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344
BTHIGS
the pleasure of every other person, even though he does
not call them intuitions. Some resent to intuitions on the
part of any ethical theory is, indeed, as I have tried to
show, 1 inevitable. Hedonism, for example, if it claims
to be a principle of guidance for conduct and not merely
a statement of psychological fact, xttust affirm not merely
tliat pleasure is the end which men do in fact pursue,
but that each man ought to pursue his own greatest pleasure.
Now directly this assertion is made, the question presents
itself, why ought he to pursue it? Many people would,
if the question were put to them, insist that they do not
always act in the way which they think will bring them the
greatest pleasure, and if they are to be told that they ought
so to act, they are perfectly entitled to ask for reasons why
they ought. And in effect there are no reasons.
Pleasure, says the hedonist, is a good and of two
pleasures, the greater ought to be preferred. Sidgwick,
who frankly admitted intuitions as the basis of his theory,
affirms that they are deliverances of what he calls the
practical reason. We just see, he says, that of two pleasures
the greater ought to be preferred; we just see that, if my
pleasure is a good, so too is the etjual pleasure of any other
person; and we just see that, if the happiness of another
man, or of a number of other men, is greater than mine,
then it ought to be preferred to mine, because it is a
greater good.
It is quite probable that we do just see these things,
see them, that is to say, to be reasonable and right, although
we cannot give reasons for our "seeing". But Bishop
Butler also "just saw them", and embodied them in his
principles of Self-love I ought to act in such a way
as to maximize my own happiness and Benevolence
I ought to act in such a way as to maximize the happiness
of other people; yet Butler was an objective intuitionist.
Moreover, Butler recognized more clearly than the
utilitarians that the two principles, the principle of Self-
love and the principle of Benevolence, might conflict,
1 8ee Chapter V, pp. 166-171*