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

THE 8COPB OF ETHICS 155
and, if he is a physicist, enumerating the atomic constituents
of the elements. In so far as the word "good"
can from his point of view be said to have any meaning
at all, one picture is as "good" as another. The art critic,
however, concerning himself with the aesthetic qualities
of the picture, will pronounce one picture to be better
than another in point of aesthetic merit. Thus the art
critic measures and assigns marks for merit, whereas the
scientist merely investigates and analyses. But what the
ethical philosopher is judging about when he assesses
states of consciousness from the point of view of their good-
ness or badness, is different from the object of the psycholegist's
enquiry, when he analyses states of consciousness.
The ethical philosopher approaches actions and states of
consciousness in the way in which the art critic approaches
pictures, while the psychologist's approach is that of the
scientist. Ethics and aesthetics are for this reason sometimes
called "normative", that is to say, measuring studies.
. METAPHYSICS
AND THEOLOGY. Metaphysics and theo-
logy are two branches of study, or if, in the case of the
latter, the term knowledge be preferred, of knowledge,
which also encroach upon the sphere of ethics. Metaphysics
is concerned with the nature of the universe as a
whole. Is there, the metaphysician asks, a world of reality
which underlies the familiar, everyday world known to
us by means of our senses, and is the familiar, everyday
world an aspect of this reality? If, as many metaphysicians
have thought, this is in fact the case, then the familiar
world will derive the features which we discern in it
from the real world which underlies and informs it Another
question which metaphysics discusses is that of cosmic
purpose. Can the universe as a whole be said to have a
purpose? If so, what part,
if any, have we to play in its
promotion? Further, in what terms is the purpose to be
conceived? As a greater moral perfection? A higher
degree of consciousness? Or a more intimate communion
with God? It is clear that the answers which we give