As the socialization of all mankind advances to ever greater unities,
the linguistic limitations sprung from former stages of evolution prove
to be a hindrance. The mother tongue, of course, forms the first and
most important entry for the individual to the common store of
knowledge. But in view of the linguistic limitation of which I have just
spoken the efforts in our day are carried on with renewed zeal to create
a _universal auxiliary language_ (p. 100) by means of which intercourse
should be made possible beyond the language boundaries. There have
already been gratifying results.[I]
[I] At the present time "Ido" is the best. It is a highly practicable
artificial language, and its advocates have succeeded in organizing it
to insure its normal development. An older and still rather widespread
form called "Esperanto" has failed to organize itself so as to insure
its development and it must inevitably die out.
=60. Civilization.= Everything which serves the social progress of
mankind is appropriately called civilization or culture, and the
objective characteristic of progress consists in improved methods for
seizing and utilizing the raw energies of nature for human purposes.
Thus it was a cultural act when a primitive man discovered that he could
extend the radius of his muscle energy by taking a pole in his hand, and
it was another cultural act when a primitive man discovered that by
throwing a stone he could send his muscle energy a distance of many
meters to the desired point. The effect of the knife, the spear, the
arrow, and of all the other primitive implements can be called in each
case a purposive transformation of energy. And at the other end of the
scale of civilization the most abstract scientific discovery, by reason
of its generalization and simplification, signifies a corresponding
economy of energy for all the coming generations that may have anything
to do with the matter. Thus, in fact, the concept of progress as here
defined embraces the entire sweep of human endeavor for perfection, or
the entire field of culture, and at the same time it shows the great
scientific value of the concept of energy.
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