Every civilization comes at last to the point where the individual, made by speculation conscious of himself as an end _per se_, demands of the state, as the price of its continuance, that it shall henceforth enhance rather than exploit his capacities. Philosophers sympathize with this demand, the state almost always rejects it: therefore civilizations come and civilizations go. The history of philosophy is essentially an account of the efforts great men have made to avert social disintegration by building up natural moral sanctions to take the place of the supernatural sanctions which they themselves have destroyed. To find--without resorting to celestial machinery--some way of winning for their people social coherence and permanence without sacrificing plasticity and individual uniqueness to regimentation,--that has been the task of philosophers, that is the task of philosophers. We should be thankful that it is. Who knows but that within our own time may come at last the forging of an effective _natural_ ethic?--an achievement which might be the most momentous event in the history of our world. III Individualism in Athens The great ages in the history of European thought have been for the most part periods of individualistic effervescence: the age of Socrates, the age of Cæsar and Augustus, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment;--and shall we add the age which is now coming to a close? These ages have usually been preceded by periods of imperialist expansion: imperialism requires a tightening of the bonds whereby individual allegiance to the state is made secure; and this tightening, given a satiety of imperialism, involves an individualistic reaction. And again, the dissolution of the political or economic frontier by conquest or commerce breaks down cultural barriers between peoples, develops a sense of the relativity of customs, and issues in the opposition of individual “reason” to social tradition.