A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of EvolutionWilliams, Cora May
Philosophy
A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution
Williams, Cora May
Ethics, Evolutionary
"Observe, then, what follows respecting the relative authorities of
motives. Throughout the ascent from low creatures up to man, and from
the lowest types of man to the highest, self-preservation has been
increased by the subordination of simple excitations to compound
excitations,--the subjection of immediate sensations to the ideas of
sensations to come,--the overruling of presentative feelings by
representative feelings, and of representative feelings by
re-representative feelings. As life has advanced, the accompanying
sentience has become increasingly ideal; and among feelings produced by
the compounding of ideas, the highest, and those which are evolved
latest, are the re-compounded or doubly ideal. Hence it follows that, as
guides, the feelings have authorities proportionate to the degrees in
which they are removed, by their complexity and their ideality, from
simple sensations and appetites. A further implication is made clear by
studying the intellectual sides of these mental processes by which acts
are adjusted to ends. Where they are low and simple, these comprehend
the guiding only of immediate acts by immediate stimuli--the entire
transaction in each case, lasting but a moment, refers only to a
proximate result. But with the development of intelligence and the
growing ideality of the motives, the ends to which the acts are adjusted
cease to be exclusively immediate. The more ideal motives concern ends
that are more distant; and with approach to the highest types, present
ends become increasingly subordinate to those future ends which the
ideal motives have for their objects. Hence there arises a certain
presumption in favor of a motive which refers to a remote good, in
comparison with one which refers to a proximate good."[44]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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