[BRETT] REVOLT AGAINST REASON 17 



true of any one part. To the formulation of these laws a great deal 

 has been contributed by the study of primitive man ; we have learned 

 to see how the individual is dependent on relatively permanent factors 

 such as the customs of the tribe; and in this way many have been 

 led to formulate individual action as a function of imitation, since the 

 individual copies and repeats the pattern of life set before him. Thus 

 once more the automatic appears, for imitation is psychologically 

 automatic in character and has no connection with fully rational 

 conduct. 



In so far as a democracy professes to let everyone count for one 

 and to give weight to every expression of opinion, it becomes vitally 

 important to know what actually lies behind every purpose or opinion. 

 It is at present rather the fashion to emphasise spontaneity, to decry 

 logic, and to put an exaggerated value on expression for its own sake. 

 In this way the distrust of reason is shown; with it goes a distrust of 

 education as distinct from manual training; and finally a distrust 

 of law, whether natural or political, as something invented by the 

 superior person to bind with fictitious chains the unenlightened. 

 Philosophy did not cause the recent war, nor has it caused the subse- 

 quent anarchy; but it must of necessity be an active power in war 

 and revolution and peace, because men love to justify their actions 

 and the justification becomes the philosophical creed in which the 

 spirit of action is embodied. Marxism, syndicalism, Bolshevism, and 

 the other modern developments are all rooted in a scheme of ideas 

 which is as truly a philosophy as Platonism, Hegelianism, or the new 

 realism. This we must sooner or later face, and first of all we must 

 be clear about our original question — is life essentially rational or 

 irrational ? 



