350 Morality and Self-interest 



then returns to increase the fulness of his own Hfe, 

 has never been worked out rationally in sufficient 

 detail, and the elementary facts of social science 

 are known only in a vague and intuitive manner. 



A logical analysis will prove that there is no 

 contradiction between morality and self-interest. 

 The result of a moral action must be one of three 

 things. Either it is a benefit for the individual 

 who acts morally or it is indifferent and has no 

 result or it is injurious. In the first case the moral 

 action is in accord with the self-interest of the 

 individual and the supposed opposition is untrue. 

 The second possible case reduces, on analysis, to 

 the third, because indifference is an abstract state 

 which does not exist when we consider concrete 

 realities. An action without any consequence is 

 time lost and therefore disadvantageous, if for no 

 other reason than because it prevents the achieve- 

 ment of the good which might have been attained 

 in the time lost. If then an action does not have a 

 useful result, by this very fact it has an injurious 

 result. The whole problem reduces then to the 

 last case. If morality and self-interest are not 

 identical, then all moral action is injiu"ious to the 

 individual who performs the action. 



But this last case leads to a direct contradic- 

 tion of terms. If a moral action could have an 

 injurious result for those who commit it and if 

 under these conditions all men were moral, they 

 would constantly be injuring themselves by their 

 moral actions and would ultimately perish. Mor- 



