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
Part II. of "The Principles of Ethics" is concerned with "The
Inductions of Ethics." It opens with a chapter on the confusion of
ethical thought due to the fact that, conforming to the general law of
evolution, "the set of conceptions constituting ethics, together with
the associated sentiments, arise out of a relatively incoherent and
indefinite consciousness; and slowly acquire coherence and definiteness
at the same time that the aggregate of them differentiates from the
larger aggregate with which it originally mingled. Long remaining
undistinguished, and then but vaguely discernible as something
independent, ethics must be expected to acquire a distinct embodiment
only when mental evolution has reached a high stage." "Originally,
ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution.
Religion itself, in its earliest form, is undistinguished from
ancestor-worship," which passes, in the second stage, into worship of
dead rulers, and is a method of propitiation, prompted by self-interest.
Among some peoples, the idea of sin is limited to offences against the
gods; and in those other cases where there are ethical commands, the
propriety of not offending God is the primary reason given for obeying
them. This last phase of thought is illustrated by the religion of the
Hebrews, among whom good and bad conduct was but little associated with
the intrinsic natures of right and wrong. The popular belief is still
that right and wrong become such by divine fiat.
The gods of primitive, warlike peoples were gods of war, and the belief
in the moral virtue and honor of war still holds large place in the
thought of the world. The ethics of enmity, thus taught at the same time
with the ethics of amity necessary to the internal life of society, gave
rise to utterly inconsistent and contradictory sentiments and ideas,
which, in considerable measure, still exist side by side, in our
churches and outside them.
But, together with these ethical conceptions, there have slowly evolved
other, utilitarian conceptions, derived from a recognition of the
natural consequences of acts. Authority has been introduced into these
conceptions as the source of the duty of action in accordance with them;
yet there has generally been also some perception of their fitness. Such
utilitarian conceptions are to be found in the later Hebrew writings,
among the Egyptians, Greeks, etc. "The divergence of expediency-ethics
from theological ethics is well illustrated in Paley, who in his
official character derived right and wrong from divine commands, and in
his unofficial character derived them from observation of consequences.
Since his day, the last of these views has spread at the expense of the
first."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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