296 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



"Two things fill my soul with ever new and 

 increasing wonder and awe the oftener and the 

 more continuously I reflect upon them," said 

 Immanuel Kant, "the starry heavens above me 

 and the moral law within me. "^ Darwin's theory 

 of social progress enthrones the moral law as the 

 highest form of adaptation and brings it, as the 

 nebular hypothesis has brought the starry heavens, 

 within the cosmic sweep of the evolutionary 

 process. 



The Causes of Moral Advance 



As social progress in the Darwinian theory 

 is dependent upon morality, the causes of moral 

 advance must occupy an important place in the 

 social sciences. We have already noted ^ the 

 effect of the factor of reason in contributing to 

 the change of moral standards and especially in en- 

 forcing the observance of moral conduct, but the 

 importance of the question justifies us in consider- 

 ing it in a little more detail. 



Since the standard of morality is the general 

 welfare of the community, a most important 

 question is: How do these standards become 

 changed to agree with more enlightened ideas as to 

 what constitutes the welfare of a community? 

 In a number of places Darwin considers the 

 problem of the diversion of morality from the 

 standards of true welfare and happiness of the com- 



' Kant, Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (Conclusion), p. 205. 

 » See supra, pp. 291-93. 



