Hamlin Garland - "Main Travelled Roads"

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Books: A Handbook of Ethical Theory

G >> George Stuart Fullerton >> A Handbook of Ethical Theory




The modern psychologist sometimes distinguishes pleasure and pain from
"agreeableness" and "disagreeableness." Marshall, a high authority on
pleasure and pain, refuses to draw the distinction (_op. cit._, Part
III. chapter vi). But he also refuses to call pleasure and pain
sensations, regarding them as "qualifications of our sensations," like
intensity, duration, and the like.

Are pleasures, as pleasures, alike? and are pains, as pains, alike?
Jeremy Bentham refused to distinguish between kinds of pleasures. On the
other hand, John Stuart Mill did so (see Chapter XXV in this volume); and
S. Alexander, in his work entitled _Moral Order and Progress_,
maintains that pleasures differ in kind, and cannot be compared merely in
their intensity (see page 202).

The whole matter is complicated enough, and there is occupation for the
most disputatious. But I do not think that these disputes very directly
affect the argument of my chapter.

Sec 50. That there is a relation between feeling and action, but that the
two are by no means nicely adjusted to each other, has been recognized in
many quarters.

Darwin, discussing the mental and moral qualities of man, points out that
the satisfaction of some fundamental instincts gives little pleasure,
although uneasiness is suffered if they are not satisfied. Seth (_op.
cit._, p. 64) says that feelings "guide" action; and he claims that
the energy of a moving idea lies in the feeling which it arouses (p. 70).
On the quantity of emotion, and its relation to action, see Stephen, The
Science of Ethics, ii, iii, 25.

Sec 51. It appears to be repugnant to Green to admit that feeling--
pleasure--can be the direct object of action; and he denies roundly that
a sum of pleasures can be made an object of desire and will at all
(_Prolegomena to Ethics_, Sec 221; see Sec 113 of this book). Moreover,
he maintains, and in this Dewey follows him, that the making of pleasure
an object is evidence of the existence of unhealthy desires. I cannot but
think this, taken generally, an exaggeration. Of course, what is called
"a man of pleasure" is a pretty poor sort of a thing.

Sec 52. In this section I do not touch at all upon the immemorial dispute
concerning what has been called "the 'freedom' of the will."

Indeed, I leave it out of this book altogether. The moralist must, I
think, assume that man has natural impulses and is a rational creature.
Those who are interested in the problem above mentioned, may turn to my
_Introduction to Philosophy_, chapter xi, Sec 46, where the matter is
discussed, and references (in the corresponding note) are given.

Chapter XVI.--The matter of this chapter appears, clear enough, but it
may be well to give a few references touching the two conceptions of the
functions of Reason.

Men of quite varying views have inclined to the doctrine which appeals to
me. I think it is to be gotten out of Hegel. Green, who is much
influenced by him, takes, as the rational end of conduct, a "satisfaction
on the whole," which implies a harmonization and unification of the
desires (see, in this book, Chapter XXVI, Sec 122). Spencer, in his
_Study of Sociology_, defines the rational as the consistent.
Stephen, in his _Science of Ethics_, chapter ii, Sec 3, says: "Reason,
in short, whatever its nature, is the faculty which enables us to act
with a view to the distant and the future." He claims that rationality
tends to bring about a certain unity or harmony. Hobhouse, _Morals in
Evolution_, (pp. 572-581), says that reason harmonizes the impulses.

The champions of the opposite view are the intuitionists proper--such men
as Kant, Reid, Price, even Sidgwick. To judge of their doctrine--they
were great men, be it remembered, and worthy of all respect--I suggest
that the reader wait until he has read the chapter on _Intuitionism_
in this volume, Chapter XXIII.

5. CHAPTERS XVII TO XIX.--What is said in Chapter XVII seems too
obviously true to need comment. Indeed, it may be questioned whether the
chapter is not full of platitudes. But even platitudes are overlooked by
some; and there is some merit in arranging them systematically. Besides,
they may serve as a spring-board.

As to Chapter XVIII, I suggest reading chapter vii, of Westermarck's book
on _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_. It is entitled
_Customs and Laws as Expressions of Moral Ideas_.

For Chapter XIX, one may read Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_, Part
I, chapter vi, where he shows how the mere "group morality" gradually
gives place to a wider morality in which the concept of humanity plays a
part. In the same work, Part II, chapters i and ii, the author treats of
religious or sub-religious ideas as affecting conduct. Compare
Westermarck, _op. cit._, chapter xl. See, also, _The Ancient
City_, by Fustel de Coulanges.

6. CHAPTERS XX TO XXII.--What is said in Chapter XX may be well
reinforced by turning to Hobhouse (_op. cit._), Part I, chapter iii,
where he traces the gradual evolution of rational morality in the field
of justice. See, also, Westermarck, (_op. cit._) chapters ix and x,
i. e., "The Will as the Subject of Moral Judgment and the Influence of
External Events," and "Agents under Intellectual Disability." In the last
chapter referred to, animals, drunkards, idiots, the insane, etc., come
on the stage. The chapter is full of curious information.

In Chapter XXI (Sec 86), I have spoken of the hesitating utterances of
moralists touching any duties we may owe to the brutes. I suggest that
before anyone dogmatize in detail on this subject he read with some care
such a comprehensive work as Miss Washburn's _The Animal Mind_. The
book is admirable. Chapters x and xliv of Westermarck's work are
instructive and entertaining on this subject. Hegel disposes of the
animals rather summarily. See his _Philosophy of Right_, Sec 47.
Sidgwick, _The Methods of Ethics_, Book III, chapter iv, 2, is well
worth consulting. See in my own volume, Chapter XXX, Sec 141.

For Chapter XXII, I give no references. I appeal only to the common sense
of my reader.

7. Chapters XXIII to XXIX.--For the chapters on the Schools of the
Moralists, XXIII to XXIX, I shall give briefer notes than I should have
given, were the chapters not already so well provided with foot-notes.

So far as the first four of these chapters are concerned, I shall assume
that enough has been said, drawing attention only to two points which
concern Chapter XXIII.

It is very interesting to note that one of our best critics of
intuitionism, Hemy Sidgwick, was himself an intuitionist. His _Methods
of Ethics_ deserves very close attention. Again Intuitions are often
spoken of as if they had been shot out of a pistol, and had neither
father nor mother. To understand them better it is only necessary to read
chapter viii of Dr. H. R. Marshall's little book, _Mind and
Conduct_, which shows how difficult it is to mark intuitions off
sharply, and to treat them as if they had nothing in common with reason.

Those interested in the ethics of evolution, treated in Chapter XXVII,
should not miss reading the fourth chapter of Darwin's _Descent of
Man_. Huxley's essay, _Evolution and Ethics_, might be read. The
"Prolegomena" to the essay is, however, much more valuable than the essay
itself. Spencer's general theory of conduct is best gathered from his
_Data of Ethics_, which was reprinted as Part I of his _Principles
of Ethics_. The volume by C. M. Williams, entitled, _A Review of
Evolutionary Ethics_, gives a convenient account of a dozen or more
writers who have treated of ethics from the evolutionary standpoint. It
is well not to overlook what Sidgwick has to say of evolution and ethics;
see _The Methods of Ethics_, Book I, chapter ii, Sec 2.

As for Chapter XXVIII, on "Pessimism," it is enough, I think, to refer
the reader to Book IV, in Schopenhauer's work on _The World as Will and
Idea_. The Book is entitled _The Assertion and Denial of the Will to
Live, where Self-consciousness has been Attained_. See also his
supplementary chapters, xlvi, on "The Vanity and Suffering of Life," and
xlviii, "On the Doctrine of the Denial of the Will to Live." For the
doctrine of von Hartmann, see chapters xiii to xv, in the part of his
work entitled, _The Metaphysic of the Unconscious_.

For the chapter on Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche, I shall give but a few
references, though the literature on these writers is enormous. The
English reader will find T. K. Abbott's translation of Kant's ethical
writings a very convenient volume (third edition, London, 1883). The
translation of Hegel's _Philosophy of Right_, by S. W. Dyde (1896),
I have found good, where I have compared it with the original. The word
"Right" in the title is unavoidably ambiguous, for the German word means
both "right" and "law." Hegel is dealing, in a sense, with both. I have
indicated, in a foot-note, that Nietzsche ought to be read in the
original. He is a marvellous artist.

Perhaps I should add that Nietzsche will be read with most pleasure by
those who do not attempt to find in his works a system of ethics. I
recommend to the reader, especially, his three volumes: _The Genealogy
of Morals_; _Beyond Good and Evil_; and _Thus Spake Zarathustra_;
(New York, 1911).

8. CHAPTERS XXX TO XXXVI.--I shall not comment on Chapter XXX. It is
sufficiently interpreted by what has been said earlier in this book. Nor
do I think that Chapter XXXI needs to be discussed here. I need only say
that many moralists have commented upon the negative aspect of the moral
law. It will be remembered that the "demon" of Socrates--a dreadful
translation--was a negative sign. I do not think that those who have
dwelt upon the negative aspect of morality have reflected sufficiently
upon the moral organization of society. We are put to school unavoidably
as soon as we are born.

I shall not dwell upon Chapters XXXII and XXXIII. Here I appeal merely to
the good sense of the reader.

But Chapter XXXIV demands more attention. He who is ignorant of history,
and has come into no close contact with the organization and functioning
of any state other than his own, is as unfit to pass judgment upon states
generally, as is the man who has never been away from his native village
to pass judgment upon towns generally--towns inhabited by various peoples
and situated in different quarters of the globe. His lot may, it is true,
happen to be cast in a good village; but how he is to tell that it is
good, I cannot conceive. He has no standard of comparison.

Fortunately, his ignorance is not as harmful as it might be. The Rational
Social Will, which is penetrated through and through with traditions
wiser than the whims of the individual, carries him along upon its broad
bosom, and makes decisions for him.

The sociologist and the political philosopher should be consulted, as
well as the historian, by one who would make a satisfactory list of books
touching the subject of this chapter. But the moralist may be allowed to
suggest a few titles, some of them very old ones. Plato's _Republic_
is fascinating, and Aristotle's _Politics_ is the shrewdest of
books. But compare the state as conceived by these men with our notions
of a modern democracy! More's _Utopia_ is a delight. To get back to
earth and see what _history_ means to a state, and to its
constitution and laws, read Sir Henry Maine's _Ancient Law_. States
are not made in a day, although, under abnormal conditions, governments
may be upset, and new ones set up, within twenty-four hours. After such
unhistorical proceedings, one can scarcely expect "fast colors." One or
two washings will suffice to show what was there before.

He who has a weakness for the operatic can peruse Rousseau's _Social
Contract_ and the _Declaration of the Rights of Man_ published in
the great French Revolution. As an antidote, I suggest Bentham's essay on
_Anarchical Fallacies_.

But reading will do little good--even historical reading--unless one
also thinks. It is wonderful how much knowledge a man may escape, if he
is born under the proper star. I once knew an undergraduate in an
American university, who attended compulsory chapel for more than three
years, and who still thought that the Old Testament was a history of the
Ancient Romans.

There is quite too much to say about Chapters XXXV and XXXVI. The only
thing to do is to say nothing. I shall touch upon just one point in each
chapter. I venture to beg the teacher, when he treats of International
Ethics, to read in class, with his students, those pages in which Sir
Thomas More describes the principles upon which the Utopians conducted
their wars. Remember that Sir Thomas was not merely a statesman, but, by
common consent, a learned, a great, and a good man. Mark the reaction of
the undergraduate mind.

The one matter upon which I shall comment in Chapter XXXVI, is the
question of belief as an object of approval or of censure. Westermarck
states (_The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, Volume I,
chapter viii, p. 216), that neither the Catholic nor the Protestant
Church regarded _belief, as such_, as an object of censure. Yet each
was willing to punish heresy. The point is most interesting, and I hazard
an explanation. The churches were organizations with a definite object.
They made use of reward and punishment. This was reasonable enough,
abstractly considered. However, doctrine was the affair of the
theologian. Now the theologian, like the philosopher, is a man who
assumes that he is concerned with _proofs_, and with proofs only. If
a thing is _proved_, how can a man _help_ believing it? Only if
he _will_ not, which is sheer obstinacy or perversity. Let him,
then, be punished on account of his defective character (see Westermarck,
I, chapter xi, p. 283).

I think the apparent quibbling here can be gotten rid of by recognizing
the truth emphasized in Sec Sec 167-168, namely, that logical proofs play
but a subordinate part in the adoption or rejection of beliefs touching a
vast number of matters both secular and religious. If we can influence
men's emotions, we can influence their beliefs. Both State and Church
have this power. It is a power that can be abused. But it is, on the
whole, a good thing that men's beliefs can thus be influenced. There
would be no stability in human society could they not. Every ignorant
man--and many men are ignorant--would be at the mercy of every clever
talker; and he would change his beliefs every day. As men act on beliefs,
this means that he would zig-zag through life to the detriment of all
orderly development. I beg the reader, learned or unlearned, to put aside
prepossessions, and to look at things as they are in this field.