  - BOOK I
- CHAPTER I
THE FUNDAMENTAL ERROR IN MODERN SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY - Science during the middle of this century excited popular interest mainly on account of its bearing on the doctrines of Christianity •3
- Its popularity is now beginning to depend on its bearing not on religious problems, but on social •3
- Science itself is undergoing a corresponding change •4
- Its characteristic aim during the middle of the century was to deal with physical and physiological evolution •4
- Its characteristic aim now is to deal with the evolution of society •5
- Social science itself is not wholly new •5
- What is new is the application to it of the evolutionary theory •6
- This excites men by suggesting great social changes in the future, •7
- which will give a speculative meaning to the history of humanity, •8
- or secure for men now existing, or for their children, practical social advantages •8
- Men have thus a double reason for being interested in social science, and sociologists a double reason for studying it; •9
- and it has attracted a number of men of genius, who have applied to it methods learned in the school of physical science •9
- Yet despite their genius and their diligence, all parties complain that the results of their study are inconclusive •10
- Professor Marshall and Mr. Kidd, for instance, complain of the fact, but can suggest no explanation of it •10
- What can the explanation be? •11
- The answer will be found in the fact just referred to—that social science attempts to answer two distinct sets of questions; •12
- and one set—namely, the speculative—it has answered with great success; •12
- it has failed only in attempting to answer practical questions •13
- Now the phenomena with which it has dealt successfully are phenomena of social aggregates, considered as wholes; •13
- but the practical problems of to-day, with which it has dealt unsuccessfully, arise out of the conflict between different parts of aggregates •15
- Social science has failed as a practical guide because it has not recognised this distinction; •16
- and hence arise most of the errors of the political philosophy of this century •16
- CHAPTER II
THE ATTEMPT TO MERGE THE GREAT MAN IN THE AGGREGATE - Whatever may be done by some men, or classes of men, sociologists are at present accustomed to attribute to man •17
- Mr. Kidd’s Social Evolution, for instance, is based entirely on this procedure •17
- He quotes with approval two other writers who have been guilty of it; •18
- who both attribute to man what is done by only a few men; •19
- and the consequences of their reasoning are ludicrous •20
- Mr. Kidd’s reasoning itself is not less ludicrous. The first half of his argument is that religion prompts the few to surrender advantages to the many, which, if they chose to do so, they could keep •21
- The second half is that the many could have taken these advantages from the few, and that religion alone prevented them from doing so •21
- This contradiction is entirely due to the fact that, having first divided the social aggregate into two classes, he then obliterates his division, and thinks of them both as “man” •22
- Mr. Kidd’s confusion is the result of no accidental error. It is the inevitable result of a radically fallacious method; •24
- and of this method the chief exponent is Mr. Herbert Spencer, •24
- as a short summary of his arguments will show •
heory of progress •90
- The fittest survivor is not the same as the great man •90
- He plays a part in progress, but not the same part •90
- The fittest men, by surviving, raise the general level of the race, and promote progress only in this way •91
- The great man promotes progress by being superior to his contemporaries •92
- The movement of progress is double; •93
- one movement being very slow, the other rapid •93
- The survival of the fittest causes the slow movement •93
- The rapid movement is caused by the great man •95
- Next, as to evolution—what does the word mean? •95
- Its great practical characteristic, as put forward by Darwin, is that it is opposed to the doctrine of design, or divine intention; •96
- and yet, according to Darwin, species resulted from the intention of each animal to live and propagate •96
- Species, therefore, according to the evolutionist, is the result of intention, but not the result intended •97
- Evolution, in fact, is the reasonable sequence of the unintended •97
- This is as true of social evolution as it is of biological •97
- Many of the social conditions of any age result from the past, but were intended by nobody in the past; •98
- for instance, many of the social effects of railways and cheap printing •98
- Therefore, whenever any great man produces some change intentionally he has to work with unintended materials •99
- We can see this in the progress of dramatic art; •99
- also in the progress of philosophy •100
- And yet in each case the intended elements are equal or are greater than the unintended •100
- We see the same thing in the history of the Times printing press •101
- It was the result of many kinds of unintended progress, constantly recombined by intention •102
- Evolution, in fact, is the unintended result of the intentions of great men •104
- The unintended or evolved element in progress is what concerns the speculative philosopher •105
- The intended element, which originates directly in the great man, is what is of interest for practical purposes •106
- BOOK II
- CHAPTER I
THE NATURE AND THE DEGREES OF THE SUPERIORITIES OF GREAT MEN - The causality of the great man being established, we must consider more precisely what greatness is •111
- Mr. Spencer will help us to a general definition of it •112
- He divides the human race into the clever, the ordinary, and the stupid •113
- Now if all the race were stupid, it is plain there would be no progress; •114
- nor would there be any if all the race were ordinary; •114
- therefore progress must be due to the clever, who are, as Mr. Spencer says, a “scattered few” •115
- This is the great-man theory reasonably stated •115
- For great men are not necessarily heroes, as Carlyle thought, •116
- nor divided absolutely from all other men •116
- Greatness is various in kind and degree, •117
- but, at all events, there is a certain minority of men who resemble each other in being more efficient than the majority •180
- The democratic ruler is, theoretically, a balance for weighing the wills of the many, •181
- or a machine for executing their “mandates”; •182
- and there are signs which might suggest that the few in politics are really becoming the mere instruments of the many •182
- But these signs are deceptive; for what seems the will of the many, really depends on the action of another minority •183
- Opinions, to derive power from the numbers who hold them, must be identical; •184
- but they seldom are identical till a few men have manipulated them •184
- Thus what seems to be the opinion of the many is generally dependent on the influence of a few •185
- The many, for instance, would never have had any opinions on Free Trade or Bimetallism if the few had not worked on them •185
- Popular opinion requires exceptional men, as nuclei, round which to form itself •187
- Thus even in what seems extremest democracy the few are essential •188
- Democrats, however, may argue that under democracy the few do, in the long-run, carry out the wishes of the many •188
- Even were this true, the current formulas of democracy would be false, for unequal men would be essential to executing the wishes of equals •189
- Now in reality the few are never mere passive agents; •189
- but nevertheless the many do impress their will on them to a great extent •190
- The question is to what extent? •191
- This introduces us to a new side of the problem—the extent of the power of the many •191
- This is greater in politics than in industry; •192
- and yet when we think it over we shall see that it is great in most domains of activity •192
- We had to take it for granted at starting. We must now examine it •193
- BOOK III
- CHAPTER I
HOW TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THE PARTS CONTRIBUTED TO A JOINT PRODUCT BY THE FEW AND BY THE MANY - Mill declares that when two agencies are essential to producing an effect, their respective contributions to it cannot be discriminated •197
- Mill argues thus with special reference to land and labour; •198
- but he overlooks what in actual life is the main feature of the case •198
- The labour remaining the same, the product varies with the quality of the land •198
- The extra product resulting from labour on superior land is due to land, not labour •199
- This is easily proved by a number of analogous illustrations •199
- Mill errs by ignoring the changing character of the effect •201
- The case of labour directed by different great men is the same as the case of labour applied to different qualities of land. The great men produce the increment •202
- Labour, however, must be held to produce that minimum necessary to support the labourer, •203
- both in agriculture •203
- and in all kinds of production •204
- The great man produces the increment that would not be produced if his influence ceased •204
- Labour, it is true, is essential to the production of the increment also; •205
- but we cannot draw any conclusions from the hypothesis of labour ceasing; •205
- for the labourer would have to labour whether the great men were there or no •206
- The cessation of the gr
to produce it, •343
- and who consequently invents false theories about its production, which do nothing but demoralise those who are duped by them •343
- (though even these theories can be discussed with profit under certain circumstances) •344
- Men like these embody the two chief dangers of the equalisation of educational opportunity, •345
- namely, the rousing in the average man wants he cannot satisfy, and the stimulating of talents that are constitutionally imperfect •345
- The latter of these dangers is the source of the former •346
- It cannot be completely avoided, but the present theories of education tend to heighten, not to minimise it •346
- The current theory that all talents should be developed is false, •347
- so is the theory that all tastes should be cultivated in all alike. The education proper for the rich is not a type but an exception •347
- These false theories rest on the false belief that equal education could ever produce equal social conditions •348
- The majority of each class will remain in the class in which they were born •348
- Only the efficiently exceptional can rise out of their own class, •348
- and it is the ambition of the efficiently exceptional only that it is really desirable to stimulate •349
- The average man should be taught to aim at embellishing his position, not at escaping from it •349
- CHAPTER IV
INEQUALITY, HAPPINESS, AND PROGRESS - The radical politician will object to the foregoing conclusions in terms with which we are familiar •351
- The radical theorist will put the same objections more logically. If the desire of exceptional wealth is really the strongest motive, he will say that it follows that most men, since they cannot all be exceptionally rich, must always remain miserable •352
- Now the first answer to this is that the fact that all men will never be equally wealthy does not prevent the conditions of all men from improving absolutely •353
- Another answer is that if inequality in the possession of the most coveted prizes of life implies misery amongst the majority, this evil would be intensified rather than mitigated by socialists, who would substitute unequal honour for unequal wealth •354
- The final answer is that the unequal distribution of wealth has no natural tendency to cause unhappiness; •357
- for men’s desires vary. There is equality of desire for the necessaries of life only; for this desire rests on men’s physical natures, which are similar; •357
- but the desire for superfluities depends on their mental powers, which vary •358
- The special appeal of luxury is mainly to the mind and the imagination— •358
- the luxury, for instance, of a large house, •359
- or sleeping accommodation in a train •359
- Consequently the desire for luxury and wealth, like the pleasure they give, depends on peculiar mental powers or peculiar mental states •360
- Amongst most men the desire for wealth is naturally a speculative desire only •361
- It implies no pain caused by the want of wealth •361
- The desire ceases to be speculative and becomes a practical craving only when the imagination is exceptionally strong, and a strong belief is present that the attainment of wealth is possible •362
- The desire for wealth, in fact, is in proportion to each man’s belief that by him personally it is attainable •364
- This belief is naturally confined to men with exceptional imaginations and exceptional productive powers •365
- It only becomes general by the popularising of false theories which represent wealth as attainable by all, without exceptional talent or exceptional exertion •366
- It is roused, for instance, in a man who suddenly is told that he has a legal right to an estate which previously he never thought of coveting •366
- The socialistic teaching of to-day creates a spurious desire for wealth by its doctrines of impossible rights t
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