THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL IDEAS
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MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
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TORONTO
THE ORIGIN
AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
MORAL IDEAS
BY
EDWARD WESTERMARCK, PH.D., LL.D.
MARTIN WHITE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
LONDON
PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FINLAND,
HELSlNGFORS
AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF HUMAN MARRIAGE"
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
_SECOND EDITION_
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1924.
COPYRIGHT
_First Edition_ 1906
_Second Edition_ 1912
_Reprinted_ 1924
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
THE frequent references made in the present work, on my own authority,
to customs and ideas prevalent among the natives of Morocco, require a
word of explanation. Seeing the close connection between moral
opinions and magic and religious beliefs, I thought it might be useful
for me to acquire first-hand knowledge of the folk-lore of some
non-European people, and for various reasons I chose Morocco as my
field of research. During the four years I spent there, largely among
its country population, I have not only collected anthropological
data, but tried to make myself familiar with the native way of
thinking; and I venture to believe that this has helped me to
understand various customs occurring at a stage of civilisation
different from our own. I purpose before long to publish the detailed
results of my studies in a special monograph on the popular religion
and magics of the Moors.
For these researches I have derived much material support from the
University of Helsingfors. I am also indebted to the Russian Minister
at Tangier, M. B. de Bacheracht, for his kindness in helping me on
several occasions when I was dependent on the Sultan's Government. All
the time I have had the valuable assistance of my Moorish friend
Shereef [(]Abd-es-Salâm el-Ba[k.][k.]âli, to whom credit {vi} is due
for the kind reception I invariably received from peasants and
mountaineers, not generally noted for friendliness towards Europeans.
I beg to express my best thanks to Mr. Stephen Gwynn for revising the
first thirteen chapters, and to Mr. H. C. Minchin for revising the
remaining portion of the book. To their suggestions I am indebted for
the improvement of many phrases and expressions. I have likewise to
thank my friend Mr. Alex. F. Shand for kindly reading the proofs of
the earlier chapters and giving me the benefit of his opinion.
Throughout the work the reader will easily find how much I owe to
British science and thought--a debt which is greater than I can ever
express.
E. W.
London,
_January_, 1906.
* * * * *
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
THE present edition is only a reprint of the first, with a few
inaccurate expressions corrected.
E. W.
London,
_July_, 1912.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY
The origin of the present investigation, p. 1.--Its subject-matter,
p. 1 _sq._--Its practical usefulness, p. 2 _sq._
CHAPTER I
THE EMOTIONAL ORIGIN OF MORAL JUDGMENTS
The moral concepts essentially generalisations of tendencies in
certain phenomena to call forth moral emotions, pp. 4-6.--The assumed
universality or "objectivity" of moral judgments, p. 6 _sq._--Theories
according to which the moral predicates derive all their import from
reason, "theoretical" or "practical," p. 7 _sq._--Our tendency to
objectivise moral judgments, no sufficient ground for referring them
to the province of reason, p. 8 _sq._--This tendency partly due to the
comparatively uniform nature of the moral consciousness, p.
9.--Differences of moral estimates resulting from circumstances of a
purely intellectual character, pp. 9-11.--Differences of an emotional
origin, pp. 11-13.--Quantitative, as well as qualitative, differences,
p. 13.--The tendency to objectivise moral judgments partly due to the
authority ascribed to moral rules, p. 14.--The origin and nature of
this authority, pp. 14-17.--General moral truths non-existent, p. 17
_sq._--The object of scientific ethics not to fix rules for human
conduct, but to study the moral consciousness as a fact, p. 18.--The
supposed dangers of ethical subjectivism, pp. 18-20.
CHAPTER II
THE NATURE OF THE MORAL EMOTIONS
The moral emotions of two kinds: disapproval, or indignation, and
approval, p. 21.--The moral emotions retributive emotions, disapproval
forming a sub-species of resentment, and approval a sub-species of
retributive kindly emotion, _ibid._--Resentment an aggressive attitude
of mind toward a cause of pain, p. 22 _sq._--Dr. Steinmetz's
suggestion that revenge is essentially rooted in the feeling of power
and superiority, and originally "undirected," pp. 23-27.--The true
import of the facts adduced as evidence for this hypothesis,
pp. 27-30.--The collective responsibility usually involved in the
institution of the blood-feud, pp. 30-32.--Explanation of it,
pp. 32-35.-- {viii} The strong tendency to discrimination which
characterises resentment not wholly lost even behind the veil of
common responsibility, p. 35 _sq._--Revenge among the lower animals,
p. 37 _sq._--Violation of the "self-feeling" a common incentive to
resentment, p. 38 _sq._--But the reaction of the wounded
"self-feeling" not necessarily, in the first place, concerned with the
infliction of pain, p. 39 _sq._--Revenge only a link in a chain of
emotional phenomena for which "non-moral resentment" may be used as a
common name, p. 40.--The origin of these phenomena, pp. 40-42.--Moral
indignation closely connected with anger, p. 42 _sq._--Moral
indignation, like non-moral resentment, a reactionary attitude of mind
directed towards the cause of inflicted pain, though the reaction
sometimes turns against innocent persons, pp. 43-48.--In their
administration of justice gods still more indiscriminate than men,
pp. 48-51.--Reasons for this, p. 51 _sq._--Sin looked upon in the light
of a contagious matter, charged with injurious energy, pp. 52-57.--The
curse looked upon as a baneful substance injuring or destroying
anybody to whom it cleaves, p. 57 _sq._--The tendency of curses to
spread, pp. 58-60.--Their tendency to contaminate those who derive
their origin from the infected individual, p. 60 _sq._--The vicarious
suffering involved in sin-transference not to be confounded with
vicarious expiatory sacrifice, p. 61.--Why scapegoats are sometimes
killed, pp. 61-64.--Why sacrificial victims are sometimes used as
scapegoats, p. 64 _sq._--Vicarious expiatory sacrifices,
pp. 65-67.--The victim accepted as a substitute on the principle of
social solidarity, p. 67 _sq._--Expiatory sacrifices offered as ransoms,
p. 68 _sq._--Protests of the moral consciousness against the infliction
of penal suffering upon the guiltless, pp. 70-72.
CHAPTER III
THE NATURE OF THE MORAL EMOTIONS (_continued_)
Whilst, in the course of mental evolution, the true direction of the
hostile reaction involved in moral disapproval has become more
apparent, its aggressive character has become more disguised,
p. 73.--Kindness to enemies not a rule in early ethics, p. 73 _sq._--At
the higher stages of moral development retaliation condemned and
forgiveness of enemies laid down as a duty, pp. 74-77.--The rule of
retaliation and the rule of forgiveness not radically opposed to each
other, p. 77 _sq._--Why enlightened and sympathetic minds disapprove
of resentment and retaliation springing from personal motives, p. 78
_sq._--The aggressive character of moral disapproval has also become
more disguised by the different way in which the aggressiveness
displays itself, p. 79.--Retributive punishment condemned, and the end
of punishment considered to be either to deter from crime, or to
reform the criminal, or to repress crime by eliminating or secluding
him, pp. 79-81.--Objections to these theories, p. 82 _sq._--Facts which,
to some extent, fill up the gap between the theory of retribution and
the utilitarian theories of punishment, pp. 84-91.--The aggressive
element in moral disapproval has undergone a change which tends to
conceal its true nature by narrowing the channel in which it discharges
itself, deliberate and discriminating resentment being apt to turn
against the will rather than against the willer, p. 91 _sq._--Yet it is
the instinctive desire to inflict counter-pain that gives to moral
indignation its most important characteristic, p. 92 _sq._--Retributive
kindly emotion a friendly attitude of mind towards a cause of pleasure,
p. 93 _sq._--Retributive kindly emotion among the lower animals,
p. 94.--Its intrinsic object, p. 94 _sq._--The want of discrimination
which is sometimes found in retributive kindness, p. 95.--Moral approval
a kind of retributive kindly emotion, _ibid._--Moral approval sometimes
bestows its favours upon undeserving individuals for the merits of others,
pp. 95-97.--Explanation of this, p. 97 _sq._--Protests against the notion
of vicarious merit, p. 98 _sq._
{ix} CHAPTER IV
THE NATURE OF THE MORAL EMOTIONS (_concluded_)
Refutation of the opinion that moral emotions only arise in
consequence of moral judgments, p. 100 _sq._--However, moral
judgments, being definite expressions of moral emotions, help us to
discover the true nature of these emotions, p. 101.--Disinterestedness
and apparent impartiality characteristics by which moral indignation
and approval are distinguished from other, non-moral, kinds of
resentment or retributive kindly emotion, pp. 101-104.--Besides, a
moral emotion has a certain flavour of generality, p. 104 _sq._--The
analysis of the moral emotions which has been attempted in this and
the two preceding chapters holds true not only of such emotions as we
feel on account of the conduct of others, but of such emotions as we
feel on account of our own conduct as well, pp. 105-107.
CHAPTER V
THE ORIGIN OF THE MORAL EMOTIONS
We may feel disinterested resentment, or disinterested retributive
kindly emotion, on account of an injury inflicted, or a benefit
conferred, upon another person with whose pain, or pleasure, we
sympathise, and in whose welfare we take a kindly interest,
p. 108.--Sympathetic feelings based on association, p. 109 _sq._--Only
when aided by the altruistic sentiment sympathy induces us to take a
kindly interest in the feelings of our neighbours, and tends to
produce disinterested retributive emotions, p. 110 _sq._--Sympathetic
resentment to be found in all animal species which possess altruistic
sentiments, p. 111 _sq._--Sympathetic resentment among savages, p. 113
_sq._--Sympathetic resentment may not only be a reaction against
sympathetic pain, but may be directly produced by the cognition of the
signs of anger (punishment, language, &c.), pp. 114-116.--Disinterested
antipathies, p. 116 _sq._--Sympathy springing from an altruistic
sentiment may also produce disinterested kindly emotion,
p. 117.--Disinterested likings, _ibid._--Why disinterestedness,
apparent impartiality, and the flavour of generality have become
characteristics by which so-called moral emotions are distinguished
from other retributive emotions, p. 117 _sq._--Custom not only a
public habit, but a rule of conduct, p. 118.--Custom conceived of as a
moral rule, p. 118 _sq._--In early society customs the only moral
rules ever thought of, p. 119.--The characteristics of moral
indignation to be sought for in its connection with custom, p.
120.--Custom characterised by generality, disinterestedness, and
apparent impartiality, p. 120 _sq._--Public indignation lies at the
bottom of custom as a moral rule, p. 121 _sq._--As public indignation
is the prototype of moral disapproval, so public approval is the
prototype of moral approval, p. 122.--Moral disapproval and approval
have not always remained inseparably connected with the feelings of
any special society, p. 122 _sq._--Yet they remain to the last public
emotions if not in reality, then as an ideal, p. 123.--Refutation of
the opinion that the original form of the moral consciousness has been
the individual's own conscience, p. 123 _sq._--The antiquity of moral
resentment, p. 124.--The supposition that remorse is unknown among the
lower races contradicted by facts, p. 124 _sq._--Criticism of Lord
Avebury's statement that modern savages seem to be almost entirely
wanting in moral feeling, pp. 125-129.--The antiquity of moral
approval, p. 129 _sq._
{x}
CHAPTER VI
ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL MORAL CONCEPTS
Our analysis to be concerned with moral concepts formed by the
civilised mind, p. 131.--Moral concepts among the lower races,
pp. 131-133.--Language a rough generaliser, p. 133.--Analysis of the
concepts _bad_, _vice_, and _wrong_, p. 134.--Of _ought_ and _duty_,
pp. 134-137.--Of _right_, as an adjective, pp. 137-139.--Of _right_,
as a substantive, p. 139 _sq._--Of the relations between _rights_ and
_duties_, p. 140 _sq._--Of _injustice_ and _justice_, pp. 141-145.--Of
_good_, pp. 145-147.--Of _virtue_, pp. 147-149.--Of the relation
between _virtue_ and _duty_, p. 149 _sq._--Of _merit_, p. 150
_sq._--Of the relation between _merit_ and _duty_, p. 151 _sq._--The
question of the _super-obligatory_, pp. 152-154.--The question of the
morally _indifferent_, pp. 154-157.
CHAPTER VII
CUSTOMS AND LAWS AS EXPRESSIONS OF MORAL IDEAS
How we can get an insight into the moral ideas of mankind at large,
p. 158.--The close connection between the habitualness and the
obligatoriness of custom, p. 159.--Though every public habit is not a
custom, involving an obligation, men's standard of morality is not
independent of their practice, p. 159 _sq._--The study of moral ideas
to a large extent a study of customs, p. 160.--But custom never covers
the whole field of morality, and the uncovered space grows larger in
proportion as the moral consciousness develops, p. 160 _sq._--At the
lower stages of civilisation custom the sole rule for conduct,
p. 161.--Even kings described as autocrats tied by custom, p. 162.--In
competition with law custom frequently carries the day, p. 163
_sq._--Custom stronger than law and religion combined, p. 164.--The
laws themselves command obedience more as customs than as laws,
_ibid._--Many laws were customs before they became laws, p. 165.--The
transformation of customs into laws, p. 165 _sq._--Laws as expressions
of moral ideas, pp. 166-168.--Punishment and indemnification, p. 168
_sq._--Definition of punishment, p. 169 _sq._--Savage punishments
inflicted upon the culprit by the community at large, pp. 170-173.--By
some person or persons invested with judicial authority,
pp. 173-175.--The development of judicial organisation out of a previous
system of lynch-law, p. 175.--Out of a previous system of private
revenge, p. 176.--Public indignation displays itself not only in
punishment, but to a certain extent in the custom of revenge, p. 176
_sq._--The social origin of the _lex talionis_, pp. 177-180.--The
transition from revenge to punishment, and the establishment of a
central judicial and executive authority, pp. 180-183.--The
jurisdiction of chiefs, p. 183 _sq._--The injured party or the accuser
acting as executioner, but not as judge, p. 184_sq._--The existence of
punishment and judicial organisation among a certain people no exact
index to its general state of culture, p. 185.--The supposition that
punishment has been intended to act as a deterrent, p. 185
_sq._--Among various semi-civilised and civilised peoples the criminal
law has assumed a severity which far surpasses the rigour of the _lex
talionis_, pp. 186-183.--Wanton cruelty not a general characteristic
of the public justice of savages, pp. 188-190. Legislators referring
to the deterrent effects of punishment, p. 190 _sq._--The practice of
punishing criminals in public, p. 191 _sq._--The punishment actually
inflicted on the criminal in many cases much less severe than the
punishment with which the law threatens him, p. 192 _sq._--The
detection of criminals was in earlier times much rarer and more
uncertain than it is now, p. 193.--The chief explanation of the great
severity of certain {xi} criminal codes lies in their connection with
despotism or religion or both, pp. 193-198.--Punishment may also be
applied as a means of deterring from crime, p. 198 _sq._--But the
scope which justice leaves for determent pure and simple is not wide,
p. 199.--The criminal law of a community on the whole a faithful
exponent of moral sentiments prevalent in that community at large,
pp. 199-201.
CHAPTER VIII
THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE SUBJECTS OF ENLIGHTENED MORAL
JUDGMENTS
Definitions of the term "conduct," p. 202 _sq._--The meaning of the
word "act," p. 203 _sq._--The meaning of the word "intention,"
p. 204.--There can be only one intention in one act, p. 204 _sq._ The
moral judgments which we pass on acts do not really relate to the
event, but to the intention, p. 205 _sq._--A person morally
accountable also for his deliberate wishes, p. 206.--A deliberate wish
is a volition, p. 206 _sq._--The meaning of the word "motive,"
p. 207.--Motives which are volitions fall within the sphere of moral
valuation, _ibid._--The motive of an act may be an intention, but an
intention belonging to another act, _ibid._--Even motives which
consist of non-volitional conations may indirectly exercise much
influence on moral judgments, p. 207 _sq._--Refutation of Mill's
statement that "the motive has nothing to do with the morality of the
action," p. 208 _sq._--Moral judgments really passed upon men as
acting or willing, not upon acts or volitions in the abstract, p. 209.
--Forbearances morally equivalent to acts, p. 209 _sq._--Distinction
between forbearances and omissions, p. 210.--Moral judgments refer not
only to willing, but to not-willing as well, not only to acts and
forbearances, but to omissions, p. 210 _sq._--Negligence,
heedlessness, and rashness, p. 211.--Moral judgments of blame
concerned with not-willing only in so far as this not-willing is
attributed to a defect of the "will," p. 211 _sq._--Distinction
between conscious omissions and forbearances, and between not-willing
to refrain from doing and willing to do, p. 212.--The "known
concomitants of acts," p. 213.--Absence of volitions also gives rise
to moral praise, p. 213 _sq._--The meaning of the term "conduct,"
p. 214.--The subject of a moral judgment is, strictly speaking, a
person's will, or character, conceived as the cause either of
volitions or of the absence of volitions, p. 214 _sq._--Moral
judgments that are passed on emotions or opinions really refer to the
will, p. 215 _sq._
CHAPTER IX
THE WILL AS THE SUBJECT OF MORAL JUDGMENT AND THE INFLUENCE OF
EXTERNAL EVENTS
Cases in which no distinction is made between intentional and
accidental injuries, pp. 217-219.--Yet even in the system of
self-redress intentional or foreseen injuries often distinguished from
unintentional and unforeseen injuries, pp. 219-221.--A similar
distinction made in the punishments inflicted by many savages, p. 221
_sq._--Uncivilised peoples who entirely excuse, or do not punish,
persons for injuries which they have inflicted by mere accident,
p. 222 _sq._--Peoples of a higher culture who punish persons for bringing
about events without any fault of theirs, pp. 223-226.--At the earlier
stages of civilisation gods, in particular, attach undue importance to
the outward aspect of conduct, pp. 226-231.--Explanation of all these
facts, pp. 231-237.--The great influence which the outward event
exercises upon moral estimates even among ourselves, pp. 238-240.
--Carelessness generally not punished if no injurious result
follows, p. 241.--An unsuccessful attempt to commit a criminal act, if
punished at all, as a rule punished much less {xii} severely than the
accomplished act, p. 241 _sq._--Exceptions to this rule, p. 242.--The
question, which attempts should be punished, p. 243.--The stage at
which an attempt begins to be criminal, and the distinction between
attempts and acts of preparation, p. 243 _sq._--The rule that an
outward event is requisite for the infliction of punishment, p. 244
_sq._--Exceptions to this rule, p. 245.--Explanation of laws referring
to unsuccessful attempts, pp. 245-247.--Moral approval influenced by
external events, p. 247.--Owing to its very nature, the moral
consciousness, when sufficiently influenced by thought, regards the
will as the only proper object of moral disapproval or praise,
p. 247 _sq._
CHAPTER X
AGENTS UNDER INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
An agent not responsible for anything which he could not be aware of,
p. 249.--The irresponsibility of animals, pp. 249-251.--Resentment
towards an animal which has caused some injury, p. 251.--At the lower
stages of civilisation animals deliberately treated as responsible
beings, _ibid._--The custom of blood-revenge extended to the animal
world, pp. 251-253.--Animals exposed to regular punishment, pp. 253-255.
--The origin of the mediæval practice of punishing animals, p. 255 _sq._
--Explanation of the practice of retaliating upon animals, pp. 256-260.
--At the earlier stages of civilisation even inanimate things treated
as if they were responsible agents, pp. 260-262.--Explanation
of this, pp. 262-264.--The total or partial irresponsibility of
childhood and early youth, pp. 264-267.--According to early custom,
children sometimes subject to the rule of retaliation, p. 267.
--Parents responsible for the deeds of their children, p. 267
_sq._--In Europe there has been a tendency to raise the age at which
full legal responsibility commences, p. 268 _sq._--The irresponsibility
of idiots and madmen, p. 269 _sq._--Idiots and insane persons objects
of religious reverence, p. 270 _sq._--Lunatics treated with great
severity or punished for their deeds, pp. 271-274.--Explanation of
this, p. 274 _sq._--The ignorance of which lunatics have been victims
in the hands of lawyers, pp. 275-277.--The total or partial
irresponsibility of intoxicated persons, p. 277 _sq._--Drunkenness
recognised as a ground of extenuation, pp. 278-280.--Not recognised as
a ground of extenuation, p. 280 _sq._--Explanation of these facts,
p. 281 _sq._
CHAPTER XI
MOTIVES
Motives considered only in proportion as the moral judgment is
influenced by reflection, p. 283.--Little consideration for the sense
of duty as a motive, _ibid._--Somewhat greater discrimination shown in
regard to motives consisting of powerful non-volitional conations,
p. 283 _sq._--Compulsion as a ground of extenuation, p. 284
_sq._--"Compulsion by necessity," pp. 285-287.--Self-defence,
pp. 288-290.--Self-redress in the case of adultery, and other survivals of
the old system of self-redress, pp. 290-294.--The moral distinction
made between an injury which a person inflicts deliberately, in cold
blood, and one which he inflicts in the heat of the moment, on
provocation, pp. 294-297.--Explanation of this distinction, p. 297
_sq._--The pressure of a non-volitional motive on the will as a ground
of extenuation, p. 298 _sq._--That moral judgments are generally
passed, in the first instance, with reference to acts immediately
intended, and consider motives only in proportion as the judgment is
influenced by reflection, holds good not only of moral blame, but of
moral praise, pp. 299-302.
{xiii} CHAPTER XII
FORBEARANCES AND CARELESSNESS--CHARACTER
Why in early moral codes the so-called negative commandments are much
more prominent than the positive commandments, p. 303.--The little
cognisance which the criminal laws of civilised nations take of
forbearances and omissions, p. 303 _sq._--The more scrutinising the
moral consciousness, the greater the importance which it attaches to
positive commandments, p. 304 _sq._--Yet the customs of all nations
contain not only prohibitions, but positive injunctions as well, p.
305.--The unreflecting mind apt to exaggerate the guilt of a person
who out of heedlessness or rashness causes harm by a positive act,
_ibid._--Early custom and law may be anxious enough to trace an event
to its source, pp. 305-307.--But they easily fail to discover where
there is guilt or not, and, in case of carelessness, to determine the
magnitude of the offender's guilt, p. 307 _sq._--The opinion that a
person is answerable for all the damage which directly ensues from an
act of his, even though no foresight could have reasonably been
expected to look out for it, p. 308 _sq._--On the other hand, little
or no censure passed on him whose want of foresight or want of
self-restraint is productive of suffering, if only the effect is
sufficiently remote, p. 309 _sq._--The moral emotions may as naturally
give rise to judgments on human character as to judgments on human
conduct, p. 310.--Even when a moral judgment immediately refers to a
distinct act, it takes notice of the agent's will as a whole, p. 310
_sq._--The practice of punishing a second or third offence more
severely than the first, p. 311 _sq._--The more a moral judgment is
influenced by reflection, the more it scrutinises the character which
manifests itself in that individual piece of conduct by which the
judgment is occasioned, p. 312 _sq._--But however superficial it be,
it always refers to a will conceived of as a continuous entity, p. 313.
CHAPTER XIII
WHY MORAL JUDGMENTS ARE PASSED ON CONDUCT AND CHARACTER--MORAL
VALUATION AND FREE-WILL
Explanation of the fact that moral judgments are passed on conduct and
character, p. 314.--The correctness of this explanation proved by the
circumstance that not only moral emotions, but non-moral retributive
emotions as well, are felt with reference to phenomena exactly similar
in nature to those on which moral judgments are passed,
pp. 314-319.--Whether moral or non-moral, a retributive emotion is
essentially directed towards a sensitive and volitional entity, or
self, conceived of as the cause of pleasure or the cause of pain,
p. 319.--The futility of other attempts to solve the problem, p. 319
_sq._--The nature of the moral emotions also gives us the key to the
problem of the co-existence of moral responsibility with the general
law of cause and effect, p. 320.--The theory according to which
responsibility, in the ordinary sense of the term, and moral judgments
generally, are inconsistent with the notion that the human will is
determined by causes, p. 320 _sq._--Yet, as a matter of fact, moral
indignation and moral approval are felt by determinists and
libertarians alike, p. 321 _sq._--Explanation of the fallacy which
lies at the bottom of the conception that moral valuation is
inconsistent with determinism, p. 322.--Causation confounded with
compulsion, pp. 322-324.--The difference between fatalism and
determinism, pp. 324-326.--The moral emotions not concerned with the
origin of the innate character, p. 326.
{xiv} CHAPTER XIV
PRELIMINARY REMARKS--HOMICIDE IN GENERAL
Necessity of restricting the investigation to the more important modes
of conduct with which the moral consciousness is concerned, p. 327
_sq._--The six groups into which these modes of conduct may be
divided, p. 328.--The most sacred duty which we owe to our
fellow-creatures generally considered to be regard for their lives,
_ibid._--Among various uncivilised peoples human life said to be held
very cheap, p. 328 _sq._--Among others homicide or murder said to be
hardly known, p. 329 _sq._--In other instances homicide expressly said
to be regarded as wrong, p. 330 _sq._--In every society custom
prohibits homicide within a certain circle of men, p. 331.--Savages
distinguish between an act of homicide committed within their own
community and one where the victim is a stranger, pp. 331-333.--In
various instances, however, the rule, "Thou shalt not kill," applies
even to foreigners, p. 333 _sq._--Some uncivilised peoples said to
have no wars, p. 334.--Savages' recognition of intertribal rights in
times of peace obvious from certain customs connected with their wars,
p. 334 _sq._--Savage custom does not always allow indiscriminate
slaughter even in warfare, p. 335 _sq._--The readiness with which
savages engage in war, p. 337.--The old distinction between injuries
committed against compatriots and harm done to foreigners remains
among peoples more advanced in culture, p. 337 _sq._--The readiness
with which such peoples wage war on foreign nations, and the
estimation in which the successful warrior is held, pp. 338-340.--The
life of a guest sacred, p. 340.--The commencement of international
hostilities preceded by special ceremonies, _ibid._--Warfare in some
cases condemned, or a distinction made between just and unjust war,
pp. 340-342.--Even in war the killing of an enemy under certain
circumstances prohibited, either by custom or by enlightened moral
opinion, pp. 342-344.
CHAPTER XV
HOMICIDE IN GENERAL (_continued_)
Homicide of any kind condemned by the early Christians, p. 345.--Their
total condemnation of warfare, p. 345 _sq._--This attitude towards war
was soon given up, pp. 346-348.--The feeling that a soldier scarcely
could make a good Christian, p. 348.--Penance prescribed for those who
had shed blood in war, p. 348 _sq._--Wars forbidden by popes, p. 349.
--The military Christianity of the Crusades, pp. 348-352.--Chivalry,
pp. 352-354.--The intimate connection between chivalry and religion
displayed in tournaments, p. 354 _sq._--The practice of private war,
p. 355 _sq._--The attitude of the Church towards private war, p.
356.--The Truce of God, p. 357.--The main cause of the abolition of
private war was the increase of the authority of emperors or kings,
p. 357 _sq._--War looked upon as a judgment of God, p. 358.--The attitude
adopted by the great Christian congregations towards war one of
sympathetic approval, pp. 359-362.--Religious protests against war,
pp. 362-365.--Freethinkers' opposition to war, pp. 365-367.--The idea
of a perpetual peace, p. 367.--The awakening spirit of nationalism,
and the glorification of war, p. 367 _sq._--Arguments against
arbitration, p. 368.--The opposition against war rapidly increasing,
p. 368 _sq._--The prohibition of needless destruction in war, p. 369
_sq._--The survival, in modern civilisation, of the old feeling that
the life of a foreigner is not equally sacred with that of a
countryman, p. 370.--The behaviour of European colonists towards
coloured races, p. 370 _sq._
{xv} CHAPTER XVI
HOMICIDE IN GENERAL (_concluded_)
Sympathetic resentment felt on account of the injury suffered by the
victim a potent cause of the condemnation of homicide, p. 372
_sq._--No such resentment felt if the victim is a member of another
group, p. 373.--Why extra-tribal homicide is approved of,
_ibid._--Superstition an encouragement to extra-tribal homicide,
_ibid._--The expansion of the altruistic sentiment largely explains
why the prohibition of homicide has come to embrace more and more
comprehensive circles of men, _ibid._--Homicide viewed as an injury
inflicted upon the survivors, p. 373 _sq._--Conceived as a breach of
the "King's peace," p. 374.--Stigmatised as a disturbance of public
tranquillity and an outrage on public safety, _ibid._--Homicide
disapproved of because the manslayer gives trouble to his own people,
p. 374 _sq._--The idea that a manslayer is unclean, pp. 375-377.--The
influence which this idea has exercised on the moral judgment of
homicide, p. 377.--The disapproval of the deed easily enhanced by the
spiritual danger attending on it, as also by the inconvenient
restrictions laid on the tabooed manslayer and the ceremonies of
purification to which he is subject, p. 377 _sq._--The notion of a
persecuting ghost may be replaced by the notion of an avenging god,
pp. 378-380.--The defilement resulting from homicide particularly
shunned by gods, p. 380 _sq._--Priests forbidden to shed human blood,
p. 381 _sq._--Reasons for Christianity's high regard for human life,
p. 382.
CHAPTER XVII
THE KILLING OF PARENTS, SICK PERSONS, CHILDREN-FETICIDE
Parricide the most aggravated form of murder, pp. 383-386.--The custom
of abandoning or killing parents who are worn out with age or disease,
p. 386 _sq._--Its causes, pp. 387-390.--The custom of abandoning or
killing persons suffering from some illness, p. 391 _sq._--Its causes,
p. 392 _sq._--The father's power of life and death over his children,
p. 393 _sq._--Infanticide among many savage races permitted or even
enjoined by custom, pp. 394-398.--The causes of infanticide, and how
it has grown into a regular custom, pp. 398-402.--Among many savages
infanticide said to be unheard of or almost so, p. 402 _sq._--The
custom of infanticide not a survival of earliest savagery, but seems
to have grown up under specific conditions in later stages of
development, p. 403.--Savages who disapprove of infanticide, p. 403
_sq._--The custom of infanticide in most cases requires that the child
should be killed immediately or soon after its birth, p. 404
_sq._--Infanticide among semi-civilised or civilised races,
pp. 405-411.--The practice of exposing new-born infants vehemently
denounced by the early Fathers of the Church, p. 411.--Christian
horror of infanticide, p. 411 _sq._--The punishment of infanticide in
Christian countries, p. 412 _sq._--Feticide among savages, p. 413
_sq._--Among more civilised nations, p. 414 _sq._--According to
Christian views, a form of murder, p. 415 _sq._--Distinctions between
an _embryo informatus_ and an _embryo formatus_, p. 416 _sq._--Modern
legislation and opinion concerning feticide, p. 417.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE KILLING OF WOMEN, AND OF SLAVES--THE CRIMINALITY OF HOMICIDE
INFLUENCED BY DISTINCTIONS OF CLASS
The husband's power of life and death over his wife among many of the
lower races, p. 418 _sq._--The right of punishing his wife capitally
not universally {xvi} granted to the husband in uncivilised
communities, p. 419.--The husband's power of life and death among
peoples of a higher type, _ibid._--Uxoricide punished less severely
than matricide, p. 419 _sq._--The estimate of a woman's life sometimes
lower than that of a man's, sometimes equal to it, sometimes higher,
p. 420 _sq._--The master's power of life and death over his slave,
p. 421 _sq._--The right, among many savages, of killing his slave at his
own discretion expressly denied to the master, p. 422 _sq._--The
murder of another person's slave largely regarded as an offence
against the property of the owner, but not exclusively looked upon in
this light, p. 423.--When the system of blood-money prevails, the
price paid for the life of a slave less than that paid for the life of
a freeman, _ibid._--Among the nations of archaic culture, also, the
life of a slave held in less estimation than that of a freeman, but
not even the master in all circumstances allowed to put his slave to
death, pp. 423-426.--Efforts of the Christian Church to secure the
life of the slave against the violence of the master, p. 426.--But
neither the ecclesiastical nor the secular legislation gave him the
same protection as was bestowed upon the free member of the Church and
State, pp. 426-428.--In modern times, in Christian countries, the life
of the negro slave was only inadequately protected by law, p. 428
_sq._--Why the life of a slave is held in so little regard,
p. 429.--The killing of a freeman by a slave, especially if the victim
be his owner, commonly punished more severely than if the same act were
done by a free person, p. 429 _sq._--In the estimate of life a
distinction also made between different classes of freemen, p. 430
_sq._--The magnitude of the crime may depend not only on the rank of
the victim, but on the rank of the manslayer as well, pp. 431-433.
--Explanation of this influence of class, p. 433.--In progressive
societies each member of the society at last admitted to
be born with an equal claim to the right to live, _ibid._
CHAPTER XIX
HUMAN SACRIFICE
The prevalence of human sacrifice, pp. 434-436.--This practice much
more frequently found among barbarians and semi-civilised peoples than
among genuine savages, p. 436 _sq._--Among some peoples it has been
noticed to become increasingly prevalent in the course of time,
p. 437.--Human sacrifice partly due to the idea that gods have an
appetite for human flesh or blood, p. 437 _sq._--Sometimes connected
with the idea that gods require attendants, p. 438.--Moreover, an
angry god may be appeased simply by the death of him or those who
aroused his anger, or of some representative of the offending
community, or of somebody belonging to the kin of the offender, pp.
438-440.--Human sacrifice chiefly a method of life-insurance, based on
the idea of substitution, p. 440.--Human victims offered in war,
before a battle, or during a siege, p. 440 _sq._--For the purpose of
stopping or preventing epidemics, p. 441 _sq._--For the purpose of
putting an end to a devastating famine, p. 442 _sq._--For the purpose
of preventing famine, p. 443 _sq._--Criticism of Dr. Frazer's
hypothesis that the human victim who is killed for the purpose of
ensuring good crops is regarded as a representative of the corn-spirit
and is slain as such, pp. 444-451.--Human victims offered with a view
to getting water, p. 451 _sq._--With a view to averting perils arising
from the sea or from rivers, pp. 452-454.--For the purpose of
preventing the death of some particular individual, especially a chief
or a king, from sickness, old age, or other circumstances, pp.
454-457.--For the purpose of helping other men into existence, p. 457
_sq._--The killing of the first-born child, or the first-born son,
p. 458 _sq._--Explanation of this practice, pp. 459-461.--Human
sacrifices offered in connection with the foundation of buildings,
p. 461 _sq._--The building-sacrifice, like other kinds of human
sacrifice, probably based on the idea of substitution, pp.462-464.
--The belief that {xvii} the soul of the victim is converted
into a protecting demon, p. 464 _sq._--The human victim regarded as a
messenger, p. 465 _sq._--Human sacrifice not an act of wanton cruelty,
p. 466.--The king or chief sometimes sacrificed, _ibid._--The victims
frequently prisoners of war or other aliens, or slaves, or criminals,
pp. 466-468.--The disappearance of human sacrifice, p. 468.--Human
sacrifice condemned, p. 465 _sq._--Practices intended to replace it,
p. 469.--Human effigies or animals offered instead of men, p. 469
_sq._--Human sacrifices succeeded by practices involving the effusion
of human blood without loss of life, p. 470.--Bleeding or mutilation
practised for the same purpose as human sacrifice, p. 470 _sq._--Why
the penal sacrifice of offenders has outlived all other forms of human
sacrifice, p. 471.--Human beings sacrificed to the dead in order to
serve them as slaves, wives, or companions, pp. 472-474.--This custom
dwindling into a survival, p. 475.--The funeral sacrifice of men and
animals also seems to involve an intention to vivify the spirits of
the deceased with blood, p. 475 _sq._--Manslayers killed in order to
satisfy their victims' craving for revenge, p. 476.
CHAPTER XX
BLOOD-REVENGE AND COMPENSATION--THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH
The prevalence of the custom of blood-revenge, pp. 477-479.--Blood-revenge
regarded not only as a right, but as a duty, p. 479 _sq._--This duty
in the first place regarded as a duty to the dead, whose spirit is
believed to find no rest after death until the injury has been
avenged, p. 481 _sq._--Blood-revenge a form of human sacrifice,
p. 482.--Blood-revenge also practised on account of the injury inflicted
on the survivors, p. 482 _sq._--Murder committed within the family or
kin left unavenged, p. 483.--The injury inflicted on the relatives of
the murdered man suggests not only revenge, but reparation,
_ibid._--The taking of life for life may itself, in a way, serve as
compensation, p. 483 _sq._--Various methods of compensation,
p. 484.--The advantages of the practice of composition, p. 484 _sq._--Its
disadvantages, p. 485.--The importance of these disadvantages depends
on the circumstances in each special case, p. 486 _sq._--Among many
peoples the rule of revenge strictly followed, and to accept
compensation considered disgraceful, p. 487.--The acceptance of
compensation does not always mean that the family of the slain
altogether renounce their right of revenge, p. 487 _sq._--The
acceptance of compensation allowed as a justifiable alternative for
blood-revenge, or even regarded as the proper method of settling the
case, p. 488 _sq._--The system of compensation partly due to the
pressure of some intervening authority, p. 489 _sq._--The adoption of
this method for the settling of disputes a sign of weakness,
p. 491.--When the central power of jurisdiction is firmly established,
the rule of life for life regains its sway, _ibid._--A person may
forfeit his right to live by other crimes besides homicide, p. 491
_sq._--Opposition to and arguments against capital punishment,
pp. 492-495.--Modern legislation has undergone a radical change with
reference to capital punishment, p. 495.--Arguments against its
abolition, p. 495 _sq._--The chief motive for retaining it in modern
legislation, p. 496.
CHAPTER XXI
THE DUEL
Duelling resorted to as a means of bringing to an end hostilities
between different groups of people, p. 497 _sq._--Duels fought for the
purpose of settling disputes between individuals, either by conferring
on the victor the right of possessing {xviii} the object of the
strife, or by gratifying a craving for revenge and wiping off the
affront, pp. 498-502.--The circumstances to which these customs are
due, p. 503 _sq._--The duel as an ordeal or "judgment of God," p. 504
_sq._--The judicial duel fundamentally derived its efficacy as a means
of ascertaining the truth from its connection with an oath, p. 505
_sq._ How it came to be regarded as an appeal to the justice of God,
p. 506 _sq._--The decline and disappearance of the judicial duel,
p. 507.--The modern duel of honour, pp. 507-509.--Its causes,
p. 509.--Arguments adduced in support of it, p. 509 _sq._
CHAPTER XXII
BODILY INJURIES
In the case of bodily injuries the magnitude of the offence, other
things being equal, proportionate to the harm inflicted,
pp. 511-513.--The degree of the offence also depends on the station of
the parties concerned, and in some cases the infliction of pain held
allowable or even a duty, p. 513.--Children using violence against
their parents, _ibid._--Parents' right to inflict corporal punishment
on their children, p. 513 _sq._--The husband's right to chastise his
wife, pp. 514-516.--The master's right to inflict corporal punishment
on his slave, p. 516 _sq._--The maltreatment of another person's slave
regarded as an injury done to the master, rather than to the slave,
p. 517.--Slaves severely punished for inflicting bodily injuries on
freemen, p. 510.--The penalties or fines for bodily injuries
influenced by the class or rank of the parties when both of them are
freemen, p. 518 _sq._--Distinction between compatriots and aliens with
reference to bodily injuries, p. 519.--The infliction of sufferings on
vanquished enemies, p. 519 _sq._--The right to bodily integrity
influenced by religious differences, p. 520--Forfeited by the
commission of a crime, p. 520 _sq._--Amputation or mutilation of the
offending member has particularly been in vogue among peoples of
culture, p. 521 _sq._--The disappearance of corporal punishment in
Europe, p. 522.--Corporal punishment has been by preference a
punishment for poor and common people or slaves, p. 522 _sq._--The
status of a person influencing his right to bodily integrity with
reference to judicial torture, p. 523 _sq._--Explanation of the moral
notions regarding the infliction of bodily injuries, p. 524.--The
notions that an act of bodily violence involves a gross insult, and
that corporal punishment disgraces the criminal more than any other
form of penalty, p. 524 _sq._
CHAPTER XXIII
CHARITY AND GENEROSITY
The mother's duty to rear her children, p. 526.--The husband's and
father's duty to protect and support his family, pp. 526-529.--The
parents' duty of taking care of their offspring in the first place
based on the sentiment of parental affection, p. 529.--The
universality not only of the maternal, but of the paternal, sentiment
in mankind, pp. 529-532.--Marital affection among savages,
p. 532.--Explanation of the simplest paternal and marital duties,
p. 533--Children's duty of supporting their aged parents, pp. 533-538.
The duty of assisting brothers and sisters, p. 538.--Of assisting more
distant relatives, pp. 538-540.--Uncivilised peoples as a rule
described as kind towards members of their own community or tribe,
enjoin charity between themselves as a duty, and praise generosity as
a virtue, pp. 540-546.--Among many savages the old people, in
particular, have a claim to support and assistance, p. 546.--The sick
often carefully attended to, pp. 546-548.-- {xix} Accounts of
uncharitable savages, p. 548 _sq._--Among semi-civilised and civilised
nations charity universally regarded as a duty, and often strenuously
enjoined by their religions, pp. 549-556.--In the course of
progressing civilisation the obligation of assisting the needy has
been extended to wider and wider circles of men, pp. 556-558.--The
duty of tending wounded enemies in war, p. 558.--Explanation of the
gradual expansion of the duty of charity, p. 559.--This duty in the
first place based on the altruistic sentiment, p. 559 _sq._--Egoistic
motives for the doing of good to fellow-creatures, p. 560.--By
niggardliness a person may expose himself to supernatural dangers,
pp. 560-562.--Liberality may entail supernatural reward, p. 562 _sq._
--The curses and blessings of the poor partly account for the fact that
charity has come to be regarded as a religious duty, pp. 563-565.--The
chief cause of the extraordinary stress which the higher religions put
on the duty of charity seems to lie in the connection between
almsgiving and sacrifice, the poor becoming the natural heirs of the
god, p. 565.--Instances of sacrificial food being left for, or
distributed among, the poor, p. 565 _sq._--Almsgiving itself regarded
as a form of sacrifice, or taking the place of it, pp. 566-569.
CHAPTER XXIV
HOSPITALITY
Instances of great kindness displayed by savages towards persons of a
foreign race, pp. 570-572.--Hospitality a universal custom among the
lower races and among the peoples of culture at the earlier stages of
their civilisation, pp. 572-574.--The stranger treated with special
marks of honour, and enjoying extraordinary privileges as a guest,
pp. 574-576.--Custom may require that hospitality should be shown even
to an enemy, p. 576 _sq._--To protect a guest looked upon as a most
stringent duty, p. 577 _sq._--Hospitality in a remarkable degree
associated with religion, pp. 578-580.--The rules of hospitality in
the main based on egoistic considerations, p. 581.--The stranger,
supposed to bring with him good luck or blessings, pp. 581-583.--The
blessings of a stranger considered exceptionally powerful, p. 583
_sq._--The visiting stranger regarded as a potential source of evil,
p. 584.--His evil wishes and curses greatly feared, owing partly to
his quasi-supernatural character, partly to the close contact in which
he comes with the host and his belongings, pp. 584-590.--Precautions
taken against the visiting stranger, pp. 590-593.--Why no payment is
received from a guest, p. 593 _sq._--The duty of hospitality limited
by time, p. 594 _sq._--The cause of this, p. 595 _sq._--The decline of
hospitality in progressive communities, p. 596.
CHAPTER XXV
THE SUBJECTION OF CHILDREN
The right of personal freedom never absolute, p. 597.--Among some
savages a man's children are in the power of the head of their
mother's family or of their maternal uncle, p. 597 _sq._--Among the
great bulk of existing savages children are in the power of their
father, though he may to some extent have to share his authority with
the mother, p. 598 _sq._--The extent of the father's power subject to
great variations, p. 599.--Among some savages the father's authority
practically very slight, p. 599 _sq._--Other savages by no means
deficient in filial piety, p. 600 _sq._--The period during which the
paternal authority lasts, p. 601 _sq._--Old age commands respect and
gives authority, pp. 603-605.--Superiority of age also gives a certain
amount {xx} of power, p. 605 _sq._--The reverence for old age may
cease when the grey-head becomes an incumbrance to those around him,
and imbecility may put an end to the father's authority over his
family, p. 606 _sq._--Paternal, or parental, authority and filial
reverence at their height among peoples of archaic culture,
pp. 607-613.--Among these peoples we also meet with reverence for the
elder brother, for persons of a superior age generally, and especially
for the aged, p. 614 _sq._--Decline of the paternal authority in
Europe, p. 615 _sq._--Christianity not unfavourable to the
emancipation of children, though obedience to parents was enjoined as
a Christian duty, p. 616 _sq._--The Roman notions of paternal rights
and filial duties have to some extent survived in Latin countries,
p. 617 _sq._--Sources of the parental authority, p. 618 _sq._--Among
savages, in particular, filial regard is largely regard for one's
elders or the aged, p. 619.--Causes of the regard for old age,
pp. 619-621.--The chief cause of the connection between filial
submissiveness and religious beliefs the extreme importance attached
to parental curses and blessings, pp. 621-626.--Why the blessings and
curses of parents are supposed to possess an unusual power, p. 626
_sq._--Explanation of the extraordinary development of the paternal
authority in the archaic State, p. 627 _sq._--Causes of the downfall
of the paternal power, p. 628.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE SUBJECTION OF WIVES
Among the lower races the wife frequently said to be the property or
slave of her husband, p. 629 _sq._--Yet even in such cases custom has
not left her entirely destitute of rights, p. 630 _sq._--The so-called
absolute authority of husbands over their wives not to be taken too
literally, p. 631 _sq._--The bride-price does not _eo ipso_ confer on
the husband absolute rights over her, p. 632 _sq._--The hardest
drudgeries of life often said to be imposed on the women, p. 633
_sq._--In early society each sex has its own pursuits, p. 634.--The
rules according to which the various occupations of life are divided
between the sexes are on the whole in conformity with the indications
given by nature, p. 635 _sq._--This division of labour emphasised by
custom and superstition, p. 636 _sq._--It is apt to mislead the
travelling stranger, p. 637.--It gives the wife authority within the
circle which is exclusively her own, _ibid._--Rejection of the broad
statement that the lower races in general hold their women in a state
of almost complete subjection, pp. 638-646.--The opinion that a
people's civilisation may be measured by the position held by the
women not correct, at least so far as the earlier stages of culture
are concerned, p. 646 _sq._--The position of woman among the peoples
of archaic civilisation, pp. 647-653.--Christianity tended to narrow
the remarkable liberty granted to married women under the Roman
Empire, p. 653 _sq._--Christian orthodoxy opposed to the doctrine that
marriage should be a contract on the footing of perfect equality
between husband and wife, p. 654 _sq._--Criticism of the hypothesis
that the social _status_ of women is connected with the system of
tracing descent, p. 655 _sq._--The authority of a husband who lives
with his wife in the house or community of her father, p. 656
_sq._--Wives' subjection to their husbands in the first place due to
the men's instinctive desire to exert power, and to the natural
inferiority of women in such qualities of body and mind as are
essential for personal independence, p. 657.--Elements in the sexual
impulse which lead to domination on the part of the man and to
submission on the part of the woman, p. 657 _sq._--But if the man's
domination is carried beyond the limits of female love, the woman
feels it as a burden, p. 658 _sq._--In extreme cases of oppression, at
any rate, the community at large would sympathise with her, and the
public resentment against the oppressor would result in customs or
laws limiting the {xxi} husband's rights, p. 659.--The offended woman
may count upon the support of her fellow-sisters, _ibid._--The
children's affection and regard for their mother gives her power,
_ibid._--The influence which economic conditions exercise on the
position of woman, pp. 659-661.--The status of wives connected with
the ideas held about the female sex in general, p. 661.--Woman
regarded as intellectually and morally vastly inferior to man,
especially among nations more advanced in culture, pp. 661-663.
--Progress in civilisation has exercised an unfavourable influence
on the position of woman by widening the gulf between the sexes,
p. 663.--Religion has contributed to her degradation by regarding her
as unclean, p. 663 _sq._--Women excluded from religious worship and
sacred functions, pp. 664-666.--The notion that woman is unclean,
however, gives her a secret power over her husband, as women are
supposed to be better versed in magic than men, pp. 666-668.--The
curses of women greatly feared, p. 668.--Woman as an asylum, p. 668
_sq._--In archaic civilisation the _status_ of married women was
affected by the fact that the house-father was invested with some part
of the power which formerly belonged to the clan, p. 669.--Causes of
the decrease of the husband's authority over his wife in modern
civilisation, _ibid._
CHAPTER XXVII
SLAVERY
Definition of slavery, p. 670 _sq._--The distribution of slavery and
its causes among savages, pp. 671-674.--The earliest source of slavery
was probably war or conquest, p. 674 _sq._--Intra-tribal slavery among
savages, p. 675 _sq._--The master's power over his slave among
slave-holding savages, pp. 676-678.--Among the lower races slaves are
generally treated kindly, pp. 678-680.--Intra-tribal slaves,
especially such as are born in the house, generally treated better
than extra-tribal or purchased slaves, p. 680 _sq._--Slavery among the
nations of archaic culture, pp. 681-693.--The attitude of Christianity
towards slavery, pp. 693-700.--The supposed causes of the extinction
of slavery in Europe, pp. 697-701.--The chief cause the transformation
of slavery into serfdom, p. 701.--Serfdom only a transitory condition
leading up to a state of entire liberty, pp. 701-703.--The attitude of
the Church towards serfdom, p. 703 _sq._--The negro slavery in the
colonies of European countries and the Southern States of America, and
the legislation relating to it, pp. 704-711.--The support given to it
by the clergy, pp. 711-713.--The want of sympathy for, or positive
antipathy to, the coloured race, p. 713 _sq._--The opinions regarding
slavery and the condition of slaves influenced by altruistic
considerations, p. 714 _sq._--The condition of slaves influenced by
the selfish considerations of their masters, p. 715 _sq._
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE MORAL IDEAS
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE MORAL IDEAS
INTRODUCTORY
THE main object of this book will perhaps be best explained by a few
words concerning its origin.
Its author was once discussing with some friends the point how far a
bad man ought to be treated with kindness. The opinions were divided,
and, in spite of much deliberation, unanimity could not be attained.
It seemed strange that the disagreement should be so radical, and the
question arose, Whence this diversity of opinion? Is it due to
defective knowledge, or has it a merely sentimental origin? And the
problem gradually expanded. Why do the moral ideas in general differ
so greatly? And, on the other hand, why is there in many cases such a
wide agreement? Nay, why are there any moral ideas at all?
Since then many years have passed, spent by the author in trying to
find an answer to these questions. The present work is the result of
his researches and thoughts.
The first part of it will comprise a study of the moral concepts:
right, wrong, duty, justice, virtue, merit, &c. Such a study will be
found to require an examination into the moral emotions, their nature
and origin, as also into the relations between these emotions and the
various {2} moral concepts. There will then be a discussion of the
phenomena to which such concepts are applied--the subjects of moral
judgments. The general character of these phenomena will be
scrutinised, and an answer sought to the question why facts of a
certain type are matters of moral concern, while other facts are not.
finally, the most important of these phenomena will be classified, and
the moral ideas relating to each class will be stated, and, so far as
possible, explained.
An investigation of this kind cannot be confined to feelings and ideas
prevalent in any particular society or at any particular stage of
civilisation. Its subject-matter is the moral consciousness of mankind
at large. It consequently involves the survey of an unusually rich and
varied field of research--psychological, ethnographical, historical,
juridical, theological. In the present state of our knowledge, when
monographs on most of the subjects involved are wanting, I presume
that such an undertaking is, strictly speaking, too big for any man;
at any rate it is so for the writer of this book. Nothing like
completeness can be aimed at. Hypotheses of varying degrees of
probability must only too often be resorted to. Even the certainty of
the statements on which conclusions are based is not always beyond a
doubt. But though fully conscious of the many defects of his attempt,
the author nevertheless ventures to think himself justified in placing
it before the public. It seems to him that one of the most important
objects of human speculation cannot be left in its present state of
obscurity; that at least a glimpse of light must be thrown upon it by
researches which have extended over some fifteen years; and that the
main principles underlying the various customs of mankind may be
arrived at even without subjecting these customs to such a full and
minute treatment as would be required of an anthropological
monograph.
Possibly this essay, in spite of its theoretical character, may even
be of some practical use. Though rooted in the emotional side of our
nature, our moral {3} opinions are in a large measure amenable to
reason. Now in every society the traditional notions as to what is
good or bad, obligatory or indifferent, are commonly accepted by the
majority of people without further reflection. By tracing them to
their source it will be found that not a few of these notions have
their origin in sentimental likings and antipathies, to which a
scrutinising and enlightened judge can attach little importance;
whilst, on the other hand, he must account blamable many an act and
omission which public opinion, out of thoughtlessness, treats with
indifference. It will, moreover, appear that a moral estimate often
survives the cause from which it sprang. And no unprejudiced person
can help changing his views if he be persuaded that they have no
foundation in existing facts.
CHAPTER I
THE EMOTIONAL ORIGIN OF MORAL JUDGMENTS
THAT the moral concepts are ultimately based on emotions either of
indignation or approval, is a fact which a certain school of thinkers
have in vain attempted to deny. The terms which embody these concepts
must originally have been used--indeed they still constantly are so
used--as direct expressions of such emotions with reference to the
phenomena which evoked them. Men pronounced certain acts to be good or
bad on account of the emotions those acts aroused in their minds, just
as they called sunshine warm and ice cold on account of certain
sensations which they experienced, and as they named a thing pleasant
or painful because they felt pleasure or pain. But to attribute a
quality to a thing is never the same as merely to state the existence
of a particular sensation or feeling in the mind which perceives it.
Such an attribution must mean that the thing, under certain
circumstances, makes a certain impression on the mind. By calling an
object warm or pleasant, a person asserts that it is apt to produce in
him a sensation of heat or a feeling of pleasure. Similarly, to name
an act good or bad, ultimately implies that it is apt to give rise to
an emotion of approval or disapproval in him who pronounces the
judgment. Whilst not affirming the actual existence of any specific
emotion in the mind of the person judging or of anybody else, the
predicate of a moral judgment attributes to the subject a tendency to
arouse an emotion. The moral {5} concepts, then, are essentially
generalisations of tendencies in certain phenomena to call forth moral
emotions.
However, as is frequently the case with general terms, these concepts
are mentioned without any distinct idea of their contents. The
relation in which many of them stand to the moral emotions is
complicated; the use of them is often vague; and ethical theorisers,
instead of subjecting them to a careful analysis, have done their best
to increase the confusion by adapting the meaning of the terms to fit
their theories. Very commonly, in the definition of the goodness or
badness of acts, reference is made, not to their tendencies to evoke
emotions of approval or indignation, but to the causes of these
tendencies, that is, to those qualities in the acts which call forth
moral emotions. Thus, because good acts generally produce pleasure and
bad acts pain, goodness and badness have been identified with the
tendencies of acts to produce pleasure or pain. The following
statement of Sir James Stephen is a clearly expressed instance of this
confusion, so common among utilitarians:--"Speaking generally, the
acts which are called right do promote, or are supposed to promote
general happiness, and the acts which are called wrong do diminish, or
are supposed to diminish it. I say, therefore, that this is what the
words 'right' and 'wrong' mean, just as the words 'up' and 'down' mean
that which points from or towards the earth's centre of gravity,
though they are used by millions who have not the least notion of the
fact that such is their meaning, and though they were used for
centuries and millenniums before any one was or even could be aware of
it."[1] So, too, Bentham maintained that words like "ought," "right,"
and "wrong," have no meaning unless interpreted in accordance with the
principle of utility;[2] and James Mill was of opinion that "the very
morality" of the act lies, not in the sentiments raised in the breast
of him who perceives or contemplates it, but in "the consequences of
the act, good or evil, and their being {6} within the intention of the
agent."[3] He adds that a rational assertor of the principle of
utility approves of an action "because it is good," and calls it good
"because it conduces to happiness."[4] This, however, is to invert the
sequence of the facts, since, properly speaking, an act is called good
because it is approved of, and is approved of by an utilitarian in so
far as it conduces to happiness.
[Footnote 1: Stephen, _Liberty_, _Equality_, _Fraternity_, p. 338.]
[Footnote 2: Bentham, _Principles of Morals and Legislation_, p. 4.]
[Footnote 3: James Mill, _Fragment on Mackintosh_, pp. 5, 376.]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid._ p. 368.]
Such confusion of terms cannot affect the real meaning of the moral
concepts. It is true that he who holds that "actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of happiness,"[5] may, by a merely intellectual
process, pass judgment on the moral character of particular acts; but,
if he is an utilitarian from conviction, his first principle, at
least, has an emotional origin. The case is similar with many of the
moral judgments ordinarily passed by men. They are applications of
some accepted general rule: conformity or non-conformity to the rule
decides the rightness or wrongness of the act judged of. But whether
the rule be the result of a person's independent deductions, or be
based upon authority, human or divine, the fact that his moral
consciousness recognises it as valid implies that it has an emotional
sanction in his own mind.
[Footnote 5: Stuart Mill, _Utilitarianism_, p. 9 _sq._]
Whilst the import of the predicate of a moral judgment may thus in
every case be traced back to an emotion in him who pronounces the
judgment, it is generally assumed to possess the character of
universality or "objectivity" as well. The statement that an act is
good or bad does not merely refer to an individual emotion; as will be
shown subsequently, it always has reference to an emotion of a more
public character. Very often it even implies some vague assumption
that the act must be recognised as good or bad by everybody who
possesses a sufficient knowledge of the case and of all attendant
circumstances, and who has a "sufficiently developed" {7} moral
consciousness. We are not willing to admit that our moral convictions
are a mere matter of taste, and we are inclined to regard convictions
differing from our own as errors. This characteristic of our moral
judgments has been adduced as an argument against the emotionalist
theory of moral origins, and has led to the belief that the moral
concepts represent qualities which are discerned by reason.
Cudworth, Clarke, Price, and Reid are names which recall to our mind a
theory according to which the morality of actions is perceived by the
intellect, just as are number, diversity, causation, proportion.
"Morality is eternal and immutable," says Richard Price. "Right and
wrong, it appears, denote what actions are. Now whatever any thing is,
that it is, not by will, or degree, or power, but by nature and
necessity. Whatever a triangle or circle is, that it is unchangeably
and eternally. . . . The same is to be said of right and wrong, of
moral good and evil, as far as they express real characters of
actions. They must immutably and necessarily belong to those actions
of which they are truly affirmed."[6] And as having a real existence
outside the mind, they can only be discerned by the understanding. It
is true that this discernment is accompanied with an emotion: "Some
impressions of pleasure or pain, satisfaction or disgust, generally
attend our perceptions of virtue and vice. But these are merely their
effects and concomitants, and not the perceptions themselves, which
ought no more to be confounded with them, than a particular truth
(like that for which Pythagoras offered a hecatomb) ought to be
confounded with the pleasure that may attend the discovery of it."[7]
[Footnote 6: Price, _Review of the Principal Questions in Morals_, pp.
63, 74 _sq._]
[Footnote 7: _Ibid._ p. 63.]
According to another doctrine, the moral predicates, though not
regarded as expressions of "theoretical" truth, nevertheless derive
all their import from reason from "practical" or "moral" reason, as it
is variously {8} called. Thus Professor Sidgwick holds that the
fundamental notions represented by the word "ought" or "right," which
moral judgments contain expressly or by implication, are essentially
different from all notions representing facts of physical or psychical
experience, and he refers such judgments to the "reason," understood
as a faculty of cognition. By this he implies "that what ought to be
is a possible object of knowledge, _i.e._, that what I judge ought to
be, must, unless I am in error, be similarly judged by all rational
beings who judge truly of the matter." The moral judgments contain
moral _truths_, and "cannot legitimately be interpreted as judgments
respecting the present or future existence of human feelings or any
facts of the sensible world."[8]
[Footnote 8: Sidgwick, _Methods of Ethics_, pp. 25, 33 _sq._]
Yet our tendency to objectivise the moral judgments is no sufficient
ground for referring them to the province of reason. If, in this
respect, there is a difference between these judgments and others that
are rooted in the subjective sphere of experience, it is, largely, a
difference in degree rather than in kind. The aesthetic judgments,
which indisputably have an emotional origin, also lay claim to a
certain amount of "objectivity." By saying of a piece of music that it
is beautiful, we do not merely mean that it gives ourselves aesthetic
enjoyment, but we make a latent assumption that it must have a similar
effect upon everybody who is sufficiently musical to appreciate it.
This objectivity ascribed to judgments which have a merely subjective
origin springs in the first place from the similarity of the mental
constitution of men, and, generally speaking, the tendency to regard
them as objective is greater in proportion as the impressions vary
less in each particular case. If "there is no disputing of tastes,"
that is because taste is so extremely variable; and yet even in this
instance we recognise a certain "objective" standard by speaking of a
"bad" and a "good" taste. On the other hand, if the appearance of
objectivity in the moral judgments is so illusive as to {9} make it
seem necessary to refer them to reason, that is partly on account of
the comparatively uniform nature of the moral consciousness.
Society is the school in which men learn to distinguish between right
and wrong. The headmaster is Custom, and the lessons are the same for
all. The first moral judgments were pronounced by public opinion;
public indignation and public approval are the prototypes of the moral
emotions. As regards questions of morality, there was, in early
society, practically no difference of opinion; hence a character of
universality, or objectivity, was from the very beginning attached to
all moral judgments. And when, with advancing civilisation, this
unanimity was to some extent disturbed by individuals venturing to
dissent from the opinions of the majority, the disagreement was
largely due to facts which in no way affected the moral principle, but
had reference only to its application.
Most people follow a very simple method in judging of an act.
Particular modes of conduct have their traditional labels, many of
which are learnt with language itself; and the moral judgment commonly
consists simply in labelling the act according to certain obvious
characteristics which it presents in common with others belonging to
the same group. But a conscientious and intelligent judge proceeds in
a different manner. He carefully examines all the details connected
with the act, the external and internal conditions under which it was
performed, its consequences, its motive; and, since the moral estimate
in a large measure depends upon the regard paid to these
circumstances, his judgment may differ greatly from that of the man in
the street, even though the moral standard which they apply be exactly
the same. But to acquire a full insight into all the details which are
apt to influence the moral value of an act is in many cases anything
but easy, and this naturally increases the disagreement. There is thus
in every advanced society a diversity of opinion regarding the moral
value of certain modes of conduct which results from circumstances of
a purely {10} intellectual character--from the knowledge or ignorance
of positive facts,--and involves no discord in principle.
Now it has been assumed by the advocates of various ethical theories
that all the differences of moral ideas originate in this way, and
that there is some ultimate standard which must be recognised as
authoritative by everybody who understands it rightly. According to
Bentham, the rectitude of utilitarianism has been contested only by
those who have not known their own meaning:--"When a man attempts to
combat the principle of utility . . . his arguments, if they prove
anything, prove not that the principle is wrong, but that, according
to the applications he supposes to be made of it, it is
misapplied."[9] Mr. Spencer, to whom good conduct is that "which
conduces to life in each and all," believes that he has the support of
"the true moral consciousness," or "moral consciousness proper,"
which, whether in harmony or in conflict with the "pro-ethical"
sentiment, is vaguely or distinctly recognised as the rightful
ruler.[10] Samuel Clarke, the intuitionist, again, is of opinion that
if a man endowed with reason denies the eternal and necessary moral
differences of things, it is the very same "as if a man that has the
use of his sight, should at the same time that he beholds the sun,
deny that there is any such thing as light in the world; or as if a
man that understands Geometry or Arithmetick, should deny the most
obvious and known proportions of lines or numbers."[11] In short, all
disagreement as to questions of morals is attributed to ignorance or
misunderstanding.
[Footnote 9: Bentham, _Principles of Morals and Legislation_, p. 4 _sq._]
[Footnote 10: Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, i. 45, 337 _sq._]
[Footnote 11: Clarke, _Discourse concerning the Unchangeable
Obligations of Natural Religion_, p. 179.]
The influence of intellectual considerations upon moral judgments is
certainly immense. We shall find that the evolution of the moral
consciousness to a large extent consists in its development from the
unreflecting to the reflecting, from the unenlightened to the
enlightened. All higher emotions are determined by cognitions, they
arise {11} from "the presentation of determinate objective
conditions";[12] and moral enlightenment implies a true and
comprehensive presentation of those objective conditions by which the
moral emotions, according to their very nature, are determined.
Morality may thus in a much higher degree than, for instance, beauty
be a subject of instruction and of profitable discussion, in which
persuasion is carried by the representation of existing data. But
although in this way many differences may be accorded, there are
points in which unanimity cannot be reached even by the most accurate
presentation of facts or the subtlest process of reasoning.
[Footnote 12: Marshall, _Pain_, _Pleasure_, _and Aesthetics_, p. 83.]
Whilst certain phenomena will almost of necessity arouse similar moral
emotions in every mind which perceives them clearly, there are others
with which the case is different. The emotional constitution of man
does not present the same uniformity as the human intellect. Certain
cognitions inspire fear in nearly every breast; but there are brave
men and cowards in the world, independently of the accuracy with which
they realise impending danger. Some cases of suffering can hardly fail
to awaken compassion in the most pitiless heart; but the sympathetic
dispositions of men vary greatly, both in regard to the beings with
whose sufferings they are ready to sympathise, and with reference to
the intensity of the emotion. The same holds good for the moral
emotions. The existing diversity of opinion as to the rights of
different classes of men and of the lower animals, which springs from
emotional differences, may no doubt be modified by a clearer insight
into certain facts, but no perfect agreement can be expected as long
as the conditions under which the emotional dispositions are formed
remain unchanged. Whilst an enlightened mind _must_ recognise the
complete or relative irresponsibility of an animal, a child, or a
madman, and _must_ be influenced in its moral judgment by the motives
of an act--no intellectual enlightenment, no scrutiny of facts, can
decide how far the interests of the {12} lower animals should be
regarded when conflicting with those of men, or how far a person is
bound, or allowed, to promote the welfare of his nation, or his own
welfare, at the cost of that of other nations or other individuals.
Professor Sidgwick's well-known moral axiom, "I ought not to prefer my
own lesser good to the greater good of another,"[13] would, if
explained to a Fuegian or a Hottentot, be regarded by him, not as
self-evident, but as simply absurd; nor can it claim general
acceptance even among ourselves. Who is that "Another" to whose
greater good I ought not to prefer my own lesser good? A
fellow-countryman, a savage, a criminal, a bird, a fish--all without
distinction? It will, perhaps, be argued that on this, and on all
other points of morals, there would be general agreement, if only the
moral consciousness of men were sufficiently developed.[14] But then,
when speaking of a "sufficiently developed" moral consciousness
(beyond insistence upon a full insight into the governing facts of
each case), we practically mean nothing else than agreement with our
own moral convictions. The expression is faulty and deceptive,
because, if intended to mean anything more, it presupposes an
objectivity of the moral judgments which they do not possess, and at
the same time seems to be proving what it presupposes. We may speak of
an intellect as sufficiently developed to grasp a certain truth,
because truth is objective; but it is not proved to be objective by
the fact that it is recognised as true by a "sufficiently developed"
intellect. The objectivity of truth lies in the recognition of facts
as true by all who understand them _fully_, whilst the appeal to a
_sufficient_ knowledge assumes their objectivity. To the verdict of a
perfect intellect, that is, an intellect which knows everything
existing, all would submit; but we can form no idea of a moral
consciousness which could lay claim to a similar authority. If the
believers in an all-good {13} God, who has revealed his will to
mankind, maintain that they in this revelation possess a perfect moral
standard, and that, consequently, what is in accordance with such a
standard must be objectively right, it may be asked what they mean by
an "all-good" God. And in their attempt to answer this question, they
would inevitably have to assume the objectivity they wanted to prove.
[Footnote 13: Sidgwick, _op. cit._ p. 383.]
[Footnote 14: This, in fact, was the explanation given by Professor
Sidgwick himself in a conversation which I had with him regarding his
moral axioms.]
The error we commit by attributing objectivity to moral estimates
becomes particularly conspicuous when we consider that these estimates
have not only a certain quality, but a certain quantity. There are
different degrees of badness and goodness, a duty may be more or less
stringent, a merit may be smaller or greater.[15] These quantitative
differences are due to the emotional origin of all moral concepts.
Emotions vary in intensity almost indefinitely, and the moral emotions
form no exception to this rule. Indeed, it may be fairly doubted
whether the same mode of conduct ever arouses exactly the same degree
of indignation or approval in any two individuals. Many of these
differences are of course too subtle to be manifested in the moral
judgment; but very frequently the intensity of the emotion is
indicated by special words, or by the way in which the judgment is
pronounced. It should be noticed, however, that the quantity of the
estimate expressed in a moral predicate is not identical with the
intensity of the moral emotion which a certain mode of conduct arouses
on a special occasion. We are liable to feel more indignant if an
injury is committed before our eyes than if we read of it in a
newspaper, and yet we admit that the degree of wrongness is in both
cases the same. The quantity of moral estimates is determined by the
intensity of the emotions which their objects tend to evoke under
exactly similar external circumstances.
[Footnote 15: It will be shown in a following chapter why there are no
degrees of rightness. This concept implies accordance with the moral
law. The adjective "right" means that duty is fulfilled.]
{14} Besides the relative uniformity of moral opinions, there is
another circumstance which tempts us to objectivise moral judgments,
namely, the authority which, rightly or wrongly, is ascribed to moral
rules. From our earliest childhood we are taught that certain acts
_are_ right and that others _are_ wrong. Owing to their exceptional
importance for human welfare, the facts of the moral consciousness are
emphasised in a much higher degree than any other subjective facts. We
are allowed to have our private opinions about the beauty of things,
but we are not so readily allowed to have our private opinions about
right and wrong. The moral rules which are prevalent in the society to
which we belong are supported by appeals not only to human, but to
divine, authority, and to call in question their validity is to rebel
against religion as well as against public opinion. Thus the belief in
a moral order of the world has taken hardly less firm hold of the
human mind than the belief in a natural order of things. And the moral
law has retained its authoritativeness even when the appeal to an
external authority has been regarded as inadequate. It filled Kant
with the same awe as the star-spangled firmament. According to Butler,
conscience is "a faculty in kind and in nature supreme over all
others, and which bears its own authority of being so."[16] Its
supremacy is said to be "felt and tacitly acknowledged by the worst no
less than by the best of men."[17] Adam Smith calls the moral
faculties the "vicegerents of God within us," who "never fail to
punish the violation of them by the torments of inward shame and
self-condemnation; and, on the contrary, always reward obedience with
tranquillity of mind, with contentment, and self-satisfaction."[18]
Even Hutcheson, who raises the question why the moral sense should not
vary in different men as the palate does, considers it {15} "to be
naturally destined to command all the other powers."[19]
[Footnote 16: Butler, 'Sermon II.--Upon Human Nature,' in _Analogy of
Religion_, _&c._ p. 403.]
[Footnote 17: Dugald Stewart, _Philosophy of the Active and Moral
Powers of Man_, i. 302.]
[Footnote 18: Adam Smith, _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, p. 235.]
[Footnote 19: Hutcheson, _System of Moral Philosophy_, i. 61.]
Authority is an ambiguous word. It may indicate knowledge of truth,
and it may indicate a rightful power to command obedience. The
authoritativeness attributed to the moral law has often reference to
both kinds of authority. The moral lawgiver lays down his rules in
order that they should be obeyed, and they are authoritative in so far
as they have to be obeyed. But he is also believed to know what is
right and wrong, and his commands are regarded as expressions of moral
truths. As we have seen, however, this latter kind of authority
involves a false assumption as to the nature of the moral predicates,
and it cannot be justly inferred from the power to command. Again, if
the notion of an external lawgiver be put aside, the moral law does
not generally seem to possess supreme authority in either sense of the
word. It does not command obedience in any exceptional degree; few
laws are broken more frequently. Nor can the regard for it be called
the mainspring of action; it is only one spring out of many, and
variable like all others. In some instances it is the ruling power in
a man's life, in others it is a voice calling in the desert; and the
majority of people seem to be more afraid of the blame or ridicule of
their fellowmen, or of the penalties with which the law threatens
them, than of "the vicegerents of God" in their own hearts. That
mankind prefer the possession of virtue to all other enjoyments, and
look upon vice as worse than any other misery,[20] is unfortunately an
imagination of some moralists who confound men as they are with men as
they ought to be.
[Footnote 20: _Idem_, _Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of
Beauty and Virtue_, p. 248.]
It is said that the authority of the moral law asserts itself every
time the law is broken, that virtue bears in itself its own reward,
and vice its own punishment. But, to be sure, conscience is a very
unjust retributer. The more a person habituates himself to virtue the
more he {16} sharpens its sting, the deeper he sinks in vice the more
he blunts it. Whilst the best men have the most sensitive consciences,
the worst have hardly any conscience at all. It is argued that the
habitual sinner has rid himself of remorse at a great cost;[21] but it
may be fairly doubted whether the loss is an adequate penalty for his
wickedness. We are reminded that men are rewarded for good and
punished for bad acts by the moral feelings of their neighbours. But
public opinion and law judge of detected acts only. Their judgment is
seldom based upon an exhaustive examination of the case. They often
apply a standard which is itself open to criticism. And the feelings
with which men regard their fellow-creatures, and which are some of
the main sources of human happiness and suffering, have often very
little to do with morality. A person is respected or praised, blamed
or despised, on other grounds than his character. Nay, the admiration
which men feel for genius, courage, pluck, strength, or accidental
success, is often superior in intensity to the admiration they feel
for virtue.
[Footnote 21: Ziegler, _Social Ethics_, p. 103.]
In spite of all this, however, the supreme authority assigned to the
moral law is not altogether an illusion. It really exists in the minds
of the best, and is nominally acknowledged by the many. By this I do
not refer to the universal admission that the moral law, whether
obeyed or not, ought under all circumstances to be obeyed; for this is
the same as to say that what ought to be ought to be. But it is
recognised, in theory at least, that morality, either alone or in
connection with religion, possesses a higher value than anything else;
that rightness and goodness are preferable to all other kinds of
mental superiority, as well as of physical excellence. If this theory
is not more commonly acted upon, that is due to its being, in most
people, much less the outcome of their own feelings than of
instruction from the outside. It is ultimately traceable to some great
teacher whose own mind was ruled by the ideal of moral perfection, and
whose {17} words became sacred on account of his supreme wisdom, like
Confucius or Buddha,[22] or on religious grounds, like Jesus. The
authority of the moral law is thus only an expression of a strongly
developed, overruling moral consciousness. It can hardly, as Mr.
Sidgwick maintains, be said to "depend upon" the conception of the
objectivity of duty.[23] On the contrary, it must be regarded as a
cause of this conception--not only, as has already been pointed out,
where it is traceable to some external authority, but where it results
from the strength of the individual's own moral emotions. As clearness
and distinctness of the conception of an object easily produces the
belief in its truth, so the intensity of a moral emotion makes him who
feels it disposed to objectivise the moral estimate to which it gives
rise, in other words, to assign to it universal validity. The
enthusiast is more likely than anybody else to regard his judgments as
true, and so is the moral enthusiast with reference to his moral
judgments. The intensity of his emotions makes him the victim of an
illusion.
[Footnote 22: "Besides the ideal king, the personification of Power
and Justice, another ideal has played an important part in the
formation of early Buddhist ideas regarding their Master. . . . It was
the ideal of a perfectly Wise Man, the personification of Wisdom, the
Buddha" (Rhys Davids, _Hibbert Lectures on Some Points in the History
of Buddhism_, p. 141).]
[Footnote 23: Sidgwick, _op. cit._ p. 104.]
The presumed objectivity of moral judgments thus being a chimera,
there can be no moral truth in the sense in which this term is
generally understood. The ultimate reason for this is, that the moral
concepts are based upon emotions, and that the contents of an emotion
fall entirely outside the category of truth. But it may be true or not
that we have a certain emotion, it may be true or not that a given
mode of conduct has a tendency to evoke in us moral indignation or
moral approval. Hence a moral judgment is true or false according as
its subject has or has not that tendency which the predicate
attributes to it. If I say that it is wrong to resist evil, and yet
resistance to evil has no tendency whatever to call {18} forth in me
an emotion of moral disapproval, then my judgment is false.
If there are no general moral truths, the object of scientific ethics
cannot be to fix rules for human conduct, the aim of all science being
the discovery of some truth. It has been said by Bentham and others
that moral principles cannot be proved because they are first
principles which are used to prove everything else.[24] But the real
reason for their being inaccessible to demonstration is that, owing to
their very nature, they can never be true. If the word "Ethics," then,
is to be used as the name for a science, the object of that science
can only be to study the moral consciousness as a fact.[25]
[Footnote 24: Bentham, _Principles of Morals and Legislation_, p. 4.
_Cf._ Höffding, _Etik_, p. 43.]
[Footnote 25: _Cf._ Simmel, _Einleitung in die Moralwissenschaft_, i.
p. iii. _sq._; Westermarck, 'Normative und psychologische Ethik,' in
_Dritter Internationaler Congress für Psychologie in München_,
p. 428 _sq._]
Ethical subjectivism is commonly held to be a dangerous doctrine,
destructive to morality, opening the door to all sorts of libertinism.
If that which appears to each man as right or good, stands for that
which is right or good; if he is allowed to make his own law, or to
make no law at all; then, it is said, everybody has the natural right
to follow his caprice and inclinations, and to hinder him from doing
so is an infringement on his rights, a constraint with which no one is
bound to comply provided that he has the power to evade it. This
inference was long ago drawn from the teaching of the Sophists,[26]
and it will no doubt be still repeated as an argument against any
theorist who dares to assert that nothing can be said to be truly
right or wrong.
[Footnote 26: Zeller, _History of Greek Philosophy_, ii. 475.]
To this argument may, first, be objected that a scientific theory is
not invalidated by the mere fact that it is likely to cause mischief.
The unfortunate circumstance that there do exist dangerous things in
the world, proves that something may be dangerous and yet true.
Another question is whether any scientific truth really is mischievous
{19} on the whole, although it may cause much discomfort to certain
people. I venture to believe that this, at any rate, is not the case
with that form of ethical subjectivism which I am here advocating. The
charge brought against the Sophists does not at all apply to it. I do
not even subscribe to that beautiful modern sophism which admits every
man's conscience to be an infallible guide. If we had to recognise, or
rather if we did recognise, as right everything which is held to be
right by anybody, savage or Christian, criminal or saint, morality
would really suffer a serious loss. But we do not, and we cannot, do
so. My moral judgments are my own judgments; they spring from my own
moral consciousness; they judge of the conduct of other men not from
their point of view but from mine, not with primary reference to their
opinions about right and wrong, but with reference to my own. Most of
us indeed admit that, when judging of an act, we also ought to take
into consideration the moral conviction of the agent, and the
agreement or disagreement between his doing and his idea of what he
ought to do. But although we hold it to be wrong of a person to act
against his conscience, we may at the same time blame him for having
such a conscience as he has. Ethical subjectivism covers all such
cases. It certainly does not allow everybody to follow his own
inclinations; nor does it lend sanction to arbitrariness and caprice.
Our moral consciousness belongs to our mental constitution, which we
cannot change as we please. We approve and we disapprove because we
cannot do otherwise. Can we help feeling pain when the fire burns us?
Can we help sympathising with our friends? Are these phenomena less
necessary or less powerful in their consequences, because they fall
within the subjective sphere of experience? So, too, why should the
moral law command less obedience because it forms part of our own
nature?
Far from being a danger, ethical subjectivism seems to me more likely
to be an acquisition for moral practice. {20} Could it be brought home
to people that there is no absolute standard in morality, they would
perhaps be somewhat more tolerant in their judgments, and more apt to
listen to the voice of reason. If the right has an objective
existence, the moral consciousness has certainly been playing at
blindman's buff ever since it was born, and will continue to do so
until the extinction of the human race. But who does admit this? The
popular mind is always inclined to believe that it possesses the
knowledge of what _is_ right and wrong, and to regard public opinion
as the reliable guide of conduct. We have, indeed, no reason to regret
that there are men who rebel against the established rules of
morality; it is more deplorable that the rebels are so few, and that,
consequently, the old rules change so slowly. Far above the vulgar
idea that the right is a settled something to which everybody has to
adjust his opinions, rises the conviction that it has its existence in
each individual mind, capable of any expansion, proclaiming its own
right to exist, and, if need be, venturing to make a stand against the
whole world. Such a conviction makes for progress.