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Dr. W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz - Professor,
D.Phil. (Oxon), Polish philosopher and political thinker
Seven Principles of a Happy Society
Abstract:
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Dr. W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz - Professor,
D.Phil. (Oxon), Polish philosopher and political thinker
Seven Principles of a Happy Society
Abstract:
Almost one hundred years have passed since Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. In this book, Wittgenstein reduced the world to a set of facts and removed values from it. In a world that is the totality of facts, there can be no ethical propositions, ethics cannot be expressed, and there can be no philosophical reflection on a good life.
My book attempts to prove that the world created by human beings is primarily a world of values, and that ethics and political thinking are possible. I present a vision of the good state and a happy society. I show that the main value of social life and the basis of politics is cooperation. Like Wittgenstein, I use numbering to designate the issues discussed, and the sections numbered 7 to 7.54 are my responses to the propositions included in his sections 7 and 6.4 to 6.54.
Fragments of my book "Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus"
10 Politics is the way of the golden mean.
10.01 The golden mean is a happy society.
10.02 The golden mean is the balance point between extremes.
10.1 The first golden principle of a happy society is cooperation.
10.11 Cooperation is the first principle of humanity.
10.12 The power of cooperation stems from mutual complementarity.
10.13 Cooperation is based on diversity, mutual respect, and benevolence.
10.14 Cooperation is associated with a common goal, a common good, and a division of labor.
10.141 Cooperation is a mutual exchange of services. Within the framework of cooperation, each person and institution in society performs a suitable function.
10.15 While cooperation is the basis of a constructive culture, domination is the basis of a destructive one, leading states to decline and humanity to ruin.
10.16 The main goals of the state are the cooperation, liberty, prosperity, and security of its citizens.
10.161 Freedom without cooperation ends in exploitation, and society disintegrates.
10.17 Every social system should be organized for cooperation. Cooperation should be based on those values that can unite people rather then divide them.
10.18 Cooperation requires the ability to compromise and the consent of all groups in society regarding the scope of the general good, which is common to all and which goes beyond their particular interests.
10.19 All humankind can be linked by cooperation in areas such as common security, crime prevention, hygiene and health, environmental protection, dissemination of scientific knowledge, and setting of international ethical and legal norms.
10.2 The second golden principle is that everyone should be happy, but not at the expense of others.
10.21 In a happy society, there is no exploitation, oppression, discrimination, or enslavement.
10.22 In a happy society, people can make plans, take action in order to implement them, and enjoy the fruits of their achievements.
10.23 A happy society is a community of diversity, comprising different classes and espousing complementary values of freedom, entrepreneurship, and nobility.
10.24 In a happy society, citizens are lovers of freedom and of their own country.
10.25 From the principle of happiness for all, there derives the principle that in a society there should be many independent private enterprises: large, medium, and small.
10.251 Entrepreneurship is a source of wealth; it gives independence both material and spiritual, and is the best school of independence and freedom.
10.252 A happy society is a community made up of many private owners; it is not one in which citizens are reduced to a hired workforce and industry, trade and financial services are dominated by large multinational corporations.
10.253 Entrepreneurship in the home country should be defended against foreign competition, especially in areas such as agriculture, transport, small-scale production, and trade.
10.254 State authorities should also protect strategic sectors of the economy, such as energy, transport, banking, the chemical industry, and defense.
10.26 In a happy society there should be free access to capital; all those with sufficient initiative and good business ideas—especially for projects in the field of innovative technologies—should be able to find resources for their implementation.
10.261 In order to stimulate business activity, legal and tax systems should be simple, stable, and friendly to entrepreneurs.
10.27 A happy society is a prosperous community whose common goal is a good life, and where there are no great differences in wealth.
10.271 A society in which a small group of wealthy people are becoming richer, while an increasing number of poor people are getting poorer, is neither a just nor a happy society—in fact it is not even a community, but only an assemblage of people.
10.272 Poverty nurtures corruption, crime, prostitution and other negative social phenomena, and prevents people from pursuing their initiatives and self-fulfillment.
10.273 The role of the government is, on the one hand, to create conditions for the full physical and intellectual development of all citizens; and on the other hand, to protect them against poverty, exploitation, crime, corruption, and to provide them with basic medical care.
10.28 In a happy society there must always be noble and steadfast people—a new knighthood that is able to confront parasitic interest groups, corruption, and crime.
10.281 In order to cooperate effectively, noble and steadfast people should organize themselves in associations and organizations.
10.29 A happy society is a society where the place of honor is given to the moral and intellectual elite, and where people appreciate persons of merit, distinguished scientists, and creators of culture.
10.3 The third principle is virtues of citizens and wisdom of leaders.
10.31 For any success, there must be a group effort and proper leadership.
10.311 Leaders’ wisdom and citizens’ virtues are basic prerequisites for a happy society.
10.32 In any country political leadership should comprise persons who represent in themselves the highest intellectual and moral qualities.
10.321 Heads of state should be comprehensively educated and endowed with considerable life experience and many abilities. They should be able to conduct their own conceptual work, as well as to evaluate opinions of expert advisors.
10.322 An additional requirement for state leaders is nobility and a sense of connectedness with their own country.
10.33 Nobility in politics is expressed in a dedication to the common good and an ability to reconcile the interests of different groups.
10.331 The nobility of citizens lies in their civic virtues: diligence, honesty, courage, respect for the law, and above of all, love of freedom and love of one’s country.
10.332 The presence of civic virtues is necessary for effective cooperation among citizens and the existence of a strong state.
10.333 When they lack civic virtues, citizens can be easily manipulated, divided, bribed, and enslaved.
10.34 The presence of wisdom and nobility in politics must be ensured by the electoral law, especially with reference to elections for the Senate.
10.341 The Senate, the upper chamber of Parliament, has an important function in the system of government as the representation of a more meritorious, educated, and experienced part of society, which can potentially balance the less experienced and more populist representation in the lower chamber.
10.35 The electoral system should always be so organized as to select from society the best representatives and to serve the common good, not just the interests of political parties.
10.36 Politics is not a profession, and democracy posits a rotation. At all levels of the elective government, people should be in office only for a limited number of terms.
10.37 In a democracy there must be a place for an elite minority—those who are wise, noble, and best prepared to maintain culture and to govern.
10.371 On the strength, size, social acceptance, and participation in the government of such an elite of honor and merit, the prosperity of society and the strength of a given state depend.
10.372 Governing the state is an operation too complex to be entrusted to mediocre people; therefore, we should always look for the best.
10.38 Citizens are united in a community by good leadership, an efficient administration, and the common interest, which is having a strong and wealthy state.
10.39 The most important obligation of all citizens, and especially of state leaders, is to work for the benefit of their country and to bear responsibility for its fate.
10.4 The fourth principle is education for knowledge and virtue.
10.41 Education unites in a harmonious whole the physical development of human beings with their mental development, and traditionalism with innovation.
10.42 Knowledge must, on the one hand, be based on the cultural heritage of the nation and of all humanity; and on the other, be constantly updated, enriched and modernized.
10.421 The education system should be consistent and stable; that is, based on a guiding idea related to the purpose of education, while at the same time continuously incorporating new content that is relevant to this idea.
10.422 Superficial reforms and too frequent changes in curricula destabilize the system of education and lower the level of learning. As a result, students usually lose while the lobbies of textbook publishers gain.
10.43 The purpose of education is to raise an educated and creative individual, who is physically and mentally well-developed, ready to cooperate with others, and equipped with a number of virtues.
10.431 Movement is necessary for people’s physical development. The natural activity of children and youth must find creative expression in various forms of play, dance, and sport.
10.432 In the process of the mental development, the lesser emphasis should be placed on memorization, and the greater on awakening of students’ creativity and rationality, so that they learn to search for causal and logical relationships and to engage in analysis.
10.433 During the educational process students should develop virtues related to cooperation—companionship, civic courage, benevolence, and sociability—as well as acquire sensitivity to social issues and a passion for teamwork.
10.434 Children and adolescents should also be assisted in developing good taste and a personal culture, and in awakening their personal talents and creative predispositions.
10.44 There is a need for a special state-supported organization, such as scouting, that would cooperate with the school and develop in students physical fortitude, self-reliance, courage, and other virtues, along with love of their country.
10.45 A proper relationship between teacher and student is necessary for success in instruction. Teachers must first of all be friends. They must recognize talents and values in their students and give them strength and encouragement, and should reward rather than punish them.
10.46 The learning evaluation should be neither too strict nor too lenient.
10.461 A system of education that is too strict and condemns the majority of students to receive low scores is unreasonable and harmful. It leads students to acquire a sense that they are themselves of low value. This feeling gives rise to cynicism, prostitution, and aggression.
10.47 The abundance of life-developing forces, this impetus, which sometimes manifests in adolescents as aggression, should be used and directed to a positive expression: to action, work, and creativity.
10.48 Everyone, regardless of financial status and social background, should have equal access to knowledge and education.
10.49 Citizens who are educated and creative, who cooperate with one another, who love their country and are at the same time willing to serve all humankind, are the greatest assets of any nation.
10.5 The fifth principle is good laws.
10.51 The essence of law is justice.
10.52 Natural law is a measure of the positive laws promulgated by the authorities.
10.53 Good laws serve the common good, and not the particular interests of any pressure groups.
10.54 Good law must be based on the understanding of what is right and proper; in the final instance, it always refers to the highest values of human life.
10.55 There is a relationship between law and ethics. Law is a school of morality. Laws perpetuate certain customs, and because of them people take on certain characteristics.
10.551 The primary goal of every legislator is conscious legislative activity whose purpose is the ennoblement of society.
10.552 To direct people toward the good, laws must nurture habits that produce virtues in them and are based on traditional norms of behavior in their society.
10.56 A positive law cannot be arbitrary, but should always be based on the historical experience and traditions of a country.
10.561 If positive laws are made without reference to the traditions and customs existing in a society, they can be perceived as immoral and will be obeyed only under coercion. Then, respect for authority and the force of law will both decrease.
10.562 If a vicious action becomes an accepted practice by force of law, then a sense of the immorality of this action gradually vanishes, and the society undergoes demoralization.
10.57 If the laws and institutions in a country are to fulfill their roles effectively, they must be subject to evolution. However, before the old law, which for a long time was considered right, is to be changed, one needs to prove that the establishment of the new law will bring about a substantial benefit for the entire political community.
10.58 Law is based on sanctions that have the character of an external coercion. With moral progress in society, as people learn to act uprightly and gain respect for the law, sanctions can be eased.
10.581 Sanctions should lead to the desired effect, which is the enforcement of obedience to the law, and should be neither too punitive nor too lax.
10.582 Corruption among judges and prosecutors results in the degradation of the social order and is a serious crime; therefore, it deserves the highest punishment.
10.583 Fighting corruption in the judiciary and the police is one of the most important tasks of the state. In order to combat such corruption, special units must be established.
10.59 Good laws and good institutions are necessary conditions of a good state and a happy society. When the law is sloppy and the judiciary and other state institutions are corrupt, citizens lose their integrity and society becomes demoralized.
10.6 The sixth principle is political knowledge.
10.61 A happy society needs reliable knowledge about politics.
10.62 Without reliable political knowledge, people can be easily manipulated and indoctrinated.
10.63 The media should provide true information about current events in the country and the world, and reliable political analyses conducted from different perspectives; they should not limit their coverage to selective reports, biased analyses, politicians’ quarrels, and chronicles of accidents.
10.64 In politics we should be neither naïve nor cynical.
10.641 To be naïve means to be blind to the selfishness by which individuals, political parties, political pressure groups, multinational corporations, and states are so often driven in politics, and to underrate the importance of power in international relations.
10.642 To be cynical means to reject ethical principles and the possibility of cooperation among human beings, and to think of politics only in terms of power and the struggle for power.
10.65 The art of governing consists of balancing the interests of different groups, classes, and institutions within a society, and of protecting that society against internal and external threats.
10.66 The state serves all citizens and defends society against military conquest, economic dependence, and cultural enslavement.
10.661 The primary task of any state is to protect its political independence, cultural heritage, and material wealth.
10.67 The security of the state is enhanced by good laws and good armies, composed of citizens and based on a draft.
10.671 Good laws and good troops contribute to social discipline, and discipline is needed in any effective organization.
10.68 Foreign policy should be rational and pragmatic: avoiding moralism and ideology, based on a clearly defined national interest, seeking common interests with other states, and contributing to building a strong international society made up of independent states.
10.69 A good state has great value. The role of the state as the defender of society is especially important in the era of globalization.
10.7 The seventh principle of a happy society is the continuity of generations.
10.71 Traditions, religions, and ancestral memory uphold people in a community.
10.72 A common culture and a common identity are foundations of any happy society.
10.73 A strong state is based on the relationships among groups that work together because of their common language, traditions, customs and values.
10.731 When the civic virtues and bonds that connect people in a community are destroyed, only individuals’ own selfishness remains—a selfishness that leads society to demoralization and the state to collapse.
10.74 There is no one perfect model of the civilizational development of humanity, nor any one society that can be a perfect model for all others. The differentiation of humankind into nations—independent cultural entities that learn from one another—is the basis of civilizational progress.
10.75 The basis for the coexistence of many cultures in one country is nativeculturalism, or the dominant position of the native culture—the culture on which the state was founded and to which it owes its development.
10.751 The dominance of the native culture is coupled with a tolerance for other cultures.
10.752 In the case of significant cultural differences in a country and the consequent conflict of different civilizations, the only way to make cooperation possible is the domination of one, the more tolerant civilization, over all others; or the equal subjection of all to a dictatorship.
10.753 A dictatorship that is tolerant of cultural diversity, or an authoritarian government whose purpose is to ensure social peace, is a better regime than an illusory democracy riven by civilizational conflict that ends in civil war.
10.78 Societies owe their continued survival to the existence of the primary institution of humankind: the family, which begins with marriage between a man and a woman, and is established for the sake of having children.
10.781 Parentsexuality is a privileged form of sexuality.
10.782 The family enjoys special protection against poverty and has autonomy.
10.783 Any interference by the state in the internal affairs of the family should be kept to a minimum.
10.79 Human beings live by the light of a transcendental perspective whose ultimate purpose is to know God. The basis of a happy society is religious tolerance. The existence of a multitude of ways to know God should be guaranteed in every country.
10.8 Revolutions usually lead us to disappointments. There is nothing in culture that can be built completely anew. Progress occurs not only because of new ideas, but also because of our better understanding and use of old resources.
10.9 The vigor of ideas depends on their continual renewal in novel forms, and not in their continuity without change.
11 These are three words that form a whole: life, freedom, and cooperation.
11.1 The purpose of the evolution of life is its fullness and perfection. The evolution of life is a journey to ever greater freedom and moral perfection.
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