LECTURE XXVIII. 



THE ORIGIN OF GOODNESS. 



Prof. Edward A. Ross. 



Right-doing may have any one of many motives, 

 No mystery when prompted by fear, dread of punish- 

 ment, hope of reward, love of praise, pride, vanity 

 worldly prudence, confusion as to one's own interests 

 force of conventionality, or habit. Only when sucli 

 motives are wanting do we ascribe goodness. 



Right-doing is outward, and means conduct looking 

 to the well-being of others. Goodness is inward, and 

 means making the welfare of others our interest joj 

 in another's joy, pain in his pain. The springs of oui 

 action come to lie elsewhere than in ourselves. W< 

 say in effect : " Thy ill is my ill, thy weal my weal 

 thy ends are my ends." Goodness amounts to altru- 

 ism, or otherness, which in turn implies sympathy. 



The origin of otherness the great mystery of hurnarj 

 nature. Selfness or egoism easy to understand, bul 

 altruism challenges explanation, seems unnatural 

 Can there be soul nerves ? Some even deny that pure 

 altruism exists. 



The romantic explanations. Is union or sepa- 

 ration our primitive state ? Plato. Kant and the 

 " Ding an Sich." Hegel's " Absolute." Schopenhauer 

 Hartmann's "Unconscious." Emerson's "Oversoul.' 



