254 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
synthesis of biological ‘‘ adaptation” and economic “ produc- 
tivity ” so his ethical theory is a synthesis of intuitionalism and 
evolutionary utilitarianism. We have intuitions of right and 
wrong, but these are not absolute. Our moral intuitions are our 
personal interpretations of the mores of the group to which we 
belong. These mores are the result of social evolution and social 
utility. We first passively adapt ourselves to them, then in some 
small degree react on them in the line of variation, and in a few 
cases men have gotten a deeper insight into social values and 
become prophets or moral reformers.! 
The moral is the socially useful. ‘The one who acts contrary to 
the mores of the group is adjudged immoral. The one who acts 
contrary to these mores or conventions that have become crys- 
tallized into law is adjudged a criminal. Motive does not count 
except as it determines conduct. 
As the moral is the useful, and the useful is that which has 
enabled the group to win out in its struggle with other groups, 
and as in the process of social and industrial evolution economic 
productivity has been found to be above all else that which makes 
for group success, therefore the most moral man is the one who 
contributes most to the strength of the group. By this yard- 
stick the rich parasite who consumes more than he produces, is 
highly immoral. 
Men should be moral, then, because only thus are they of value 
to their group, and the very fact that they are of value makes 
them moral. Morality, however, has to do not only with eco- 
nomic productivity but also with the relations of man to his fel- 
low-men within the sovereign group, in other words, with social 
adaptation. Lack of homogeneity and friction within the group 
tend to weaken it in competition with other groups, hence are 
evil. Morality requires a man to be socially efficient and that 
means development of personal efficiency, physical and mental, 
and such response to his social environment as to make for 
co-operation and social adjustment. The so-called vices are 
morally bad, not because they violate any divine command, but 
because they make for personal and social mal-adaptation.? 
1 Essays in Social Justice, pp. 14 f. 2 Principles of Rural Economics, p. 187. 
