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

796
ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
self-assertive can only be decided by force. The principle
that those who can organize the greatest amount of force
on their behalf should rule, has been the principle of
government which has chiefly operated in the history of
mankind. It is directly opposed to the principle of democracy,
and I do not see any way of proving that the one
principle is superior to the other. If the superiority of the
democratic principle is not intuitively seen, Acre is, I think,
nothing that can usefully be said in its defence. It is,
however, pertinent to point out that the results which
have historically attended the operation of the former
principle have not been such as to commend it to an
impartial mind. If it be conceded that there are absolute
values such as truth and moral virtue, then we may say
that those human beings are superior who apprehend
these values and embody them in their lives. We may also
say that by reason of their ability to apprehend values
they ought to govern the State. This was Plato's view.
It contradicts the principle of democracy which I have
here enunciated, but there is, none the less, much to be
said in its favour. Those who in modern times have pro*
claimed the right of the superior to rule have, however,
as a general rule, repudiated the conception of absolute
values; nor have they shown any tendency
to base the
ruler's claim to rule upon his superior knowledge of truth
and moral goodness. There is, therefore, in Totalitarian
States, no absolute standard by reference to which the
superiority of the superior can be tested, and would-be
superior persons have been driven to substantiating their
claim to superiority by force.
B. The Principle of Human Frailty
I mention this principle here not because it is as important
as some of those which follow, but because it is based
upon principle A, and is in some sense an extension of
it. In opposition to all totalitarian and absolutist theories,
democrats have contended that human beings cannot be
trusted with power over their fellow human beings with-