out in a corresponding Philosophy of Politics, in which Dühring develops an extreme socialism. That the social whole, however, is conceived in the sense of a dominant atomism, very presently appears. The “whole” aimed at is simply a greater mass of force, to give effect to the caprices of that style of “enlightened” individual who so ignores the great historic whole as to see in the organic institutions of reason — the family, the state, the church — nothing but barriers to the career of humanity.
The end of government, Dühring holds, is “to enhance the charm of life”; and here, unfortunately, in settling the practical test of enhancement, he is betrayed into destroying the profound principle on which he rested his case for the worth of life — that we must be guided by objective values, and ignore the outcries of subjective caprice. It appears to him that hitherto there has been no considerable political or social wisdom in the world. Social organisation, as well as political, ought now to undergo a complete re-creation, with the aim of giving the greatest possible range for each individual to act according to his own views of what regard for the whole requires. For example, all governments armed with force are to be done away. In their stead is to come voluntary association. Democratic communes are everywhere to replace organic states. There is to be no centralisation, no one
