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

THEORY OF DEMOCRACY 8o$
agitate and to work for such ends as seem good to them
to raise wages, to improve conditions, or to form political
parties hostile to the Government. For all men have an
equal right to try to determine for themselves the social
and political conditions under which they shall live*
E. The Principle of Rationality
This principle asserts that men are reasonable in the
sense that, ifan opinion is true and evidence can be brought
forward to show that it is true, then in the long run they
will embracc.it. This view,, which was taken for granted
by the democrats of the nineteenth century, 1 is widely
denied in the modern world. Unless, however, we are
prepared to agree with John Stuart Mill that it is possible
to "make men believe according to evidence, and know
what was their real interest, which when they once knew,
they would we thought by the instrument of opinion,
enforce a regard to it upon one another", we have no
adequate ground for believing that they can be entrusted
with the privilege of self-government.
F. The Principle of Individualism
This is the principle that individuals and only individuals
are ends, and that it is never right to treat them merely as
means to ends beyond themselves, such as, for example,
the power of a person, party or a class, or the prestige of a
State. To the right of the individual to be treated as an
end, which entails his right to the full development and
expression of his personality, all other rights and claims
must, the democrat holds, be subordinated. I do not know
how this principle is to be defended, any more than I
can frame a defence for the principles of democracy and
liberty. The nineteenth century would have said that the
principle is "grounded in the objective moral order of the
universe ", and that it is, therefore, one that is recognizable
by every human being. The right to be treated as an end
is not, if this view is true, derived from law and custom;
1 See Chapter XIV, p. 534.