SHAFTESBURY AND HERDER
The elevation of human nature, as found in the individual, to something which has a universal value, to something higher and nobler than the interests of self alone was one of the prominent tenets of Shaftesbury’s philosophy. This implied a moral and social system composed of parts nicely adjusted in each single entity, which in turn was a component part of a larger whole; the parts of this greater system were likewise in constant proportion to one another, and so finely and fitly adjusted that any disarrangement could not fail to effect the harmonious blending and the unity of the entire design. Out of this, it follows that man can come to his truest and most natural development in community life only.
And thus, if there be found in any creature a more than ordinary self-concernment or regard to private good, which is inconsistent with the interest of the species or public, this must in every respect be esteemed an ill and vicious affection. And this is what we commonly call selfishness, and disapprove so much, in whatever creature we happen to discover it.—Inquiry, Book I.
When we reflect on any ordinary frame or constitution either of art or nature, and consider how hard it is to give the least account of a particular part without a competent knowledge of the whole, we need not wonder to find ourselves at a loss in many things relating to the constitution and frame of nature herself.—Inquiry, Book I.
To love the public, to study universal good, and to promote the interest of the whole world, as far as lies within our power, is surely the height of goodness, and makes that temper which we call divine.—Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, section 4.
The harmonious man is to be the product of a natural unfolding of innate human nature. The potentialities within are to be allowed to develop unwarped and unimpeded and to express themselves completely and symmetrically. There must be no subordination of personality or individuality to artificial standards, for nature is the sovereign. If no powers, inclinations, or impulses are thwarted in their trend and activity, they will, in all their manifold variety, flower into the perfectly beautiful and therefore the perfectly good.
Now the variety of nature is such as to distinguish everything she forms by a peculiar, original character, which, if strictly observed, will make the subject appear unlike to anything extant in the world besides.
For all beauty is truth. True features make the beauty of a face, and true proportions the beauty of architecture—Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor, Part IV.
That faculty by which the good and the beautiful are to be recognized and approved is indeed little different if different at all from an emotion. The principle of feeling really becomes the criterion of right and wrong. It is the principle of feeling which forms the essence of Shaftesbury’s Moral Sense. He admits that this sense may be improved by cultivation, but its essential part is innate. “Sense of right and wrong” is as natural to us as natural affection itself, and a first principle in our constitution.
The two ideas which we are considering here as a part of Shaftesbury’s philosophy are the development of the individual and his harmonious relation to the whole of mankind.
These ideas are made the nucleus of a collection of writings and reviews by Herder which he calls Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität. These have been considered to some extent in a preceding chapter as a part of Herder’s system of thought, but the purpose here is to connect the same with that of Shaftesbury.—Dritte Sammlung, Brief 27 ff.
At the outset in this letter the author is concerned with the distinction between the following:
1. Menschheit: Menschen sind wir allesamt ... wir gehören zur Menschheit.
2. Mensch, Menschlichkeit: Leider hat man in unserer Sprache dem Wort Mensch, und noch mehr dem barmherzigen Wort Menschlichkeit so oft eine Nebenbedeutung von Niedrigkeit, Schwäche und falschem Mitleid angehängt.
3. Menschenrechte: Kann ohne Menschenpflichten nicht genannt werden.
4. Menschenwürde: Das Menschengeschlecht ... hat seinem grössesten Theil nach keine Würde.... Es soll aber zum Charakter seines Geschlechtes, mithin auch zu dessen Werth und Würde gebildet werden.
5. Menschenliebe: Das schöne Wort Menschenliebe is so trivial worden, dass man meistens die Menschen liebt um keinen unter den Menschen wirksam zu lieben.
He concludes that the word Humanität will best suit, because among both ancients and moderns it connotes worthy ideas. The reference to the ancients reminds us of the common source from which both Herder and Shaftesbury drew inspiration. Both were schooled in the literature of the ancients.
As Herder lingers on the philological discussion, he gives us the philosophical reason why the conception of frailty attaches to the idea expressed in the word for man, Mensch.
The word “humanity,” he says, not only connotes the thought which he desires to express, but it suits his purpose also on account of its history. Among the upper classes of the Romans were some who were wont to temper the execution of justice with mercy when exercising power over their subjects; such a Roman citizen, Patrician, was humanus, humanissimus. Now, he thinks, that since with the Romans the word connoted the idea of mildness in the exercises of citizenship and law, that it would be well to take over the word and the idea. He makes reference also to the Greeks whose word, ἂνθρωπος, looking upward, he clothes in Plato’s words: “As he looks he reasons.” Therefore, says Herder, he does not fail to notice the human failings that lead to sympathy, consequently to humanity. The knowledge of our powers and inborn potentialities, of our calling and our duty arises from an intense study of mankind. He repeats that the Greeks and Romans led the way in this studium humanitatis. The only limit which Herder sets to what we shall be is to be found in the highest possible formation and completion of whatever belongs to the character of our race.
Many of the telling thoughts in these letters are scattered in isolated paragraphs running something like the following: Truth is the bond of humanity between friends. The purer the thoughts of men are, the more they agree. The true invisible church is one in all times, in all lands.
Franklin had a wonderful sense of humanity. He proceeds from the simple eternal laws of nature, from the most infallible practical rules—the needs and interests of mankind. Franklin recognized the value of the common people and thought to teach them by clothing his ideas in simplicity.
Companionship is the foundation of humanity and the communion of human souls, a mutual interchange of acquired ideas (thoughts) and of traits of understanding which increases the mass of human knowledge and skill infinitely. If humanity is no empty name, suffering mankind must rejoice at the advance in medical science. Human society founded on virtue must stand. The highest and most fruitful wisdom arises from the (common) people because they have felt need and suffering, they have been driven here and there, they have tasted the sweet fruit of trouble and they know how to care for others.
The kinship to the spirit and philosophy pervading Shaftesbury is here quite evident.