28—31). Where injury occurs and is followed by moral degradation everyone pities and condones; who can tell how many criminals are suffering from brain-lesions, causing injuries as serious, though without external sign, as those caused by the crowbar or the knife?
IV.
Having seen that the individual is what he is in consequence of inherited tendencies and social environment, what is meant by saying that he is "responsible" to Society? Since responsibility implies possibility of punishment, "is it just", is frequently asked, "to punish a man, when he is the outcome of past, modified by present, circumstances?". The answer must depend on the meaning attached to the word responsibility, and on the nature of the punishment inflicted.
Responsibility means, literally, liability to answer; if a man, living in Society, injures Society, Society calls him to account and demands from him an answer. The "right" of Society to do so, is the right of self-preservation. Man's needs cannot be satisfied in isolation; he is a social animal, and his happiness can only be ensured by union with his fellows; this truth, deducible from man's nature, has been confirmed by human experience; history bears record that the nations among whom the bonds of social union have been close have progressed more rapidly than those among whom they have been loose. This being so, social order is a good thing, and should therefore be maintained. If a human unit objects to live in Society he can leave it, and so escape from social control; if he remains in it, enjoying its advantages, sharing in its benefits, he cannot be allowed to commit actions which rend asunder the bands holding Society together. Murder, violence, robbery, fraud, undermine the social order, and must be prevented if the social order is to be upheld. Herein lies the justification of holding the individual answerable to Society for injury committed, and of using means to prevent him from inflicting further injury. That is, there is a justification for "punishment" which is reformatory, or which is merely preventive, when reformation is impossible—as in the cases of dangerous lunatics and of other incurable criminals.
