LATER GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 135 



flict with the elemental forces of our being, which 

 will subdue us in spite of our struggles. 



Nevertheless, Diihring continues, though life is 

 essentially good, there is real evil in it, and one 

 condition of its good is that we shall rise to higher 

 good by the spring from overcoming the evil : the 

 world makes itself better through us as channels. 

 In this fact we pass from theory to practice, finding 

 in it the basis of ethics. The first principle of ethics 

 follows from the law that contributes so much to 

 the excellence of the Actual — the Law of the 

 Whole. The highest practical precept is. Act witJi 

 siiprevie reference to the Whole. But inasmuch as we 

 are members not only of the Absolute Whole, but 

 of the lesser whole called society, we can only act 

 in and through that. Accordingly, first in the order 

 of his practical theories comes Diihring's sociology. 



His writings in this field are voluminous, especi- 

 ally in political economy, in which he adopts and 

 develops the views of our countryman Carey. Carey, 

 he thinks, has revolutionised this subject. The 

 doctrines involved in the free-trade view, especially 

 the principle of unrestricted competition, he con- 

 siders a deification of mean self-interest. They 

 strike at the foundation of rational ethics — the 

 supreme moral authority of the Whole. Away with 

 them, then, and substitute instead the doctrines of 

 benignant cooperation ! This sentiment is carried 



