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

174
ETHICS
enumerated them, I pointed out that one's view as to
which of them was, in fact, central depended upon one's
general ethical position. For my part, I doubt whether
any of these questions should in fact be given a central
position, partly because I doubt whether any of them are
in fact answerable. I should, therefore, be inclined to assign
to ethics as its main business the task not of obtaining new
knowledge, but of clarifying knowledge that we already
possess. If I am right, we all of us have certain moral
intuitions, intuitions in' regard to good and evil, right
and wrong. It is not the study of ethics that provides
us with these intuitions; it is not, that is to say, ethical
speculation or reasoning, that tells us what is good,
or informs us as to the difference between right and
In so far as we lacked
wrong; it is our own moral faculty.
such a faculty, in so far as it failed to provide us with
moral intuitions, we should be lacking in respect of our
full humanity.
But though we all have ethical intuitions, they are, in
most of us, vague and uncoordinated. In savages they
assume curious forms; even among civilized persons they
are often inconsistent, so that, if what X holds to be
right in one connection really is right; it is impossible
that what he holds to be right in another connection
should also be really right There is scope, then, for a
study which will clarify and co-ordinate the knowledge
which, if I am right, we already possess, so that we may
come to realize more clearly than we do now what are
the nature and content of our moral consciousness. This
task I conceive to be the main purpose of ethics.
Books
Chapters relating to the scope and subject nutter of Ethics
will be found in any treatise on the subject. Good general books
are:
Sroowrac, HENRY. Outlines of the History of Ethics.
MUOKHBAD, J. H. Elements of Ethics.
MACKENZIE, J. S. A Manual of Ethics.
FOLD, G. a Moral Theory.