Social environment and moral progress / by Alfred Russel Wallace.
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Date:
- 1913
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Social environment and moral progress / by Alfred Russel Wallace. Source: Wellcome Collection.
15/180 page 3
![í] Introductory We are obliged to conclude, therefore, that what is commonly termed morality is not wholly due to any inherent percep¬ tion of what is right or wrong conduct, but that it is to some extent and often very largely a matter of convention, vary¬ ing at different times and places in accord¬ ance with the degree and kind of social development which has been attained often under different and even divergent condi¬ tions of existence. The actual morality of a community is largely a product of the environment, but it is local and temporary, not permanently affecting the character. To bring together the evidence in sup¬ port of this view, to distinguish between what is permanent and inherited and what is superficial and not inherited, and to trace out some of the consequences as regards what we term morality is the purpose of the present volume. « 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18022121_0016.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
