It is worth noting in this connection, that we could not altogether cease to blame others without ceasing to blame ourselves, which would mean moral apathy. It is sometimes thought that the cool analysis of such questions as this tends toward indifferentism; but I do not see that this is the case. The social psychologist finds in moral sentiment a central and momentous fact of human life, and if perchance he does not himself feel it very vividly, he should have the candor to confess himself so much the less a man. Indeed, if there is such a thing as an indifferentist, in the sense of one who does not feel any cogency in moral sentiment, he must be quite unsuited to the pursuit of social or moral science, because he lacks power to sympathize with, and so observe, the facts upon which this sort of science must be based.
I do not purpose to give this discussion a practical turn by entering into the details of the treatment of various forms of degeneracy; but it may help to show the bearing of our general view, if I point out in brief the line of procedure which common-sense would seem to call for. This procedure naturally divides itself into prevention, reform or cure, and isolation, according to the stage of development which the evil has reached.
Everything which acts in a favorable manner upon either the hereditary or the social factor in life is more or less preventive of degeneracy, and of course influences of this general sort are of far more importance as a whole than any more particular measures. Under the head of prevention would also come punishment, disgrace, and the like—everything in the treatment of criminals, paupers, and other special classes which is designed to impress the minds of the rest of the people, and to check the degenerate tendencies possibly existing among them. Although it is now thought that the efficacy of these deterrent influences, in the case of crime at least, is less than was formerly supposed, still it is by no means desirable that the attempt to exert them should be abandoned.
If degenerate tendencies actually manifest themselves, the main thing to be done is to take note of them as early in the individual’s life as possible, and to attempt to counteract them by a suitable change in the social environment. I need hardly point out that it is now believed that such counteraction is much more practicable than was formerly supposed, or mention that many beneficent institutions and other enterprises exist which aim to secure it.
And if, as must always be the fact in a considerable proportion of cases, the person remains so distinctly and persistently below the standard of character and conduct that it is clearly inexpedient to leave him at large, the rational treatment of him is evidently a decent isolation, which shall prevent him from propagating his degenerate traits through either heredity or social influence.
CHAPTER XII
FREEDOM
The Meaning of Freedom—Freedom and Discipline—Freedom as a Phase of the Social Order—Freedom Involves Incidental Strain and Degeneracy.
Goethe remarks in his Autobiography[[107]] that the word freedom has so fair a sound that we cannot do without it even though it designate an error. Certainly it is a word inseparable from our higher sentiments, and if, in its popular use at the present day, it has no precise meaning, there is so much the more reason why we should try to give it one, and to continue its use as a symbol of something that mankind cherishes and strives for.
The common notion of freedom is negative, that is, it is a notion of the absence of constraint. Starting with the popular individualistic view of things, the social order is thought of as something apart from, and more or less a hinderance to, a man’s natural development. There is an assumption that an ordinary person is self-sufficient in most respects, and will do very well if he is only left alone. But there is, of course, no such thing as the absence of restraint, in the sense of social limitations; man has no existence apart from a social order, and can develop his personality only through the social order, and in the same degree that it is developed. A freedom consisting in the removal of limiting conditions is inconceivable. If the word is to have any definite meaning in sociology, it must therefore be separated from the idea of a fundamental opposition between society and the individual, and made to signify something that is both individual and social. To do this it is not necessary to do any great violence to accepted ideas of a practical sort; since it is rather in theory than in application that the popular view is objectionable. A sociological interpretation of freedom should take away nothing worth keeping from our traditional conception of it, and may add something in the way of breadth, clearness, and productiveness.
The definition of freedom naturally arising from the chapters that have gone before is perhaps this: that it is opportunity for right development, for development in accordance with the progressive ideal of life that we have in conscience. A child comes into the world with an outfit of vague tendencies, for all definite unfolding of which he is dependent upon social conditions. If cast away alone on a desert island he would, supposing that he succeeded in living at all, never attain a real humanity, would never know speech, or social sentiment, or any complex thought. On the other hand, if all his surroundings are from the first such as to favor the enlargement and enrichment of his life, he may attain the fullest development possible to him in the actual state of the world. In so far as the social conditions have this favoring action upon him he may be said to be free. And so every person, at every stage of his growth, is free or unfree in proportion as he does or does not find himself in the midst of conditions conducive to full and harmonious personal development. Thinking in this way we do not regard the individual as separable from the social order as a whole, but we do regard him as capable of occupying any one of an indefinite number of positions within that order, some of them more suitable to him than others.