GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

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ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
Positive Ethics of Fascism. I turn now to the positive
ethical theory which underlies Fascism. I have already
mentioned as the (dominating fascist ideal, power; as the
dominating fascist character-trait, will; and as the guiding
principle of fascist policy, qualitative selection of persons,
of those persons, namely, who use will to obtain power.
These basic principles are perhaps most dearly enunciated
by writers who, preceding in point oftime the historical rise
of Fascism, may be regarded as its spiritual ancestors.
Of these the most important are the German philosophers
Fichte and Nietzsche.
Influence of Fichte. In an essay entitled "The Ancestry
of Fascism", published in 1934,* Bertrand Russell draws
attention to the important influence of Fichte on fascist
thought. Fichte (1762-1814) was the apostle of the
renascent German nation in the early years of the nine-
teenth century, when the Germans were fighting Napoleon.
His object was to unite his countrymen in opposition to the
French Emperor, and he sought, therefore, to awaken
German patriotism, to make Germans conscious of their
solidarity and to inspire loyalty to the nation. In pursuance
of these aims, he introduced a distinction between classes
reminiscent of the
or grades of men which is in some ways
division into classes of Plato's State and Aristotle's. There
is on the one hand the noble-minded man who is prepared
to identify himself with and sacrifice himself for the
nation, and there is, on the other, the ignoble man who
exists only to serve the noble man.
Bertrand Russell gives some interesting quotations from
Fichte. Education is to be remodelled with the object
of "moulding the Germans into a corporate body". The
main factor in an education devoted to this object is uni-
versal military service, and everybody, is, therefore, to
be trained to fight If the question is put, "Why are they
to fight?" the answer is not, as one might have supposed, to
safeguard freedom, to increase material prosperity or to
Pubiiibed in a collection of etttys entitled In JVtfet tf JSttwsr.