Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Blaðsíða 285

EDWARD WESTERMARCK
279
standpoint of a totally different principle. And its criticisms are
directed with no less force towards a new work related to the
one with which we have been dealing, namely Ethical Relativity,
published by Westermarck in 1932 and expected to be released
this year in a Swedish translation which was reaay before his
death.1)
Ethical subjectivism has also been criticized by workers in
the sphere of general philosophy on the grounds that it is a
dangerous doctrine, subversive to morals. Westermarck was fully
aware that such views could be advanced against his conclusions,
and took care to demonstrate in convincing fashion that a scienti-
fic theory cannot be judged or condemned merely by pointing
out its dangerousness. If it could really be proved to mankind
that there is no absolute criterion for morality — that it changes
character with different peoples and at different periods — they
might be more indulgent in their judgements and more inclined
to listen to the voice of reason. The conception of what is right
has an individual character, it is based on personality, on a
personality that is at once sensitive to influences and has the
will to declare its own right to existence, and is prepared, if
need be, to stand firm against a whole world. Does not such a
doctrine hold out possibilities that allow one to entertain the idea
of moral progress?
Westermarck continued his scientific activities with un-
diminished vigour during the latter part of his life. His later
works include The Future of Marriage in Western Civilisation,
which may be regarded as a popularly written fourth volume
to The History of Human Marriage,2) and Three Essays on Sex
and Marriage, in which he takes up arms against the Freudian
school and their one-sided interpretation of certain ethnological
facts. Westermarck’s last work was a large-scale study of
Christianity and Morals,3) in which the author returns to the
view expressed by him in his youth that — as we have men-
x) cf. also Westermarck, “Den moraliska intuitionen,” in Theoria (Göte-
borg 1935); “Normative und psychologische Ethik,” in Verhandl. lntern.
Kongr. f. Psychologie (Miinchen 1897); “Responsabilité morale des dom-
mages accidentaux,” in Revue intern. de sociologie (Paris 1900).
2) also in Swedish, Finnish and French.
3) The problem had been previously dealt with by Westermarck in
Finnish and Swedish; cf. Kristendom och moral, Stockholm 1907 and 1913
(2nd edition); Siveys ja kristinusko (Helsinki 1907).