Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/76

50 so did all notable philosophers of modern days; so, above all, did the socialists, for these considered ethics and religion tag be the essential foundations of socialistic reform. This is the true light in which to regard Černyševskii's utilitarianism and the ethical groundwork he provided for socialism. He desired to replace Christianity by utilitarian morality, and this morality was to be carried out consistently in practical, political, and social life.

It amounts to little to say that Černyševskii's socialism was utopian. Černyševskii expounded his own views upon the so-called utopianism of socialism and of all the newer social aspirations. In his analysis of the reign of Louis Philippe he described Saint-Simonism and spoke of it as "utopian." The first manifestations of new social aspirations are invariably tinged with enthusiasm, so that they seem to belong rather to the field of poesy than to that of science. Černyševskii's view of utopianism resembled that taken by Marx. Černyševskii, like Marx, claimed that his own doctrines were scientific; and he based his science, once more like Marx, upon positivism. But whereas Marx subsequently discarded ethics and inculcated a positivist amorality, Černyševskii did not abandon morality, desiring rather to give ethics a "serious scientific foundation," and believing himself to have discovered this foundation in utilitarianism. I will not dispute about words, but I consider Černyševskii's standpoint more correct, and I do not think it utopian to retain ethics. Questions of a different order, however, are the respective values of Černyševskii's and Marx's contributions to science, and the influence which the two men respectively exercised upon the development of socialism.

ERNYSEVSKII'S influence in the late fifties and early sixties was extensive, and this is why the government swept him out of its path. His influence was political, and consequently his banishment had strong political effects.

Černyševskii's influence was exercised through his peculiar intellectual trend. His energies were especially devoted to the elaboration of realism. He endeavoured on the philosophical plane and with the aid of Feuerbach's anthropologism to provide a stable foundation for the positivist disillusionment