Hoffding The principe of welfare

"The principle of welfare asserts the right of life: every creature has the right to exist, to develop, and to obtain its full satisfaction." "The world is not complete, not harmonious, not rational; therefore there is a work to be done. A little American girl who had been told that God created the world once for all, asked her mother: 'But in what business is he then now?' This was a quite philosophical question. There is perhaps a great work going on in the world at large, through which it is developed to greater rationality and harmony. But for us it is of the greatest importance, that there is a work to be done by us, that our own work in thought and will is a reality, a real factor in a great process of evolution. Both the problem of knowledge and the ethical problem have then a natural and important place in philosophy." - Harald Höffding.