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

44 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE GREEKS
pcting loyalties. He ought, he feels, to obey the claims of
both these conflicting loyalties, and he wants to do what
he ought to do; but the circumstances of the case are
such that he cannot give his allegiance to both. Thus
Antigone in Sophodes's play is torn between loyalty to
her dead brother, Polyneces, which requires that she should
bury his body and the obedience she owes to the king
Creon, who has forbidden burial, reinforced by her love
for Cram's son, Haemon. In Hamlet, the problem is essen-
tially one of conflicting obligations. There is the obligation,
as Hamlet conceives it, to avenge his father's murder, but
there is also the obligation not to shed blood; for it is far
from, clear to a civilized man that the best way of expressing
moral disapproval of a particular form of behaviour
is to emulate it. The natural disinclination to shed the
blood of his uncle is reinforced by the duty he owes to
his mother. Yet to refrain is to betray his father's memory.
It is precisely upon such problems as these that many of
the world's greatest tragedies turn, and they are essentially
problems of insight. One wants to do what is right but,
unfortunately, one docs not know what is right.
The Problem of Will. The problem of insight, then, is
a real one. Nevertheless, it is to the problem of will that
most writers on ethics have devoted the greater part of
their attention. This is particularly true of those ethical
writers who have been influenced by Christianity. For
Christianity, arguing from the postulate of original sin,
has always emphasized the wickedness of the human heart
and the weakness of the human will. The typical ethical
problem for Christianity is the problem of temptation.
The problem of temptation presupposes that knowing what
is right, one is, nevertheless, tempted to do something
which one believes to be wrong, and the temptation arises
because of the wickedness of one's heart and the weakness
of one's will. The spirit, in short, is willing, but the flesh
is weak. Hence the Christian insists upon the importance
of prayer and the need for religious exercises to