Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th CenturySombart, Werner
History
Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th Century
Sombart, Werner
Socialism
Of far-reaching importance, and at this moment of pressing interest,
are two points which I would present in conclusion. I mean the
attitude of the social movement towards religion and towards
nationality. Because here personal feeling and temperament may easily
interfere with the clear vision of the observer, it is doubly
necessary to divest oneself of all passion and to deal with these
problems objectively. Let us make the attempt. Leaving out of
consideration the English working-man, who to-day, as a generation
ago, seems to oscillate between pietism and positivism, and who on
this point cannot be considered typical because of the well-known
peculiar conditions of his development, the proletarian movement
doubtless is strongly anti-religious. How comes this?
So far as I see, the opposition to religion comes from two different
sources: it has a "theoretical" and a "practical" origin.
Theoretically the proletariat and its leaders have become heirs of the
liberal "age of illumination." Out of a superficial study of natural
sciences have sprung all these anti-religious writings of the years
1860-1880 which in an intoxication of joy announced the first
recognition of the atheistic dogma to the world. These writers never
rose above the level of "itinerant preachers of materialism," and they
have never reached to the level of the Marx-Engels conception of life.
The platform of this dogmatic atheism may be considered to-day as
entirely something of the past. There is no earnest representative of
science anywhere who to-day dares to assert that science means atheism
and excludes religion. Thus the attitude of the proletariat towards
religion would be entirely free and independent if the ground of its
irreligion were merely a theoretic and misleading incursion into the
dogmatism of natural science. But the enmity to religion has much
deeper grounds. Not only has an enthusiasm for scientific materialism
taken hold of the proletariat with special force; but also the
enthusiasm for unbelief has been helped greatly in its development by
the instinctive feeling, or the clear consciousness, that in the
materialistic conception of the world lies the germ of a mighty
revolutionary force, well suited to drive authority from all spheres
of life. What wonder that the proletariat took hold of it as a useful
weapon for the strife; for, as we know, one of the conditions of the
very existence of the proletariat lies in a tearing asunder of all the
old points of faith. Thus the predilection for materialism and atheism
is well explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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