oughly objective, is forced reluctantly into the subjective doctrine that knowledge is of the
agreement or disagreement of ideas--a view so repulsive to him that he escapes from it by violent
inconsistencies. Berkeley, after abolishing matter, is only saved from complete subjectivism by a
use of God which most subsequent philosophers have regarded as illegitimate. In Hume, the
empiricist philosophy culminated in a scepticism which none could refute and none could accept.
Kant and Fichte were subjective in temperament as well as in doctrine; Hegel saved himself by
means of the influence of Spinoza. Rousseau and the romantic movement extended subjectivity
from theory of knowledge to ethics and politics, and ended, logically, in complete anarchism such
as that of Bakunin. This extreme of subjectivism is a form of madness.
Meanwhile science as technique was building up in practical men a quite different outlook from
any that was to be found among theoretical philosophers. Technique conferred a sense of power:
man is now much less at the mercy of his environment than he was in former times. But the power
conferred by technique is social, not individual; an average individual wrecked on a desert island
could have achieved more in the seventeenth century than he could now. Scientific technique
requires the co-operation of a large number of individuals organized under a single direction. Its
tendency, therefore, is against anarchism and even individualism, since it demands a well-knit
social structure. Unlike religion, it is ethically neutral: it assures men that they can perform
wonders, but does not tell them what wonders to perform. In this way it is incomplete. In practice,
the purposes to which scientific skill will be devoted depend largely on chance. The men at the
head of the vast organizations which it necessitates can, within limits, turn it this way or that as
they please. The power impulse thus has a scope which it never had before. The philosophies that
have been inspired by scientific technique are power philosophies, and tend to regard everything
non-human as mere raw material. Ends are no longer considered; only the skilfulness of the
process is valued. This also is a form of madness. It is, in our day, the most dangerous form, and
the one against which a sane philosophy should provide an antidote.
The ancient world found an end to anarchy in the Roman Empire, but the Roman Empire was a
brute fact, not an idea. The Catholic