Note 24 — VI PATRIOTISM IN THE PERFECT STATE

The professors, it is said, have been mobilized in the service of Germany. And on the general merits of the dispute this is so. But I am not aware of evidence that philosophers of repute have adopted, say, Bernhardi’s or Treitschke’s views of justification by force. Eucken, though he stands up for his country, does so partly on the ground that Bernhardi is not representative, and we must be allowed to discount the popular use of hard sayings from Nietzsche, though he has very probably misled the multitude. Nietzsche is not a thinker whom he that runs may read. Wundt, I think, is simply misinformed and credulous, while strongly affected by national bias and vanity. I may add that the idea of ‘culture’ in the earlier period is right and fine. I cite from Kant what is probably the original account of it: ‘We are civilized to the point of wearisomeness, into all sorts of social courtesy and politeness. But before we can be held to be moralized there is a very long way to go. For culture implies more than civilization, it implies the idea of morality.’ Kant’s Werke (R.) 7,329. He is censuring the expenditure on ‘expansion’, as thwarting the spiritual growth of the citizens.