Morality and Self-interest Identical 351 



ality would consist in the sacrifice of the interests of 

 individuals ; a moral society would be one in which 

 every individual sacrifices his own interest; and 

 the maximum of morality would be reached in a 

 society in which the sacrifice of the interests of the 

 individuals resulted in the destruction of the 

 individuals and of the society itself. The result 

 would be that morality would have as its object 

 the suppression of life. When we are told then 

 that a moral action cannot have an advantageous 

 result for the one who commits it, it is as if we were 

 told that life can have as its object its own de- 

 struction, or in other words that non-being is the 

 condition of being. This is the reductio ad ahsur- 

 dum to which the supposed opposition between 

 morality and the highest interest of the individual 

 logically leads. 



It is only because of the widespread ignorance of 

 the true nature and advantages of association that 

 this disastrous belief in the opposition between 

 morality and the interests of the individual has 

 become established. Many persons are able to 

 see so far as to understand that morality is identical 

 with the highest welfare of society, but few persons 

 are able to see the final link in the chain of cause 

 and effect whereby the welfare of society is identi- 

 cal with the highest self-interest of the individual. 

 This is because of the failure to understand the 

 true object of association and mutual aid, namely, 

 to increase the vital intensity of the units which 

 compose the association. 



