The Principles of Ethics: In Two Volumes

1. Animal Ethics

Ethics_V2_i-ii 001-050.indd 21 1/27/12 2:12 PM CHAPTER 1 Animal Ethics 246. 'T"'hose who have not read the first division of this work .l will be surprised by the above title. But the chapters "Conduct in General" and "The Evolution of Conduct" will have made clear to those who have read them that something which may be regarded as animal ethics is implied. It was there shown that the conduct which ethics treats of is not separable from conduct at large; that the highest conduct is that which conduces to the greatest length, breadth, and completeness of life; and that, by implication, there is a conduct proper to each species of animal, which is the relatively good conduct-a conduct which stands toward that species as the conduct we morally approve stands toward the human species. Most people regard the subject matter of ethics as being conduct considered as calling forth approbation or reprobation . But the primary subject matter of ethics is conduct considered objectively as producing good or bad results to self or others or both. Even those who think of ethics as concerned only with conduct which deserves praise or blame, tacitly recognize an animal ethics; for certain acts of animals excite in them antipathy or sympathy. A bird which feeds its mate while she is 19 Ethics_V2_i-ii 001-050.indd 22 1/27/12 2:12 PM 20 The Ethics of Social Life: Justice sitting is regarded with a sentiment of approval. For a hen which refuses to sit upon her eggs there is a feeling of aversion ; while one which fights in defense of her chickens is admired. Egoistic acts, as well as altruistic acts, in animals are classed as good or bad. A squirrel which lays up a store of food for the winter is thought ofas doing that which a squirrel ought to do; and, contrariwise, one which idly makes no provision and dies of starvation, is thought of as properly paying the penalty of improvidence. A dog which surrenders its bone to another without a struggle, and runs away, we call a coward-a word of reprobation. Thus, then, it is clear that acts which are conducive to preservation of offspring or of the individual we consider as good relatively to the species, and conversely. 247. The two classes of cases of altruistic acts and egoistic acts just exemplified, show us the two cardinal and opposed principles of animal ethics. During immaturity benefits received must be inversely proportionate to capacities possessed. Within the family group most must be given where least is deserved, if desert is measured by worth. Contrariwise, after maturity is reached benefit must vary directly as worth: worth being measured by fitness to the conditions of existence. The ill fitted must suffer the evils of unfitness, and the well fitted profit by their fitness. These are the two laws which a species must conform to if it is to be preserved. Limiting the proposition to the higher types (for in the lower types, parents give to offspring no other aid than that of laying up small amounts of nutriment with their germs: the result being that an enormous mortality has to be balanced by an enormous fertility)-thus limiting the proposition, I say, it is clear that if, among the young, benefit were proportioned to efficiency the species would disappear forthwith; and that if, among adults, benefit were Ethics_V2_i-ii 001-050.indd 23 1/27/12 2:12 PM Animal Ethics 21 proportioned to inefficiency, the species would disappear by decay in a few generations (see Principles of Sociology, sec. 322). 248. What is the ethical aspect of these principles? In the first place, animal life of all but the lowest kinds has been maintained by virtue of them. Excluding the protozoa, among which their operation is scarcely discernible, we see that without gratis benefits to offspring, and earned benefits to adults, life could not have continued. In the second place, by virtue of them life has gradually evolved into higher forms. By care of offspring, which has become greater with advancing organization, and by survival of the fittest in the competition among adults, which has become more habitual with advancing organization, superiority has been perpetually fostered and further advances caused. On the other hand, it is true that to this self-sacrificing care for the young and this struggle...