3 Suicide and Faith in God
Thb text consisis of excerpts from two translated chapters ('The
Causes of Suicidal Tendency' and 'Civilisation, and the Tendency to
Suicide') and the complete dosing chapter of the book Der
Selbstmord als sociale Massenerscheinung der modernen Qvilisation,
published in 1881. The work is based on Masaryk's second
thesis, submitted to the llniversiry of Vienna in November 1878. A
Czech version of rhe book, published for fhefirst time in 1904, wos
a translation by Anronln ifdtek. The English translation appeared in
1970 under the title Suicide and the Meaning of Civilisation. Masaryk
accorded this early work a key imporrance among his writings, declaring
toward the end of his life: 'Today I could say it better, bur in
essence I could nor add anything. '
THE CAUSE OF THE SUICIDAL TENDENCY
On the previous pages we have studied and examined all the causes
of the suicide tendency with the exception of the conditions of spiritual
culture, and we have found that they do not provide a sufficient
explanation of the phenomenon in question. The true causes of suicide
musr lie in the conditions of spiritual culture. We have seen again
and again that most conditions in fact have merely a disposing and
little determining effect, but that in both cases their effectiveness is
relatively weak. Now it is time to ask what is disposed and what is
determined? Man.
Even freely chosen action springs from the character of man;.~and.
is the dore characteristic, the more important it is for the individual.
Now there can hardly he a more important decision than whether
to be or not to be, and it is therefore clear that suicide arises from
the whole character of man in a special way. It directly depends on
a person's whole outlook on life and the world: it depends on the
judgement which the individual can pass on the worth of human life
for the universe and especially for mankind; this decision is man's
Suicide and Faith in God 15
verdict about the world. How terrible this decision reads if one thinks
of the enormous number of suicides at the oresent time!~
Next to this, what are all the cries and jeers of the pessimists B la
Schopenhauer!
The most proximate cause of suicide is always a misfortune that
the victim considers SO terrible that he no longer can bear life;
therefore, the statistical evidence concerning the number of suicides
is a measure of human misfortune; this measure is certainly not
perfect because it tells us little or nothing concerning the intensity,
frequency, duration, and extent of misfortune: nevertheless, it says
enough.
The misfortune that a man experiences can be real or it can be
imagined, depending on his intellectual and moral constitution. For
those affected it is certainly always decisive, always great enough to
surrender life; but in most cases the objective observer sees that the
cause was trivial in relation to the loss, and hc is astounded that
small and insignificant causes often produce such results. He soon
perceives that an intellectual or moral defect has almost always
darkened the suicide's judgement. Not without basis does suicide
appear incomprehensible and frightful to normal human understanding,
because in fact every halfway normal and reasonable man does
not commit it. Every healthy outlook on life and the world ascribes
a high value to life and seeks to maintain it, following the natural
drive for self-preservation. We understand perfectly, for example,
why a prisoner can stubbornly bear the most terrible tortures thinking
of the gallows to which his confession would bring him. but we
are horrified that a man should willingly end his life.
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
Shakespeare. Measure for Measure, Act 111,Scene I.
It is our task to examine the present outlook on life and to discover
how it happens that in spite of all the progress in almost every area
of practical life, men feel not happier, but, on the contrary, unhapp+.We
must investigate which conditions of spiritual culture are
Inimical to life to such a high degree.
The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk
Intellectual Education
From the fact that the tendency to suicide increases each year in
all civilised countries, while the education of the people and their
instruction is everywhere improving, one sees that a greater education
in any case does not impede the appearance of the suicide
tendency. One can reach the same conclusion from a comparison of
the city and the province. But the great correspondence of the suicide
frequency of entire countries and in certain areas with the general
state of education, the fact that among uneducated peoples suicide
is less frequent than among the educated, leads one to expect that
a causal connection exists between education and suicide tendency.
Statisticians must answer the question whether criminality rises or
declines with increasing intellectual education, and many have
spoken for and many have spoken against the idea. From the beginning
it is clear, with respect to this question, that intellectual education
in and of itself does not necessarily influence criminality and
morality, and statistical induction in fact shows that certain crimes
increase; murder, crimes against morality, rape, infanticide, general
moral relapses increase in the most highly educated nations; similarly,
crimes become increasingly frequent which require lying,
treachery, deceit, and fraud for their execution, the so-called 'refined
crimes', while the grosser crimes become less frequent. From this
we see that higher level of education suppresses only certain crimes.
and contrariwise, that it permits others to occur more readily and
with greater frequency. We should have to discuss this at length
were we to decide what is our position; at this time we can only
affirm that intellectual education brings with it a certain refinement
but not improvement nor higher morality; intelligence can be both
good or evil.
The is similar in our case. A higher intellectual cultivation- - does
not, as such, lead more readily to suicide; but it refines man,
makes his life richer and many-sided, brings him into new and more
difficult situations, and through this, confronts him sooner with the
question to be or not to be than the less refined person who, because
of his narrower horizons, loves life through his simplicity and diffidence,
and the question to be or not to be never enters his head.
Now, higher intellectual education does not mean proper and true
intellectual education; on the contrary, we may expect that between
the extremes of noneducation, as is represented in our states by the
simplest peasant, and the high education of a university professor,
Suicide and Faith in God
there exists a middle education or, more properly, a half-education
of the most manifold gradations and shadings. And in fact it is so,
but this half-education is dangerous if, as is mostly the case, it is
identical with inharmonious, disunified, and unmethodical organisation
of the mind. If one closely examines the 'educated' and asks
of what use their public school, high school, and university education
has been to them. the conviction grows that the incompleteness of
education stands in direct relation to the degree of schooling. Men
know much, very much, but their knowledge has not nearly the
influence of their lives that it should; and therein lies the great
defect: we learn much too much for school and not enolrgh for life.
Therefore, half-education disposes to the suicide tendency, entirely
overlooking for the moment that intellectual education at the present
time is acquired at the expense of moral education.
We can say, ceteris paribus, the suicide tendency 13 greatest in
those countries and nations where unmethodical and impractical halfeducation
B greatest. Knowledge which cannot be used makes its
possessor a victim of fantasy, of hypercritical nonsense. destroying
the desire for useful labor, creating needs which cannot be satisfied.
and Ieading in the end to boredom with life.
Religious Education
The morality of man, his whole labor and striving, preserves in
religion that essential inspiration which stamps man with the mark
1 of the divine. It is not our problem to investigate what religion is
l
and how it appears among men; it is sufficient for us to know that
it exists and that, like the invisible fragrance of the flower, it invests
man with his true value. Remove the fragrance of the flower and it
will delight your eye, but you will no longer find it so delicate;
remove religious feeling from man and you have made of him a
creature which you respect and perhaps even admire, but one which
YOU cannot love with a full heart.
Religion - I am thinking especially of monotheistic religion -gives
man comfort in all situations of life through theism and the belief in
1 .mmortality, hope in the face of adversity, and the stimulus for the
love of mankind. The religious man is therefore joyful in all the
circumstances of life: his faith, his conviction, and his assurance bind
I him not only to heaven, but also to earth, to life.
The living practice of religion, the subjective feeling, naturally
leads to an inner union of like-minded men and expresses itself
The Spirit of Thomas G. Masor)fik
in the life of the church. Thus arises religious organisation, which
permeates the entire life of society. All agree that humanity needs
a spiritual guide to thc true, the good, and the beautiful, but this
guide can only possess that power which is able to fill the innermost
depths of the human soul, and that is religion. Thus, thc power of
rcligion is so great and is visible in all the works and ways of men.
This spiritual power over the people, however. is wielded by the
church (public religious opinion and, in particular, the clergy), the
religious organisation of society.
If the practice of religion disappears, the power of the church
disappears, along with comfort, hope, and joy in life. Individual
spirits may well be able, as they believe, to live the true, the good,
and the beautiful without any religion, yet that is rcally mere deception.
For example, if Mill wishes to found a religion of humanity
without theism and belief in immortality, he still wants it to be a
religion; and the only thing wc would have to investigate is whether
religious feeling is even possible without these two doctrines, as
often stated. Mill wants no Christianity, but he wants a religion surely
hc himself lacked most a genuine and warm religious feeling.
Those familiar with Mill's works, especially his ethical and sociological
writings, will have noted his deficiency. Comte, who founded a
religion of humanity, has deep religious feeling and is certainly Christian,
but he seeks to unite this religious feeling not with God, but
with men. A man like Mill, who seeks to surpass positive religion
in goodness with his philosophy, will naturally provide for himself,
to a certain degree, that which any of the better religions could have
affordcd him. But the great mass of people have no substitute at all
if they give up their religion. But how many spirits like Mill are
there? I know very few, and yet I know many philosophers and
educated people. One often hears the opinion that religion is for the
masses only, not for us - the educated. The educated! Of the thousands
who say that, there is hardly one among them who even
approaches the education of Mill; rather, these are the men of this
half-education whose worth we have described previously.
In fact, rlre modern half-education and lack of moral principle
appear as irreligiosity; and thus we finall>, conclude that the modern
tendency to suicide has its true cause in the irreligiosit,~of our time.
The above exposition of the meaning of religion for the life of
humanity makes this undentandahle. A harmonious religious worldview
makes lifc tolerable under all circumstances, even the life of a
Job; irreligiosity makes it unbearable with the first blow.
Suicide and Faith in God
Many objections can be raised to our conclusion. For example, a
Geman cultural historian does not consider irrcligiosity as the cause
of the modern suicide tendency because many men, brought to
frenzy, take their lives - on account of religion! It is not to
be believed. Religious feeling, if it is misguided, naturally leads to
mental illness, like every other misguided feeling. If men become
insane from joy, is joy therefore an evil? And if such an unfortunate
person takes his life in his madness, has he taken it from joy?
Block the French statistician and national economist, has given
more thought to the problem. He believes that thc connection
between religion and the suicide tendency is not certain for the
bUowtng reasons: variations in rehgion occur along with variations
in education and wealth; religion is very poorly taught and thus has
little effect;a large number of suicides are committed by the mentally
ill; many motives are unknown, and many are falsified.
I answer: Variation in religion coincides, to be sure, with the
variation in education and wealth; but what follows from this? Only
that one may not make religion the sole cause of the tendency to
suicide without qualification. But to the extent that religion, considered
along with all other causes, plays a significant or the most
significant role in the life of mankind, its effect is stronger and more
visible than the other simultaneous causes. Concerning education in
particular, wc know that a higher degree of education is directly
favorableto the development of the suicide tendency; and it is quite
evident to all that in our day it is the educated people who are not
spiritual and even less religious. The connection between these two
phenomena will be treated in following sections; but this much is
now evident, that a man without religion and morality - and we have
found that for the most part the tendency to suicide also rests upon
immorality- cannot endure the labors of life like the religious-moral
man.
CIVILISATION AND THE TENDENCY TO SUICIDE
The basic tenet of thr Christian teaching is its exalted and pure
monotheism, the belief not only in a just and holy, but also in a
Ioving God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe and of man, His
child. Such a faith gives man support in all situations and vicissitudes
of life, fillshim with hope, bestows confidence upon him, and blesses
him with strength. Thus all monotheistic religions are inimical to
20 The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk Suicide and Faith in God 21
Ithe appearance and extension of the suicide tendency: Christianity,
Judaism, Mohammedanism. (Pantheistic Buddhism encourages suicide,
and it is not without meaning that Stoicism, the philosophy of
suicide, was pantheistic.)
From the belief in God the Father it follows, as has already been
indicated, that Christ entrusted His entire life to the guidance of an
all-knowing and infinitely good Providence; all that God ordained
for Him He accepted in humble submission. considering this earthly
life as a necessary preparation for eternal life after death. The belief
in an omniscient, omnipotent, infinitely good God and the conviction
that man has an immortal soul never allow the good Christian to
des~air,but they make him love and value life in all circumstances.
The belief in aloving father defines as a consequence the relationship
of man to man: ail are brothers from one and the same father.
Christ gave love a new birth, a boundless love which should itself
extend to one's enemies. In possession of this love, Christ knew how
to order His life to be pleasing to God under all circumstances; love
is the bond which unites Him not only with heaven, but also with
earth. Who could despair of life if he had only a particle of this love
which Paul describes in the unsurpassed hymn to the love of a
Christian? There is a soothing balm for the sufferings of a Job in- -~
this holy love.
This exalted svstem of theism, united with the belief in immortality----.-~~.... - -,
and the morality of love, has a living foundation and cornerstone in
the mediation of the Son of God, in Jesus Christ. With faith in Him,
all that is abstract, inaccessible and incomprehensible in his religion
vanishes for the Christian, because Christ, the Son of Man, becomes
for him the object of faith, of hope, of love, of devotion, of selfsacrifice,
of veneration, of worship. The life of Christ in its consistent
accomplishment of His own teaching gives for life not a dry, but a
living lesson, which the faithful are able to live in and with Christ.
Can there be a better, more elevated, more godlike life than Christ's?
Rousseau answers, 'If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher,
then Christ lived and died like a God.'
The entire life of Christ is truth; the Son of God taught sublime
simplicity, and demonstrated perfect purity and holiness in the
proper sense of the word. Nothing external clings to Him and His
life, no formalism, no ritualism; all came from within Him; all is
true, beautiful, and good. He restricted himself only to the Old
Testament in His teaching, avoided all artifice, rhetoric, and
unnecessary erudition, but nevertheless instilled a new life into His
hole system. His teachings and commandments He gave without
any illusions, clearly, precisely, authoritatively; He, the mildest,
most gentle, most humble, is forceful, energetic, powerful. He, the
Son of God, was born in a despised town in poverty, and yet angels
and the entire world served Him: His kingdom is not of this world.
He, the Man of God. finally suffered the most ignominious death
for his conviction. Can there be a better example of how we should
live?
Christianity created a new moral world by the sanctification of the
relation of man to God; it raised perfect selflessness to a fundamental
ethical principle, created a new principle of life in which every
believer could participate. Christianity was a new reality which
placed the Christian infinitely above the heathen with respect to
ethics: an unphilosophical Christian is better prepared than a philosophical
pagan.
Christianity became the true teaching for life; the Gospels teach
the love of life and not death. Thus, this new message rescued and
saved the dying pagan world; Christianity nipped in the bud the
morbid suicide tendency of ancient polytheism and returned life to
man.
Since the Renaissance, lack of faith, scepticism, and religious indifference
has increased in all Christian countries; the positive folk
religion - Christianity - daily lost the beneficial influence which it
had formerly exercised. Thousands and thousands might ask with
Strauss: Are we still Christians? and answer: No! D o we still have
religion? Yes - and no!
This 'we' refers to the educated, and those who, correctly or
incorrectly, count themselves among them; the (rural) people are
still positively faithful, although the educated, to whom their leadership,
more than is good, is entrusted, serve them as a model. We
wish to believe, and thus, with Strauss, differentiate positive religion
from religion in general, but everything in the positive view that we
cannot fit into our own views displeases us. Guizot characterises this
religious striving of our day as a negation of the supernatural in the
destiny of man and of the universe, an abrogation of the supernatural
element in the Christian, as in every religion in general. And we
add to this: the educated proclaim this with a zeal which does not
fall short of the religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages.
~~ ~ . .......- . .... ~~ - -~ . - ~ ~ - - ~...
1
The Spirit of Thomar G . Mararyk Suicide and Faith in God 23
The various ecclesiastical sects, irritated and challenged by the to the complete neglect of a basic and serious study of general
negation of religion which comes in part from the side of science, :. knowledge, are greater today to an even greater extent than preare
now experiencing a great activity. Their effort seldom leads to , dously, as the greater and more extensive grow the demands
a reconciliation but to a suppression of thought, just as science labors made on every truly educated person, and as the more often
toward no true reconciliation. The most decisive but also the most such attempts to sip everything become fruitless. . . The moral
unreasonable protest against human knowledge came from Rome, influence of this intellectual decline and dullness appears most
where the Pope in all seriousness declared himself infallible -it was onen where individuals rise, in the worse cases, to a complete
thus that Augustus at one time introduced the cult of the Emperor, disdain for all knowledge and every high purpose in life, the result
because the religious consciousness of the Romans had declined. In of which is almost always the wildest, most unbridled life and
fact, science now dominates the mind of the masses, as can be seen complete depravity.
in the influence of the press. The popularisation of science, carried (H. Beckers, Uber das Bediirfnirs einer zeitgemassen Regelung
out in great style, and the corresponding zest for reading by the der allgemeinen Studien an Deutschlands Hochschulen, 1862.)
public show that the need exists which religion and the church are
no longer able to fulfill. But science only satisfies the mind; it is an
Along with a deadening indifference, vexing scepticism and disinsufficient
guide for life and death. It is therefore only partially
2 gusting cynicism are spread; men are dissatisfied and unhappy, and,
, more and more loudly and menacingly raising their voices, they do
satisfactory, and offers no moral support; it is not able to lead the
i not shrink back from a revolutionary reorganisation of society.
masses.
Bacon has already said that a half-knowledge leads men away
We surrender our intellects to learning, our feelings to a religion
from God. To the degree that incompleteness spreads, it produces
and a church in which we no longer believe and which we no longer
atheism, or worse, observable irreligiosity. There are few true athetrust
- that is the single, but atrocious failure of our civilisation. In
ists, but there are many doubters and men who have rejected the
all our schools, large and small, only the intellecr is cultivated. The
old faith without replacing it with anything new. But irreligiosity
school does not concern itself with ethical guidance, but surrenders
among most men, if not among all, leads to dissatisfaction. As things
this function to positive religion. Thus, modern society is led by two
are, man still needs moral support in life and death in addition to
spiritual forces, learning and religion, but because these forces are
knowledge, but only religion can really offer him this. If he loses
engaged in a struggle with one another, the guidance is both insufsuch
support, if it is unscrupulously taken from him, his peace of
ficient and destructive. For lack of a unified world-view, no perfect
soul vanishes with it.
character can be created, only an intellectual and moral chaos. Every
war hurts the victor as well as the vanquished, and the Kulturkampf
is no exception to this rule.
In such a time spiritual anarchy can produce no widespread, funda- TOWARD A REMEDY FOR THE MODERN SUICIDE
mental culture, only a half-education, a half-culture: and our civilis- TENDENCY
ation is characterised by an incompleteness, with all its terrible implications
for head and heart, which is unable to attain unity and In the preceding research we have furnished a diagnosis of the social
harmony. Fools and clever people, Goethe says, are harmless; only illness of our time: the therapeutic must obviously fit the diagnosis,
the half-fools and the half-wise are dangerous. and will consist of the removal of the causes which condition the
But intellectual and moral incompleteness increases with the
increase in the extent and advancement of learning, for it is incon- The social therapeutic must proceed as does the medical: first
ceivable that one could obtain fundamental knowledge with ease: attempt to alleviate the existing malady, but then - and this is more
knowledge is won and digested only with difficulty. important - seek to prevent its genesis. Once any malady is firmly
rooted, no therapy is usually of much avail. Sociologists, ethicists,
The dangers of half-education, the superficial sipping of each and and medical doctors are gradually coming to the conclusion that the
24 The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk
true task of all practical disciplines consists in hygienic prophylaxis.
The times have passed in which one expected, or could expect, the
curing of all evils by decree; particularly ineffective would be laws
regarding a social evil of the nature of the modern suicide tendency.
Man must above all become healthy, physically and morally; we
must accustom ourselves to unqualified obedience to the established
prophylactic rules of modern science.
Science gives us the means at hand to protect ourselves from the
harmful effects of nature. It teaches us how we can shape to our
advantage all the conditions we studied in the chapters on bodily
organisation, general societal conditions and psychoses. Why do we
not so shape them? Because we do not want to.
Nearly all theoreticians and practitioners seek to alleviate the evils
of modern society through economic and political reforms. General
attention is certainly fastened on these efforts: and very much is
generally expected of them, but I am not able to share these hopes.
The political and economic conditions of a people are only the
external manifestations of the inner spiritual life; they are conditioned
by this spiritual life, upon which the physician must therefore
focus his attention. Often the programs and quarrels of our
parliament, our politicians, and our national economists appear to
me remarkably petty and vain. In any event, political and economic
concessions and major or minor reforms will not rescue society. A
morsel of justice and money, more or less, will not put an end to
the pessimistic weariness with life.
I can cite as my opinion on this, which will appear highly heretical
to all practical politicians, a magnificent example from history:
Christ. The Roman world in the time of Christ was pretty much in
the same desperate frame of mind as contemporary society. Then,
as now, a morbid suicide tendency ruled; men were dissatisfied and
unhappy; yearning for a redeemer was widespread. Who redeemed
mankind? No politician, no national economist, no socialist or demagogue.
It is truly magnificent to see how Christ, in such politically
and socially agitated times as those. abstained from all politics. How
easy it would have been for Him to win converts by political and
social incitements! But He insisted upon the ennobling of character;
He insisted upon the intensification of religious feeling; He desired
that men become good, for He knew that only then would they find
peace for their souls.
We, too, shall find the desired peace for our souls when we have
become good.
Suicide and Faith in God 25
Since the modern suicide tendency is ultimately the product of
increasing irreligiosity. the malady can only be completely healed if
the irreligiosity and its accompanying 'half-ness' are arrested. We
must step outside ourselves. We must stop grubbing in our innards
and cease to use our understanding as the executioner of our hearts.
We must find interests in the external world and in society. We must
learn to give of ourselves: we lack true and genuine love. Certainly
we believe that we are able to love, that we are capable of the most
delicate feelings, but that is not true. Morbid sentimentality is not
identical with true, genuine, warm, vital, and original feeling. If one
wants to remove the morbid suicide tendency, he should develop in
mnn the capacity for the harmonious and thorough cultivation of ideas
and feeiings, imbue them with power and energy, and give them a
moral basis.
Some investigators, Renan, Treitschke, and others, believe the
people should be brought up to be religious, while the educated
should be allowed to remain free. But that is to sanction the existing
'half-ness', and is happening anyway. Should one perhaps create a
strictly distinct aristocracy of education? Where does this education
begin, and where does it leave off?
More consistent are those who, with their denial of positive
religion, postulate only a unified scientificworld-view. The question,
however, is whether religion can and should be dismissed so quickly.
I believe man needs religion to live as much as he needs air to
breathe. Historical development also indicates that concurrent with
the development of thought there is a corresponding development
of religious-moral life and feeling. Comte commits a gross error in
his positive philosophy when he allows progress in the religious
sphere only to a certain point, and from there on simply casts aside
all religious life.
Many find in art, especially certain styles. a substitute for religion,
and so believe art will rescue modem society. But this is equally
false. A refined, esthetic enjoyment of art is as incapable of making
the problems of life endurable as is an aristocracy of science. The
creative artist, especially the great artist, is surely expressing the
same thing as the founder of a religion, but the seeing or hearing of
a work of art does not replace sympathy for or appreciation of its
universal religious content. A shallow view of life is revealed by the
belief that the riddle of the universe can be concertised away from
mind and heart. Art may always enter the service of religion but is
unable to replace it.
26 The Spirit of Thomas G . Masaryk
We need a religion; we need to he religious.
The thought comes to mind of regarding Christianity as the saving
religion. But what form of Christianity? This is a difficult question
to answer. If humanity could become strictly Catholic, the suicide
tendency would certainly disappear. For Catholicism, by virtue of
its Church organisation, could most easily, quickly and effectively
create universal acceptance for a unified world outlook. But the
course of history cannot be ignored; the Reformation would again
break out, just as it did before. Moreover, it is not only a matter of
removing the suicide tendency, hut removing it by the proper means.
For us, however, Catholicism has become impossible. Should we
then become Protestants? So far as we deny Catholicism, we are
already Protestants; hut the question remains, whether and in what
form we can remain Christian.
I believe from the depths of my soul, after the most mature
reflection, that the teaching of Christ, cleansed of priestly adulteration
and properly understood in its expression according to our
own limitations, is the most perfect system 1 can think of for
affording world peace and joy most quickly, most powerfully, most
surely, and to the greatest number of people.
(Georg Christoph Lichtenherg, Vermischte Schriffen, 1844, 2:67.)
I also believe that any one of the many Protestant sects could he
the desired religion; but, to the extent that they should have to
accommodate themselves to progressive times, these Christian sects
would really bring about a new religion.
It is as if our era were made for a new religion. Just as at the time
of the Roman Empire, society has been shaken to its foundations:
men feel unhappy; dissatisfaction and the wish for a saviour is widespread.
But especially favourable for the spread of the new teaching
in the Roman Empire were the general nervousness and pathological
agitations which are also characteristic of our society. Like all
religions, the new teaching would take more a psychological than a
logical path to its victorious end. Since religion, although in truly
Protestant fashion a matter for the individual, must nevertheless at
the same time be a popular religion through which the hearts of all
men without exception would be united, this would not, then, permit
its theoretical component to ascend the heights of intellectual
accomplishment. I think rather that this religion, like the Catholicism
of the Middle Ages, could inaugurate a new and better Middle Ages,
after which a new period of free thought would begin again, until at
Suicide and Faith in God 27
last, through alternating periods of belief and disbelief, 'one flock
and one shepherd' would appear. Or it may happen quite differently.
The historical development of man is, in proportion to the time
which humanity has yet to live, so short that our conclusions as to
the future can be made only with great caution and reserve. It is
possible that a new upswing of religious feeling would take place
without ecclesiastical unification. Perhaps the Congregational or
some similar method and organisation could even bring to a definitive
conclusion and stabilise that religious individualism to which Protestantism
has so far attained.
I am afraid that the conclusions at which we have arrived will not
he satisfying to many of my readers. Perhaps some will see in me a
fatalist: how shall the social therapeutic be possible if the organisation
of a new religion must be awaited? What can the individual
do if, as was indicated, the morbid suicide tendency at certain times
naturally and periodically develops?
I admit that I am definitely a determinist, hut I reject even more
definitely the reproach of fatalism; indeterminism would lead to
fatalistic views, hut no trace of this outlook is to be found in this
book.
That we must die, that death is a physical necessity, a natural law,
is well known; hut it is not a natural law that we must die perchance
by poisoning. If someone commits suicide, he obeys no natural law,
hut chooses death as a consequence of secondary laws which, under
other circumstances, prevent suicide; the good and the bad, the
useful and the pernicious, men do according to the same laws, which
obviously are no ultimate law but the interaction of many laws. One
who has taken poison can save himself through an antidote; only for
natural death does no cure exist.
Much of what happens to us certainly happens of necessity, without
our cooperation. Man is linked to his immediate and more distant
environment by thousands and thousands of threads, and to a certain
extent is independent of it. But man is no blind product of the forces
of nature; we do not depend completely and exclusively on the
external world. Our consciousness faces the external world, a psychological
whole which perceives the external world according to its
own laws. It is a psychological totality endowed with memory and
recall. Every simple and complex effect of the external world are
equally independent; our relation to it is that of reciprocity, not
simple dependence. Knowledge gives us the power to intervene in
the causal relationship; we can set certain purposes as ideals, and
28 The Spirit of Thomas G. Masaryk
we are able to choose the appropriate means. But because we always
follow the strongest motive, we are not blind, because other motives
also affect us. We reflect before our decision, choosing and seeking
those means which best suit our purpose. The choice itself is the
result of our character, but this we form ourselves for the most
part. We are just as responsible for a malformed will as we are for
inadequate logical operations of thought; like the intellect, the will
must be trained and educated. And only because it is determined is
it capable of training and education: we form our will through our
appetites, tendencies, dislikes, habits, and guiding principles. One
can certainly not develop will out of will alone; one cannot simply
cast out of himself a malformed will. But we can modify our present
will by education, by self-discipline, as it is modified by the education
which comes to us from others. We can employ all dispositions,
habits, and traits of character which we know from experience must
lead to certain results under certain conditions.
The indeterminist cannot do this; rules and guides for action are
for him completely unnecessary and superfluous, since he cannot
know at all whether he will later be able to adhere to them: his will
cannot be determined, so he uses no leading, determining principles.
According to indeterminism, man is an idle spectator of that which
happens in him; he is the inactive stage on which actions proceed in
and with him. The connection between subject and action is broken,
the chain that binds act and actor snapped. Thus, if the will is
indeterminate, we are also entirely lacking in responsibility for our
will and its corresponding actions; all training and education of the
will is impossible, and no one can be led to virtue. The indeterminist
does not need to avoid immorality, does not need to strengthen his
will, since he has no assurance that future action will be thus
improved, and since his will appears in him in any case without any
causes. Today he acts in one way, tomorrow in another way; he has
no control over such action precisely because his will is indeterminate.
The indeterminist therefore does not punish, because he knows
he has no right to punish; if punishment has the purpose of improving
or discouraging behavior, what basis has the indeterminist for punishment?
For him there are no purposes at all. How can the fear of
punishment, the memory of unpleasant correction, act as motives to
prevent the same or a similar act? If the will were indeterminate,
then punishment is certainly unnecessary and superfluous, for a
moral chaos, a blind fate, prevails. Humanity has nothing to strive
for, since, according to the teaching of indeterminism, a foreknowSuicide
and Faith in God
ledge of that which men aspire to is impossible. Since the law of
causality has been abrogated, a prediction of things to come is
impossible. Social reforms are not possible, because they are
supertluous; there is no science of sociology, because no rules can
I be established for the indeterminate appearance of the will of man.
It is evident that an ethics, a sociology, or any science is possible
only from a deterministic standpoint, and if the word 'freedom' is
to be employed at all, it can only be used by the determinist. Only
the determinist can, by virtue of his teaching, attain the freedom of
ethical perfection. He is capable of reaching a state in which he
always prefers the better_ when he has recognised it. Only for the
determinist is holiness a goal to be strived for. only for him is there
' a striving toward the freedom of perfection.'
In contrast to this true interpretation of determinism, various false
and unclear views have been entertained, both about the teaching
1 ~tselfand its opposite. Typically, the determinists themselves have
brought discredit to their teaching. in that they were not always
I in a position to refute the charges of fatalism and its attendant
consequences brought against them. Indeed, the determinists were
often practically fatalists.
The statisticians in particular have not realised that foreknowledge
of many social phenomena not only does not lead to fatalism. but is
rather the sole means to fight fatalism, for only through advance
I knowledge can we bring our activities into conformity with what is to
1 come. If we learn that 3000 men in a certain country have previously
committed suicide in one year, we correctly infer that approximately
as many will die the following year. This conclusion, however,
1 assumes that the same circumstances will persist. But nothing forces
society to remain in the same state. It can, if it so desires, alter its
conditions in such a way that suicides are no longer committed.
Statistics does not arrive at natural laws by the simple enumeration
of suicides, murders, etc., but only at secondary - empirical and
derived - laws. These and similar crimes do not have to occur, but
they do occur as a result of conditions which at present exist, but
which have not and will not always exist. Therefore the number of
suicides fluctuates from year to year, and the statistical evidence, in
accordance with the workings of secondary causes, does not show
any terrible 'constancy'.
Perhaps these very fluctuations might cause alarm to some, who
would find in the statistical data a proof of indeterminism, and, in
consequence, of fatalism. One could conclude from the uncertainty
~~ ~~ ~
The Spirit of Thorn O.Mosaryk Suicide anbFiiilh-Tn-- ~ --
of prediction that there existed an objecrive chance and therefore an oval of 'half-ness', and the ending of the terrible KuIturobjective
indeterminateness, the necessary consequence of which But even with the best intentions I am scarcely able to
would have to be fatalism. itropose more than two prescriptions, which have long been stated
One may not consider subjective chance as objective, however, by outstanding thinkers. 'You who are more clever than the rest,
nor mistake subjective probability for the mathematical variety. At who wait fretting and impatient on the final page of the primer [the
the moment there are still many barriers to our knowledge; we still gibIe], take care!' Lessing warns in his The Education of rhe Human
know too little to be able to predict with certainty; but the meagerness ~ a e .'Take care that you do not let your less able classmates notice
of man's knowledge may not be viewed as a universally valid objective what you are beginning to sense, or even see! Until these less able
law. We are not yet able to survey the causal connections of social fellows of yours have caught up with you, it is better that you should
phenomena; thus it is our ignorance that alarms us, not our knowl- return again to this primer and examine whether that which you now
edge. It is our problem to pierce ever more deeply into the total consider only applications of methods, didactic devices, are not also
mechanism of the universe, through unceasing labours, until we something more.' If men did not transgress against this rule, there
finally grasp how the whole affectsman. Only through precise knowl- would be no Kulturkampf, no suicide tendency. On their way from
edge of the universe and its effects on man, and of the laws that primitive barbarism to education and true enlightenment, mankind
govern the psychical phenomena of man, are we in a position to must pass through innumerable intermediate stages. If it were possachieve
freedom and perfection through active intervention in the ible to guide the great masses systematically, logically, step by step
course of mankind's development. The complex combination of from the simple to the complex, from the easy to the difficult, from
agents affecting mankind is indeed great and almost incalculable. In error to truth. from naive conviction to conscious insight, there
spite of this, they are amenable to scientific analysis, which shows would be no struggle between conflicting views, no 'half-ness', and
that the actions of man do not occur without his cooperation; that every new accomplishment would represent the consistent developwhile
the will of man is determined, it is not for that reason unfree. ment of previous stages of culture.
So far as we are able to analyse the causes and motives of acts of But because this principle is so sharply ignored, the question
will, we are able approximately to measure the effects of individual arises of how to proceed in these cases. We cannot and will not go
factors, and, on the basis of this measurement, we are able to direct backwards; therefore we must press forward, if we do not wish to
our whole lives in such a way that we can happily and successfully stand still. Alexis de Tocqueville says:
accomplish the realisation of ethical ideals. Like every disease, the
modern suicide tendency can also be cured by insightful effort. When the religious views of the people have once been shaken,
Perhaps the reader further expects a detailed guide for a thera- there is no greater despair, but one must promote enlightenment
peutic of the suicide tendency. It may be objected that our central at any cost, because, although an enlightened and sceptical people
rule is too general, that in practice one needs more particular state- may indulge in a tragic view of life, there is nothing more terrible
ments appropriate to individual cases. than a nation at the same time ignorant, coarse, and unfaithful.
The complaint is justified, but the criticism of generality applies I have nothing further to add, and I wish only that my book may
not only to this, but to every sociological work involving a therapy move the reader to reflection, for it is the problem of the writer in
for social conditions. The theoretician cannot possibly consider all the social sphere, if anywhere, not to offer the reader final answers,
particular cases, especially in problems of such large scale, and must but rather to move him to thought and - to action.
therefore leave it to the practitioner to apply the general rule to the
special case. We have done what we could: we have tried to set forth
the individual causes of suicide with all possible care, and we can
therefore ask of a therapeutic that it remove these causes. 1. The word 'freedom' will probably be understood in the same sense as
This lack of particular rules may actually be most noticeable in indeterminism, but with great injustice. We connect the idea of freedom
what is most important: the establishment of a unified world-view, with an idea of true strength;but indeterminismrobs us of such strength