Part V. The Ethics of Social Life

The mental action by "vhich 'froln fnoment to mOlnent we thus, in ways commonly too rapid to observe,class the objects and acts around, and regulate our conduct accord ingly, has been otherwise named by SOl11,e; and especially by Prof. Bain, " discrimination." Intelligence is,'in its every act, carried on by discrimination; and has advanced from its lowest stages to its highest by increasing powers of discrimi(263) 264 THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL LIFE. nation. It has done this for the sufficient reason that during the evolution of life under all its forms, increase of it has been furthered by practice or habit as well as by survival of the fittest; since good discrimination has been a n1eans of saving life, a:ld lack of it a cause of losing life. Let us note a few marked stages of its increase. Look out towards the sky ; shut your eyes; and pass your hand before thelu. You can discriminate between the presence and absence of an opaque object in front.

If, being passive, an object is moved before your closed eyes by some one else, you cannot say whether it is a hand, or a book, or a lump of earth; and cannot say whether it is a sTnall object close to, or a larger object farther off. This experience exemplifieH to us the smallest degree of 'visnal discrirnination, such as that ,vhich is achieved by 10'" creatures possessing nothing more than eye-specks minute portions of sensitive pigment in which light pro duces SOlne kind of change. Evidently a creature having only this nascent vision is at great disadvantage-cannot distinguish hetween the obscuration caused by the moving frond of a weed in the water it inhabits, and the obscura tion caused by a passing creature; cannot tell whether it results from a small creature near at hand or a larger one .at a distance; cannot tell whether this creature is harm less and may serve for prey or is predacious and must be avoided. Thus one of the appliances for Inaintaining life is deficient, and early loss of life is apt to occur.

Passing over all intermediate grades, observe next the re sults of presence or absence among herbivorous creatures of the power to discriminate between plants of different kinds and qualities. By appearance, or odour, or taste, one animal is warned off frOln a poisonous herb, which another anin1al, less keenly perceptive, eats and dies. As intelligence develops, complex groups of attributes are separated in consciousness from other complex groups to which they are in many respects similar, and survival KINDS OF ALTRUISM. 265 results from the discrimination; as when the fatal Monks hood is distinguished from the harmless Larkspur. As we rise to creatures of relatively great intelligence" increasingly-complicated clusters of attributes, relations and actions have to be distinguished from one another, UD der heavy penalties. Instance the ordinary case in which the shape and colour and movements of a distant animal . are nlentally united into a perception of an enemy, or else are discriminated as forming some not unlike perception of a harmless animal: the result being now a successful flight and now a successful chase.

§ 388. A much higher degree of discrhnination is reached in creatures capable of appreciating the differences not only between objects perceived or presented, but also between objects conceived or represented - between the imaginations of them. The degree of Inental power re quired for this is occasionally shown in small measure by the higher animals; as when a dog recognizes in. idea the difference in length between a road that goes round the angle of a field and a short cut across the field, and takes the last. But generally it is only among men that the ability to discrilninate between irnagined clusters of things and properties and relations becolnes appreciable. Even among Inen the discriminations often fail in consequence .either of inaccuracy of such observations as have been Inade, or of imperfect ability to reproduce in thought the things observed. The contrast between Monkshood and Larkspur may serve again. Able as they are, when these two plants ftre before thenl, to see that though the two are similar in their sizes, modes of growth, deeply.:cut leaves, colours· of flowers, &c., yet the structures of their flowers are unlike, the majority of people, even those having gar dens, cannot .so compare their ideas of these plants as to 'be able to say what the points of difference are.

If, then, between their imaginations of objects of but 266 THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL LIFE. moderate degrees 6£ complexity, most ordinarily - disci plined rninds fail to discriminate, still more will they fail to discriminate where the clusters of related attributes and properties and actions are itnmeasurably involved. Especially will they fail if, while lnany of. the components are coexistent, many ~f them are sequent; and if, too, the groups of ideas which have to be distinguished from one another, include not only forms, colours, motions, sounds, and the feelings implied in those who nlake them; but include both the immediate effects wrought by a par ticular kind of action and the effects to be hereafter wrought by it. When the combinations of thoughts which must be simultaneously kept in mind reach these degrees of involution, the ability to discriminate either from the other, 'which is like it in many respects but differs in sonle essential respect, fails even in many highly-cultured minds. Let us take instances.

Here is a geornetrical problern-say, how to erect a per pendicular at the end of a straight line. Following the established routine, an ordinary teacher either shovvs his pupil ,how to solve this problenl or tells hinl 'what he nlust do to solve it: the result being that the perpendicular is drawn as directed, and the pupil, not much interested in the proceeding, thenceforth knov,Ts how to draw it. Here is another teacher who, disapproving of this mechanical culture, adopts a different nlethod. Ilis pupil having been initiated through simpler problems, severally solved by his persevering efforts, takes to the new problenl with zest; and, trying various .experiments, in no very long time succeeds. In doing this he receives a relatively strong impression, due partly to the strained attention required, and partly to the pleasurable excitement of success. At the same time he acquires increased aptitude and increased courage; enabling him to deal by and by with more complex problems. Here, then, are tw'O clusters of actions and acquisitions and feelings, which are in KINDS OF ALTRUISM.

sundry respects alike. The problem is the same, the method of solution is the same, the knowledge acquired is the same; and the mechanical teacher, recognizing nothing more, does not discriminate between the two clusters of Inen tal actions, and thinks it just as well to teach by instruction as by discovery. Of more cOlnplex cases, one is furnished by a recent in cident-the case .of the Eastbourne salvationists. lVlost of the townspeople object to their processions headed by noisy bands; while these boisterous Christians say that they are simply. maintaining .that religious liberty which all now admit. But here comes the lack of discrimina tion. It is forgotten that while, in the interests of religious liberty, each citizen or group of citizens may rightly per form ceremonies ancillary. to his belief; in the interests of general liberty, individual citizens or groups of theIn, nlay rightly resist intrusions upon that peaceful course of life they are pursuing. There is inability to separate in thought those assertions of religious freedom which do not involve aggressions on otherss, from those which do involve aggres sions on others, in the forIn of· nuisances. And not only do these fanatics fail· to distinguish between religious' liberty and religious licence, but even our legislators (if we suppose thenl to be acting sincerely instead of seeking votes) also fail.