Love, the Law of Life

In our consideration of economics the first question is: ‘What, in reality, is economics?”’

Croce, the Italian philosopher, places extraordinary emphasis upon value, but in doing so he opposes economics to the true, the good, and the beautiful. In this really legitimate? What, in fact, is the essence of value? German philosophers, from the viewpoint of epistemology and with much noisy theory, define value as such and such a thing, but the result is only a fruitless discussion.

In my view, value arises from the effort of man to gain free self-existence,! or independent existence. The one ideally free is God. In brief, then, value may be defined to be the effort of man to become like God.

Man is, however, placed in a world of relativity, in a conditioned order. Hence, without absolute existence, there is no starting point for man to become as God, even though he desires to do so. Wherefore, the possession of real existence becomes one of the great conditions of value. Thus it is that some declare that securing possession of the things necessary in the struggle for existence constitutes value.

If you ask, then, “‘Does mere existence constitute value?” I reply that it alone does not. Mere exist- ence would make human life dry and flavorless— waking, sleeping, eating, bearing children; and the children in their turn waking, sleeping, eating, and bearing children—such existence does not necessarily possess value.

In order to have value, life must in every part be interesting. It must be intrinsically purposeful, mean-: ingful, complete. It follows, then, that life, down to its smallest parts, must be beautiful, true, and good. In order that life, even to its extremely limited portions, be in full harmony with the ego, two possibilities are presented: there is the case where both are from the beginning exactly accordant, fitting precisely, like the two parts of a clam shell; and there is the situation where this harmony does not exist, but where it is possible—whether the individual seeks for this harmony or not—to develop the self up to the point of conformity.

However, the parts which are in conformity from the beginning are those over which man has no power. Whether he be awake or asleep, a superior Power supplies them, and the conformity is unconsciously reached. In other words, the factors which may be consciously supplied are those of the second case mentioned above. Man either seeks externally for that which conforms with his nature, or develops from within in order to conform to his environment. Herein is the emergence of desire.

Desire having come into play, the individual seeks among limitless changes for the thing which conforms to the ego, and also makes the effort to organize the ego into conformity. Here value originates. In other words, in a relative order the power freely to form the self is yet insufficient. If man had the ability freely to organize objective conditions he could originate perfect value; but there is none beside the Absolute who can change the objective world at will. Hence, relative values are always subject to obstructions which lead the man of the relative order into bypaths or cause him to stop in his course and lose time.

Value in this relative order of things differs from absolute value; so that the moments of life are inevitably incomplete. Man must, in order to achieve his purpose, tax his powers variously to leap over the obstacles encountered. Since man must put forth the effort to conform to his environment, there are times when he must—while the inner aim is being advanced, and prior to attaining his true aim—stop and pursue some subsidiary aim. Take, for example, the case of the poor student who earns money by peddling natio (steamed beans), but becomes such a good peddler that he finds he can make more in this way than by studying and becoming a salaried man, and so remains a natto peddler for life.

Creature comforts are not the aim of man’s life. Man is absorbed in gaining entrance into the free selfexistence of the true, the good, and the beautiful. But, as I have said, in order to enter this life of freedom, man must have food and clothing and a home to livein. Yet before attaining the ideal, he runs into a blind alley.

In an order of absolute value, reality and value would coincide. Simple desire to be beautiful would effect the possession of beauty; the wish for truth would bring truth; and truth, goodness, and beauty would, accordingly, be reality. For there would exist no reality which was not true, good, and beautiful.

For the rise of value in a relative order three elements © are necessary, namely, variation, selection, and growth. In my view, the meaning of existence is arrived at if man can in his own strength fix his aim and plan its fulfilment. The one who can in addition assure the reality of self is, in brief, God, who is of himself reality, with no relation to anything else. He is, in himself, the Absolute. He is Kant’s “Ding an sich.”’ Therefore, the desire to possess value as the content of life arises from the primal wish to fulfil one’s aim as far as possible by one’s own strength. If such effort within the ego is not posited, then all thought of economic life, ethical life, or religious life is meaningless. But certain limits are imposed upon our free existence and we are compelled to live in a relative world, 1. e., a world of subjective and objective relations. The ego has a real existence; all other things seem shadowy. Unable to gain freedom like that of God, the ego is dashed down to a lower plane.

But in order to progress through these relations, the following method furnishes the only device: seek for some power of variation; discover therein the way by which the ego is to rise; and boldly press toward it. For example, if five variations are assumed, then the ego possesses five possibilities of change. And con- -comitantly with these external variations the ego possesses internally five possibilities of variation. When one of these variations is adopted, selection arises. I term this inner selection. In the relative world in ~ which we live variation is the sine qua non for mounting the steps of evolution, for evolution advances only through the process of selection. Thus it proceeds from one variation on up the steps of five variations. This evolution based upon variation is to be seen in many living forms. It is shown by the curved line of variation. Evolution is by selection. Where, through selection, the crests in the curved line of variation mount gradually higher, the operation of selection is shown. This progression by wave motion exhibits the necessity of variation in universal substance. In other words, without variation there is no evolution. Many persons overlook this fundamental variability. Karl Marx hardly recognized it. Marx, taking over the precept, “Man is what he eats’’ (from Feuerbach, who belonged to the left wing of the Hegelians), considered, from the conclusions of simple materialism, that variation was history. Since he tried to show the variations by the forms which certain materials control, he held a forced, unnatural philosophy. I regard Marx’s philosophy as significant, but since I consider this to be not variation of form but of energy, I cannot agree with Marx. Because of this fundamental difference, my view does not harmonize with Marx’s theory.

In order that evolution may proceed upon this basis of variation, selection must be added. The plane must be gradually raised. Living things by degrees evolve higher through selection. Through experimental biology we have learned clearly the relation between variation and selection. But this must be further supplemented by the principle of growth. Power of growth signifies the force which proceeds from within, not necessarily depending upon external change; and the variation is not spatial but temporal. It is not a simple variation. The recognition that there is a provision from within for evolution becomes the standard for the evolution of value. Hence, ' synthesizing all the facts, if the things which possess value have, through their inherent power, all possible variability, selection, and development, and we have been enabled to evolve in a path where these may be readily displayed, we may be said to have entered upon a life which closely approaches that of absolute values. A single atom is fixed, immovably, but a plant may vary in a certain plane. The ivy, for example, grows in a certain place, but since it has roots upon different portions, it is possible for it to continue evolving even though one set of roots die.

The fundamental nature of animals resides in the fact of their possessing an inner variation by which, in times of external change, e. g., earthquakes, floods, typhoons, famine, drought, etc., they flee, or dive into the water, or otherwise protect themselves; together with a power which serves to increase their own variations and to elevate their own existence. As the level of this existence is raised, it becomes psychical life. The human brain has billions of cells, and each of these cells retains its own record. There is prepared the internal apparatus which makes possible the response to external change. To meet the contingencies of change there is provided the inner power of selection. Moreover, by this process of selection growth is rendered possible. In the case of animals there is no fear of external change: they demolish or conquer or utilize the obstacle. Man, for example, sails his ships with the wind, and uses the flood tide. And through the function of selection man makes these external variations serve his own needs and he absorbs them into his own existence. Thus in the end he approaches omnipotence.

Even death is not feared, but this change into other forms, which is shown among plants, animals, and mankind—this advance upward in the stages of evolution is an evolution of value. This line of thinking leads to the practical identification of the life of value with reality. Furthermore, we cannot think of reality as divorced from the life of value. To sever this relation is not permissible. Viewing the idea content of the thing-in-itself, it is thought to have reality because it has value; and reality may be thought to have existence because, in its essence, it has value.

Relative values experience a further severance, 7. e., the separation between variability and _ selection. Variability is objective. If value is assumed to vary, there is the external variation and the corresponding internal selection. Between these originates the disunion of subject and object whereby arises a value unrelated to inner selection which, as I shall later explain, completely disregards the inner selection (which is inner power and the power of beauty); and there appears frequently the desire merely to multiply the external variations. For example, the capacities of man are possible of variation in all directions. They show variability from within. One person invents dynamite, another invents an electric motor, and another manufactures bullets. Without any functioning of selection, these are forthwith placed on sale. Men gain pleasure from these variations merely because they are novel.

Modern capitalism finds interest solely in external variations. In order for selection to function, a new power is required, but this power is curtailed. For the emergence of value, variation and selection are necessary, but only the former is considered interesting. Fireworks exhibit variation and are therefore so fascinating that people spend their money for them. But their value is merely one of external variation, quite separate from the value of selection. Hence, between the two there is no evolutionary progress.

Modern society constructs machinery and battleships, but on that account the progress of man himself is not recognized. That is not inner growth, for thereby man enters into a bypath, he digresses from the path of evolution, and the subsequent power to vary is lost. Comparing this with capitalism, we see that there are such variations as banks, clearing houses, and stock companies, but if the variations do not possess within themselves the power of growth, then while only partially evolved, their energy is exhausted, and the power to proceed on into the next stage is atrophied. Disunion of the factors of evolution, then, is the cause of the appearance of partial values.