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

S0BJECTIVIST THEORY OF ETHICS 381
illustration of this process of transference of approval, the
case of the miser is cited. The miser, like everybody else,
begins by desiring money for the sake of the things that
money can buy, which, in their turn, he desires for the
sake of the pleasant sensations which their possession or
enjoyment induce in him. He then begins to associate the
pleasure given by the things bought by ntoney with the
money itself, and so, finally, he comes to desire the money
because of its association with pleasure. This result is
commonly described by
the statement that he comes to
desire money for itself. The miser's case is an illustration
of a transference of emotion due to association which, in
Hartley's view, is constantly occurring.
Hartley's Hierarchy of Motives. Hartley establishes
what he calls a hierarchy of motives. In this hierarchy, the
initial motive and the lowest, is the desire for pleasant
sensations; prpmpted by this motive we perform those
actions which we think will produce them. In course of
time, through habitually performing those actions which
we think will induce pleasant sensations, we come to forget
why we were led to perform them. Our motive at this
stage is to perform the actions in and for themselves. Thus
we come to approve for their own sake of courses of conduct
and types of character which we originally approved of
because they promoted our pleasure.
This refining process, as Hartley calls it, goes a stage
further. Passing through the phases of ambition, imagination
and self-interest, it proceeds to the establishment of
the three highest values. These arc sympathy or care for
others, the moral sense, and what Hartley calls "theopathy".
Each of these highest values is now valued in
and for itself; yet, originally, each was valued because
of the pleasure which men derived from the activity or
emotion which it evoked. Sympathy, for example, was
valued because, other people's suffering caused us pain;
morality, because men derived pleasure from the contemplation
of certain kinds of character, and profit from the