On the Ethics of NaturalismSorley, W. R. (William Ritchie)
Philosophy
On the Ethics of Naturalism
Sorley, W. R. (William Ritchie)
Ethics; Ethics, Evolutionary
customary and institutional, in which those results find permanent
expression.
[Sidenote: to be connected by philosophy.]
These different ways of looking at the whole subject proceed from
points of view whose effects are not confined to ethics, but may be
followed out in other lines of investigation. They correspond to
ideas which dominate different types of thought and form different
philosophical standpoints. The first starts from a teleological
conception of human nature, as an organism consciously striving
towards its end. The second assimilates ethics to a system of
legal enactments, and is connected with the jural conceptions of
theology and law. The two last are concerned to show that the
subject-matter of ethics are facts which have to be treated by the
ordinary inductive and historical methods. These different points
of view, however, are to be regarded as complementary rather than
as conflicting, although their complete synthesis must be worked
out in the region of general philosophy, and not on purely ethical
ground. Philosophy has thus to deal with the notions which determine
the scope and character of ethical thought; and in this way it
must necessarily pass from the purely speculative to the practical
point of view. If it is the business of philosophy to bring into
rational order the material supplied by experience, cosmical and
anthropological, it cannot be without bearing on the function of man
as a source of action in the world. The question, What are the ends
man is naturally fitted to attain? or--if we prefer so to express
it--What are the ends he ought to pursue? is not merely as natural
as the question, What can a man know of the world and of himself?
But the two questions are inseparably connected. To know man is to
know him not only as a thinking but also as an active being; while to
solve the problem of the ends of man implies knowledge both of his
nature and of the sphere of his activity.
[Sidenote: (_b_) Ethics necessary to complete philosophy.]
Much distrust is often expressed of metaphysics. But it is not denied
that the philosophy--whether metaphysical or not--in which our
most comprehensive view of the world finds its reasoned expression,
cannot neglect that aspect of things in which man is related to his
surroundings as a source of action. Recent ethical literature is
itself a proof of this fact. In its speculative developments, both
realistic and idealistic, the philosophy of the present day has made
the endeavour to connect its conceptions of the world of thought and
nature with the ends contemplated as to be realised in the realm of
action. Whatever difficulties may be involved in the transition from
the "is" to the "ought to be," it is yet implied that the transition
requires to be made, not merely in order that human activity may be
shown to be rational, but that reason itself may be justified by
leaving nothing outside its sphere.
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