Briefly, then, the universal basis of co-operation is the proportioning
of benefits received to services rendered. Without this there can
be no physiological division of labor; without this there can be
no sociological division of labor. And since division of labor,
physiological or sociological, profits the whole and each part; it
results that on maintenance of the arrangements necessary to it, depend
both special and general welfare. In a society such arrangements are
maintained only if bargains, overt or tacit, are carried out. So that
beyond the primary requirement to harmonious co-existence in a society,
that its units shall not directly aggress on one another; there comes
this secondary requirement, that they shall not indirectly aggress by
breaking agreements.
§ 54. But now we have to recognize the fact that complete fulfillment
of these conditions, original and derived, is not enough. Social
co-operation may be such that no one is impeded in the obtainment of
the normal return for effort, but contrariwise is aided by equitable
exchange of services; and yet much may remain to be achieved. There
is a theoretically possible form of society, purely industrial in its
activities, which, though approaching nearer to the moral ideal in its
code of conduct than any society not purely industrial, does not fully
reach it.
For while industrialism requires the life of each citizen to be such
that it may be carried on without direct or indirect aggressions on
other citizens, it does not require his life to be such that it shall
directly further the lives of other citizens. It is not a necessary
implication of industrialism, as thus far defined, that each, beyond
the benefits given and received by exchange of services, shall give and
receive other benefits. A society is conceivable formed of men leading
perfectly inoffensive lives, scrupulously fulfilling their contracts,
and efficiently rearing their offspring, who yet, yielding to one
another no advantages beyond those agreed upon, fall short of that
highest degree of life which the gratuitous rendering of services makes
possible. Daily experiences prove that every one would suffer many
evils and lose many goods did none give him unpaid assistance. The life
of each would be more or less damaged had he to meet all contingencies
single-handed. Further, if no one did for his fellows anything more
than was required by strict performance of contract, private interests
would suffer from the absence of attention to public interests. The
limit of evolution of conduct is consequently not reached, until,
beyond avoidance of direct and indirect injuries to others, there are
spontaneous efforts to further the welfare of others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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