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

756
ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
logical ground for resistance to tuch a decree. The enormity
of such a position -has produced an inevitable reaction
from the theory which contemplates it as possible. 1 The
countries of Europe had experience of the State's power in
war-time, and the experience was neither pleasurable nor
elevating. We may, then, suggest as a substitute for the
"more of the State", which Dr. Bosanquet postulates as a
panacea for existing defects, the further development of
voluntary associations formed for non-political purposes.
As an increasing number of the individual's interests
and energies is devoted to the purposes of non-political
organizations, the State may, it is to be hoped, recede
into the background of his life and become, in the end,
a purely administrative rpflch^niiPt* for mflinteiiMPg the
minimum condition* which are necessary for the pursuit
of Green's ideal ends, and for regulating the effects of the
actions of voluntary associations upon those who are
not members ofthe associations. Ofthese necessary functions
of the State, functions which only the State can perform,
some account will be given in the next 1
chapter.
SUMMARY. To sum up the foregoing discussion, I
have tried to show: (i) that the idealist philosophy of the
State is in error in failing to see that, ifmoral considerations
are applicable to the relations of individual to individual, of
company to company, ofTrade Union to Trade Union, and
of family to family, they are also applicable to the relations
of State to State* There is nothing, in feet, unique about
that particular grouping of human beings called a State,
which entitles men, when grouped in a State and acting as
representatives of a State, to disregard that moral code by
which theyconsider themselves bound in their other relations,
(ii) That the idealist theory is falsified by facts which it
disregards. It disregards (a) the existence of numerous
associations of individuals for non-political purposes, the
l Thb assertion, true during the decade mrcmHny the war, has,
it must be admitted, been weakened by the eventi of the last few yean.
See Chapter XIX, pp. 774, 781, 782.