The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
There are the same reasons for the recognition by human beings of
ethical relations to non-human beings as there are for the
recognition by human beings of ethical relations among themselves
Analyse the reasons for being considerate toward men, any variety of
men, and you will find the same reasons to exist for being
considerate toward all men. And analyse the reasons for being
altruistic toward men—for being kind and sympathetic toward
them—and you will find the same reasons to exist for being
altruistic toward those who are not men. The doctrine that we human
beings may perform upon the other inhabitants of the earth all sorts
of injurious acts, and that these acts when so performed by us are
perfectly right and proper, but that these same things when done by
others to us are crimes, is the logic of pure brutalitarianism. It
is a doctrine utterly without intelligence, at variance with every
sentiment of justice and humanity, and has no legitimate existence
outside the fibrous brains of ruffians.
_Right_ and _wrong_ are qualities belonging to two diverse kinds of
conduct. They are the qualities which render conduct respectively
proper and improper. All terrestrial races (unless the very lowest)
have the power of experiencing two kinds of conscious states—the
desirable (pleasurable) and the undesirable (painful). Now, if
beings were indifferent as to what sort of conscious states entered
into and made up their experiences, there would manifestly be no
such thing as propriety and impropriety in the causing of these
states. But they are not indifferent. The pleasurable experiences
are the experiences all beings are seeking, and the painful ones are
the ones they are all seeking to avoid. Those acts which help or
tend to help beings to those experiences for which they are striving
are, therefore, right and proper, and are, they and their authors,
called _good_. While those acts which compel beings to undergo that
which they are striving to avoid are improper and wrong, and are,
they and their authors, called _bad_. Kindness, courtesy, justice,
mercy, generosity, sympathy, love, and the like, are good, and
selfishness, cruelty, deceit, pillage, injustice, and murder, are
bad, because they are respectively the promoters and destroyers of
wellbeing and happiness in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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