Outlines of a Critical Theory of EthicsDewey, John
Philosophy
Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
Dewey, John
Ethics
Let us consider again the horse-car conductor (see Sec. LVI). After he
has analyzed the situation which faces him and decided that a given
course of conduct is the one which fits the situation, does he require
some additional faculty to inform him that this course is the one
which should be followed? The analysis of practical ideas, that is, of
proposed ends of conduct, is from the first an analysis of what should
be done. Such being the case, it is no marvel that the conclusion of
the reflection is: "This should (ought to) be done."
Indeed, just as every judgment about existent fact naturally takes the
form 'S _is_ P', so every judgment regarding an activity which executes
an idea takes the form, 'S ought (or ought not) to be P'. It requires
no additional faculty of mind, after intelligence has been studying
the motions of the moon, to insert itself, and affirm some objective
relation or truth--as that the moon's motions are explainable by the
law of gravitation. It is the very essence of theoretical judgment,
judgment regarding fact, to state truth--what is. And it is the very
essence of practical judgment, judgment regarding deeds, to state that
active relation which we call obligation, what _ought to be_.
The judgment as to what a practical situation _is_, is an untrue or
abstract judgment.
The practical situation is itself an _activity_; the needs, powers, and
circumstances which make it are moving on. At no instant in time is
the scene quiescent. But the agent, in order to determine his course
of action in view of this situation, has to _fix_ it; he has to arrest
its onward movement in order to tell what it is. So his abstracting
intellect cuts a cross-section through its on-going, and says 'This
_is_ the situation'. Now the judgment 'This ought to be the situation',
or 'in view of the situation, my conduct ought to be thus and so', is
simply restoring the movement which the mind has temporarily put out
of sight. By means of its cross-section, intelligence has detected the
principle, or law of movement, of the situation, and it is on the basis
of this movement that conscience declares what ought to be.
Just as the fact of moral law, or of authority, of the incumbency of
duty, needs for its explanation no separation of the 'is' from the
'ought' (see LVI), but only recognition of the law of the 'is' which
is, perforce, a law of movement, and of change;--so the consciousness
of law, 'the sense of obligation' requires no special mental faculty
which may declare what ought to be. The intelligence that is capable
of declaring truth, or what is, is capable also of making known
obligation. For obligation is only _practical_ truth, the 'is' of doing.
See upon this point, as well as upon the relation of laws
and rules to action, my article in Vol. I, No. 2, of the
International Journal of Ethics, entitled 'Moral Theory and
Practice'.
LXII.
Conscience as Emotional Disposition.
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