If we take all these facts into consideration, the right of succession becomes very important. It has been attempted to deal with the question by progressive taxes on succession to large fortunes: but this is not enough. I have not the presumption to give a positive opinion on these matters which are not in my province, but I venture to suggest the possibility of greatly restricting the right of succession by postponing the right to the enjoyment of their heritage till the children are of an age when they could earn their own living; say, from twenty-five to twenty-six, so as not to interfere with their higher education. In this way a man would not be deprived of the pleasure of working for himself and his family; and every young man and young woman, being obliged to work at some special subject, would know that they could earn their living after twenty-five or twenty-six, without counting on their heritage.
I do not pretend to build a new social system on this idea, for many propositions of the kind have already been made. I only wish to draw attention to one element of the problem, which consists in diminishing the possibility of the exploitation of man by man, without destroying the pleasure for work, at the same time favoring the procreation and education of healthy and capable offspring. This naturally presupposes a new moral and social state, in which family right would be changed and good education organized for all. Even then intelligent men would have the desire to rise above the average and bring up their children with the same object. This is an instinct in mental development which should be carefully cultivated, and not extinguished, by every social organization.
In all social systems it must be recognized that certain branches of culture, such as scientific research and art, involve great expense and bring little or no material reward to the scientist or the artist. A richer State ought to provide for these important branches of civilization, which always tend to higher culture.
I have already mentioned separation of property and an equable division of the fruits of labor between conjoints as the only just basis in marriage contracts. I repeat here, that true justice can only be established by the recognition of equal legal rights for men and women.
PENAL LAW
Penal law is the right of punishment. It is based on the ideas of culpability and expiation, and these are based on the idea of free-will, which is itself founded on a pure illusion, as we have shown above.
This simple reflection is sufficient to show the precarious position of our present penal law. The science of penal law has too long ignored the progress of humanity and of the other sciences. It is affected with incurable marasmus, because its foundations are laid in error. The idea of expiation was naturally developed on the basis of mysticism combined with the right of the stronger, and associated with the sentiment of vengeance natural to the low mentality of our animal ancestors. Among the latter the weaker was punished because he was the weaker: "Væ victis!" and order was obtained by force. But the visions of human imagination having urged man to create a god or gods in his own image, he attributed to the divinity the sentiments of anger experienced by man, and pretended that expiation was required for offenses against this or that majesty or human idea, transformed into an offense to the divine majesty.
This offense to the divinity was therefore only the nebulous expression of a developing social conscience in man, an obscure mixture of sentiments of wounded sympathy, adulation of the strong and great, and desire for vengeance and expiation. Till then man was accustomed to judge other men according to the right of the stronger, more or less mitigated by sentiments of family and friendship. His terror of natural mysteries—the forest, night, thunder, hurricanes, stars, etc., led him to imagine the intervention of occult powers, and later on of higher powers capable of judging good and evil actions, the ideas of good and evil being formerly very different from what they are at present. The functions of advocates or executors of the divine will were always, however, reserved for privileged men, who gave judgment in His name, either as priests, kings, or later on as judges. We may also note by the way that judgment can be given without belief in free arbitration, as is shown by the Mahometan fatalists and the judgments of Haroun-al-Raschid, for example. In fact, fatalism logically excludes the idea of free-will, for if everything is absolutely predetermined, the thoughts, resolutions and acts of man are also predetermined, which excludes all liberty.
Responsibility.—I have attempted to show in another work[9] that a rational penal law should in no way concern itself with the question of free arbitration. The fact that we feel free and responsible is not at all sufficient to justify the doctrine of Kant.