THE

ETHICS OF NATURALISM

A CRITICISM

BY

W. R. SORLEY

KNIGHTBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

SECOND EDITION, REVISED

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MCMIV

All Rights reserved

PREFACE.

THE chief purpose of this work is to arrive at an exact estimate of the ethical significance of the theory of evolution. The form in which this theory has impressed itself upon contemporary thought is mainly due to certain researches in biology; but its influence has not been restricted to the biological sciences. It has shed new light on psychology and on the sciences of society. In this way it has much to say concerning the development of morality. This also is within the scope of evolution. But at this point it is necessary to consider whether our interpretation of evolution may not have been too exclusively determined by observation of a limited group of facts. We must ask whether the factors of biological evolution are adequate to the explanation of moral development.

A still more important question than this is raised in the application of evolution to ethics. In strict