The Science of Ethics (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... period is dependent upon the vigorous action of this instinct. The same consideration shows that, though an essential, it is not a sufficient condition of virtue. The love for infants must be controlled by some interest in others. It can be controlled by the wider instinct generally because the instinct springs from the same root, and the sympathy excited in the mother by the dependent infant is homogeneous with her sympathy for other infants, and for all to whom she can render services. The altruism, again, which is thus generated becomes, in a mind capable of reflection, the conscious acceptance of the general principle, which of course receives additional strength when it is explicitly announced as part of the fundamental conviction of the society. It is reinforced by all the other motives, which are enabled to co-operate with it because society is so developed as to secure their normal coincidence. In this sense, then, the general condition may be stated as determining the moral character of the instinct: it is essential, and perceived to be essential, to social welfare, and therefore (for this is the only reason we can give) it is a virtue, and a recognised virtue. But if we look at the case from the opposite side, and ask for the mother's reason of action, we must invert the order of the deduction. The mother loves because she is so constituted as to be capable of loving, and because she is part of a society in which the instinct is stimulated and fostered. For her the love is its own justification; she has the sentiment, and need look no further. The wider love which she comes to feel for others is not the cause of the narrower instinct, but the product when it comes to be enlightened and extended; and the conscientious feeling...