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

ETHICAL THEORY SURVEYED 393
or persons approve of", what a man calls right will very
largely depend upon what he docs happen to approve of,
and to approve of in the vast majority of cases for non-
ethical reasons. We cannot, then, simply trust to people's
intuitions of right and wrong to determine what is right and
wrong, if only because, to do so, would be to admit that
the *ame action can be both right and wrong at the same
time. Secondly, if the faculty by means of which moral
judgments are passed and the performance of is duty
motivated is
feeling or is akin to feeling, it is difficult to
escape from the conclusion that its deliverances are determined.
Moral freedom, is, therefore, an illusion and ethics
falls to the ground.
Thirdly, if the deliverances of the faculty by means of
which moral judgments are passed are to be exonerated
from the charge of being purely arbitrary, the faculty
must be credited with some admixture of reason. If it
is to be reasonable in deliverance, it must be reasonable in
nature. Now reason refuses to admit that we can isolate
actions as the objects of ethical judgment. Reason judges
about a whole situation including motives, actions and consequences;
It insists, in particular, that consequences must
be taken into account, if only because the political and
legal systems of mankind would be rendered nugatory if
we were to concede that motive was sufficient to establish
ethical worth. As Dr. Johnson said when criticizing the
views ofRousseau, who held that motive alone was the concern
of moral judgment: "Sir, that will not do. We cannot
prove any man's intention to be bad. You may shoot a man
through the head, and say you intended to miss him;
but the judge will order you to be hanged. An alleged
want of intention, when evil is committed, will not be
allowed in a court of justice. Rousseau, Sir, is a very bad
man. I would sooner sign a sentence for his transportation,
than that of any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey
these many years." In other words, actual consequences
must be considered.
This is not to say that intended consequences, do net
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