“When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires is bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that our whole nature resembles that of social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of languages that others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact we live in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
“A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed toward promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to his attitude in this respect. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
“And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It can easily be seen that all valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society have been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone once discovered the use of fire, someone the cultivation of edible plants, and someone the steam engine.
“Only the individual can think, thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
“The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion….”
Saturday, January 18, 2014
"SOCIETY AND PERSONALITY" by Einstein..excerpt
IDEAS AND OPINIONS, “Society and Personality,” by Albert Einstein (Three Rivers Press, NY: 1954, 1982), p.13-14:
“When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires is bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that our whole nature resembles that of social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of languages that others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact we live in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
“A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed toward promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to his attitude in this respect. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
“And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It can easily be seen that all valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society have been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone once discovered the use of fire, someone the cultivation of edible plants, and someone the steam engine.
“Only the individual can think, thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
“The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion….”
“When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires is bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that our whole nature resembles that of social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of languages that others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact we live in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
“A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed toward promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to his attitude in this respect. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
“And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It can easily be seen that all valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society have been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone once discovered the use of fire, someone the cultivation of edible plants, and someone the steam engine.
“Only the individual can think, thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
“The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion….”