Social and Philosophical Studies (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1910. Excerpt: ... THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF JUSTICE I THE LAW OF RETALIATION--RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE Justice as it exists in our civilized societies flows from two sources; one takes its origin in the very nature of the human being and the other in the social environment organized on the basis of private property. The passions and the concepts existing in man before the establishment of property, and the interests, passions and ideas which this engenders, acting and reacting one upon another, have ended by begetting, developing and crystalizing in the brain of civilized man the ideas of the Just and Unjust. The human sources of the idea of justice are the passion for vengeance and the sentiment of equality. The passion of vengeance is one of the most ancient in the human mind. It has its root in the instinct of self-preservation--in the necessity which impels animal and man to resist when they receive a blow, and to respond to it mechanically if fear does not put them to flight. It is that blind and unreasoning necessity which leads the child and the savage to strike the inanimate object which has wounded them. Reduced to its simplest and last expression, vengeance is a reflex movement analogous to the involuntary motion which makes the eye wink when it is threatened. 02 Vengeance with the savage and the barbarian is of an intensity unknown to civilized men. "The Redskins," says the American historian, Adairs, "feel their heart burn violently day and hight until they have shed blood for blood. They transmit from father to son the memory of the murder of a relative, of a member of their clan, even though it be an old woman." There are stories of Redskins who have committed suicide because they could not avenge themselves. The Fijian, who has received an insult, places within the range of his vision an ob...