Sumner deduced an important principle when he asserted that the “mores can make anything right.” The mores give usages a certain order and form, and cover them with a protecting mantle of propriety. The sanction of the mores is utilized by the class in power in order to maintain the established régime, even though it be one of injustice.
Sumner decried the importance which is ordinarily attached to book learning,[XVIII-19] because it is addressed to the intellect rather than to the feelings which are the springs of action. The real education is that which comes through personal influence and example. It is derived from “the habits and atmosphere of a school, not from the school textbooks.”
15. Despite Sumner’s failure to appreciate the significance of a thoroughgoing psychological approach to an analysis of folkways, his description of these societal phenomena constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to social thought. Sumner’s rigorous attitude toward social life did not permit him to enter into an extensive interpretation of the folkways in the light of folk ideals. He dealt with what is to the exclusion of what ought to be. He saw the past so clearly, and the present so much as a reflection of the past, that no enheartening forward look was possible. He rested his theories on the inexorable work of the laws of biological evolution, modified chiefly by his belief in a strong individualism.
Sumner’s fundamental theses have been developed and modified by A. G. Kellor. Professor Kellor has projected the Darwinian principles of variation, selection, transmission, and adaptation into societal concepts. In fact, he has done this so well that he has given the Darwinian principles full sway, not allowing sufficiently for the rise and operation of complex psychic principles. He has made the folkways the connecting link between organic and societal evolution, but has not noted fully the new, countless, and often intangible but powerful factors by which societal evolution is characterized.
16. The rôle that concepts of conduct have played in the evolution of society, has been analyzed by E. A. Westermarck and L. T. Hobhouse. The former is usually known as an anthropologist, and the latter as a sociologist. Professor Westermarck has shown that, strictly speaking, a custom is not merely the habit of a certain group of people; it also involves a rule of conduct.[XVIII-21] It possesses two characteristics—habitualness and obligatoriness.
Not every public habit, however, is a custom, involving an obligation.[XVIII-22] There may be certain practices which are more or less common in society, but which at the same time are generally condemned. The disapproval of these is as a rule not very deep or genuine.
Dr. Westermarck has indicated that there is a close similarity between the conscience of a community and of an individual.[XVIII-23] If a group commits a sin twice, it is likely to be considered allowable. In order to get at the real nature of societal life, the “bad habits” as well as the professed opinions of groups must be examined.
“Society” says Dr. Westermarck, “is the birthplace of the moral consciousness.”[XVIII-24] Emotions which are felt by the community at large tend to take the form of conduct standards. The moral emotions lead to a variety of moral concepts. These fall into two main classes: concepts of disapproval, such as the concepts, bad, vice, wrong; and concepts of approval, such as good, virtue, and merit.
Professor Westermarck is convinced of the tremendous influence that religious beliefs have exerted upon the moral ideas of mankind.[XVIII-25] This influence has been exceedingly varied. Religion has taught the principles of love and yet has indulged in cruel persecutions. It has condemned murder and yet been a party to child sacrifice. “It has emphasized the duty of truth-speaking, and has itself been a cause of pious fraud.” Professor Westermarck has contributed to social thought not only in his valuable descriptions of the rise and evolution of moral ideas, but also in his History of Human Marriage, to which reference will be made in [Chapter XXIV].
The writings of L. T. Hobhouse reveal a thorough, comparative study of the conduct rules of mankind. Professor Hobhouse has described the evolution of ethical consciousness as displayed in the habits, customs, and principles that have arisen in human history for the regulation of human conduct. He has shown how, in the lowest forms of the organic world, behavior is regulated, and directed to some purpose.[XVIII-27] This behavior is somewhat definitely determined by the structure of the organism itself.[XVIII-28]