(authority and coercion may, in this case, be regarded as expressions of public opinion or the social will), and the social bearings of an act are quite as intrinsic as is the affective tone which it induces. To make any one effect the only really intrinsic result of an act is again to posit a fixed content for the moral deed.
The Sociological View is developed by Spencer under a variety of rubrics. One of the most extended discussions treats of the relation of Egoism to Altruism. Altruism is defined as being "all action which, in the normal course of things, benefits others instead of benefiting self."[1] Egoism is defined, conversely, as action which tends to benefit self instead of benefiting others. The first important point in this discussion is Spencer's doctrine of the priority and supremacy of egoism over altruism. Egoism, he thinks, is the primary and natural attitude. His expressions are: "this permanent supremacy of egoism over altruism," "the acts by which each maintains his own life must, speaking generally, precede in imperativeness all other acts of which he is capable," and finally, "It is a self-evident truth that a creature must live before it can act... Hence life-sustaining processes are most imperative ... and egoism comes before altruism."[2] No one would deny, as a statement of fact, that the nutritive functions come earlier than, say, the civic functions; but it may well be questioned whether there is anything egoistic about this arrangement. In spite of the currency of the phrases "unconscious or automatic egoism" and "unconscious altruism," we ought to keep in mind that, if egoism and altruism are to be used as ethical categories, they must stand for conscious facts for the conscious direction of activity. This being true, we cannot speak of egoism and altruism—regard for self and regard for others—as existing at all until there has been some development in consciousness of the sense of self or personality. It is wholly inappropriate to apply these terms to the actions of lower animals or to the automatic actions of men. We must conclude, therefore, that egoistic and altruistic motives arise at precisely the same level of development. The two attitudes are correlative, they
