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

A THEORY OF GOOD OR VALUE
capable of unerringly, instead of imperfectly, recognizing
these values, and of continuously instead of, as at present,
intermittently pursuing them. If I may be permitted again
to resort to metaphor, the faltering and uncertain character
of our moral and aesthetic experience may be likened to
the perception of a place where there is light by those
whose eyes are as yet not fully open. Every now and then
there shoot down from the place where the light is flashes
and gleams which dazzle and blind their faltering vision,
so that they cannot tell what they have seen, or even be
sure, if they have seen at all. Sometimes their senses are
almost entirely sealed, so that they pass their lives unaware
of the shining of the light. Nevertheless, the place where the
light is is a real place, and it is by reference to their increasing
ability to catch the gleams, so that they may in the end
become continuously aware of the light, that their progress
is to be measured.
The subject of this book is the theory of ethics and
politics and not theory of value. I cannot, therefore, further
elaborate die theory here outlined. Two questions, how-
ever, remain, about which something must be* said. First,
since at the level of evolution which we have at present
reached, value is, indeed, recognized, albeit intermittently,
and pursued, albeit falteringly, why is its recognition
intermittent and why is its pursuit faltering? Why, in fact,
to put the question in its ethical form, do we not always
do what is right and pursue what is good? Secondly,
there remains the question which has presented itself on
a number of occasions in the course of earlier discussions,
what, on the view here outlined, do we mean by right
actions, and what is their relation to moral virtue?
(l) REASONS WHY THE GOOD IS
NOT ALWAYS RECOGNIZED AND PURSUED
The Influence of Training
and Environment in
Promoting or .Obscuring the Perception of the
Good* To the first question there are two answers. The