GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

CHAPTER V: THE SCOPE OF
ETHICS
Subject Matter of Ethics. Ethics is a branch of study
which is difficult to define, for, if we put the question,
" What are the subjects with which ethics deals, what,
in fact, is ethics about?" the answer is largely determined
by the nature of the ethical views which we adopt. This
is true not only of the boundaries of the subject, but also
of its core, a writer's view of both being dependent upon
and largely determined by the adoption of a particular
ethical position.
Some of the questions which have been considered by
different writers to be the central questions of ethics are:
(i) What thing is ultimately good, or, if there is more
than one thing which is ultimately good, what things
are ultimately good?
(a) What is the basis of moral obligation? If we take
the view that the word "ought" does mean something,
that, in other words, there may be a distinction, and a
valid one, between what we ought to do and what we
would like to do, it may be asked, "Why 'ought 9
we to
do what we ought to do?" The correct answer to this
question, if it could be given, would tell us what moral
obligation is.
(3) By means of what faculty do we recognize our moral
obligation? Is it reason or feeling, or a mixture of the two,
or a unique faculty sometimes known as the moral sense,
sometimes as conscience, which tells us our duty as immediately,
if not as unerringly, as our sense of taste tells
us what tastes sweet and what sour, and our sense of
smell which odours are pleasant, which repulsive?
(4) What do we mean by a right action? Is it, for
example, the same as the action which we think we ought