The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s1: The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte, and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy
The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s1
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The Dualism of Pareto, Fichte, and Del Vecchio Acceptable in Social Philosophy
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The specialization in the positivistic, secular, humane, scientific, rationalistic, and energistic data or factors of Hindu culture should not, however, be misunderstood as emphasizing or accentuating them to the exclusion of the idealistic, mystical, religious, and allied facts and ideas. It is not as an illustration of the monistic "historical materialism" or "economic interpretation" that has taken a final shape at the hands of Karl Marx or Achille Loria that the present study ought to be listed.
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Dualism or rather pluralism is, on the contrary, the key to the methodology of the present author in the interpretation of *viśva-śakti* or world-forces. The position of a modern Italian thinker, Pareto,⁹ in his *Trattato di Sociologia Generale* in this regard is acceptable. In his judgment historical materialism marked a noteworthy scientific progress in so far as it placed in clear light the contingential character of certain phenomena, namely, the moral and the religious, to which an absolute character was ascribed and is still ascribed by many. Further, it has, says he, certainly a part of truth because it asserts the interdependence of economic and all the social phenomena. But the error lies in changing this interdependence into a relation of cause and effect.
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⁹ Florence, 1916, Vol. I. p. 426, Vol. II. pp. 276-277., also *Manuel d' Economie Politique* (Paris 1909), pp. 18-19, R. Michels: *Corso di Sociologia Politica* (Milan 1927), pp. 14-16, 25.
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Equally acceptable is another Paretian viewpoint, namely, the one to the effect that the "economic man" is no more the whole man than is the "religious man," the "ethical man" etc. Extra-economic actions cannot be ignored in the examination of the complete personality. In regard to scientific purposes, again, says Pareto, it is possible to be "analytical." But *la practica è essenzialmente sintetica* (practice is essentially synthetic).
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It is the synthetic view that the present author stands for, and, as he claims, is the factual reality of Indian history and Hindu culture. Perhaps it is possible to connect the general scientific orientations of the present study in regard to the problem of religion *vis-à-vis* other items of human life with those of the classical German philosopher Fichte in his *Reden an die Deutsche Nation* (1808), Address VIII.
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The Apostles and the early Christians, says he, placed their faith in Heaven in such an extraordinary manner as to be entirely indifferent to the things of life, the state, *irdisches Vaterland*, the earthly fatherland, and the nation. This attitude is appraised by Fichte as an unnatural condition, as something outside the rule of the world-process, indeed as a rare exception. It is, further, says he, a very abnormal or perverse use (*verkehrter Gebrauch*) of religion, such as has been very often made in Christendom and other faiths, which without reference to the existing circumstances, recommends this retreating from the interests of the state and the nation as real religious disposition (*Zurückziehung von den Angelegenheiten des Staates und der Nation als wahre religiöse Gesinnung*). In the regular order of things, however, earthly life itself is to be regarded really as life (*soll das irdische Leben selber wahrhaftig Leben sein*) in which one can feel happy and which, naturally in expectation of something higher (*freilich in Erwartung eines höheren*), one can gratefully enjoy.
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In Fichte's analysis, it is indeed true that religion is the consolation of unjustly oppressed slaves, but it is still on account of the religious sense above all that people try to protect themselves against slavery and thus prevent religion from degenerating into a mere consolation of the prisoners. It fits the tyrant quite well, says Fichte, to preach religious resignation (*Dem Tyrannen steht es wohl an religiöse Ergebung zu predigen*) and to direct to Heaven those whom he does not wish to accord any nook or corner on Earth (*und die denen er auf Erden kein Plätzchen gestatten will an den Himmel zu verweisen*). In Fichte's words, we others should make it a point not to run after assimilating this concept of religion and, if we can, we ought rather to prevent the conversion of the Earth into a Hell and thereby awaken a greater longing for Heaven.
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Fichte considers the natural "drive" of man,—such as only in a condition of real necessity can be given up,—to consist in discovering the Heaven on this Earth and the eternally enduring things in his earthly day's work, in planting the imperishable and the immortal even in the temporal and in teaching in a manner that can be seen by the mortal eyes.
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It is the object of the *Positive Background* to demonstrate that Hindu culture, as it has historically grown through the ages and in diverse regions of India as well as Greater India, bears testimony to this Fichtean *natürliche Trieb des Menschen* (natural impulse or drive of man) and *regelmässige Ordnung der Dinge* (regular order of things). All the activities and ideas of the Hindus in regard to the *irdisches Vaterland* (earthly fatherland), the establishment of Heaven on Earth (*Himmel auf dieser Erde*) and the discovery of the eternal in the ephemeral or the transient are so many phases of Hindu positivism which it is the purpose of the present work to unravel.
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And in this position we can agree with Giorgio del Vecchio¹⁰ whose analysis leaves no doubt about the supreme value of each element in the personality. In his examination the orientations derived from the self are as "real" as those from the "not-self." *Cotesta dualità resta insopprimibile come legge immanente del nostro essere* (This duality remains irreducible as the immanent law of our being). The two terms, fundamental but antithetic, are equally (*egualmente*) legitimate and valid, says he.
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¹⁰ "Etica, Diritto e Stato" in *Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia del Diritto* (Rome 1934).
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The entire reality is to be referred equally (*egualmente*) to both these principles. Each one dominates and embraces the other but does not definitely eliminate it, because in its turn is dominated by and comprised in the other. Such idealism as is pragmatic enough to recognize the equal validity of diverse factors or elements in our *coscienza* (conscience) and *azioni* (actions), as does not consider any single motive by itself to be sufficient for human life and refuses to recognize in this or that particular tendency the intimate essence or supreme law of human nature can be affiliated to the philosophy underlying the structure of the *Positive Background* as presented here.