THE FIELD OF PHILOSOPHY INTRODUCTION PHILOSOPHY AND THE CRISIS IN CIVILIZATION Civilization to-day seems to be passing through one of its periodic crises. Resemblances may be found between the present transitional era of culture and previous ones. Common to all such eras are: the dissolution of traditional systems of social custom and belief; the breakdown of inherited sanctions in religion, morality, and law; and the consequent confusion in regard to social ethics, the principles of government, and the values and ends of social culture. The culture of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries in Western Europe exhibited a transitional character the movement away from social unity and the authority of traditional forms, and towards a particularistic conception of social life and the supremacy of abstract reason; that is, towards the a priori construction of principles and ideals of social order, regardless of the historical development of social structures. This movement reached its culmination in the eighteenth century, to give way, in the nineteenth century, to the historical and evolutionary standpoint. Another great transitional era was the long period during which the culture of the pagan Roman Empire disintegrated and its place was taken by the Catholic Christian system of the Middle Ages. This period occupied about one thousand years. Catholic Christian culture reached its apogee in the thirteenth century, and began to decline in the fourteenth century. A still earlier example was the transitional era of Greek culture, extending from the early philosophers to the flourishing of the Stoics. The Platonic and, later, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies took the place of tradition and custom, and furnished guiding principles for the conduct of life. The Stoic philosophy also furnished inspiration and guidance for social administrators in the Roman Empire up to the time of Marcus Aurelius. It was an ethics and a religion. Its influence passed into Christianity through St. Paul. One might draw many engaging parallels between previous transitional eras and the present one. But one must beware of assuming that history repeats itself without important variations. Cultural history seems to move chiefly in irregular spiral lines. At times it moves in zigzag fashion. The present critical phase of civilization covers a much vaster area than any previous one. Indeed, the ancient cultures of India and China are being sucked into the maelstrom. The present crisis likewise goes deeper than any before. Probably the most revolutionary occurrence in human history, since the discovery of fire making and working in metals, was the "Industrial Revolution," which began early in the eighteenth century, but did not reach full tide until late in the nineteenth century. The revolution in the methods of producing and distributing material goods, the rise and spread of social democracy, and the triumphant march of natural science until the entire life of man has been made subject to its methods and principles, are the chief causes of the present crisis in society. The methods and results of natural science have undermined the foundations of traditional religion, and have seemed to destroy the motives and sanctions of social morality supplied by religious tradition. The rise and spread of a mechanically industrialized society, in which the only final touchstones of distinction are money and the power which comes from the backing of numbers, have tended to make the crowd-mind the arbiter of social standards in education, art, manners, and morals, no less than in things economic. The tremendous development of large-scale machine production has put a great and unwonted strain on the human soul, which does not derive any lasting satisfaction from the rapid and monotonous repetition of simple mechanical processes. It has also put a great strain on family life. It has greatly modified social intercourse. It has resulted in an attitude of nervous haste inimical to thoughtful reflection. It has lined up, in battle array, the groups of organized "capital" on one side and organized "labor" on the other side, with the noncombatants between to suffer most of the damage from their intermittent warfare. The comparative poverty of the worker is not the sole, perhaps not even the chief, cause of the persistent social unrest. I think the latter comes largely as a blind protest of the soul of man against a monotonous and mechanized existence against a life in which he toils without full and active mental participation in his work, and in which his leisure is not spent in ways which satisfy the impulsions thwarted or repressed during his hours of bread winning labor. The comparative study of human institutions, customs, and beliefs, in the light of evolution, has revealed their apparent and complete relativity to circumstances; so that none have more authority than belong to convenient makeshifts. Indeed, the "newest" psychologies, the Freudian and mechanistic behaviorism, teach us that |