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

190
ETHICS
Thus while no voluntary action of mine can be compltUlj
inimical to cool Self-love, however disastrous its ultimate
effects may be, many of my actions may be hostile to
Benevolence. Thus, if I lose my temper and punch in the
jaw the person responsible for my annoyance, cool Self-love
win enjoy a certain amount of satisfaction, even if I am
knocked down or sent to prison afterwards. But there is no
ground for supposing that anybody else necessarily derives
any benefit from my action. The principles being admittedly
different, it might be supposed that the actions dictated
by cool Self-love are different from, are, indeed, usually
opposed to, those proceeding from Benevolence. Butler
is at pains to show that this is not the case. If we scrupu-
lously take into account all the foreseeable consequences
of an action we shall, he says, discover that those actions
which benefit other people are also those which produce
the best results for ourselves, while those which harm
other people are nearly all such as will harm the self.
That Actions which Harm Others Always (or nearly
Always) Harm the Self. The contrary belief is, Butler
thinks, due to another confusion, a confusion between
means and ends. Owing to. the dominating part played
by money in our civilization, we are apt to forget that
money is not a good in itself, but is only a means to the
attainment to other goods. Money, for example, is not life,
although it is the counter which enables life to be distributed
socially: money is not happiness, although when
used in certain ways it may produce happiness, and it is
very difficult to enjoy happiness without some money.
The confusion between means and ends seems in the case
of money to be obvious enough; yet we are all guilty
of making it on occasion, and some of us misers, for
example are guilty of tffllripg
it almost all the time.
Now it is perfectly true that, if I have a sum of money,
the more of it I spend on myself, the less will I have to
spend on dther people. So far, then, as money is concerned
the dictates of Self-love and Benevolence do appear to