[48.] Nevertheless it was then night; though a night which heralded the coming day, and the dawn of that day witnessed assuredly the most glorious sunrise which, in the history of the world is yet to rise into full splendour. I say, is to rise, not has risen, for we still see the light struggling with the powers of darkness. True ethical motives, in private as in public life, are still far from being everywhere the determining standard. These forces—to use the language of the poet[A]—prove themselves still too little developed to hold together the structure of the world; and so nature,—and we have need to be thankful that it is so—keeps the machine going by hunger and love, and, we must also add, by all those other dark strivings which, as we have seen, may be developed from self-seeking desires.
[A] Schiller.
[49.] Of these, and their psychological laws the jurist must, therefore, if he would truly understand his time, and influence it beneficially, take cognizance, as well as of the doctrines of natural right and natural morality which our inquiry has shown to be not the first but—in so far as hope in the realization of a complete ideal may be cherished at all—will be the last in the history of the development of law and morality.
Thus the near relationships of jurisprudence and politics of which Leibnitz spoke, become evident in their full range.
Plato has said: “It will never be well with the state until the true philosopher is king, or kings philosophize rightly.” In our constitutional times we should express ourselves better by saying that there will never be a change for the better regarding the many evils in our national life until the authorities, instead of abolishing the limited philosophical culture required for law students by the existing regulations, shall rather strive hard to secure that for their noble profession they shall really receive an adequate philosophical culture.
NOTES
[1] (p. 2). Cf. “Über die Entstehung des Rechtsgefühls.” Lecture by Dr. Rudolf von Ihering, delivered before the Vienna Law Society, March 12, 1884 (Allgem. Juristenzeitung, 7 Jahrg., No. 11 seq., Vienna, March 16-April 13, 1884). Cf. further, v. Ihering, Der Zweck im Recht, vol. ii. Leipzig, 1877-83.
[2] (p. 2). For the first point, cf. Allgem. Juristenzeitung, 7 Jahrg. p. 122 seq., Zweck im Recht, vol. ii. p. 109 seq. For the second point Allgem. Juristenzeitung, 7 Jahrg. p. 171, Zweck im Recht, pp. 118-123. It is here denied that there is any absolutely valid ethical rule (pp. 118, 122 seq.); further every “psychological” treatment of ethics, according to which ethics is represented “as twin sister of logic” is contested.
[3] (p. 4). Allgem. Juristenzeitung, 7 Jahrg., p. 147; cf. Zweck im Recht, vol. ii. p. 124 seq.
[4] (p. 4). Aristotle, Politics, i. 2, p. 1252 b. 24.