CHAPTER X 



ME. LESLIE STEPHEN'S " SCIENCE OF ETHICS" 



Stephen a utilitarian Who came to believe in evolution as a scientific fact 

 Begins here with facts ; ethical judgments exist Organisms seek maximum 

 efficiency If social "tissue "is " organic " Then ethical laws may be the 

 conditions of maximum social efficiency (Nature cares for individuals) 

 Nature says, "Be strong!" Ethics says, "Society, be strong!" The 

 ethical is the typical society, and therefore ethical judgments are binding 

 But the type is actual, not ideal ! Society is a complex whole, changing 

 while its parts are unchanged Criticism Sanction for individual goodness 

 lies in sympathy merely Sometimes we are too good for our own interests ! 

 Compared with Comte, lacks authority With Spencer, calls "health" the 

 ideal, and ridicules "balance" With Darwin, not struggle of individual 

 with individual, but of individual with society With Utilitarianism ; 

 discourages the calculation of consequences Most of his positions may be 

 accepted in a deeper sense. 



MR. STEPHEN makes his intellectual history very plain 

 in the preface to the Science of Ethics. He started in 

 the life of thought as a utilitarian, under the strong 

 influence of J. S. Mill ; and he never came to regard 

 the utilitarian position as discredited. But, in course 

 of time, impressed partly by Darwin's theory, partly 

 by Spencer's writings, he began to crave a restatement 

 of ethics. This was in no sense a concession to in- 

 tuition alism. Spencer's ' ' reconciliation of intuitionalism 

 with empiricism " is indeed accepted by Mr. Stephen, 

 as appears from his other writings ; but, unless one has 

 read the Science of Ethics very carelessly, no reference 

 is made to the doctrine in Stephen's moral system, and 

 it seems to go for little with him. Indeed, his first 



