance of the human species, you can find rudimentary forms of the power of thinking and reasoning and even of moral judgment already in the lower animals. Instinct and intuition are nothing mysterious, but an undifferentiated form of rationalism, which can however teach us a good deal about the working of man's reason. So long as the cortex in the cerebral processes was not sufficiently differentiated, these functions took place in the neural system as a mechanical biological reaction. Therefore they cannot be analysed in terms of conscious thought. But the cerebral activity was there in elementary form even before the appearance of homo sapiens." (Page 137)
6. "But scientific knowledge as learned in schools and colleges is not enough to make a Humanist. You may learn something about physics and yet not be a scientist. There may be even recognized scientists who have not necessarily imbibed the scientific spirit. Knowledge in our days has become departmentalized. But true scientific knowledge presupposes an understanding and coordination of all the departments of science. The function of philosophy is precisely that. It must supply a coherent picture of the various branches of knowledge acquired by human experience at a given time. An integrated picture of the knowledge of modern science leads to an integral scientific Humanism, because it can explain man." (Page 136, 137)
7. "We can trace the biological evolution of man further through the entire process of natural evolution back to inorganic matter. There is supposed to be a hiatus somewhere. This hiatus is, so to say, the last leg on which the doctrine of creation stands today, of which the assumption of the soul is a part. Assuming that there is a "missing link', the problem is of an adequate hypothesis. Two hypotheses are possible. One is the old hypothesis of creation, according to which a God took it in his head to create the world. The other hypothesis is that, out of the background of inanimate nature, life evolved through a certain combination of material substances under particular circumstances and conditions. This hypothesis is logically more plausible and there is more empirical evidence in its favour than for the former hypothesis, even if it is not yet conclusively proved." (Page 138)
8. "All the religious philosophers of the Middle Ages were frank dualists. The rationalist rebels against theology – Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant - also could not get out of the vicious circle of dualism. Entangled in that vicious circle, you cannot conceive of man being free. In the context of a dualist philosophy, the only logically consistent ideology which can offer security is religion, and the religious man must always bow before the will of God or the moral law of a teleological order. Morality is equated with absence of freedom." (Page 10)
9. "Religion can be very sophisticated; it may do away with the anthropomorphic conception of God and reduce deity to a disembodied cosmic consciousness. Yet, religion is not religion unless it assumes some superhuman existence. The basic principle of Humanism is the primacy of man. Manhood is the beginning of human existence, and man is an end in himself. Evidently, Humanism cannot be based on the belief that there is something higher than man." (Page 104)
10. "The naturalist Humanism of the Renaissance was also ultimately defective. It represented man's conscious or unconscious revolt against God, yet could not explain man. The belief in God was replaced by a belief in man. Man became the object of belief, not an object of knowledge. God was dethroned, to be replaced by Man, conceived as a mystic entity, essentially not different from the metaphysical concept of Soul deduced from the belief in God.
The naturalist Humanism of the Renaissance was certainly an advance on the religious Humanism of the earlier period. But because of its mystic implication, because human being and becoming could not as yet be placed in the context of the physical world, it also could not satisfy the human mind. Subjected to the searching skepticism of seventeenth century rationalism, it was again relegated to the lumber-room of history. Ultimately, the tradition of the naturalist yet mystic Humanism found a fresh expression in Feuerbach, the disciple of Hegel, who became the spiritual father of Karl Marx." (Pages 104, 105)
11. "The evolution of life having been traced into the depths of physical nature, and the animal ancestry of the human species established, man ceased to be a mystic and mysterious phenomenon specially created by God as a vehicle for the operation of the Providential Will.
At that moment, Karl Marx stepped in with his partially valid criticism of Feuerbach; but instead of improving upon him he buried Humanism for a long time to come. Karl-Marx seized on that defect of Feuerbach's philosophy and tried to set it right. He said that man was a social being, having his being and becoming in society. An effort to improve on Feuerbach ultimately led to the burial of the individual man, who was submerged in the collective being of society.
Yet, Marx began as a Humanist, pursuing the age-old idea towards a point where development of the individual would mean development for all. The humanist tradition of modern civilization was too strong for a prophetic reformer to ignore. But a correct rejection of the mystic conception of man led him to a negation of his own ideal. Man is a social animal; he cannot have his being and becoming in isolation; ergo, argued the Hegelian, social reorganization is the condition for the liberation of man. The perverted utopia of Communism became a new religion; an imaginary collective ego-social interest or social progress-replaced the old God, to be propitiated by the sacrifice of the individual. Man must surrender his freedom as an individual to regain it in a collective existence.
That was a throwback. Modern political theories, developed in the seventeenth century, all started from the individual. The problem was regarding the origin of society; how was civil society founded? The creation of modern political institutions was to be guided by the knowledge of the origin of civil society. In the last analysis, the problem was about the nature of man. The origin of society was explained variously by the different thinkers who applied themselves to the problem. They all assumed, implicitly, the rationality of man. The doctrine of Social Contract ultimately became the Bible of democracy. Philosophically, it was interpreted differently. Rousseau's interpretation differed from that of Locke. Liberalism based on Locke's doctrine retained the humanist principle of the sovereignty of the individual. But Rousseau became the prophet of totalitarianism, which was heralded by his doctrine of the General Will, deduced from the hypothesis of an original contract.
Thus, a metaphysical concept of popular sovereignty replaced the mediaeval doctrine of the Diving Right of Kings. If kings ruled by divine right, Rousseau's democracy also rested on a metaphysical sanction, which ultimately led to a situation in which the creation had greater importance than the creator, to the extent that it was entitled to claim the creator for its first victim."(Pages 105, 106)
12. "The Marxian theory is also teleological : history is made by the operation of the productive forces; there is little man can do about it; he must recognize necessity and then he is free. Once you realise that you cannot be free, that you are bound hand and foot to some mysterious forces of production, then you are free! The Marxist conception of freedom means slavery for the individual, and a society composed of voluntary slaves can never be free, except in imagination or propaganda literature. As a matter of fact, by the conversion to the modern faith of Marxism, man willingly surrenders his right to freedom, and cultivates a cynical attitude to morality. The exposure of the contradiction between the theories and practice of the optimistic nineteenth century helped the spread of Marxism, and the spread of this Jesuitic cult has aggravated the crisis of our time. It has discredited Materialism as antagonistic to moral behavior and ethical values and has thus played into the hands of the prophets of a religious revivalism." (Pages 8, 9)
13. "According to Marxism, dialectics is believed to be the spring of all progress. Dialectics is process by contradiction. Applied to society, dialectics means that the contradiction between classes is the cause of all social progress. Karl Marx went to the extent of saying that human history is the history of class struggle.
Now, if we visualise that after the establishment of Socialism or Communism classes will disappear, what will be the logical corollary to that in terms of dialectis? Dialectics itself would cease to operate, and social progress would come to a standstill! So, if we are consistent dialecticians, we shall have to say that, on the attainment of Communism, humanity commits suicide; because if mankind does not progress any more, if there is to be no further room for social evolution, then there is stagnation, and under conditions of stagnation life disintegrates.
As that theoretical deduction from a certain Marxian hypothesis could not be corroborated by the actualities of life, social development did not take place as predicted by Karl Marx, even after the working-class captured power and established its dictatorship in one sixth of the earth." (Pages 25, 26)
14. "Humanism is an old philosophy. Humanists have always approached all problems of life from the assumption of the sovereignty of man. But man remained unexplained, veiled in mystery. Now we know approximately what makes man a man, what is the source of his sovereignty, his creativeness. It is his capacity of knowing, as distinct from the common biological property of being aware; and knowledge endows him with power – not to rule over others, but to create for the benefit of the race, and pursue the ideal of freedom further and further. As the content of knowledge is truth, the enlightened man finds in himself the sanction of the moral values cherished by him. The humanist mission, therefore, is the pursuit of knowledge and dissemination of knowledge already acquired." (Pages 12, 13)
15. "Man must regain faith in himself if the civilized world is to get out of the crisis of our time. But he cannot be self-reliant unless he outgrows the time-honoured prejudice that, if he is ever to shine, he can do so only in the reflection of a Divine Light. New Humanism maintains that modern science, particularly the science of life and man, that is, biology, has destroyed the foundation of this prejudice. The foundation was ignorance. The light of scientific knowledge has revealed the truth about human nature. Man is essentially a rational being. His basic urge is not to believe, but to question and to know. He gropes in the darkness of ignorance, a helpless victim of blind faith in forces beyond his control, until the light of knowledge illumines his path. The only truth accessible to man is the content of his knowledge. Anything beyond the reach of his knowledge is nothing-an illusion."(Pages 107, 108)
16. "To spread enlightenment in all the dark corners of our social life, where superstitions lurk and prejudice breeds, is the most fundamental task of all. It is the precondition for any better society, particularly for a democratic society and for a higher cultural level. If authoritarian mentality is so prevalent, it is because of the cultural backwardness of the people. If we want to avoid the danger of totalitarianism, we must change that mentality of the people. That can be done only if those who are at least partially enlightened, conscious of their own responsibility contribute to this effort." (Page 178)
17. "There are people who are above corruption. But politics as it is practiced today repels them. They stay out of the scramble for power because it might corrupt even the best of men. Nevertheless, they are not necessarily unconcerned with public affairs. They try to do small things in their quiet manner, and the cumulative effect of their silent endeavour may keep the morale of society from a complete collapse. To raise politics above corruption, it must be free from the lust for power. A constitutional structure based upon an even distribution of power alone can purify politics, and such a genuine democratic system is possible if the individual is restored to his place of primacy." (page 184)
18. "What is clear in our minds can be expressed in clear and plain words. We must speak the language of the people, look at problems from their point of view, from the experience of daily life. Scientific knowledge and its significance for them can be brought to them in simple language. The old theories of the nineteenth century may be naïve for the highbrow who cannot see the relation between science and life. Steam still creates power; electricity can be harnessed for the benefit of man; medicine cures and prevents disease; biology explains a whole lot of things of daily experience; Darwinism is still to go to the masses, particularly in backward countries; psychology throws light on the mysteries of mental life. The people, particularly in our country, require this kind of knowledge. It will give them a sense of power, the power to do, to act; their moral stamina will be reinforced in proportion as knowledge liberates them from the traditional bondage of ignorance fostered on the authority of religion.
Nor is it necessary for the people to grasp the intricate problems of sociology ; the breakdown of the economic system is a matter of their daily experience. It is not necessary for them to understand economic theories. They experience want in the midst of plenty. Once they are made conscious of their experience, they will feel the need for a reconstruction of the present state of affairs. Political problems can be made similarly accessible to them through their experience. Finally, we shall show them how they can take things in their own hands. But all these seemingly easy steps presuppose man's faith in himself. They will gain that faith in the experience of doing things.
The crisis is a creation of those people who were to lead mankind. They have failed. A mighty resurgence of the common men and women only can save modern civilization. To inspire that resurgence, organize it, guide it to fruition-that is the mission of a new humanism of our time." (Pages 14,15)
19. "Philosophy could not claim the honour of a science, which it does claim, unless it was monistic, unless it could cover all the various aspects of life under its logical system of thought. To my knowledge, only materialist philosophy can substantiate that claim. The synthesis which is possible on the basis of philosophic Materialism, in so far as it recognizes the objective validity of ideas, provides a new philosophy which can satisfy the modern man. With this new philosophy it should be possible to convince even the more intelligent among the followers of Karl Marx, if they really know their prophet.
The last of Karl Marx's famous Theses on Feuerbach was that until now philosophers had only interpreted the world in different ways ; now had come the time for philosophers to remake the world. It is possible that the world can be remade in various ways. But if the standard is that of freedom to be enjoyed by individual human beings, then we are interested only in that way which will lead to such freedom, and to achieve that we must have a philosophy to guide us on that way. Such a monistic materialist-realist philosophy leads in the sphere of social theory to a Humanist Radicalism, or Radical Humanism. It recognises the dynamics of ideas and the decisive role which the dynamics of ideas has played throughout the entire history of social evolution, and reconciles these with the dialectics of economic and social development." (Page 31)
(To be continued)
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