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

726 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
Fascism. This criticism will also touch, albeit indirectly,
upon some of the presuppositions of Communism.
statement of the case for
Secondly, there is a positive
democracy, as it is understood to-day.
The views expressed in this and the succeeding chapter
represent more closely than any of the foregoing those
of die author. An attempt will, therefore, be made to
relate the positive statement of the case for democracy
in Chapter XIX to the theory of values with which I con*
eluded Part II; since in this Part I am treating ethics and
politics as two aspects of a single branch of enquiry,
and to suggest a theory of the latter without reference
to conclusions reached in regard to the former, would
be to ignore the presuppositions upon which Part IV is
based.
The idealist theory of the State embodies or implies
three important propositions. First, that the State is a
final form of human association; secondly, that its nature
can be adequately understood without talcing into account
its relations with other States; thirdly, that it is a unique
and distinctive form of organization, possessing a being of
its own in virtue of which it is endowed with rights and
powers over its members of a quite peculiar kind, and
that it is exempt from moral considerations in its dealings
with them. As a result, the Nation-State comes to be per*
sonified as a living being with passions, desires and sus-
ceptibilities. Its person is superhuman in size and energy
but sub-human in morality. I will consider each ofthe three
propositions which lead to this conclusion separately*
Consideration of the third, which, in the light of its
consequences, is the most important of tb three, will
suggest an alternative theory
of the State and of the
relations erf* the State to its individual members, which takes
into account the existence and significant of voluntary
associations, and will serve to introduce toe positive statement
of democratic theory which is containedJn the next
chapter.
r .