‘Character may be defined as the aggregate of mental faculties and emotions which constitute personal or national individuality. It is very strongly hereditary, yet it is probably subject to more inherent variation than is the form and structure of the body.’
Is the knowledge of right and wrong inherent in everyone? For Wallace, this was not wholly the case. He believed that there were two factors that shaped morality: the environmental factor and the inherent factor. In this book, Wallace sets out to show the effects of the environment on morality and the extent of these effects when compared to the inherent factor.
Alfred Russel Wallace was a British naturalist and biologist best known today for independently discovering the theory of evolution through natural selection before Charles Darwin. He was one of the most famous scientists in Britain during his time.