EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 231 



In the scientific humanism of Reiser the person of the 

 highest moral character is an "individual of benevolent im- 

 pulses, or good motives, with sufficient intelligence to fore- 

 see the consequences of his acts and choose courses of action 

 that lead to socially beneficial results."* Every moral act 

 has two aspects, the subjective or the motive, and the objec- 

 tive or the consequences. The act of the highest morality is 

 an act of the heart and intellect wherein the motive and the 

 consequences are both good. Contrasted with this morality 

 is the all too common act of good motive but bad conse- 

 quences, which includes the prohibitory laws of misguided 

 reformers. And, of course, unfortunately, there is the act 

 that, stemming from bad motives, may inadvertently lead to 

 good but much more often results in the harm of unbridled 

 selfishness or hatred and uninteUi^ent action. 



o 



In recent years scientists in the fields of biology and psy- 

 chology and engineering have tried to extend their work- 

 able concepts to the field of the social sciences. They see no 

 vaUd reason why ethics, culture, and symbolism cannot be 

 studied by the scientific method. Among the attempts to 

 find new approaches to the solution of social problems are 

 the contributions of general semantics and dynamic homeo- 

 stasis. 



Regulatory self-control and maintenance of the condi- 

 tions of life within an organism has been called homeostasis 

 by Walter Cannon. In the human body the delicate balances 

 of water, sugar, salts, temperature, etc., are brought into 

 equilibrium by compromises among multitudinous activities 

 through the process of homeostasis. The exceedingly com- 

 plex regulatory mechanism involves both activation and in- 

 hibition. Its effects are often web effects with many feed- 

 backs. It is dynamic. The concept of homeostasis has been 

 very helpful to the physiologist and the psychologist; Wal- 

 ter Cannon and R. W. Gerard and A. E. Emerson feel that 

 it can offer help to the student of animal and human socie- 



* Ibid., p. 307. 



