History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2)Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
Philosophy
History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2)
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
Ethics; Europe -- Moral conditions
37 Hume on this, as on most other points, was emphatically opposed to
the school of Hobbes, and even declared that no one could honestly
and in good faith deny the reality of an unselfish element in man.
Following in the steps of Butler, he explained it in the following
passage:—“Hunger and thirst have eating and drinking for their end,
and from the gratification of these primary appetites arises a
pleasure which may become the object of another species of desire or
inclination that is secondary and interested. In the same manner
there are mental passions by which we are impelled immediately to
seek particular objects, such as fame or power or vengeance, without
any regard to interest, and when these objects are attained a
pleasing enjoyment ensues.... Now where is the difficulty of
conceiving that this may likewise be the case with benevolence and
friendship, and that from the original frame of our temper we may
feel a desire of another’s happiness or good, which by means of that
affection becomes our own good, and is afterwards pursued, from the
combined motives of benevolence and self-enjoyment?”—Hume’s _Enquiry
concerning Morals_, Appendix II. Compare Butler, “If there be any
appetite or any inward principle besides self-love, why may there
not be an affection towards the good of our fellow-creatures, and
delight from that affection’s being gratified and uneasiness from
things going contrary to it?”—_Sermon on Compassion._
38 “By sympathetic sensibility is to be understood the propensity that
a man has to derive pleasure from the happiness, and pain from the
unhappiness, of other sensitive beings.”—Bentham’s _Principles of
Morals and Legislation_, ch. vi. “The sense of sympathy is
universal. Perhaps there never existed a human being who had reached
full age without the experience of pleasure at another’s pleasure,
of uneasiness at another’s pain.... Community of interests,
similarity of opinion, are sources from whence it
springs.”—_Deontology_, vol. i. pp. 169-170.
39 “The idea of the pain of another is naturally painful. The idea of
the pleasure of another is naturally pleasurable.... In this, the
unselfish part of our nature, lies a foundation, even independently
of inculcation from without, for the generation of moral
feelings”—Mill’s _Dissertations_, vol. i. p. 137. See, too, Bain’s
_Emotions and the Will_, pp. 289, 313; and especially Austin’s
_Lectures on Jurisprudence_. The first volume of this brilliant work
contains, I think without exception, the best modern statement of
the utilitarian theory in its most plausible form—a statement
equally remarkable for its ability, its candour, and its uniform
courtesy to opponents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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