Philosophy and the Social Problem

PHILOSOPHY AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO
BY WILL DURANT, Ph.D. INSTRUCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY, EXTENSION TEACHING COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
τὁν μἑν βἱον ἡ φὑσις ἑδωκε, το δἑ καλὡς ζἡν ἡ τἑχνη. —Unknown Dramatic Poet.
NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights reserved
Copyright, 1917, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. —— Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1917. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TO ALDEN FREEMAN

THE purpose of this essay is to show: first, that the social problem has been the basic concern of many of the greater philosophers; second, that an approach to the social problem through philosophy is the first condition of even a moderately successful treatment of this problem; and third, that an approach to philosophy through the social problem is indispensable to the revitalization of philosophy.
By “philosophy” we shall understand a study of experience as a whole, or of a portion of experience in relation to the whole.
By the “social problem” we shall understand, simply and very broadly, the problem of reducing human misery by modifying social institutions. It is a problem that, ever reshaping itself, eludes sharper definition; for misery is related to desire, and desire is personal and in perpetual flux: each of us sees the problem unsteadily in terms of his own changing aspirations. It is an uncomfortably complicated problem, of course; and we must bear in mind that the limit of our intention here is to consider philosophy as an approach to the problem, and the problem itself as an approach to philosophy. We are proposing no solutions.
Each of our historical chapters, then, will be not so much a review as a preface and a progression. The aim will be neither history nor criticism, but a kind of construction by proxy. It is a method that has its defects: it will, for example, sacrifice thoroughness of scholarship to present applicability, and will necessitate some repetitious gathering of the threads when we come later to our more personal purpose. But as part requital for this, we shall save ourselves from considering the past except as it is really present, except as it is alive and nourishingly significant to-day. And from each study we shall perhaps make some advance towards our final endeavor,—the mutual elucidation of the social problem and philosophy.