The origin and development of the moral ideasWestermarck, Edward
Philosophy
The origin and development of the moral ideas
Westermarck, Edward
Ethics; Ethics -- History; Prehistoric peoples
[Footnote 13: Robertson, _History of America_, i. 350. _Cf._
Clifford's theory of the "tribal self" (_Lectures and Essays_, p. 290
_sqq._). He says (_ibid._ p. 291), "The savage is not only hurt when
anybody treads on his foot, but when anybody treads on his tribe."]
[Footnote 14: Fison and Howitt, _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 170.]
Our explanation of what has here been called "sympathetic resentment,"
however, is not yet complete. This emotion, as we have seen, may be a
reaction against sympathetic pain; but it may also be directly
produced by the cognition of the signs of anger. In the former case it
is, strictly speaking, independent of the _emotion_ of the injured
individual; we may feel resentment on his behalf though he himself
feels none. In the latter case it is a reflected emotion, felt
independently of the cause of the original emotion of which it is a
reflection--as when the yells and shrieks of a street dog-fight are
heard, and dogs from all sides rush to the spot, each dog being
apparently ready to bite any of the others. In the former case, it is,
by the medium of sympathetic pain, closely connected with the
inflicted injury; in the latter case it may even be the reflection of
an emotion which is itself sympathetic, and the origin of which is
perhaps out of sight. In an infuriated crowd the one gets angry
because the other is angry, and very often the question, Why? is
hardly asked. This form of sympathetic resentment is of considerable
importance both as an originator and as a communicator of moral ideas.
To teach that a certain act is wrong is to teach that it is an object,
and a proper object, of moral indignation, and the aim of the
instructor {115} is to inspire a similar indignation in the mind of
the pupil. An intelligent teacher tries to attain this end by
representing the act in such a light as to evoke disapproval
independently of any appeal to authority; but, unfortunately, in many
cases where the duties of current morality are to be enjoined, he
cannot do so--for a very obvious reason. Of various acts which, though
inoffensive by themselves, are considered wrong, he can say little
more than that they are forbidden by God and man; and if,
nevertheless, such acts are not only professed, but actually felt, to
be wrong, that is due to the fact that men are inclined to sympathise
with the resentment of persons for whom they feel regard. It is this
fact that accounts for the connection between the punishment of an act
and the consequent idea that it deserves to be punished. We shall see
that the punishment which society inflicts is, as a rule, an
expression of its moral indignation; but there are instances in which
the order is reversed, and in which human, or, as it may be supposed,
divine, punishment or anger is the cause, and moral disapproval the
effect. Children, as everybody knows, grow up with their ideas of
right and wrong graduated, to a great extent, according to the temper
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