136 £SS.4YS IN PHILOSOPHY 



out in a corresponding Philosophy of Politics, in 

 which DUhring develops an extreme socialism. That 

 the social whole, however, is conceived in the sense 

 of a dominant atomism, very presently appears. 

 The "whole" aimed at is simply a greater mass of 

 force, to give effect to the caprices of that style of 

 "enlightened" individual who so ignores the great 

 historic whole as to see in the organic institutions 

 of reason — the family, the state, the church — 

 nothing but barriers to the career of humanity. 



The end of government, Dtihring holds, is "to 

 enhance the charm of life " ; and here, unfortunately, 

 in settling the practical test of enhancement, he is 

 betrayed into destroying the profound principle on 

 which he rested his case for the worth of life — that 

 we must be guided by objective values, and ignore 

 the outcries of subjective caprice. It appears to 

 him that hitherto there has been no considerable 

 political or social wisdom in the world. Social 

 organisation, as well as political, ought now to 

 undergo a complete re-creation, with the aim of 

 giving the greatest possible range for each individual 

 to act according to his own views of what regard 

 for the whole requires. For example, all govern- 

 ments armed with force are to be done away. In 

 their stead is to come voluntary association. Demo- 

 cratic communes are everywhere to replace organic 

 states. There is to be no centralisation, no one 



