Page:Philosophical Review Volume 12.djvu/235

No. 2.] of the same race; but universal sympathy is not in keeping with the law of the survival of the fittest, and in this respect ethics has in the past yielded too much to evolution. This theory, however, has shown ethics that the moral sense has come by a process of growth, like all other features or phases of mental or spiritual experience. It appears gradually. Moral sense starts in the feelings, and only becomes conscience when the true self-conscious and independent personality appears. Conscience starts under the form of scruples, as may be seen in the savage, when a sense of regret follows certain actions. When the scruple precedes the act and serves as a check, there is a much higher stage in the development of conscience. In the highest stage, when sympathy extends to man as man, there appears a new ideal element, a spiritual law. When man sees conduct in its relations, he is on the verge of a conception of the moral law. The authoritative element in conscience cannot be explained as the 'Voice of God' or as a product of evolution; it is a product of heredity. When the element of authority has become established, its evolution becomes a story of its growth in the social consciousness. Ancient wars were pursued without justification, but to-day all nations in war plead a just reason. Here can be noted the advance in social consciousness. However, there is yet a lack of conscience in the individual's dealing with corporations. One does not scruple about paying less taxes than one ought; conscience rather holds between individuals. In the final stage, however, conscience will become more universal, and will apply to all cases. In this last stage of the development of conscience, not merely altruism but egoism in a higher sense will assert itself. A man becomes ashamed, if he has broken a law of his own nature, even unobserved. In its highest form, ethical law is not dealing with social relationships, its one exaction is that each man shall keep his spiritual nature untarnished.

Man becomes altruistic as a result of his subjection to a social environment, and as a necessity of self-protection. There is not involved within himself the altruistic idea. Acquired characteristics are not inheritable; and if they were, there is no evidence to prove an inherited altruism. The child is an egoist by nature, and is only altruistic through the influence of society. The fact that men have not committed murder suggested to them in a hypnotic state, is no proof for inherent altruism. If murder had been suggested as a means of self-protection, the result would have been different. The altruism of the martyrs was rather the product of society than an inheritance. In reply to the objection that conscience and instinct show evidences of the evolution of altruism, the author holds that the conscience has not been proved to exist as a working and intelligent entity apart from the unconsciously absorbed impressions of childhood and apart from accumulated knowledge and experience; and no altruistic instinct