Biological Foundations of Ethics 445 



differentiate the moral conduct of men from the social behaviour of 

 animals (to which some such term as "pre-moral" or "quasi-moral" 

 may be applied), still the fact remains that, as Darwin showed, there 

 is abundant evidence of the occurrence of such social behaviour — 

 social behaviour which, even granted that it is in large part intelli- 

 gently acquired, and is itself so far a product of educability, is of 

 survival value. It makes for that integration without which no 

 social group could hold together and escape elimination. Further- 

 more, even if we grant that such behaviour is intelligently acquired, 

 that is to say arises through the modification of hereditary instincts 

 and emotions, the fact remains that only through these instinctive 

 and emotional data is afforded the primary tissue of the experience 

 which is susceptible of such modification. 



Darwin sought to show, and succeeded in showing, that for the 

 intellectual and moral life there are instinctive foundations which a 

 biological treatment alone can disclose. It is true that he did not in 

 all cases analytically distinguish the foundations from the super- 

 structure. Even to-day we are scarcely in a position to do so 

 adequately. But his treatment was of great value in giving an 

 impetus to further research. This value indeed can scarcely be 

 overestimated. And when the natural history of the mental opera- 

 tions shall have been written, the cardinal fact will stand forth, 

 that the instinctive and emotional foundations are the outcome of 

 biological evolution and have been ingrained in the race through 

 natural selection. We shall more clearly realise that educability 

 itself is a product of natural selection, though the specific results 

 acquired through cerebral modifications are not transmitted through 

 heredity. It will, perhaps, also be realised that the instinctive 

 foundations of social behaviour are, for us, somewhat out of date 

 and have undergone but little change throughout the progress of 

 civilisation, because natural selection has long since ceased to be the 

 dominant factor in human progress. The history of human progress 

 has been mainly the history of man's higher educability, the products 

 of which he has projected on to his environment. This educability 

 remains on the average what it was a dozen generations ago; but 

 the thought-woven tapestry of his surroundings is refashioned and 

 improved by each succeeding generation. Few men have in greater 

 measure enriched the thought-environment with which it is the aim 

 of education to bring educable human beings into vital contact, than 

 has Charles Darwin. His special field of work was the wide province 

 of biology ; but he did much to help us to realise that mental factors 

 have contributed to organic evolution and that in man, the highest 

 product of Evolution, they have reached a position of unquestioned 

 supremacy. 



