ever cost to others. In our own day, Nietzsche has strongly expressed this point of view. "Unlimited self-assertion" is Nietzsche's text, and "will to be mighty" is his slogan. The spirit of this extreme individualism has pervaded much of our life and literature. Recent plays, novels, and essays all embody its teaching. On every hand single men and women and groups of men and women are asserting themselves and clamouring for their rights.
Now, English ethical writers have usually tried to mediate between these two tendencies. They have endeavoured to compromise between the two extreme attitudes. They tell us that human nature consists partly of "self-regarding" or selfish tendencies, and partly of "other-regarding" or unselfish ones. Some of our actions show the influence of "self-love," others of "benevolence." English ethics tells us, in effect, that the man whose actions are all self-regarding is a knave, and the man whose actions are all other-regarding is a fool.[1] The wise and good man is he who strikes the proper balance between them. Now probably, in practice, this is what most people actually do. The average worthy citizen, as he himself would say, indulges himself and asserts himself in certain respects, and restrains himself and denies himself in others.
But, from the ethical standpoint, compromise is not the true solution of the dispute between self-denial and self-assertion, between altruism and egoism. This will become clear if we bear in mind
- ↑ This is, of course, a very sweeping characterisation of English ethics, and it would need development and qualification to make it absolutely true.
