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

778
ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
and morals are treated as the by-products of economics.
Democratic and liberal thinking differs from both Communism
and Fascism in holding that a man's ethical
and political views are his own concern, and that he should
be free to hold them and to practice the conduct which they
enjoin without interference by the State. The question
therefore arises, whether, granting the presuppositions of
democratic theory, the State has any part to play in the
spheres of ethics and religion and, if so, what part. Once
again it will, I think, be found that the function of the State
in this regard is what, in its relation to economic associa-
tions, I have called a background function. The need for
a political organization to discharge this function arises
from two sets of considerations.
(i) I have stressed on an earlier page the importance of
spontaneity in ethical and religious matters. 1 A man
should, democrats and individualists have urged, be free
to choose for himself both creed and code. I have also
drawn attention to the frequency with which original
insight in the sphere of ethics and religion brings the
prophet, seer, preacher or original moralist into conflict
with die State. 1 "
The question accordingly arises, In what
circumstances, if any, the State has a right to suppress
ethical or religions beliefs"? The friends of liberty would
maintain that there are none. The question at issue here
is one of ultimate values,* and I do not see how it is possible
to settle it by argument. Where, however, the effects upon
others of the dissemination of original ethical and religious
beliefs are concerned, a different set of considerations arises.
It is a commonplace that the effects of an individual's
teaching and example extend into spheres outside his
personal cognizance, affect the conduct of men whom he
may never know, and often result in lines of conduct of
which he would be the first to disapprove* The feet that
he may be ignorant of the effects of his teaching upon
See Chapter VIII, bp. 308*310.
* See p. 788 below lor a development of this