This, approximately, was how things stood in the fields of theoretical socialism and extinct philosophy, when Herr Eugen Dühring, not without considerable din, sprang on to the stage and announced that he had accomplished a complete revolution in philosophy, political economy and socialism.
Let us see what Herr Dühring promises us and how he fulfills his promises.
II.
WHAT HERR DÜHRING PROMISES T he writings of Herr Dühring with which we are here primarily concerned are his Kursus der Philosophie , his Kursus der National- und Sozialökonomie , and his Kritische Geschichte der Nationalökonomie und des Sozialismus . [28] The first-named work is the one which particularly claims our attention here.
On the very first page Herr Dühring introduces himself as "the man who claims to represent this power" (philosophy) "in his age and for its immediately foreseeable development" {D. Ph. 1}.
He thus proclaims himself to be the only true philosopher of today and of the "foreseeable" future. Whoever departs from him departs from truth.
Many people, even before Herr Dühring, have thought something of this kind about themselves, but -- except for Richard Wagner -- he is probably the first who has calmly blurted it out. And the truth to which he refers is "a final and ultimate truth" {2}.
Herr Dühring's philosophy is "the natural system or the philosophy of reality ... In it reality is so conceived as to exclude any tendency to a visionary and subjectively limited conception of the world" {13}
This philosophy is therefore of such a nature that it lifts Herr Dühring above the limits he himself can hardly deny of his personal, subjective limitations. And this is in fact necessary if he is to be in a position to lay down final and ultimate truths, although so far we do not see how this miracle should come to pass.
This "natural system of knowledge which in itself is of value to the mind" {508} has, "without the slightest detraction from the profundity of thought, securely established the basic forms of being" {556-57}.
From its "really critical standpoint" {404} it provides "the elements of a philosophy which is real and therefore directed to the reality of nature and of life, a philosophy which cannot allow the validity of any merely apparent horizon, but in its powerfully revolutionising movement unfolds all earths and heavens of outer and inner nature" {430}. It is a "new mode of thought" {543}, and its results are "from the ground up original conclusions and views ... system-creating ideas {525} ... established truths"{527}. In it we have before us "a work which must find its strength in concentrated initiative" {38} -- whatever that may mean; an "investigation going to the roots {200} ... a deep-rooted science {219}
... a strictly scientific conception of things and men {387} ...
an all-round penetrating work of thought {D. C. III} ... a creative evolving of premises and conclusions controllable by thought {6} ... the absolutely fundamental" {150}.
In the economic and political sphere he gives us not only "historical and systematically comprehensive works" {532}, of which the historical ones are, to boot, notable for " my historical depiction in the grand style " {D. K. G. 556}, while those dealing with political economy have brought about "creative turns" {462}, but he even finishes with a fully worked-out socialist plan of his own for the society of the future, a plan which is the "practical fruit of a clear theory going to the ultimate roots of things" {D. C. 555-56}
and, like the Dühring philosophy, is consequently infallible and offers the only way to salvation; for "only in that socialist structure which I have sketched in my Cursus der National- und Socialökonomie can a true Own take the place of ownership which is merely apparent and transitory or even based on violence" {D. Ph. 242}. And the future has to follow these directions.
This bouquet of glorifications of Herr Dühring by Herr Dühring could easily be enlarged tenfold. It may already have created some doubt in the mind of the reader as to whether it is really a philosopher with whom he is dealing, or a -- but we must beg the reader to reserve judgment until he has got to know the above-mentioned "deep-rootedness" at closer quarters. We have given the above anthology only for the purpose of showing that we have before us not any ordinary philosopher and socialist, who merely expresses his ideas and leaves it to the future to judge their worth, but quite an extraordinary creature, who claims to be not less infallible than the Pope, and whose doctrine is the only way to salvation and simply must be accepted by anyone who does not want to fall into the most abominable heresy. What we are here confronted with is certainly not one of those works in which all socialist literature, recently also German, has abounded -- works in which people of various calibres, in the most straightforward way in the world, try to clear up in their minds problems for the solution of which they may be more or less short of material; works in which, whatever their scientific and literary shortcomings, the socialist good will is always deserving of recognition. On the contrary, Herr Dühring offers us principles which he declares are final and ultimate truths and therefore any views conflicting with these are false from the outset; he is in possession not only of the exclusive truth but also of the sole strictly scientific method of investigation, in contrast with which all others are unscientific.
Either he is right -- and in this case we have before us the greatest genius of all time, the first superhuman, because infallible, man. Or he is wrong, and in that case, whatever our judgment may be, benevolent consideration shown for any good intentions he may possibly have had would nevertheless be the most deadly insult to Herr Dühring.
