When a man is in possession of the final and ultimate truth and of the only strictly scientific method, it is only natural that he should have a certain contempt for the rest of erring and unscientific humanity.
We must therefore not be surprised that Herr Dühring should speak of his predecessors with extreme disdain, and that there are only a few great men, thus styled by way of exception by himself, who find mercy at the bar of his "deep-rootedness".
Let us hear first what he has to say about the philosophers:
"Leibniz , devoid of any nobler sentiments ... that best of all court-philosophisers" {D. Ph. 346}.
Kant is still just about tolerated; but after him everything got into a muddle {197}:
there followed the "wild ravings and equally childish and windy stupidities of the immediately succeeding epigoni, namely, a Fichte and a Schelling {227} ... monstrous caricatures of ignorant natural philosophising {56}
... the post-Kantian monstrosities" and "the delirious fantasies" {449}
crowned by "a Hegel" {197}. The last-named used a "Hegel jargon"{D. K. C. 491} and spread the "Hegel pestilence" {D. Ph. 486} by means of his "moreover even in form unscientific demeanour" and his "crudities"{D. K. G. 235}.
The natural scientists fare no better, but as only Darwin is cited by name we must confine ourselves to him:
"Darwinian semi-poetry and dexterity in metamorphosis, with their coarsely sentient narrowness of comprehension and blunted power of differentiation {D. Ph. 142} ... In our view what is specific to Darwinism, from which of course the Lamarckian formulations must be excluded, is a piece of brutality directed against humanity ." {117}.
But the socialists come off worst of all. With the exception at any rate of Louis Blanc -- the most insignificant of them all -- they are all and sundry sinners and fall short of the reputation which they should have before (or behind) Herr Dühring. And not only in regard to truth and scientific method -- no, also in regard to their character. Except for Babeuf and a few Communards of 1871 none of them are "men" {D. K. G. 239}.
The three utopians are called "social alchemists" {237}. As to them, a certain indulgence is shown to Saint-Simon, in so far as he is merely charged with "exaltation of mind" {252}, and there is a compassionate suggestion that he suffered from religious mania. With Fourier, however, Herr Dühring completely loses patience. For Fourier "revealed every element of insanity ... ideas which one would normally have most expected to find in madhouses {276} ... the wildest dreams ...
products of delirium..." {283}. "The unspeakably silly Fourier" {222}, this "infantile mind" {284}, this "idiot" {286}, is withal not even a socialist;his phalanstery [29] is absolutely not a piece of rational socialism, but "a caricature constructed on the pattern of everyday commerce" {283}.
And finally:
"Anyone who does not find those effusions" (of Fourier's, concerning Newton) "... sufficient to convince himself that in Fourier's name and in the whole of Fourierism it is only the first syllable" ( fou --crazy) "that has any truth in it , should himself be classed under some category of idiots" {286}.
Finally, Robert Owen "had feeble and paltry ideas {295} ... his reasoning, so crude in ethics {296} ... a few commonplaces which degenerated into perversions ... nonsensical and crude way of looking at things {297}
... the course of Owen's ideas is hardly worth subjecting to more serious criticism {298} ... his vanity" {299-300} -- and so on.
With extreme wit Herr Dühring characterises the utopians by reference to their names, as follows: Saint-Simon -- saint (holy), Fourier -- fou (crazy), Enfantin -- enfant (childish) {303}; he only needs to add: Owen -- o woe! and a very important period in the history of socialism has in four words been roundly condemned; and anyone who has any doubts about it "should himself be classed under some category of idiots".
As for Dühring's opinion of the later socialists, we shall, for the sake of brevity, cite him only on Lassalle and Marx:
Lassalle: "Pedantic, hair-splitting efforts to popularise ...
rampant scholasticism ... a monstrous hash of general theories and paltry trash {509} ... Hegel-superstition, senseless and formless ... a horrifying example {511} ... peculiarly limited {513} ... pompous display of the most paltry trifles {514} ... our Jewish hero {515} ... pamphleteer {519} ...
common {520} ... inherent instability in his view of life and of the world"{529}.
Marx: "Narrowness of conception ... his works and achievements in and by themselves, that is, regarded from a purely theoretical standpoint, are without any permanent significance in our domain" (the critical history of socialism), "and in the general history of intellectual tendencies they are to be cited at most as symptoms of the influence of one branch of modern sectarian scholastics {D. K. G. 495} ... impotence of the faculties of concentration and systematisation ... deformity of thought and style, undignified affectation of language ... anglicised vanity ... duping {497} ... barren conceptions which in fact are only bastards of historical and logical fantasy ... deceptive twisting {498} ... personal vanity {499} ... vile mannerisms ... snotty ... buffoonery pretending to be witty ... Chinese erudition {506} ... philosophical and scientific backwardness" {507}.
