In olden times, men of science, and especially those who have done most to forward the growth of natural philosophy, did not despise manual work and handicraft. Galileo made his telescopes with his own hands. Newton learned in his boyhood the art of managing tools; he exercised his young mind in contriving most ingenious machines, and when he began his researches in optics he was able himself to grind the lenses for his instruments and himself to make the well known telescope which, for its time, was a fine piece of workmanship. Leibnitz was fond of inventing machines: windmills and carriages to be moved without horses preoccupied his mind as much as mathematical and philosophical speculations. Linnaeus became a botanist while helping his f... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
THE CONQUEST OF BREAD by P. Kropotkin CHAPTER III ANARCHIST COMMUNISM I EVERY society which has abolished private property will be forced, we maintain, to organize itself on the lines of Communistic Anarchy. Anarchy leads to Communism, and Communism to Anarchy, both alike being expressions of the predominant tendency in modern societies, the pursuit of equality. Time was when a peasant family could consider the corn which it grew, or the woolen garments woven in the cottage, as the products of its own toil. But even then this way of looking at things was not quite correct. There were the roads and the bridges made in common, the swamps drained by common toil, and the communal pastures enclosed by hedges which were kept in repair by each and all. If the looms for weaving or the dyes for coloring fabrics were improved, all profited; so even...
CHAPTER VII OF FREE WILL AND NECESSITY Second part of the present book. - Definition of necessity. - Why supposed to exist in the operations of the material universe. - The case of the operations of mind is parallel. - Indi- cations of necessity - in history - in our judge- ments of character - in our schemes of policy - in our ideas of moral discipline. - Objection from the fallibility of our expectations in human conduct. - Answer. - Origin and universality of the sentiment of free will. - The sentiment of necessity also universal. - The truth of this sentiment argued from the nature of volition. - Hypothesis of free will examined. - Self determination. - Indifference. - The will not a distinct faculty. - Free will disadvan- tageous to its possessor. - Of no service to morality. THUS we have engaged in the discussion of various topics respecting the mode in which improvement may most successfully be introduced into the...