History of Human SocietyBlackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)
History
History of Human Society
Blackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)
Civilization; Progress; Sociology
_Diversity Is Necessary to Progress_.--If progress is an essential
characteristic of modern civilization, it may be said that diversity is
essential to progress. There is much said about equality and
fraternity. It depends on what is meant by the terms as to whether
these are good sayings or not. If equality means uniformity, by it man
is easily reduced to a state of stagnation. Diversity of life exists
everywhere in progressive nature, where plants or animals move forward
in the scale of existence. Man is not an exception to the rule,
notwithstanding his strong will force. Men differ in strength, in
moral and intellectual capacity, and in co-operating ability. Hence
they must occupy different stations in life. And the quality and
quantity of progress are to be estimated in different nations according
to the diversity of life to be observed among individuals and groups.
_What Is the Goal of Civilized Man?_--And it may be well to ask, as
civilization is progressive: What is our aim in life from our own
standpoint? For what do men strive? What is the ultimate of life?
What is the best for which humanity can live? If it were merely to
obtain food and clothes and nothing more, the question could be easily
answered. If it were merely to train a man to be a monk, that he might
spend his time in prayer and supplication for a better future life, the
question would be simple enough. If to pore over books to find out the
knowledge of the past and to spend the life in investigation of truth
were the chief aims, it would be easy to determine the object of life.
But frequently that which we call success in life is merely a means to
an end.
And viewed in the complex activity of society, it is difficult to say
what is the true end of life; it is difficult to determine the true end
of civilization. Some have said it is found in administering the
"greatest good to the greatest number," {16} and if we consider in this
the generations yet unborn, it reveals the actual tendency of modern
civilization. If the perfection of the individual is the highest ideal
of civilization, it stops not with one individual, but includes all.
And this asserts that social well-being must be included in the final
aim, for full and free individual development cannot appear without it.
The enlarged capacity for living correctly, enjoying the best of this
life righteously, and for associating harmoniously and justly with his
fellows, is the highest aim of the individual. Happiness of the
greatest number through utility is the formula for modern civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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