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

208 ETHICS
Nor are they in any way opposed to reason. On the
contrary, ifwe investigate the deliverances ofour moral wills
by means of reason, we realize that the general principles
which the will prescribes are the only ones which are not
self-contradictory. There is, for example, no contradiction
inherent in the precept that everybody should tell the truth;
but if everybody were to lie, nobody would believe any*
body else, and there would be no point, therefore, in lying.
This is what Kant incans by saying that wrong conduct
is self-contradictory; it cannot be universalized without
stultifying itself. /Hence Kant's famous precept: "Act
only according to that maxim which you can a* the same
time will to be a universal law."
Evil Parasitic upon Good Kant is here emphasizing
an important truth. All wrong action, as I have had
occasion to point out in another connection, 1 is parasitic,
parasitic, that is to say, upon right action. Consider, for
example, the above-mentioned case of lying. Lying, I
pointed out in the earlier discussion, is only profitable to
some people because most people tell the truth. For the
object of the liar is to get credence for his statement; the
extent to which he will succeed in doing this depends upon
the amount of credence which people habitually give to
the statements made to them, and this in its turn will
depend upon the general amount of truth-telling in the
community. Thus the more frequently most people tell the
truth, the more profitable does lying become for the few
who do not. Similarly with honesty: if everybody were
dishonest, nobody would trust anybody else and dishonesty,
which depends for its success upon people's willingness to
trust their fellows, would cease to pay. Dishonesty, in
short, only pays the few, when it does pay them, because
the many are habitually honest The case of theft illustrates
the same truth. If everybody were a burglar, there would
be nothing to steal, and the occupation of burgling would
therefore, cease to be profitable. It is only because most
1 See die discuwion in Chapter I, pp. 39, 40.