1 60 Evolutiono-utilitarianism. 



same result. Evolutionary science in general, 

 natural selection in particular, does not necessi 

 tate, or even indicate, a new system of ethics. It 

 stands logically indifferent between intuitionism 

 and utilitarianism, though from the accident that 

 most expounders of evolution happened to be 

 utilitarians there has arisen a belief that the two 

 were in some way connected. In reality, evolu 

 tionary ethics, as hitherto expounded, is nothing 

 but an arbitrary combination of utilitarianism in 

 one or other of its forms with a speculative meta 

 physics which discovers the ground of mind and 

 conscience in an antecedent physical or nervous 

 mechanism. And as such it not only has no sup 

 port from evolutionary science, but is at the same 

 time exposed to all the objections which the 

 common-sense of mankind has always brought 

 y against every empirical theory of morals and 

 every mechanical theory of intelligence. 



