Page:Philosophical Review Volume 26.djvu/41

Rh by the Great War, is likely to become a leading trend as a result of the reconstructions that may come with peace. In a brief survey of the leading trends of the past quarter-century I shall but notice in passing the development of ethical theory in its stricter sense and deal chiefly with the genetic study of morality, and the field where we see ethical principles writ large. For in part the theoretical inquiries develop lines of thought already laid down in the preceding period, in part they deal with problems growing out of the evolutionary point of view and so can best be noted in connection with this.

The question most discussed in ethical theory has been set by biological conceptions. Shall the standards of morality be taken from the world of nature? The question at once recalls analogous efforts to find a moral standard in some external source—the eternal essences of Plato, the will of God, the decree of the State. These latter sources of authority appealed to men in times when the individual had not come to his own, but were left high and dry by the subjective and individualizing eighteenth century. That a new claim to allegiance should be set by a new autocrat is not surprising when we consider the tremendous significance of natural science in our intellectual life, and the far-reaching importance for our well-being of the newly discovered laws of physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. At the least it would seem that the utilitarian, while adhering to his standard of pleasure, must henceforth proceed to secure or produce a maximum of pleasure not as of old by empirical methods, but by calculating from the laws of life and health. At the most it might seem that since man is so insignificant an atom in the great process of evolution it behooves him to see by what laws he has attained whatever status and goods he now has, and therein find guidance for the future. Such was Spencer's platform in the Justice which appeared just twenty-five years ago. Between the two conflicting attitudes toward justice, "to each according to his deserts," and "to each according to his needs," a decisive judgment is given by natural law, according