Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

KORZYBSKI'S CONCEPT OF MAN 441
carry the confusion and darkness due to the presence in
it of mythological elements; (3) on the other hand, so
long as we continue to regard man as a species of animal,
the social life of the world in all its aspects will continue
to reflect the tragic misconception, and our ethics will
remain,-what it always has been in large measure,-an
animal ethics, space-binding ethics, an ethics of might,
of brutal competition, of violence, combat, and war.
Why so much stress upon ethics? Because ethics is
not a thing apart; it is not an interest that is merely coordinate with other interests; it penetrates them all.
Ethics is a kind of social ether which, whether it be good
or bad, sound or unsound, true or false, pervades life,
private and public, in all its dimensions and forms; and
so, if ethics be vitiated by fundamentally false conceptions of human nature, the virus is not localized but
spreads throughout the body politic, affecting the character of all activities and institutions,-education, science,
art, philosophy, economics, industrial method, politics,
government,-the whole conduct and life of a tribe or
a state or a nation or a world. I hardly need remind
you that only yesterday the most precious institutions of
civilization were in great danger of destruction by a
powerful state impelled, guided and controlled by animalistic ethics, the space-binding ethics of beasts. This
is indeed an unforgettable illustration of the mighty fact,
before pointed out, that the character of human history,
human conduct and human institutions depends, not
merely upon what man distinctively is, but also in large
measure, even decisively, upon what we humans think
man is. If a man or a state habitually regards humanity
as a species of animal, then that man or state may be