Page:Ferdinand Lassalle - The Working Man's Programme - tr. Edward Peters (1884).djvu/9



Having been asked to give you a lecture, I thought that I should best meet your wishes by choosing a theme which from its very nature must be deeply interesting to you, and by treating it in the most thoroughly scientific manner. I will therefore speak on the special connexion that exists between the character of the present period of history in which we are living and the idea of the working class. I have said that my treatment of the subject should be purely scientific.

But scientific treatment consists in nothing else than complete clearness, and therefore a complete absence of presuppositions, that is to say, of reasoning founded on unwarranted assumptions.

On account of this entire absence of presuppositions with which we have to approach our subject, it will be necessary at starting to have a clear understanding of what we mean by a working man, or by the working class. For on this point we dare not allow ourselves the benefit of a presupposition, as if this were something perfectly well known. This is far from being the case. The language of common life, on the contrary, frequently attaches different meanings at different times to the