[18] Conclusion to _Liberté et Déterminisme_.
But did not Fouillée, one asks, overrate the number of good men (as good in his sense), or rather did he not exaggerate the capacities of human nature to respond to the ideal which he presents? Much of his confidence in moral and social progress finds its explanation here.
His step-son, Guyau, was not quite so optimistic, although he believed in a progress towards “sociability” and he adopted many of the doctrines of the _philosphie des idées-forces_. He attacks cheerful optimism in his _Esquisse d’une Morale sans Obligation ni Sanction_, where he remarks[19] that an absolute theory of optimism is really an immoral theory, for it involves the negation of progress in the strict and true sense. This is because, when it dominates the mind, it produces a feeling of entire satisfaction and contentment with the existing reality, resulting in resignation and acceptance of, if not an actual worship of, the _status quo_. In its utter obedience to all “powers that be,” the notions of right and of duty are dimmed, if not lost. A definitely pessimistic view of the universe would, he suggests, be in many respects better and more productive of good than an outrageous optimism. Granting that it is a wretched state in which a man sees all things black, it is preferable, Guyau thinks, to that in which all things appear rosy or blue.
Guyau concludes his _Esquisse d’une Morale sans Obligation ni Sanction_ by remarking: “We are, as it were, on the _Leviathan_, from which a wave has torn the rudder and a blast of wind carried away the mainmast. It is lost in the ocean as our earth is lost in space. It floats thus at random, driven by the tempest, like a huge derelict, yet with men upon it, and yet it reaches port. Perhaps our earth, perhaps humanity, will also reach that unknown end which they will have created for themselves. No hand directs us; the rudder has long been broken, or rather it has never existed; we must make it: it is a great task, and it is our task.” This paragraph speaks for itself as regards Guyau’s attitude to the doctrine of an assured progress.
In his notable book _L’Irreligion de l’Avenir_, the importance of which we shall note more fully when we deal with the religious problem in our last chapter, Guyau indicates the possibilities of general intellectual progress in the future. The demand of life itself for fuller expression will involve the decay of cramping superstitions and ecclesiastical dogmas. The aesthetic elements will be given a larger place, and there will be intellectual freedom. Keen as Guyau is upon maintaining the sociological standpoint, he sees the central factor in progress to be the mental. “Progress,” he remarks,[20] “is not simply a sensible amelioration of life—it is also the achievement of a better intellectual formulation of life, it is a triumph of logic. To progress is to attain to a more complete consciousness of one’s self and of the world, and by that very fact to a more complete inner consistency of one’s theory of the world.” Guyau follows his stepfather in his view of “sociability” or _fraternité_ (to use the watchword of the Revolution) as the desirable end at which we should progressively aim—a conclusion which is but the social application of his central concept of Life.