The ethical import of Darwinism

Preface

There is a remark of Mrs. Carlyle's which has always seemed to me highly suggestive. "When asked to explain her manifest antipathy to Bishop Colenso, whom Mr. Froude had got invited to one of her tea-parties, she confessed that it arose in part from the anomalous appearance presented by "a man arrived at the years of discretion wearing an absurd little black-silk apron," and in part from the incongruity between that ecclesiastical symbol and this particular bishop's " arithmetical confutation of the Bible ; " for, proceeds the philosophical lady, generalizing the causes of her unfavorable impressions, " it is the mixing up of things which is the Great Bad. "

In what passes with us for the doctrine of evolution there is a mixture of science and speculation. Yet it is customary to serve it all up together, so that the hungry soul must needs take all or none. The result for many minds is apt to be indigestion or starvation. But this cruel diviii Preface.

lemma might be escaped, if the fact and the fancy entering into current evolutionism were kept apart and dealt out separately. The mind's natural craving for knowledge could then be satisfied without detriment ; for it is only when science is adulterated with nescience that it becomes unwholesome and poisonous.

The object of the present volume is to distinguish between science and speculation in the application of Darwinism to morals. The results of evolutionary science in the domain of matter and in the domain of life are everywhere taken for granted; the philosophical and, more especially, the ethical theories currently associated with them are subjected to the most searching scrutiny I have been able to make. As it has been pretended that the doctrine of evolution invests ethics with a new scientific character, I first examine the various methods of ethics and attempt to determine under what conditions alone ethics can become a science. {This first chapter should he omitted by the general reader not interested in the logic of ethics.) Whether Darwinian ethics is a piece of science or of speculation appears in the sequel. But before the question is decided we must know what is meant by Darwinism. Accordingly, the second chapter gives an exposi-

Preface. ix

tion of the Darwinian theory, comparing and contrasting it with the more general doctrine of evolutionism, whose history and meaning are also briefly traced. Then follow chapters on the philosophical interpretation and the ethical bearings of Darwinism. The fifth chapter is devoted to an examination of the ethical speculations which Darwin grafted upon his biological science. These chapters confirming the conclusion reached in the first chapter, that a scientific^ as opposed to a speculative, ethic can be constructed only by adopting the historical method, the last chapter has to show what light maybe thrown upon ethical problems by tracing the actual development of moral ideals and institutions, of which, for obvious reasons, the domestic virtues are here taken as typical illustration.

The w r ork is primarily the outcome of my own reflective needs. It has cleared up in my own mind the confusion between guesses and facts, which is " the Great Bad " in evolutionary ethics. I am not without hope that it may also prove clarifying to other minds. Isot, of course, that I would presume to instruct trained philosophical experts ; but I have in view the increasingly large number of intelligent men and women w r ho, without making a special study of philosophy, x Preface.

would fain comprehend the significance for morals of that evolutionary theory which has revolutionized modern science and culture. This alone would have been sufficient motive for the avoidance of obscure and technical phraseology and the cultivation of a popular style ; but, apart from that consideration, I hold that the first duty of any philosophical writer is to make himself generally intelligible, and I am of the opinion that there is no theory, or criticism, or system (not even Kant's or Hegel's), that cannot be clearly expressed in a language which in Locke's hands was strong and homely, in Berkeley's rich and subtle, in Hume's easy, graceful, and finished, and in all three alike plain, transparent, and unmistakable.

This study of Darwinism in ethics being so largely of a reflective character, reference to other works has not in general been considered necessary. I wish here, however, to acknowledge especially my indebtedness to Darwin, w T hose ethical speculations, illusory as I now hold them, I have found more stimulating than any other similar work since the time of Kant.

J. G. S.

Cornell University, August 22, 1887.

Chapter I. Methods Of Ethics, Evolutionary And Other

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Diversity of Ethical Theories — Need of a Critique of Ethics as a Science — Is Ethics a Science of the same Type as Logic ? It has not in general been so regarded— Locke's Conception of Ethics as a Demonstrative Science, like Mathematics, rests on a Misunderstanding of the Procedure of Mathematics, and it assumes, besides, Theological First Principles — Ethics as a Natural Science — Spencer's Reconstruction of Ethics on the Law of Universal Causation, after the Model of Astronomy, an Illusion — Is Ethics, then, if not a Deductive, at least an Empirical, Physical Science ? — Its Limitations in Comparison with Biology — Ethics, as a Science, is a Branch of History — What passes for the " Science of Ethics " is a Medley of Speculations—The Highly Speculative Character of Current Naturalistic, Evolutionary Ethics — An Understanding with Darwinism the Preliminary to a True Science of Historical Ethics — Transition to Examination of Darwinism in Ethics,

Chapter II. Evolutionism And Darwinism

"The Origin of Species" — Popular View of Darwinism—Antiquity of the Conception of Evolution — xii Contents,

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Five Points of the Modern Theory anticipated by the Greeks —Introduction of the Notion of Evolution into Modern Science by Kant, Goethe, Erasmus Darwin, Saint Hilaire, Lamarck, and Lyell — The Problem of Darwin — Importance of his Observations on the Formation of Domestic Breeds by Man's Conscious Selection — Natural Selection suggested by Malthus's Essay — Fecundity of Organisms—Struggle for Life —Survival of Favored Individuals begins the Formation of Species — Man's Relation to the Apes — Darwinism distinguished from Evolutionism — How regarded by Helmholtz, Virchow, Wallace, and Huxley — Net Result — Significance for Ethics — Dread of Science an Anachronism, , . 40

Chapter III. The Philosophical, Interpretation Of The Darwin- Ian Hypothesis

Darwin gives a Scientific Explanation of the Origin of Species — Need of a Philosophical Analysis of that Explanation — Significance of the Variations on which Natural Selection works — They originate, ultimately, in the Nature of the Organism — They are Indefinite, according to Darwin, but the Theory of Natural Selection does not require that View, which is not shared by Huxley and Asa Gray — Natural Selection is the Scientific Account of the Accumulation of Favorable Variations into Specific Characters, but the Phrase is apt to mislead through Metaphorical Associations — Speculative License of the Darwinists — What is explained and what is still left a Mystery by Natural Selection — Human and Natural Selection dependent upon Transcendent Causation — J^arwin's Pro-

Contents. xiii

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fessed Theism — His Mechanical Philosophy — Teleology and Darwinism— Evolutionism formerly Teleological — Has the Instinct of the Cuckoo a Fortuitous Origin ? — Natural Selection, not a Creative, but a Sifting Process — Does not explain the Formation of the Eye — Variations being predetermined imply Teleology — Fortuity an Accident in Darwinism, . . . . 74

Chapter IV. Darwinism And The Foundations Op Morals

The Problem— The Moment of Utility in Natural Selection — The Utility of Intelligence and Morality — Evolutionary Biology leads to Utilitarian Ethics — Utilitarianism Old and New — Evolutiono utilitarianism explains the Innateness, Simplicity, Universality, and Obligation of Moral Laws — What Evolutiono -utilitarianism assumes : first, the Derivative Character of Morality ; secondly, the Ultimateness of Pleasure or some other End ; thirdly, the Fortuitous Origin of Morality through a Process purely Mechanical — Man an Automaton, with Intelligence and Conscience as Accidents— Speculative Objections — Practical Objections drawn from our Sense of Duty and Right — But this Sense explained away by Spencer and Guyau — Fallacy in their Theory of its Origin and Future Decline — Mechanical Metaphysics, not Evolutionary Science, their Basis— Darwinism compatible with a Non-mechanical and Non-fortuitous Theory of Conscience — Evolution rot involution — Conscience compared with the Eye and with the Intellect — Ail Useful because they reveal Facts, but not therefore mere Utilities, .115 xiv Contents.

Chapter V. The Ethical Speculations Of Darwin

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Darwin's Difficulty with Intelligence and Conscience — Probability of their Evolution — Comparison of Human and Animal Instincts, Emotions, Intellectual Powers, Progressiveness, Skill, and Speech — Conscience a Greater Barrier — Origin of Conscience — Animal Sociability — The Social Instincts being more present and persistent than the Selfish, if violated, generate under Reflection the Feeling of Remorse, or Conscience — Darwin's Treatment of Conscience compared with his Treatment of Life and Mind : that Speculative, this Scientific — Possible Objection to his Mental Science ; Insuperable Objection to his Ethics — Inconceivability of an absolute beginning of Con- • science — Darwin takes Intelligence and (in his Theory of Sexual Selection) the ^Esthetic Faculty Ready-made : only of Conscience does he venture the Creation— Ambiguity in his use of " Conscience, " and the consequent Perplexity — Conscience identified with Remorse — How the Theory fails to account for even this Conscience — For the Social Instincts are not more persistent and present ; and if they were, to follow them would bring Satisfaction, not Remorse, to a Non-moral Being — This Fact not alterable by Reflection — Darwin derives Conscience from what tacitly implies it, ...... 161

Chapter VI

THE DEVELOPMENT OP MORAL IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE FAMILY.

Darwin's Service to Historical Ethics indirect — History of Morals and Ethical Theories — The Family and

Contents. xv

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Domestic Virtues — McLennan's Theory of the Evolution of the Family — Form of Capture, Wife-stealing, Exogamy. Infanticide, Kinship through Females— Fallacy of supposing a Universal, Uniform Development — Absolute Promiscuity a mere Fancy — The Facts of Infanticide, Wife stealing, Polyandry, Exogamy, do not warrant McLeiman's Conclusions— Morgan's Theory — Infers Family from System of Relationship— The Malayan System gives the Consanguine Family, and the Turanian the Punaluan — The Pairing, the Patriarchal, and the Monogamous Families — Aryan System of Relationship— This Theory follows the Process of Logical Determination rather than Historical Facts — Consanguine Family, on which all depends, a Baseless Myth — Malayan System of Relationship not based on Blood-ties ; it is merely a Classification of Generations — Xor would the Consanguine Family account for it — Explanation of the Turanian System different from Morgan's — The other Families examined — Difficulty of determining the Development of the Family — Fallacy in Professor Robertson Smith's Method — Facts, not Theories, concern the Moralist — Some Facts concerning Limited Promiscuity, Kinship through Females, Settling in the Tent of the Woman, Infidelity, Maidenly Inchastity, Sale of Wives, Incest — Chastity not a part of the Content of the Moral Law Universal — But even the Relativist must agree that the Moral Law has some Absolute Content — Testimony of Civilized and Uncivilized Morality — Points of Difference explained — The Position of Woman — Her Glory under the Roman Empire — Her Present and Future Position — The Operation of Divorce overlooked — Science cannot tell what ought to be, . , . 201

ETHICAL IMPORT OF DARWINISM.