Note 29 — Chapter VIII · CONCLUSION

“The first step towards the elaboration of a morality which should exercise a lasting influence is to base it upon an ascertained truth.... The function of ethics is not so much even to insist upon the defects of man, and to reproach him with his ‘sins,’ as to act in the positive direction by appealing to man’s best instincts.... It tells to man that, if he desires to live a life in which all forces—physical, intellectual, and emotional—should find a full exercise, he must, once and for all, abandon the idea that such a life is attainable on the path of disregard for others.... What is wanted now is a new comprehension of morality in its methods, which must be freed from both the transcendental survivals and the narrow conceptions of Philistine utilitarianism. The importance of mutual aid in the evolution of the animal world and human history may be taken as a positive established scientific truth.... Mutual aid, justice, morality, are thus the consecutive steps of an ascending series, revealed to us by the study of the animal world and man. It is not something imposed from the outside: it is an organic necessity which carries in itself its own justification.”29—Prince Kropotkin.