The Moral Economy

point at which nature somehow exceeds herself. Strictly speaking, it is as arbitrary to say that morality, which arose and is immersed in nature, is not natural, as to say

f terminology, did not the discussion of it provide an occasion for a

zation as he wears his clothes. Nietsche has contributed not a little to the glorification of this pro-natural and anti-moral monster. And yet no one has r

existed, whether it be in thought itself, or in administration, or in speaking and persuading, in art just as in conduct, has only developed by means of th

; since the principle of development in life can scarcely b

orality, at the point where a limit is set to th

rse of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cos

the plants fertilized by insects, to observe the working of this principle. It is only the crudest and most impotent self-assertion that is "ruthless." The reason for this {22} is simply that the real enemy of every vital process is not another kindred process, but the mechanical environment. Life is ess

nce of nature. To hold itself together, it must play at parry and thrust with the very forces which gave it birth. Once having happened, it so acts as to persist. But it should be remarked that this opposition b

ially a method of using and modifying the environment in their own favor, precisely as is the case with human acti

plant life to the current conditions; the tendency of the horticultural process is the adjustment

ic of a time and place. Eventually there evolves a more resourceful unit of life, like the gardener with his cultivated plants, who is capable of inhabiting nature at large. But the method is still the same, that of playing off nature against nature; only it is now done on a larger scale, and in a more aggressive and confident spirit. The need of concession

n earlier phase of one development. The organization of life answers the self-preservative impulse with which life begins; the deliberat