Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/69

. (1) Instincts are inherited. They are there to start with, and thus are material ready to the hand of the educator. (2) Instincts are modifiable. Within their limits they may be wonderfully developed by training. (3) Instincts are general. The specific activities which result from them may largely be determined by education.

All instincts are valuable when they are of "just right" strength. But when they become unduly weak or excessively violent, they may be injurious both to the individual himself and to the community of which he is a member. This is true of all the instincts. (1) The instinct of shrinking is socially valuable, when it is of the "just right" degree of strength. There are some things from which we are naturally averse, which we instinctively shun. It is right that we should shrink from them. But if the instinct of shrinking be too strong, it is apt to produce cowardice. On the other hand, if it be too weak, it may lead to insensibility and hardness of nature. And if we extend the moral significance of the instinct, it becomes even more clear that either in excess or in deficiency it is socially injurious. It is right that a man should feel aversion to moral evil, but if the instinct be too strong, it may impel him simply to avoid contact with a social wrong, though it may be his duty to face it and try to overcome it. On the other hand, if the instinct be unduly weak, it may produce an immorally complaisant attitude to evil. (2) The proper degree of pugnacity is socially valuable. But if the instinct be unduly developed, it leads to the evils of quarrelsomeness and war. On the