THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
Every great and comprehensive theory which affects the foundations of
human science, and which, consequently, influences the systems of
philosophy, will, in the first place, not only further our theoretical
views of the universe, but will also react on practical philosophy,
ethics, and the correlated provinces of religion and politics. In my
paper read at Munich I only briefly pointed out the happy results
which, in my opinion, the modern doctrine of evolution will entail
when the true, natural religion, founded on reason, takes the place of
the dogmatic religion of the Church, and its leading principle derives
the human sense of duty from the social instincts of animals.
The references to the social instincts which I, in common with Darwin
and many others, regard as the proper source and origin of all moral
development, appear to have afforded Virchow an opportunity in his
reply for designating the doctrine of inheritance as a "socialist
theory," and for attributing to it the most dangerous and
objectionable character which, at the present time, any political
theory can have; and these startling denunciations so soon as they
were known called forth such just indignation and such comprehensive
refutation that I might very properly pass them over here. Still we
must at least shortly examine them, in so far as they supply a further
proof that Virchow is unacquainted with the most important principles
of the development-theory of the day, and therefore is incompetent to
judge it. Moreover, Virchow, as a politician, manifestly attributed
special importance to this political application of his paper, for he
gave it the title, which otherwise would have been hardly suitable, of
"The Freedom of Science in the Modern Polity." Unfortunately he forgot
to add to this title the two words in which the special tendency of
his discourse culminates; the two pregnant words, "must cease!"
The surprising disclosures in which Virchow denounces the doctrine of
evolution, and particularly the doctrine of descent, as socialist
theories and dangerous to the community, run as follows:--"Now,
picture to yourself the theory of descent as it already exists in the
brain of a socialist. Ay, gentlemen, it may seem laughable to many,
but it is in truth very serious, and I only hope that the theory of
descent may not entail on us all the horrors which similar theories
have actually brought upon neighbouring countries. At all times this
theory, if it is logically carried out to the end, has an uncommonly
suspicious aspect, and the fact that it has gained the sympathy of
socialism has not, it is to be hoped, escaped your notice. We must
make that quite clear to ourselves."
On reading this statement, which seems extracted from the Berlin
"Kreuz-Zeitung," or the Vienna "Vaterland," I ask myself in surprise,
"What in the world has the doctrine of descent to do with socialism?"
It has already been abundantly proved on many sides, and long since,
that these two theories are about as compatible as fire and water.
Oscar Schmidt might with justice retort, "If the socialists would
think clearly they would feel that they must do all they can to choke
the doctrine of descent, for it declares with express distinctness
that socialist ideas are impracticable." And he proceeds to add, "And
why has not Virchow made the gentle doctrines of Christianity
responsible for the excesses of socialism? That would have had some
sense. His denunciation flung so mysteriously and so confidently
before the great public, as though it concerned 'a sure and attested
scientific truth,' is, at the same time, so hollow that it cannot be
brought into harmony with the dignity of science."
With all these empty accusations, as with all the empty reproaches and
groundless objections which Virchow brings against the doctrine of
evolution, he takes good care in no way to touch the kernel of the
matter. How, indeed, would it have been possible without arriving at
conclusions wholly opposed to those which he has declared? For the
theory of descent proclaims more clearly than any other scientific
theory, that that equality of individuals which socialism strives
after is an impossibility, that it stands, in fact, in irreconcilable
contradiction to the inevitable inequality of individuals which
actually and everywhere subsists. Socialism demands equal rights,
equal duties, equal possessions, equal enjoyments for every citizen
alike; the theory of descent proves, in exact opposition to this,
that the realisation of this demand is a pure impossibility, and
that in the constitutionally organised communities of men, as of
the lower animals, neither rights nor duties, neither possessions
nor enjoyments have ever been equal for all the members alike nor
ever can be. Throughout the evolutionist theory, as in its biological
branch, the theory of descent--the great law of specialisation or
differentiation--teaches us that a multiplicity of phenomena is
developed from original unity, heterogeneity from original similarity,
and the composite organism from original simplicity. The conditions of
existence are dissimilar for each individual from the beginning of its
existence; even the inherited qualities, the natural "disposition,"
are more or less unlike; how, then, can the problems of life and
their solution be alike for all? The more highly political life is
organised, the more prominent is the great principle of the division
of labour, and the more requisite it becomes for the lasting security
of the whole state that its members should be variously distributed in
the manifold tasks of life; and as the work to be performed by
different individuals is of the most various kind, as well as the
corresponding outlay of strength, skill, property, &c., the reward of
the work must naturally be also extremely various. These are such
simple and tangible facts that one would suppose that every reasonable
and unprejudiced politician would recommend the theory of descent, and
the evolution hypothesis in general, as the best antidote to the
fathomless absurdity of extravagant socialist levelling.
Besides, Darwinism, the theory of natural selection--which Virchow
aimed at in his denunciation, much more especially than at
transformation, the theory of descent--which is often confounded with
it--Darwinism, I say, is anything rather than socialist! If this
English hypothesis is to be compared to any definite political
tendency--as is, no doubt, possible--that tendency can only be
aristocratic, certainly not democratic, and least of all socialist.
The theory of selection teaches that in human life, as in animal and
plant life everywhere, and at all times, only a small and chosen
minority can exist and flourish, while the enormous majority starve
and perish miserably and more or less prematurely. The germs of every
species of animal and plant and the young individuals which spring
from them are innumerable, while the number of those fortunate
individuals which develop to maturity and actually reach their
hardly-won life's goal is out of all proportion trifling. The cruel
and merciless struggle for existence which rages throughout all living
nature, and in the course of nature _must_ rage, this unceasing and
inexorable competition of all living creatures, is an incontestable
fact; only the picked minority of the qualified "fittest" is in a
position to resist it successfully, while the great majority of the
competitors must necessarily perish miserably. We may profoundly
lament this tragical state of things, but we can neither controvert it
nor alter it. "Many are called but few are chosen." The selection, the
picking out of these "chosen ones," is inevitably connected with the
arrest and destruction of the remaining majority. Another English
naturalist, therefore, designates the kernel of Darwinism very frankly
as the "survival of the fittest," as the "victory of the best." At any
rate, this principle of selection is nothing less than democratic, on
the contrary, it is aristocratic in the strictest sense of the word.
If, therefore, Darwinism, logically carried out, has, according to
Virchow, "an uncommonly suspicious aspect," this can only be found in
the idea that it offers a helping hand to the efforts of the
aristocrats. But how the socialism of the day can find any
encouragement in these efforts, and how the horrors of the Paris
Commune can be traced to them, is to me, I must frankly confess,
absolutely incomprehensible.
Moreover, we must not omit this opportunity of pointing out how
dangerous such a direct and unqualified transfer of the theories of
natural science to the domain of practical politics must be. The
highly elaborate conditions of our modern civilised life require from
the practical politician such circumspect and impartial consideration,
such thorough historical training and powers of critical comparison,
that he will not venture to make such an application of a "natural
law" to the practice of civilised life, but with the greatest caution
and reserve. How, then, is it possible that Virchow, the experienced
and skilled politician, who, above all things, preaches caution and
reserve in theory, suddenly makes just such an application of
transformation and Darwinism--an application so radically perverse
that it actually flies in the face of the fundamental ideas of these
doctrines? I myself am nothing less than a politician. In direct
contrast with Virchow, I lack alike the gift and the training for it,
as well as taste and vocation. Hence I neither shall play any
political part in the future, nor have I hitherto made any attempt of
the kind. Though here and there I have occasionally uttered a
political opinion, or have made a political application of some theory
of natural science, these subjective opinions have no objective value.
In point of fact I have by so doing overstepped the limits of my
competence, just as Virchow has by going into questions of zoology and
particularly that of the transformation of apes: I am a layman in
political practice, as Virchow is in the province of zoological
hypothesis. Moreover, such success as Virchow has attained during the
twenty years of his painful, wearisome, and exhausting activity as a
politician does not, in truth, make me pine for such laurels.
But this at least I, as a theoretical naturalist, may demand of
practical politicians, that in utilising our theories for political
ends they should first make themselves exactly acquainted with them;
they then, for the future, would forbear drawing conclusions from
them, the very opposite to those which ought reasonably to be
inferred. Misunderstandings would never thus be wholly avoided,
it is true, but what doctrine is universally secure against
misunderstanding? And from what theory, however sound and true, may
not the most unsound and frantic inferences be drawn?
Nothing, perhaps, shows so plainly as the history of Christianity how
little theory and practice harmonise in human life; how little pains
are taken, even by those whose calling it is to uphold established
doctrines, to apply their natural consequences to practical life. The
Christian religion, no doubt, as well as the Buddhist, when stripped
of all dogmatic and fabulous nonsense, contains an admirable human
kernel, and precisely that human portion of Christian teaching--in the
best sense social-democratic--which preaches the equality of all men
before God, the loving of your neighbour as yourself, love in general
in the noblest sense, a fellow-feeling with the poor and wretched, and
so forth--precisely, those truly human sides of the Christian doctrine
are so natural, so noble, so pure, that we unhesitatingly adopt them
into the moral doctrine of our monistic natural religion. Nay, the
social instincts of the higher animals on which we found this religion
(for instance the marvellous sense of duty of ants, &c.) are in this
best sense strictly Christian.
And what--we may ask--what have the professed supporters, the "learned
divines" of this religion of love done? Their deeds are written in
letters of blood in the history of the civilisation of mankind during
the last 1800 years. All else that differing church-religions have
accomplished for the forcible extension of their doctrines and for the
extirpation of heretics of other creeds, all that the Jews have been
guilty of towards the heathen, the Roman emperors towards the
Christians, the Mohammedans towards Christians and Jews alike--all
this is outdone by the hecatombs of human victims which Christianity
has demanded for the spread of her doctrines. And these were
Christians against Christians--orthodox Christians against heterodox
Christians! think only of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, of the
inconceivable and inhuman barbarities committed by the "most Christian
kings" of Spain, by their worthy colleagues in Frankfort, in Italy,
and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands then died that most horrible
death by fire, simply because they would not bend their reason to pass
under the yoke of the grossest superstition, and because their loyalty
to their convictions forbade them to deny the natural truth that they
clearly discerned. There are no deeds more hideous, base, and inhuman
than those that at that time were committed--nay, are still
committed--in the name and on account of "true Christianity."
And finally, how do matters stand with regard to the morality of the
priests who announce themselves as the ministers of God's Word, and
whose duty is therefore above all others to carry out the saving
doctrines of Christianity in their own lives? The long, unbroken, and
horrible series of crimes of every kind which is offered by the
history of the Roman Popes is the best answer to this question. And
just as these "Vicars of God on earth" did, so did their subordinates
and accomplices, so, too, have the orthodox priests of other sects
done; never failing to set the practice of their own course of life in
the strongest possible contrast to those noble doctrines of Christian
love which were constantly on their lips.
And as with Christianity so it is with every other religious and moral
doctrine which ought to have proved its power in the wide domain of
practical philosophy, in the education of youth, in the civilisation
of nations. The theoretic kernel of this doctrine may always and
everywhere stand in the most glaring contradiction to its practical
working-out, testifying to the endless inconsistency of human nature:
but what can all this matter to the scientific inquirer? His sole and
only task is to seek for truth and to teach what he has discerned to
be the truth, indifferent as to what consequences the various parties
of state or church may happen to draw from it.