The Principle of Universality 353 



were truly in accord with the interests of the in- 

 dividual, murder would tend to become a moral 

 act. It would be practised universally in society. 

 The life of each individual would become less 

 secure and finally society, including the individual 

 murderer, would disappear. The commandment, 

 "Thou shalt not kill," is a law of morality solely 

 because it is in accord with the self-interest of the 

 individual. 



Not only is it immoral to destroy the lives of 

 one's fellow-men, but there are cases in which it is 

 immoral to destroy an animal. A man who kills 

 an ox without any purpose, even if the ox belongs 

 to him, acts in an immoral manner, but if the same 

 man sends a certain number of oxen to be killed 

 at the public slaughter-house every day, he does 

 not commit an immoral action. Why? Because 

 the killing of the first ox does not have as a result 

 the increase of his own well-being in any perma- 

 nent fashion, while the regular sending of the other 

 oxen to death at the slaughter-house has these 

 advantageous results. 



The same reasoning holds in the economic field. 

 A workman who produces a piece of bad workman- 

 ship acts in an immoral fashion. Why? Simply 

 because in reality he injures himself by this act. 

 If it were possible to increase wealth indefinitely 

 by bad workmanship, this would be moral. The 

 same exact analysis of the facts of the social 

 mechanism shows that it is impossible to exploit 

 one's neighbour without exploiting one's self. It 



