tailieunhanh - The Positive School of Criminology Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples

My Friends: When, in the turmoil of my daily occupation, I received an invitation, several months ago, from several hundred students of this famous university, to give them a brief summary, in short special lectures, of the principal and fundamental conclusions of criminal sociology, I gladly accepted, because this invitation fell in with two ideals of mine. These two ideals are stirring my heart and are the secret of my life. In the first place, this invitation chimed with the ideal of my personal life, namely, to diffuse and propagate among my brothers the scientific ideas, which my brain. | The Positive School of Criminology Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples Italy on April 22 23 and 24 1901 By Enrico Ferri Translated by Ernest Untermann Chicago Charles H. Kerr Company 1908 I. My Friends When in the turmoil of my daily occupation I received an invitation several months ago from several hundred students of this famous university to give them a brief summary in short special lectures of the principal and fundamental conclusions of criminal sociology I gladly accepted because this invitation fell in with two ideals of mine. These two ideals are stirring my heart and are the secret of my life. In the first place this invitation chimed with the ideal of my personal life namely to diffuse and propagate among my brothers the scientific ideas which my brain has accumulated not through any merit of mine but thanks to the lucky prize inherited from my mother in the lottery of life. And the second ideal which this invitation called up before my mind s vision was this The ideal of young people of Italy united in morals and intellectual pursuits feeling in their social lives the glow of a great aim. It would matter little whether this aim would agree with my own ideas or be opposed to them so long as it should be an ideal which would lift the aspirations of the young people out of the fatal grasp of egoistic interests. Of course we positivists know very well that the material requirements of life shape and determine also the moral and intellectual aims of human consciousness. But positive science declares the following to be the indispensable requirement for the regeneration of human ideals Without an ideal neither an individual nor a collectivity can live without it humanity is dead or dying. For it is the fire of an ideal which renders the life of each one of us possible useful and fertile. And only by its help can each one of us in the more or less short course of his or her existence leave behind traces for the benefit of fellow-beings. The .