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Civilization: Its Cause and Cure and Other Essays
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1891
About the author
Edward Carpenter
235 books52 followersEdward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist.
A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]
As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.
A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.
A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]
As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.
A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 6, 2020
Sat and read through the main essay "Civilization: Its Cause and Cure" writing an extensive 2500 word report on it, but i won't share that here.
Essential takeaways:
A) In 1889, Carpenter is part of a very small minority of white men in Europe or America who designate civilization in-and-of-itself is a disease. He is clear in his essay that there are not simple steps for Civilization to complete in order to be "cured" but rather all of civilization must "evolve" into a greater form of societal existence.
B) Carpenter is a product of his anthropologist schooling in Britain during this time, and he insists on Anglo-Saxon's being the highest and greatest "race" on the planet. While he promotes primitivism in a much more positive sense than many of his contemporaries, he nonetheless believes that human evolution is part of a linear progression at which white ppl are at the top. He even gives the afterward to famous Eugenicist Havelock Ellis if his leanings weren't clear enough.
C) This belief leads him to ponder throughout the text "Why has Civilization appeared"? He notes how Civilization has constantly fallen across various places and times, but he believes strongly the Anglo-Saxon will evolve past civilization without crumbling down.
D) His faith is that the future will be one where white's are walking barefoot on the earth, eating mainly tubular veggies and nuts, shaping nature in a more harmonious way where we are the gardeners of mutual exchange between all species of plant and animal alike. We will reject the fetishization of technology, and instead embrace a communal lifestyle across the planet focused on mutual exchange. His most hopeful line appearing on the last page: "developing, among others, a gospel of salvation by sandals and sunbaths!"
Overall, it is refreshing to read something by a white man in the past so precisely critical of the Victorian era's (and by extension our own) issues with "Health/Dis-ease" and the various factors that lead to high rates of suicide within "civilization" when such existential fears are almost non-existent in non-civilized societies. There are two unfortunate things about this text. A) The sometimes overt, sometimes covert white supremacy. I believe such an attitude is very much part of the reason that his divine idea of "progress" past civilization fails. For someone who is openly gay, promoting essentially a vegan lifestyle, pushing for worker rights, higher pay, and away from civilization, we can see how all of these "progressive" values are rooted still in White Supremacy. A key lesson for our own times in 2020. B) That post-victorian period, aka Modernity-postmodernity the fetishization of technology and our rejection of the grass on our feet has only increased, so we sit inside an accept this latest "evolution" of the white man's society, something more insidious, more dis-eased than what Carpenter could have possibly imagined.
What might he have come up with if he had calculated for white supremacy? That is the question i think we must ask ourselves.
Essential takeaways:
A) In 1889, Carpenter is part of a very small minority of white men in Europe or America who designate civilization in-and-of-itself is a disease. He is clear in his essay that there are not simple steps for Civilization to complete in order to be "cured" but rather all of civilization must "evolve" into a greater form of societal existence.
B) Carpenter is a product of his anthropologist schooling in Britain during this time, and he insists on Anglo-Saxon's being the highest and greatest "race" on the planet. While he promotes primitivism in a much more positive sense than many of his contemporaries, he nonetheless believes that human evolution is part of a linear progression at which white ppl are at the top. He even gives the afterward to famous Eugenicist Havelock Ellis if his leanings weren't clear enough.
C) This belief leads him to ponder throughout the text "Why has Civilization appeared"? He notes how Civilization has constantly fallen across various places and times, but he believes strongly the Anglo-Saxon will evolve past civilization without crumbling down.
D) His faith is that the future will be one where white's are walking barefoot on the earth, eating mainly tubular veggies and nuts, shaping nature in a more harmonious way where we are the gardeners of mutual exchange between all species of plant and animal alike. We will reject the fetishization of technology, and instead embrace a communal lifestyle across the planet focused on mutual exchange. His most hopeful line appearing on the last page: "developing, among others, a gospel of salvation by sandals and sunbaths!"
Overall, it is refreshing to read something by a white man in the past so precisely critical of the Victorian era's (and by extension our own) issues with "Health/Dis-ease" and the various factors that lead to high rates of suicide within "civilization" when such existential fears are almost non-existent in non-civilized societies. There are two unfortunate things about this text. A) The sometimes overt, sometimes covert white supremacy. I believe such an attitude is very much part of the reason that his divine idea of "progress" past civilization fails. For someone who is openly gay, promoting essentially a vegan lifestyle, pushing for worker rights, higher pay, and away from civilization, we can see how all of these "progressive" values are rooted still in White Supremacy. A key lesson for our own times in 2020. B) That post-victorian period, aka Modernity-postmodernity the fetishization of technology and our rejection of the grass on our feet has only increased, so we sit inside an accept this latest "evolution" of the white man's society, something more insidious, more dis-eased than what Carpenter could have possibly imagined.
What might he have come up with if he had calculated for white supremacy? That is the question i think we must ask ourselves.
October 17, 2017
The main essay is an easy read that posits civilization as a kind of illness that inflicts humanity. This by necessity roots the cure in the Rousseau-ian primitivism to an extent, yet there are insights here. For anyone already rooted in post-positivism Carpenter is not revelatory when it comes to his views on science and certainty, but his conception of civilization generating the seeds of it sown problems is provocative. The following essays are similarly original, but not inspiring, given that 140 years on they have either been fed into the mainstream or proven false. One of Carpenter's greatest blind spots is his faith in the evolution of a more perfect and equitable society that would displace the ills of High Victorian civilization. As you would expect of an item of faith, this is an area where his philosophic rigor failed to penetrate.
April 7, 2020
Edward Carpenter was a man well ahead of his time.
His views of mankind ring truer today than they did when he wrote this essay about 1889.
He was an enlightened man.
He was also a dreamer.
The human race has not evolved according to Carpenter's wishes. in fact we are likely more degraded and self serving than in his time.
This essay is quite short and lays out modifications in morals, behavior to others including animals and puts forth the possibility of an ideal society where everyone helps according to their talents and wishes.
There are other essays included in which Carpenter expresses his distrust of the scientific method as a useful tool in discovering our place in the cosmos. I wasn't on board with him for these observations.
In the end it was a pleasure to hear a person from the 1880s discuss reincarnation and our quest for the one unifying truth. What life is all about.
His views of mankind ring truer today than they did when he wrote this essay about 1889.
He was an enlightened man.
He was also a dreamer.
The human race has not evolved according to Carpenter's wishes. in fact we are likely more degraded and self serving than in his time.
This essay is quite short and lays out modifications in morals, behavior to others including animals and puts forth the possibility of an ideal society where everyone helps according to their talents and wishes.
There are other essays included in which Carpenter expresses his distrust of the scientific method as a useful tool in discovering our place in the cosmos. I wasn't on board with him for these observations.
In the end it was a pleasure to hear a person from the 1880s discuss reincarnation and our quest for the one unifying truth. What life is all about.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews