Social Environment and Moral Progress

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Alfred Russel Wallace. Social Environment and Moral Progress

PART I.—HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY

CHAPTER II. MORALITY AS BASED UPON CHARACTER

CHAPTER III. PERMANENCE OF CHARACTER

CHAPTER IV. PERMANENCE OF HIGH INTELLECT

CHAPTER V. SPEECH AND WRITING AS PROOFS OF INTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER VI. SAVAGES NOT MORALLY INFERIOR TO CIVILISED RACES

CHAPTER VII. A SELECTIVE AGENCY NEEDED TO IMPROVE CHARACTER

CHAPTER VIII. ENVIRONMENT DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER IX. INSANITARY DWELLINGS AND LIFE-DESTROYING TRADES

CHAPTER X. ADULTERATION, BRIBERY, AND GAMBLING

CHAPTER XI. OUR ADMINISTRATION OF "JUSTICE" IS IMMORAL

CHAPTER XII. INDICATIONS OF INCREASING MORAL DEGRADATION

PART II.—THEORETICAL

CHAPTER XIII. NATURAL SELECTION AMONG ANIMALS

CHAPTER XIV. SELECTION AS MODIFIED BY MIND

CHAPTER XV. THE LAWS OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER XVI. MORAL PROGRESS THROUGH A NEW FORM OF SELECTION

CHAPTER XVII. HOW TO INITIATE AN ERA OF MORAL PROGRESS

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Before entering on the question of the relation of morality to our existing social environment, it will be advisable to inquire what we mean by moral progress, and what evidence there is that any such progress has occurred in recent times, or even within the period of well-established history.

By morals we mean right conduct, not only in our immediate social relations, but also in our dealings with our fellow citizens and with the whole human race. It is based upon the possession of clear ideals as to what actions are right and what are wrong and the determination of our conduct by a constant reference to those ideals.

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But besides these special deities, we find also the recognition of the one supreme God, as in the following hymn:

If we make allowance for the very limited knowledge of Nature at this early period, we must admit that the mind which conceived and expressed in appropriate language, such ideas as are everywhere apparent in these Vedic hymns, could not have been in any way inferior to those of the best of our religious teachers and poets—to our Miltons and our Tennysons.

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