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

288 ETHICS
ethically neutral is, I think, sufficiently clear. If I dig
a trench, I am altering the position of my feet and arms,
ofa spade and of a certain quantity of soil. If I take a matchbox
from my left-hand pocket and put it into my righthand
pocket, I am altering the position in space of my
hand and arm and also of the match-box. I am also, presumably,
displacing a certain quantity of air. Such
acts are ethically neutral ; they are neither right nor wrong.
Now let us suppose that I take as an example an act
which would normally be regarded as an appropriate
object for moral judgment. The act which I am proposing
to consider is the forging of a cheque. Considered purely
as an act, the forging of a cheque consists in a number
of movements by the arm, hand and fingers, and the
resultant alteration of the position in space of a pen and
a certain quantity of ink. Now it is certainly not of these
movements and of this alteration that it would be said
we are judging when we judge that forgery is wrong.
Of what then? Presumably, of the consequences of the
movements I have described. These include the making
over to oneself of money to which one is not legally entitled,
and the possible loss to others of money to which
they are entitled, entailing consequential deprivation and
suffering. Now these consequences certainly form a part
of what we mean by forgery when we say that forgery is
wrong. For, if forgery did not include them, ifit were simply
a series of physical movements, it would not be forgery; at
any rate, it would not be morally blameworthy as forgery.
And since forgery undoubtedly is morally blameworthy,
being reprobated by
the morad consciousness of civilized
must be taken to
mankind, it would appear that forgery
include some at least of what would normally be called its
consequences.
of suc-
Some, but not all. For among the consequences
cessful forgery may be its emulation by others. Hence
when we condemn an act of forgery, one of the considera-
tions which influence our judgment may well be the effects
upon society, if forgery became a common practice. ' We