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

CHAPTER XII: A THEORY OF
GOOD OR VALUE
Introductory.
If I am right in assuming that pleasure
or happiness is not the only thing which is good in itself,
the question arises what else is good in itself? Hitherto
I have been largely engaged in summarizing the views
historically put forward by leading writers upon ethics.
The expositions of Intuitionism, of Utilitarianism, both
objective and subjective, and the criticisms of these theories,
are such as will be found in most of the text books on
ethics. The form which I have given to the exposition and
criticism is my own, but the substance was derived from
others. The theory of value which follows, although it
owes much to other philosophers, and in particular to
Plato, embodies views which are in part my own. In
what follows, then, I am, for the first time in this book,
advancing opinions which are backed by no better authority
than that of the author. It is important that the reader
should bear this fact in mind.
My object is to suggest the outline of a theory of good
or value which embodies, or is at least compatible with,
the results reached in the course of the preceding survey.
of the Word Good. It will have become
Meanings
apparent in the course of the preceding chapters that the
word "good" is used in a number of different senses. It
has also been argued that, in so far as "good" means
something which is ultimate and unique, its meaning is
indefinable, while, in so far as that which the word "good "
means is analysable into meanings for which other words
stand, the particular ineaning which we assign to it
will depend upon and be determined by our adoption of a
particular ethical theory. Thus "good " may mean approved
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