254 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



synthesis of biological " adaptation " and economic " produc- 

 tivity " so his ethical theory is a synthesis of intuitionalism and 

 evolutionary utilitarianism. We have intuitions of right and 

 wrong, but these are not absolute. Our moral intuitions are our 

 personal interpretations of the mores of the group to which we 

 belong. These mores are the result of social evolution and social 

 utility. We first passively adapt ourselves to them, then in some 

 small degree react on them in the line of variation, and in a few 

 cases men have gotten a deeper insight into social values and 

 become prophets or moral reformers. 1 



The moral is the socially useful. The one who acts contrary to 

 the mores of the group is adjudged immoral. The one who acts 

 contrary to these mores or conventions that have become crys- 

 tallized into law is adjudged a criminal. Motive does not count 

 except as it determines conduct. 



As the moral is the useful, and the useful is that which has 

 enabled the group to win out in its struggle with other groups, 

 and as in the process of social and industrial evolution economic 

 productivity has been found to be above all else that which makes 

 for group success, therefore the most moral man is the one who 

 contributes most to the strength of the group. By this yard- 

 stick the rich parasite who consumes more than he produces, is 

 highly immoral. 



Men should be moral, then, because only thus are they of value 

 to their group, and the very fact that they are of value makes 

 them moral. Morality, however, has to do not only with eco- 

 nomic productivity but also with the relations of man to his fel- 

 low-men within the sovereign group, in other words, with social 

 adaptation. Lack of homogeneity and friction within the group 

 tend to weaken it in competition with other groups, hence are 

 evil. Morality requires a man to be socially efficient and that 

 means development of personal efficiency, physical and mental, 

 and such response to his social environment as to make for 

 co-operation and social adjustment. The so-called vices are 

 morally bad, not because they violate any divine command, but 

 because they make for personal and social mal-adaptation. 2 



1 Essays in Social Justice, pp. 14 f. 2 Principles of Rural Economics, p. 187. 



