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

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ETHICS
he affirms, only in isolated cases. Confronted by the difficulty
of such cases, We find ourselves tempted to break the
rules, to mitigate the rigour of justice, and to make an
exception in our application of the law. When assailed
by this temptation, we have, however, to ask ourselves the
question, what would happen if our conduct in deciding to
treat the case under consideration as an exception were to
become general. Clearly, rules would be widely broken,
justice would no longer be administered, and the law would
fell into contempt. If these things were to occur, society
would become impossible. The breakdown of society
would be destructive of the general happiness, which is
largely dependent upon the maintenance of security and
order which society alone can guarantee.
The conclusion is that the utility of rules vanishes, if
we are prepared to make exceptions. It is more desirable
that we should maintain the rules, however hardly they
may bear upon particular cases, than that we should
suspend rules in order to avoid inflicting hardship in
particular cases.
This is Kant's test of universalization 1 in another form.
There is no contradiction in having rules which everybody
keeps; there is contradiction in making an exception
whenever the rules bear hardly, because if the exceptions
become sufficiently numerous and there is nothing to
prevent them from doing so, once they are admitted
the rules will no longer command respect, and will cease
to be rules. Hume's conclusion is that our willingness in
particular cases to take action in the interests of law and
justice, which is inimical to the happiness of certain
persons, does not invalidate the general principle that in
the long run happiness is the only thing for which men feel
approval! For men, being rational beings, are able to take
into account not only the immediate, but the remote
consequences of their actions, and these, if they are to be
such as we can approve, must entail respect for rules and
a willingness to obey the laws, since without such respect
1 See Chapter VI, p. ao8.