Category: Philosophy & Ethics
DIVINE law says that certain acts are good, and that certain acts are evil; and that God will reward those who do well, and will punish those who do ill. And we are told that God will so act because God is _just_.
DIVINE law says that certain acts are good, and that certain acts are evil; and that God will reward those who do well, and will punish those who do ill. And we are told that Go...
2. CHAPTER TWO--THE LAWS OF MANMany of our wrong-doers are ignorant, or diseased, or insane, or mentally deformed. But there are some who are base or savage by nature. These should be regarded as we regard ba...
3. CHAPTER THREE--WHERE DO OUR NATURES COME FROM?I HOPE the reader will not fight shy of heredity. I trust he will find it quite simple and interesting; and I promise him to use no unfamiliar words, nor to trouble him with dif...
4. CHAPTER FOUR--THE BEGINNINGS OF MORALSI say that there is no such thing as a known law of God: that the so-called laws of God were made by men in God's name, and that therefore the word "sin" need trouble us no more...
5. CHAPTER FIVE--THE ANCESTRAL STRUGGLE WITHIN USI HAVE spoken of the "nature" handed down to us by our fore-parents. I might have said "natures," for our inheritance, being not from one, but from many, is not simple, but comp...
6. CHAPTER SIX--ENVIRONMENTWhen we speak of a man's environment we mean his surroundings, his experiences; all that he sees, hears, feels, and learns from the instant that the lamp of life is kindled to t...
7. CHAPTER SEVEN--HOW HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT WORKIt is often said that two men are differently affected by the same environment, or what seems to be the same environment, and that therefore there must be some power in men to "...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT--GOOD AND BAD SURROUNDINGSEnvironment, feared as a power for evil, is also a power for good. If bad teaching, and evil surroundings make bad men; then good teaching, and good surroundings will make good...
9. CHAPTER NINE--THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIENCETHE religious mind loves mysteries. Conscience has always been set down as a mystery by religious people. It has been called "the still small voice," and we have been taught tha...
10. CHAPTER TEN--FREE WILLTHE free will delusion has been a stumbling block in the way of human thought for thousands of years. Let us try whether common sense and common knowledge cannot remove it.
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN--SELF-CONTROLWhen we say that the will is not free, and that men are made by heredity and environment, we are met with the astonishing objection that if such were the case there could be no...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE--GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?"Do you mean to say that tramp could not help doing that? Do you mean to say he is not to blame? Do you mean to say he is not to be punished?"
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN--THE FAILURE OF PUNISHMENTDOES it do a man any good to hang him? Does it do us any good to hang him? Is any human being in the wide world edified or bettered when a man is hanged? Is it any _use_ hanging...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN--SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWEREDFather Adderley, in a lecture given at Saltley, told his hearers that "all our great scientists agree that people have the power to overcome their hereditary tendencies." Perhap...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN--THE DEFENCE OF THE BOTTOM DOGFRIENDS, I write to defend the Bottom Dog. It is a task to stagger the stoutest heart. With nearly all the power, learning, and wealth of the world against him; with all the pre...