SCIENCE, COMMON SENSE, AND DECENCY 9 



usual meaning of the word cause is something as follows : It is a common 

 experience, in a study of convergent phenomena, that if a given set of 

 physical conditions are brought about repeatedly at different times, the 

 same result occurs in each case. Except in so far as it is possible to repeat 

 the experiment and get the same result it is impossible to give a definite 

 meaning to the word cause. 



In the case of a depression or a war, we logically need to produce, or at 

 least to observe, a given set of possible antecedent conditions and to see 

 whether they are always followed by depressions. Since we can not produce 

 experimental depressions, nor have we sufficient observational data to 

 enable us by statistical means to unravel the enormous number of factors 

 involved, we must conclude that the word "cause" as applied to a depres- 

 sion has an extremely fuzzy meaning. 



When we consider the nature of human affairs it is to me obvious that 

 divergent phenomena frequently play a role of vital importance. It is true 

 that some of our historians cynically taught most of our college students 

 from 1925 to 1938 that wars, the rise and fall of a nation, etc., were deter- 

 mined by nearly cosmic causes. They tried to show that economic pressure, 

 and power politics on the part of England or France, etc., would have 

 brought the same result whether or not Kaiser Wilhelm or Hitler or any 

 other individual or group of individuals had or had not acted the way they 

 did. Germany, facing the world in a realistic way, was proved, almost 

 scientifically, to be justified in using ruthless methods — because of the 

 energy and other characteristics of the German people they would neces- 

 sarily acquire and should acquire a place in the sun greater than that of 

 England, which was already inevitably on the downward path. 



I can see no justification whatever for such teaching that science proves 

 that general causes (convergent phenomena) dominate in human affairs 

 over the results of individual action (divergent phenomena). It is true 

 that it is not possible to prove one way or the other that human affairs are 

 determined primarily by convergent phenomena. The very existence of 

 divergent phenomena almost precludes the possibility of such proof. 



The mistaken over-emphasis on convergent phenomena in human 

 affairs and the reliance on so-called scientific methods have been respon- 

 sible in large degree for much of the cynicism of the last few decades. 



The philosophy which seems to have made the German people such 

 willing aggressors is allegedly based upon scientific realism. Almost any 

 system of morality or immorality could receive support from the writings 

 of Nietzsche, so inconsistent are they with one another. But his teachings, 

 which purport to be based on the laws of natural selection, have led in 

 Germany to a glorification of brute strength, with the elimination of 

 sympathy, love, toleration and all existing altruistic emotions. 



