Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx)Ferri, Enrico
Philosophy
Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx)
Ferri, Enrico
Evolution; Socialism; Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903
For instance, on page 17, in a style which is neither aristocratic nor
bourgeois, he writes that "Bebel had the _impudence_ to defend the
Commune in a public session of the Reichstag;" and he forgets that the
Commune of Paris is not to be judged historically by relying solely upon
the revolting impressions left upon the mind by the artificial and
exaggerated accounts of the bourgeois press of that time. Malon and Marx
have shown by indisputable documentary evidence and on impregnable
historical grounds what the verdict on the Commune of the impartial
judgment must be, in spite of the excesses which--as M. Alfred Maury
said to me at the Pere-Lachaise, one day in 1879--were far surpassed by
the ferocity of a bloody and savage repression.
In the same way, on pages 20-22, he speaks (I can not see why) of the
"contempt" of Marxian socialists for sentimental socialism, which no
Marxian has ever dreamt of _despising_, though we recognize it is little
in harmony with the systematic, experimental method of social science.
And, on page 154, he seems to think, he is carrying on a scientific
discussion when he writes: "In truth, when one sees men who profess such
doctrines succeed in obtaining a hearing, one is obliged to recognize
that there are no limits to human imbecility."
Ah! my dear Baron Garofalo, how this language reminds me of that of some
of the classical criminologists--do you remember it?--who tried to
combat the positivist school with language too much like this of yours,
which conceals behind hackneyed phrases, the utter lack of ideas to
oppose to the hated, but victorious heresy!
* * * * *
But aside from this language, so strange from the pen of M. Garofalo, it
is impossible not to perceive the strange contrast between his critical
talent and the numerous statements in this book which are, to say the
least, characterized by a naivete one would never have suspected in him.
* * * * *
It is true that, on page 74, like an individualist of the good old days,
and with an absolutism which we may henceforth call pre-historic, he
deplores the enactment of even those civil laws which have limited the
_jus utendi et abutendi_ (freely, the right of doing what one will with
one's own--Tr.), and which have "seriously maimed the institution of
private property," since, he says, "the lower classes suffer cruelly,
not from the existence of great fortunes, but rather from the economic
embarrassment of the upper classes" (page 77). What boldness of critical
thought and profundity in economic science!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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