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Adventures in Philosophy |
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by Georges Clemenceau
Idealism is not the result of logical thinking. It grows from man's making the greatest effort of which he is capable. Since the directing principle of man cannot be the avoidance of suffering at any price, and if it is, in fact, a fine thing to accept suffering, yet scorn it, to seek it, yet despise it, as did the ancient martyrs in their generous ardor for noble achievement, then idealism can lift man to the highest prinnacle of his destiny, through supreme suffering in the service of an idea. The beauty of great causes, to which what is best in human life is attached, is revealed in the band of heroic men, known and unknown, who chose to sacrifice their lives without thought of reward for the keen joy of unselfishly doing their duty. What then can we gain by refusing to admit scientific facts, in order to accept the hallucination of a future life beyond the confines of the world, charming only because of its unreality? Can we successfully substitute for the positive world the dream of an imagery existence upon which to expend our energies? It is a great temptation to make promises which we have no intention of keeping. That is what is most obvious about the march to the imaginary star of eternal human felicity. Evolution of knowledge must increase the instruments of our activity. Will it then make us happier, more powerful, longer-lived? To answer these questions with certainty would require nothing short of a precise definition of eternal happiness -- that which nothing is less stable, less subject to definition, or more various for each and all of us. Experience proves that to our innermost sensibility, the fleeting happiness of each of us is in himself and in the satisfaction that lies in his power to adapt himself to his surroundings. Thus decrees the subjective character of the sensation of happiness, sometimes common and sometimes refined, to which we aspire, usually without being able to realize it except through anticipations that are found baseless as soon as they are formed. Knowledge supplies the means for momentary or durable happiness. These means we must utilize. Each person can be at least temporarily happy within his own limitations, according to how high or how low is his conception of life, and according to how great is the personal will-power which acquired knowledge and strength of character have allowed him to devote to the task. How many will be able to understand this fact, and amid the vicissitudes of human society, such as invations, wars, epidemics, and every other form of catastrophe, how many will have the chance even partly to act on it? The pitiless struggle for existence in time of peace has on the whole caused as much misery and eeath as have pitched battles. The simple-minded ideologue suggests that a remedy will be found in new social conditions which will do away with these evils, and which will automatically bring peace to men. Just so their even more simple-minded predecessors thought to alleviate earthly woe by the promise of an indefinitely adjourned happiness in an unknown, but eternal paradise -- an enchanting land of inaction which, since happiness is dependent on action, is a contradiction in terms. To see what effect it has had on matters earthly one need only examine human history. The inevitable growth of knowledge, freed through the growth of character from being dominated by emotion, could then only facilitate our achievement of that happiness which we never cease to desire, but which seems only too often to vanish when we think we have grasped it. Our ancestors of 1789 were innocent enough to believe that a mild, indulgent code would bring about a state of perfect happiness. Apt pupils of the Church, those "liberators," trusting at first, like their masters, to the formulae of universal love, soon came to enforce them on the scaffold. To suppress the adversary in order to suppress his opinions is the dogmatic idea. The first benefit brought us by relative knowledge is the doctrine of universal tolerance. It is unfortunate that our empiricism has not progressed beyond the point of doing more than recommending its practice.
Excerpted from In the Evening of My Thought, by Georges Clemenceau |
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