404 ETHICS 



It is then easily understood that the further combinations into 

 which evolution was able to advance ethical questions have resulted 

 in the cessation of utilitarianism as an independent system. Around 

 the huge system of thought of Herbert Spencer one of the great camps 

 of ethical workers is collected. It is not correct to count Herbert 

 Spencer as systematizer of Darwin's thoughts; his main thoughts 

 were finished, before a line of Darwin had appeared. But it is correct 

 that the wonderful inductions of Darwin were precisely that which 

 Spencer's system needed in order to begin its triumphal march 

 through the civilized world. Here the case is the reverse of that of 

 Copernicus and Giordano Bruno: the systematizer precedes the 

 man of special research. It is superfluous on American soil to give 

 a description of Spencer's thoughts; they have become parts of the 

 general consciousness. So it may suffice to emphasize a few character- 

 istic features, to which my remarks shall be attached, since, other- 

 wise, in view of the richness of the system, there might easily be 

 other sides of it in the mind of my hearers than those to which I 

 have here to attach importance. 



The characteristic feature of the system of Spencer is its unity and 

 compactness. Just as every picture has a definite point from which 

 it should be seen, so also the system of Spencer is a view of the world 

 from a quite definite point of view, that of evolution. Systems 

 of evolution had already occurred in philosophy, I mention the 

 vast performance of Hegel only, but that which gives Spencer's 

 system its characteristic significance is that here evolution is con- 

 ceived not as logical, but as biological; while in the case of Hegel 

 nature is the vestibule of the realm of purpose, and therein alone 

 has its significance, Spencer takes nature as his point of departure, 

 and the realm of human activity represents itself to him merely as 

 the finest conformation of natural events. Here the whole evolution 

 from the nebula in world-space to the most delicate relations between 

 man and man are comprehended in one grand conception. The same 

 amount of force which then existed in world-space exists still to-day, 

 only in infinitely more differentiated form. The new which is pro- 

 duced is nothing else than the transformed old, but transformed in 

 an essential relation, in the direction towards constantly increasing 

 complexity of relations in which single things and centres of force 

 stand to each other. 



If it be asked what this principle is which is the ground for this 

 differentiation, a glance at the behavior of organisms informs us. In 

 them we can most clearly recognize effects which result, with the 

 necessity of laws of nature, from increasing differentiation. The 

 undifferentiated individual is powerless in the presence of every 

 change of his environment. Banished to its accidental place, the 

 plant must wait for what happens to it. Only within a narrow limit 



