Civilization and Ethics: Selections from “The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization” by the Reverend Dr. Albert Schweitzer (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

Let us continue with selections from “The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization” by the Reverend Dr. Albert Schweitzer (vegetarian). This work argues that ethical progress is the true essence of civilization. Without ethics, whatever we choose to do will be delivered over to bondage.

CHAPTER 3 CIVILIZATION ESSENTIALLY ETHICAL IN CHARACTER

“[…] What was the result of our giving up the ethical conception of civilization, and therewith all attempts to bring reasoned ethical ideals into effective relation with reality? It was that instead of using thought to produce ideals which fitted in with reality, we left reality without any ideals at all. […]

It is only a conviction which is based upon reasoned ethical ideals that is capable of producing free activity, that is, activity deliberately planned with a view to its object. In proportion as ideals taken from the workaday world are combined with it, reality influences reality. […]

Individuals and nations alike, we deal indiscriminately with real and imaginary values, and it is just this confused medley of real and unreal, of sober thought and capacity for enthusiasm for the unmeaning, that makes the mentality of the modern man so puzzling and so dangerous. […] In the sphere of human events which decide the future of mankind reality consists in an inner conviction, not in given outward facts. Firm ground for our feet we find in reasoned ethical ideals. Are we going to draw from the spirit strength to create new conditions and turn our faces again to civilization, or are we going to continue to draw our spirit from our surroundings and go down with it to ruin? That is the fateful question with which we are confronted.

The true sense of reality is that insight which tells us that only through ethical ideas about things can we arrive at a normal relation to reality. Only so can man and society win all the power over events that they are able to use. Without that power we are, whatever we may choose to do, delivered over into bondage to them. What is going on today between nations and within them throws a glaring illumination upon this truth. The history of our time is characterized by a lack of reason which has no parallel in the past. Future historians will one day analyze this history in detail, and test by means of it their learning and their freedom from prejudice. […]”