XVIII 



MORALITY 



Dualistic ethics — The categorical imperative — Monistic ethics 

 —Morals and adaptation — ^Variation and adaptation — 

 Habit — Chemistry of habit — Trophic stimuli — Habit in 

 inorganic bodies — Instincts — Social instincts — Instinct and 

 morality — Right and duty — Morals and morality — The 

 good and the bad — Morals and fashions^— Sexual selection — 

 Fashion and the feeling of shame — Fashion and reason — 

 Ceremonies and cults — Mysteries and sacraments — Baptism 

 — The Lord's Supper — Transubstantiation — The miracle of 

 redemption — Papal sacraments — Marriage — Modem fash- 

 ions — Honor — Phylogeny of morals. 



THE practical life of man is, like that of all the social 

 higher animals, ruled by impulses and customs 

 which we describe as "moral." The science of morality, 

 ethics, is regarded by the dualists as a mental science, 

 and closely connected with religion on the one hand and 

 psychology on the other. During the nineteenth century 

 this dualistic view retained its popularity especially 

 because the great authority of Kant, with his dogma of 

 the categorical imperative, seemed to have given it a 

 solid foundation, and because it agreed admirably with 

 the teaching of the Church. Monism, on the other hand, 

 regards ethics as a natural science, and starts from the 

 principle that morality is not supernatural in origin, but 

 has been built up by adaptation of the social mammals 

 to the conditions of existence, and thus may be traced 

 eventually to physical laws. Hence modem biology sees 



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