E-Books Home

It is not thus that the reign of reason can be established.


CHAPTER XXII
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIAL WILL

87. MAN'S MULTIPLE ALLEGIANCE.--We have seen that each man has his place
in a social order. This order is the expression and the embodiment of the
social will, which accepts him, protects him, gives him a share in the
goods the community has so far attained, recognizes his individual will
in that it accords to him rights, and prescribes his course of conduct,
that is, defines his duties or obligations.
The social will is authoritative; it issues commands and enforces
obedience. With its commands the individual may be in sympathy or he may
not. But upon obedience the social will insists, and it compasses its
ends by the bestowal of rewards or the infliction of punishment. The
moral law to which man thus finds himself subject is something not wholly
foreign to the nature of the individual. It has come into being as an
expression of the nature of man. That nature the individual shares with
his fellows.


Pages:
229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253