The theological theory demonstrated that "Power is of God"; and it very
well may be so. But the question still remains, To whom is the power
given, to Catherine the Empress, or to the rebel Pugatchof? And no
theological subtleties whatever can solve this difficulty. Moral
philosophy demonstrates that "A State is merely a form of the social
development of the individual"; but the question still remains,--Can the
state of a Nero or that of a Gengis Khan be considered a form of such
development? And no transcendentalism whatever can solve that
difficulty.
It is the same with Scientific Science also. Division of Labour is the
condition of the life of organisms and of human societies; but what have
we to consider in these human societies as an organic division of
labour? However much science studies the division of labour in the
molecules of a tape-worm, all the observations cannot compel men to
acknowledge as correct a division of labour which is repudiated by their
reason and conscience. However convincing the proofs of the division of
labour in the cells of investigated organisms may be, a man who has not
yet lost his reason will say it is wrong that some should only weave
cloth all their long life, and that this is not division of labour, but
oppression of human beings.
Herbert Spencer and others affirm that as there is a whole population of
weavers, the weaver's activity is in organic division of labour. In
saying this they use a similar line of reasoning to the theologians:
There is a power, therefore it is of God, whatever it may be: there are
weavers, therefore they exist as a result of the law of division of
labour. There might be some sense in this if the power and the position
of weavers were created by themselves; but we know that they are not but
that it is we who create them. Well, then, we ought to ascertain whether
we have established this power according to the will of God or of
ourselves, and whether we have called these weavers into being by virtue
of some organic law or from some other cause.
Here are men earning their living by agriculture, as it is proper for
all men to do: one man has set up a smith's forge and mended his plough;
his neighbour comes to him and asks him to mend his plough, too, and
promises to give labour or money in return. A second comes with a
similar request; others follow; and in the society of these men a form
of division of labour arises. Thus, one man becomes a smith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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