Huxleyan Ethics

In his Romanes Lecture entitled “Evolution and Ethics,” 4 Huxley argues that the moral progress of civilization is not a product of the evolution of the natural world. The phrase “survival of the fittest” simply means the adaptation to current conditions, with no implication whatsoever of moral improvement.

As I have already urged, the practice of that which is ethically best—what we call goodness or virtue—involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of thrust- ing aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows; its influence is directed, not so much to the survival of the fittest, as to the fitting of as many as pos- sible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence. It demands that each man who enters into the enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his debt to those who have laboriously constructed it; and shall take heed that no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted to live.