If the process of the universe is inherently opposed to the ethical order, it follows that the ethical order is inherently opposed to the process of the universe. In this state of things the position of humanity would be very unfortunate.
——Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 10). The Columbia University Press.
——Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 10). The Columbia University Press.
Mathematical arguments drawn from the assumption that human actions proceed with the statistical regularity that might be found in a flock of sheep are often exceedingly difficult to refute in detail, and yet they rest on an insecure foundation. Man is not merely an animal. He is also a rational being, and accordingly, he reacts to new circumstances in a way that can only be determined by taking the possibility of rational purpose into account.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 15). The Columbia University Press.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 15). The Columbia University Press.
The past, when it is seen at all, appears always in a halo of romance.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
Those who are most zealous for social improvement will indeed be the last to minimize the evils that exist.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
There was probably never a time at which among civilized peoples there was so much diffused sensitiveness to any form of social ailment. If we were briefed to defend our own time, the line to take would surely be, not that its evils are few or small, but rather that every evil calls forth a strong and persistent effort to cure it.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
There was probably never a time at which among civilized peoples there was so much diffused sensitiveness to any form of social ailment. If we were briefed to defend our own time, the line to take would surely be, not that its evils are few or small, but rather that every evil calls forth a strong and persistent effort to cure it.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911). The Columbia University Press.
In sociology as in all sciences specialism is a necessity and it is also a danger. It is a necessity for the simple reason that human capacity is limited and it is not given to man to acquire sound knowledge and adequate skill in many departments at once. It is also a danger because social life is no more divisible into independent sections than the human body is divisible into independent organisms.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.). The Columbia University Press.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.). The Columbia University Press.
Give a man a sheet of meal with a dint in it, he says, and ask him to flatten it out. What does he do? If he knows nothing of metal work, he takes a hammer and knocks the dint flat, only to find that it has reappeared elsewhere. He applies the hammer again at the new point with the same result, and so he goes on till he convinces himself that dints are not to be levelled out by this direct and easy method. So it is, urges Mr. Spencer, with society. We find some evil or evils which we seek to prevent by direct and forcible means, only to find, says this critic of social effort, that a corresponding evil appears somewhere else. We put down overt crime only to find that some form of secret vice is increasing. A temperance crusade suppresses drunkenness, and it is discovered that those who used to drink now find an outlet for excitement in gambling. Compensation for accidents is secured by law to workmen, and in consequence it is alleged that elderly workmen are refused situations. Workmen form trade unions only to maintain and improve the conditions of their work, and no sooner do they succeed than their employers imitate them and form federations by which the unions are overpowered...Mr. Spencer did well to call attention, that every change, however good in itself, provokes unforeseen reactions, and that if we are to achieve permanent and assured good we must as far as possible keep in view the life of society as a whole and seek not jealously to magnify our own little sectional interest at the expense of the others, but rather to correlate it with the work that others are doing and endeavor to induce in them the same spirit.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.). The Columbia University Press.
—Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse in Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911, page 5.). The Columbia University Press.