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

OBJECTIVE INTUITIONISM 19!
conflict, but it does not follow that they conflict when
applied to the goods to which money is a means, If, for
example, I spend four-fifths of a sum of money on myself,
I shall probably obtain more happiness by spending
the remaining one-fifth upon other people than by spending
this too upon myself. Hence it is not the case that the
dictates of Self-love and Benevolence necessarily conflict
in regard to the goods obtained by money, although they
do conflict in regard to money itself, which is the means to
the 'attainment of such goods.
Butler adduces other arguments to show that the results
of acting benevolently are nearly always such as are
consonant with the dictates of Self-love, and that, vict
versa, when we act in such a way as to harm other people,
we usually harm ourselves. He cites the case of revenge.
In all ages poets and moralists have descanted on the
disappointing results of vengeance. Apart from the feelings
of remorse which usually follow a successful act of
vengeance, the revengeful person often exposes himself
to retaliation from the friends or relations of his victim.
Again, the man who is habitually malicious, by making
himself generally unpopular diminishes his own happiness
reason of the dislike in which he comes to be held. In
by
general, Butler argues, it is a shortsighted policy to injure
other people. Such injury often oppears to conduce to
our immediate advantage, but in die long run it will
be found to injure ourselves as well as others.
Comment on Alleged Identity Between Conduct Dictated
by Self-love and Benevolence. Butler probably
exaggerates the degree of coincidence between
conduct respectively inspired by Self-love and Benevolence,
for it is not difficult to imagine cases in which the two
principles would be opposed. If, for example, I am shipwrecked
on a desert island with three companions and
know (a) where there is a store of food sufficient to keep
one person, but only one, alive for a week, and (6) that
a ship will rescue me in a week, cool Self-love presumably