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

788 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
DEMOCRACY
Preliminary Observations* I turn to the positive
principles which a democratic and individualist theory
of society would be generally held to embody. Their
statement needs to be prefaced by three preliminary
observations.
(i)
I drew attention at the outset to the fact that there
is no systematic democratic theory of society in the sense
in which there are systematic communist and fascist theories.
Hence the principles that follow are not related by any
necessary logical connection. They are generally maintained
together, but the acceptance of any one of them
does not necessarily entail the acceptance of all, nor does
the rejection of one entail the rejection of all.
(a) As in the case of the ultimate 1
principles upon which
our ethical judgments are based, these political principles
are intuitively apprehended. I do not mean to assert that
everybody assents to them; indeed, divergences of view
in regard to them are certainly not less marked than in the
case of ethical principles. In so far, however, as they are
seen to be true, they are also seen to require no arguments
in their support. Hence, if they are questioned by somebody
who wishes to deny them there is, so far as I can
see, no method of proving their truth which will bring
conviction to the questioner.
(3) Some of the principles are political, others ethical;
in some cases, that is to say, certain ethical propositions
are seen to be true, from which certain political proposi-
tions follow as their corollaries; in other cases the position
is reversed. Starting, that is to say, from the premise
that the purpose of the State is the maintenance and
promotion of the conditions within which the good life
for the individual is possible, we may proceed to assert
either that the good life involves such and such elements,
*See Chapters V, pp. 166-170, and XII, pp. 418-490.