On Mr. Spencer's Data of EthicsGuthrie, Malcolm (Writer on Herbert Spencer)
Philosophy
On Mr. Spencer's Data of Ethics
Guthrie, Malcolm (Writer on Herbert Spencer)
Ethics, Evolutionary; Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903. Data of ethics
In this passage Mr. Spencer propounds morality or ethics as a matter for
scientific study, only to be understood or explained as part of general
conduct when it is capable of explanation deductively from antecedent
causes. The distinction recognised between conduct called moral and
conduct regarded as immoral is only to be understood when, after a
historical survey of human actions and of the actions of organisms in
general, we not only perceive its immediately antecedent causes, but,
going behind them, recognise the ultimate necessity of their occurrence
in the very nature of the universe. This reveals the special features of
Mr. Spencer's method in the treatment of his subject as distinguished
from that followed by Mr. Leslie Stephen in his "Science of Ethics," a
distinction which we may conveniently mark by terming them respectively
the Philosophic and the Scientific methods. The former term we use in
the sense assigned to it in the definition given by Mr. Spencer in
"First Principles."[4]
A philosophy is complete when the mind has been able to form for itself
such an appraisement of the relations and conditions of factors at a
period sufficiently remote to ante-date any great amount of complexity
as will enable us deductively to frame a history of developments which
may correspond with the actual history of sequences in the concrete
universe. If this appraisement of a remote cosmos characterised by
comparative simplicity nevertheless admits the existence of many factors
whose differences are not accounted for, philosophy is so far formally
incomplete: but as the determination of these points lies beyond the
powers of human reason, philosophy may justly be regarded as practically
complete if it unifies from this point of view all the knowledge with
which the human mind is conversant. If we are able to include all the
sciences in one coherent whole nothing more can be expected of
philosophy--beyond that lies the realm of speculation and the
Unknowable.
The scope of the sciences is not so ambitious. Their aim is limited
within a much narrower purview. They seek merely to ascertain the laws
which subsume special classes of phenomena. They recognise causation and
their inductions are valid to the extent of the classes of facts
expressed in any particular law. But each science or class of facts is
severally and separately worked upon even though the progress of study
is ever disclosing the mutual dependence of the various sciences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account