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Evolution and Ethics

Book by Arthur Keith · 5 quotes · Men, Evolution, Civilization

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Evolution and Ethics Quotes

“Page 25: What, then, is the explanation which the student of human evolution has to offer as a final purpose for man’s existence? It is not, as the Victorian scientists thought, to permit the individual man or woman to develop his latent potentialities; but to permit a closed society, be it tribe or nation, to develop its collective potentialities of brain and of body as an evolutionary unit. It is only when we make the assumption that evolution aims at the production of societies – not of individuals that we come by a satisfying explanation of man’s dual mentality, and the constituent elements of human nature.”

“It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.”