PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL THEORY 215between individual members of society. The goal of government is to
bring about a state of equilibrium between egoism and law. Fortunately,
the force of virtue, tending towards general benefit, helps in main-
taining this equilibrium, or harmony. 1 It follows from this that instead
of giving nghts and privileges to the members of the group, laws only
detennine their relations by defining their obligations and duties. For
Speransky, rights constitute that domain of an individual's life on
which his obligations towards others are based. The fundamental
principle governing these obligations, the basis for all government
action, is the Kantian imperative, "do not do unto others what you do
not wish for yourself." 2 In any case, the private interests of individuals
or groups are not of great significance in detennining the positive con-
tents of laws. For egoism, and its demands, cannot become the founda-
tion of a durable society. 3 In the first place, individual interest and
benefit are concepts both too indetenninate and vague to provide a
foundation for a permanent and stable organization of the group.^4Secondly, as we have noted, egoism is destructive of society, it must
be curbed, or at least balanced by virtue, which it is the task of the
government to protect. But the playing off and balancing of individual
interests and egoisms, with the government acting as arbiter, alone does
not make for a civilized body politic; although Speransky admits that
under some circumstances it may be an important part of the state's
functions.
In a sense, Speransky accepts the idea of a social contract, wherein
society and government are formed in answer to the needs which arise
when individuals, living together, wish to safeguard their security and
mutual safety from each other's state of natural freedom. Yet, in Spe-
ransky's mind, the social bond is not a contract in the 18th century
sense, implying absolute guaranty of individual interests and inalien-
able rights. The social bond is rather the agent by which liberty is
transfonned into duty, and a state of nature into moral obligations, as
Fichte had it. Society is expressed in the body politic, and the purpose
of the government is to change anarchical freedom into duty, i.e., into
a morally determined freedom. Of course, such a purpose cannot be
achieved without the will of the people, the individuals who are coming
together in society. In this sense, law has a foundation in the people,
although Speransky does not at all say that the law has its source in
the people, a rather important distinction. Society, the state, the govern-
1 Zapiska 1803, pp. 128-129.
2 Plan 1809, p. 46.
3 Zapiska 1803, p. 129 (note).
4 Plan 1809, pp. 3, 4.