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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1058 



among civilized fellow men, united by bonds 

 of race, nation or country, are firmly es- 

 tablished. Justice and duty are deeply 

 rooted conceptions, the compelling force 

 of which is spontaneously recognized by 

 all normal members of the individual com- 

 munity; the small fraction of dissenters 

 consists of defectives and criminals. Sym- 

 pathy, kindness, altruism and self-sacrifice 

 are not enforceable human virtues, but are 

 nevertheless profoundly appreciated and 

 admired by the individuals of all civilized 

 nations. Honesty is an indispensable vir- 

 tue. In parenthesis I may, however, say 

 here that to my knowledge "honor" is not 

 among the general precepts of ethics. It is 

 an artifact; it is mostly an artificial vir- 

 tue of a class which considers itself as be- 

 ing above the simple requirements of jus- 

 tice and duty. It is not an unusual occur- 

 rence that in the name of honor a man may 

 slay with relative impunity a fellowman 

 whose home life he has dishonored. 



From Sokrates to our day students of 

 moral philosophy offered various theories 

 concerning the nature of the principles 

 underlying the "science of conduct." I 

 shall not discuss the merits of the theories 

 of Hedonism or Utilitarianism, the Law of 

 God or the Categorical Imperative ; they do 

 not concern us here. But I have to refer 

 to one theory which was not received with 

 great favor and which had only a short 

 life of popular existence. In the latter 

 half of the last century, under the power- 

 ful influence of Darwin's theory of nat- 

 ural selection in the domain of biology, a 

 systematic attempt was made by some phi- 

 losophers (Herbert Spencer and others) 

 to look upon ethics as a purely biological 

 phenomenon. Family ties of lower ani- 

 mals, it was thought, developed into the 

 ethics of civilized nations. Whether on ac- 

 count of the feverish social and altruistic 

 activities which have been going on in the 

 last decade or two and for which a biologic 



theory of ethics could hardly have served 

 as a sufficient stimulus; or whether on ac- 

 count of the general decadence in popular 

 enthusiasm for the theory of natural se- 

 lection in general, the fact is that the 

 theory of biologic origin of ethics seems 

 to have been generally abandoned in recent 

 years. But whatever we may think philo- 

 sophically regarding the nature of funda- 

 mental origin of ethics, we can practically 

 not deny that morality is subject to evolu- 

 tionary influences; it has undergone and is 

 continually undergoing development. Mor- 

 ality manifests a continuous growth. The 

 development of savage races into cultured, 

 ethical nations is a matter of historical 

 record. In fact, the progessive widening 

 which conceptions like justice or duty are 

 continually undergoing within the confines 

 of a nation is practically a matter of direct 

 observation during an individual's life- 

 time. 



I shall dwell here especially on two ele- 

 ments which are operative in this process. 

 The foremost factor in the evohitionary 

 progress of intranational morals is to be 

 found undoubtedly in the intellectual ac- 

 tivities peculiar to man. The growth and 

 development of the sciences, of arts, music, 

 poetry, literature and religion, from their 

 rudimentary phases into their present 

 high states, elevated the specific human 

 character and favored the widening and 

 deepening of morality of any individual 

 nation or rather the morality of the indi- 

 viduals of which these nations are com- 

 posed. The human intellect may or may 

 not be the primary cause of morality; but 

 the unfolding of human intelligence and 

 the growth of intellectual activities specif- 

 ically human, are undoubtedly important 

 elements in the growth and development 

 of specific human morality. This connec- 

 tion between intelligence and morality is 

 practically a matter of direct observation. 



