Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility — John Shaqi
Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and UtilityRomanes, George John
Science
Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility
Romanes, George John
Evolution (Biology); Heredity
[20] E.g. "The special faculties we have been discussing clearly
point to the existence in man of something which he has not
derived from his animal progenitors--something which we may
best refer to as being of a spiritual essence or nature,
capable of progressive development under favourable conditions.
On the hypothesis of this spiritual nature, superadded to the
animal nature of man, we are able to understand much that is
otherwise mysterious or unintelligible in regard to him,
especially the enormous influence of ideas, principles, and
beliefs over his whole life and action. Thus alone can we
understand the constancy of the martyr, the unselfishness of
the philanthropist, the devotion of the patriot, the enthusiasm
of the artist, and the resolute and persevering search of the
scientific worker after nature's secrets. Thus we may perceive
that the love of truth, the delight in beauty, the passion for
justice, and the thrill of exultation with which we hear of any
act of courageous self-sacrifice, are the workings within us of
a higher nature which has not been developed by means of the
struggle for material existence." (_Darwinism_, p. 474.) I have
quoted this whole paragraph, because it is so inconsistent with
the rest of Mr. Wallace's system that a mere epitome of it
might well have been suspected of error. Given an intellectual
being, howsoever produced, and what is there "mysterious or
unintelligible" in "the enormous influence of ideas,
principles, and beliefs over his whole life and action"? Or
again, if he be also a social being, what is the relevancy of
adducing "the constancy of the martyr," "the unselfishness of
the philanthropist," "the devotion of the patriot," "the love
of truth," "the passion for justice," "the thrill of exultation
when we hear of any act of courageous self-sacrifice," in
evidence _against_ the law of _utility_, or in order to prove
that a "nature" thus endowed has "_not_ been developed by means
of the struggle for existence," when once this struggle has
been transferred from individuals to communities? The whole
passage reads like an ironical satire in favour of "Darwinism,"
rather than a serious argument against it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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