"THE PROBLEM OF CONDUCT" : A CRITICISM.
- Tuesday, June 10 2014 @ 10:49 AM EDT
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A great many thanks to The President and Founder at
The Illimitable Ocean of Inexplicability
for his divination of the following publication. Thanks also to The Internet Archive for making this text available. It was the fact that this document contained the term "infinitely remote" that it materialized in search results for the same. What follows is a very interesting and fun (if dry) read.
Posted here for posterity: Enjoy!
460 International Journal of Ethics. "THE PROBLEM OF CONDUCT" : A CRITICISM. When a philosopher boasts that he has riddled with con- tradictions the scientific, moral and religious experiences of mankind, one is forced to ask whether he has not after all been firing at dummies. The principle of contradiction is doubtless a valiant weapon; but sometimes "the engineer is hoist with his own petard." Before we believe that science is vitiated by error to an unknown degree, that morality is at root hypo- crisy, and that religion "inevitably contains and rests upon an element of 'make-believe,' " we must be assured that the meta- physician is dealing with human experience and not with fig- ments of his own elaboration. In criticizing Mr. Taylor's book* I propose to ask two ques- tions. I shall inquire how far on the one hand his theory gives an adequate account of experience, and on the other how far it is consistent with itself. If at any time I appear dogmatic I ask indulgence. I have endeavored to attain clearness at all costs. Sitting on the hedge suggests discomfort ; and although a sprinkling of saving clauses appears more modest and is perhaps more judicious, yet it tends to obscure the question at issue. And this would be most undesirable. We cannot af- ford to treat the problem of conduct like the Scottish minister who exhorted his brethren to look certain difficulties in the face and pass on : this question has got to be faced and an- swered. I propose first of all to give a short account of Mr. Taylor's main line of argument. This is the more desirable inasmuch as his essay contains much matter, interesting perhaps and suggestive, but liable, like pianos and kitchen-ranges in a mobile column, to distract attention and encumber movement. After some general remarks on the nature of metaphysical truth and scientific explanation, Mr. Taylor proceeds to attack the school of moral philosophy associated with the name of T. H. Green. His aim is to expose the fundamental fallacy in every system of ethics, which regards it as a teleological sci- ence in distinction from an empirical investigation. He as- sails Green's contention that a theory of morals should be pre- ceded by a metaphysical analysis of the nature of the self, maintaining that the psychologist is competent to deal with all the facts of morality. Finally he holds that the notion of an eternal self-conscious principle is absurd, and could in no case be of any value for the solution of the problem of con- duct. The ground being so far cleared, the roots of Ethics are •discovered in the moral sentiments of mankind. Theories about motives and obligation, conscience and freedom are rank with popular confusions and fallacious metaphysics. In the words of Paul Somerset "Right and Wrong are but figments and the shadow of a word; but for all that, there are certain things that I cannot do and there are certain others that I will not stand." It is in the feelings or emotions of approval or disapproval, with which men review past or anticipate future actions, that the moralist must find the foundations of his sci- ence. Beginning here the student of ethics will find his groundwork almost completed. For the sentiments awakened by different kinds of action are already embodied in the judg- ments of the market-place, the pulpit, the club and the statute- book. With these as his base the moralist may proceed to give an historical account of the development of ethical feel- ings and ideas; or else attempt to discover the main principle or principles presupposed in the fluid masses of popular opin- ion, and by their help to construct a consistent moral ideal. After a short survey of the evolution of the conceptions of obligation and responsibility, conscience and moral personality, Mr. Taylor attacks the main problem of his essay.
