96 Foundations of Democratic Dogma
tional origin and destiny. This is the central faith of what
men have called the old liberalism, the liberalism of Lincoln
and of Woodrow Wilson.
At the beginning of the preceding lecture I gave a defini-
tion of the philosopher which should, I hoped, afford the
keynote to the entire discussion. I should like to begin this
lecture with another definition which will serve to show the
relation of the philosopher to human life and culture. “Cul-
ture,” said Emerson, “is the measure of things taken for
granted.” It is the philosopher who constantly points out
anew the things that must be taken for granted if culture is
to be and to survive. The same idea has been expressed by
the German poet, Otto Erich Hartleben:
Es bleɪbt der Philosoph von Wert für aile Zeiten
Er findet stets auf’s Neu die Selbstverstandlichkeiten.
It is the Selbswerstandlichkeiten—the things that must for-
ever be taken for granted—which it is the business of the
philosopher constantly to rediscover and to conserve. It
has been truly said that great literature is the orchestration
of platitudes. I shall not claim for this lecture a place in
great literature, but I shall nevertheless proceed to the
orchestration of a few platitudes.
II. NIETZSCHE AND THE GENEALOGY OF MORALS
A
In the latter part of the nineteenth century there appeared
two books by that outstanding figure, Friedrich Nietzsche,
which, when the story of our present epoch is written, will
be found to epitomize the chief tendencies which I described
in the preceding lecture. They bore the titles, Beyond Good
and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals. Both are closely
related but it is with the latter that we are here chiefly con-
cerned.