NKW   HUMANISM	5
With these prevailing views of human nature, it was
aiot possible to develop such a social philosophy which
allowed deduction of economic theories and political
doctrines lo guarantee freedom and equality in practice.
The result is the present crisis of modern civilisation.
Everybody talks about the crisis of our rime; books have
been written about it. Practically all the outstanding
intellectuals of our time are trying to understand its
nature and lay bare its causes. But all these well-mean-
ing and often competent attempts are stultified by the
absence of an integral view of the crisis. Some say it is
an economic crisis. All of them do not believe in econo-
mic determinism. But the view that man is selfish b\
nature and that the incentive of all economic activities is
personal gain, logically leads to that belief. Karl Marx
raised the economic interpretation of history on the level
of a social philosophy. Some of the contemporary
philosophers pretend to be wiser than Karl Marx and
criticise his interpretation of history. But their point of
departure is the same as that of Marx. Modern liberal
sociology has not discarded the doctrine of the economic
man. If man is primarily an economic being, then
material gain is the determining factor of social develop-
ment.
Given this point, of departure, the crisis of the
modern world must be regarded as essentially economic.
It then follows that an economic reconstruction of society,
ueplacement of the outmoded capitalist system by a new
order, will end the crisis. Attempts have been made and
axe being made to develop a social pMosophy on this