Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/171

Rh after the appearance of the first volume of Capital he read the book carefully, and was especially interested in the chapters upon cooperation and upon the division of labour, for his attention had already been drawn to these questions by Comte, Adam Smith, and Louis Blanc. In his work on Darwinism, published in 1870, Mihailovskii stated that in Capital he had found the confirmation of his views concerning the disastrous consequences of the division of labour. Mihailovskii was likewise interested in Marx's philosophy of history, and had frequent controversies with Marx and the Marxists, especially in later years, when the latter had come to regard him as an adversary. Notwithstanding his esteem for Marx, he never accepted the doctrine of historical materialism, but, on the contrary, always energetically combated it.

The way in which Mihailovskii appealed to psychical energies in explanation of social facts, is shown by his studies concerning imitation and suggestive influences, a theme in which he was always greatly interested. From 1882 onwards he penned a series of essays analysing the way in which human beings influence one another, and why certain men in particular (the "heroes") influence the masses for good or for ill, and compel lesser men to follow their example. Mihailovskii displayed much industry, here anticipating Tarde, in studying the French writers who have recorded manifestations of imitativeness and have described its pathological forms.

It seems self-evident to Mihailovskii that history is subject to laws. Man, he says, cannot escape from the domain of natural law. But in the field of politico-moral processes the human will is one factor among many, and within this field therefore freedom of the will has its scope. The formation of ideals and the endeavour to realise these ideals, occur, therefore, likewise in accordance with law. Mihailovskii understands freedom of the will in the determinist sense, making a sharp distinction between determinism and fatalism.

General laws determine the order of the phases of historic evolution, but individual intervention can retard or accelerate the course of development. Great and vigorous personalities make their appearance upon the frontier between two phases of development.

Mihailovskii, consequently, takes a critical view of the so-called "great men theory" of recent days. Following Rh