Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles
Science
Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles Darwin
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology)
would be obedience to the wishes and judgment of the community. These
several subordinate propositions must now be discussed, and some of
them at considerable length.
It may be well first to premise that I do not wish to maintain that any
strictly social animal, if its intellectual faculties were to become
as active and as highly developed as in man, would acquire exactly the
same moral sense as ours. In the same manner as various animals have
some sense of beauty, though they admire widely different objects, so
they might have a sense of right and wrong, though led by it to follow
widely different lines of conduct. If, for instance, to take an extreme
case, men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive-bees,
there can hardly be a doubt that our unmarried females would, like the
worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers
would strive to kill their fertile daughters; and no one would think
of interfering. Nevertheless, the bee, or any other social animal,
would gain in our supposed case, as it appears to me, some feeling of
right or wrong, or a conscience. For each individual would have an
inward sense of possessing certain stronger or more enduring instincts,
and others less strong or enduring; so that there would often be a
struggle as to which impulse should be followed; and satisfaction,
dissatisfaction, or even misery would be felt, as past impressions were
compared during their incessant passage through the mind. In this case
an inward monitor would tell the animal that it would have been better
to have followed the one impulse rather than the other. The one course
ought to have been followed, and the other ought not; the one would
have been right and the other wrong.
HUMAN SYMPATHY AMONG ANIMALS.
[Page 102.]
Who can say what cows feel when they surround and stare intently on a
dying or dead companion? Apparently, however, as Houzeau remarks, they
feel no pity. That animals sometimes are far from feeling any sympathy
is too certain; for they will expel a wounded animal from the herd, or
gore or worry it to death. This is almost the blackest fact in natural
history, unless, indeed, the explanation which has been suggested is
true, that their instinct or reason leads them to expel an injured
companion, lest beasts of prey, including man, should be tempted to
follow the troop. In this case their conduct is not much worse than
that of the North American Indians, who leave their feeble comrades to
perish on the plains; or the Feejeeans, who, when their parents get
old, or fall ill, bury them alive.
* * * * *
[Page 103.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account