A Handbook of Ethical TheoryFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
A Handbook of Ethical Theory
Fullerton, George Stuart
Ethics
Nor need the perfectionist abandon his perfectionism in view of any such
consideration. He who measures perfection by the degree of activity
exercised in action, may admit that the coming man will be more perfect
than it is possible for any man to be now; but that need not prevent him
from holding that it is man's present duty to aim at the only perfection
possible to him, he being what he is. Similar reasoning will apply to any
other conception of perfection likely to be adopted, consciously or
unconsciously, by any adherent of the school in question.
As for the self-realizationist, a very little reflection seems sufficient
to reveal that the maxim that it is man's duty to become all that it is
in him to become is in no wise refuted by the claim that man may, in the
indefinitely distant future, become much more than many people have
supposed or now suppose.
(5) There remains the doctrine of the Rational Social Will as furnishing
the norm of conduct. I have tried to show that this doctrine must rest
upon broad views of man and of man's environment. It is the very essence
of the rational will to take broad views, to consider the past, the
present, and the future. Surely the adherent of this school may let the
evolutionist work in peace, may thank him for any helpful suggestions he
has to offer, and may develop his own doctrine with little cause for
uneasiness at the thought that information given him may refute his
fundamental principle.
However, it is not out of place for him to point out, if revolutionary
measures of any sort are suggested by this or that evolutionist, that
ethics is a discipline which is concerned with what men have to do, here
and now. It must take into consideration what is advisable and feasible.
Utopian schemes which break violently with the actual order of things and
the normal development of human societies may be suggested by
evolutionists, as they have been suggested by men who were not
evolutionists at all. They are not to be taken much more seriously in the
one case than in the other.
133. THE ETHICS OF INDIVIDUAL EVOLUTIONISTS.--Such considerations seem to
make it evident that the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution should
have no other influence upon us as moralists than that of making us take
broad views of man and of his environment. It still remains to find a
norm of conduct, and evolutionists, like other men, may develop ethical
systems which are not identical. It is worth while here to touch very
briefly upon the suggestions of one or two individual evolutionists.
Those who speak of the ethics of evolution are very apt to have such in
mind.
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