Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 284

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give rise to manners and customs may, again, be based on blind
instinct, on magical and religious ideas, on utilitarian demands,
or may also be founded on imitation of the acts of other tribes
and peoples. The “impartiality” and “non-interest” which are
the sign of moral feelings and iudgements have originated under
the influence of public opinion.
The second part of the work is devoted to the ethical views
of different peoples. Each chapter forms as it were a monograph
on some specific usage or institution, these monographs being
intended to support the general theories regarding the nature of
the moral consciousness as laid down in the preceding chapters.1)
The logic of the method and the consistent manner in which
it is applied, the clarity and vividity of the exposition despite
the multiplicity of facts make The Moral Ideas a work in which
the history of ethical development is expressed in wellbalanced
syntheses.
Naturally a work of this kind could not escape opposition.
From the school of what we may call abstract sociology this
was immediately forthcoming: Durkheim, at this time the leader
of the French sociologists, expressed his admiration for Wester-
marck’s distinguished work, but hastened to point out the dif-
ference between his own theories and Westermarck’s. Durkheim
would further have liked a comparison between the different
types of society and systems of morals. Westermarck’s agnostic
views also failed to please the Durkheim school. Paul Fauconnet
made similar reservations; he missed transcendental element in
the interpretation of morals. Yet it was admitted even in France
that Westermarck’s work would constitute “un indispensable
instrument de travail pour les sociologues.” Lévy-Bruhl once ex-
pressed himself to me in practically the same terms on the subject
of The Moral Ideas, and Rivet and Mauss are, as far as I under-
stand them, of the same opinion. Westermarck met with oppo-
sition also from German quarters, not least from the Vienna
sociologists although there was in their criticism also much re-
cognition. The school which represents the theories of objective
morality, at present much larger than the school of subjective
morals, naturally views Westermarck’s conclusions from the
Certain of the monographs are included in condensed form in the
work Ur sedernas historia (Helsingfors 1912); in Finnish: Tapojen historia
(Helsinki 1913).