XVIII 



THE ETHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 

 IMMORTALITY 1 



ARGUMENT 



I. Is Immortality an Ethical Postulate ? Yes, if it can be shown to be implied 



in the validity of our ethical valuation of the world. Objections : (a) a 

 pure morality needs no reference to another world. But there is moral 

 waste if goodness of character perishes, and ultimate moral failure when 

 physical life becomes impossible on earth ; (b} it is immoral to relegate 

 the sanctions of morality to another world. Not if future happiness and 

 misery are conceived as the intrinsic consequences of moral goodness and 

 badness ; (c} we cannot live for two worlds at once. Depends on how they 

 are conceived. The thought of a future life morally bracing, and, like 

 all forethought about the future, a mark of superior mental development. 



II. What is the value of an Ethical Postulate ? The postulate is not emotional 

 but rational, and affirms the validity of our moral judgments. It is part 

 of a system of postulates which all proceed similarly. Moreover, the 

 ideals we postulate are coincident and bound up together. Ultimately 

 Truth, Goodness, Happiness and Beauty must all be postulated or 

 rejected together. The alleged superior validity of the ideal of Truth 

 explained. 



An ethical postulate, however, does not prescribe any special mode of its 

 realization, for which we must look to scientific experience. There are 

 also other questions which may modify, though they cannot subvert, our 

 ethical demand. 



WE are so accustomed in these days to hear the world-old 

 traditions of the human race denied or ignored simply 

 because they are old that the antique flavour inevitably 

 attaching to any argument about Immortality almost 

 suffices to secure its condemnation unheard. Yet such 

 scornful treatment of authority is not justified by the 

 present state of our knowledge. On the contrary, the 

 antiquity and wide prevalence of an idea in themselves 

 constitute a prima facie claim upon the attention of the 



] First published in the New World for September 1897. 

 335 



