CHAPTER VII 



ELEMENTARY MORALITY 



We have seen that in the beginning gregarious beings 

 organize in the larger units of cooperating numbers, simply 

 because this course is more beneficial and because it favors 

 and promotes those who practice it. 



But when among such creatures, the system is definitely 

 settled and all are committed to that way of living, then an 

 individual who profits by the joint conduct comes under 

 obligations to the community, and loses his original right 

 of isolated selfish actions. There is not only a benefit for 

 himself which induces him to act in common with others 

 in regard to present action, but there is advantage to him 

 already acquired by the association and enjoyed by him, 

 which it is his duty to compensate by supporting that system. 

 Now if he could become aware of that obligation, and could 

 then act according to it, that would evidently be a simple 

 phase of moral conduct. But in animals of intelligence so 

 small as to be unaware of their own motives, such conduct 

 must be moral in a different way if it is moral at all. A 

 little consideration will show that conduct may be moral 

 according to the proper meaning of the word irrespective 

 of whether the actor is aware of the reasons for it or of 

 the benefit in it. In man conscientious action opposed to 



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