She does not, I think, like this
dismissal of Justice from a primary place in my scheme of conduct.
"Justice," she asserts, "is an instinctive craving very nearly akin to
the physical craving for equilibrium. Its social importance corresponds.
It seeks to keep the individual's claims in such a position as to
conflict as little as possible with those of others. Justice is the root
instinct of all social feeling, of all feeling which does not take
account of whether we like or dislike individuals, it is the feeling of
an orderly position of our Ego towards others, merely considered AS
others, and of all the Egos merely AS Egos towards each other. LOVE
cannot be felt towards others AS others. Love is the expression of
individual suitability and preference, its positive existence in some
cases implies its absolute negation in others. Hence Love can never be
the essential and root of social feeling, and hence the necessity for
the instinct of abstract justice which takes no account of preferences
or aversions. And here I may say that all application of the word LOVE
to unknown, distant creatures, to mere OTHERS, is a perversion and a
wasting of the word love, which, taking its origin in sexual and
parental preference, always implies a preference of one object to the
other.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248