Outlines of a Critical Theory of EthicsDewey, John
Philosophy
Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
Dewey, John
Ethics
There is an interesting recognition of this in Mill
himself, (see his Autobiography, p. 142). And in his
Utilitarianism, in discussing the feasibility of getting
happiness, he shows (pp. 318-319) that the sources of
happiness are an intelligent interest in surrounding
things--objects of nature, achievements of art, incidents
of history--and especially an unselfish devotion to others.
Which is to say that man does not find satisfaction
in pleasure as such at all, but only in objective
affairs--that is, in complete interpretation, in activity
with a wide and full content. Further consideration of the
end of desire and its relation to pleasure may be found in
Green, Op. cit., pp. 123-132; pp. 163-167. Bradley, Mind,
Vol. XIII, p. 1, and Dewey, Psychology, pp. 360-365.
XIV. Criticism--_Continued_.
Character and Pleasure.
It now being admitted that the end of desire is activity itself in
which the 'object' and 'pleasure' are simply factors, what is the
moving spring to action? What is it that arouses the mind to the larger
activity? Most of the hedonists have confounded the two senses of
motive already spoken of, and have held that _because_ pleasure is the
end of desire, therefore it is the moving spring of conduct (or more
often that because it is the moving spring of conduct it _therefore_ is
the end of desire).
Mr. Stephen (Science of Ethics, pp. 46-58), although classing himself
as a hedonist, has brought out this confusion very clearly. Ordinary
hedonism confounds, as he shows, the judgment of what is pleasant--the
supposed end--with the pleasant judgment--the moving spring. (See also
Bradley, Op. cit., pp. 232-236). It may be admitted that it is feeling
which moves to action, but it is the _present_ feeling which moves.
If the feeling aimed at moves, it is only as through anticipation it
becomes the present feeling. Now is this present feeling which moves
(1) mere pleasure and (2) mere feeling at all? This introduces us to
the question of the relation of pleasure (and of feeling in general) to
character.
1. If the existing state of consciousness--that which moves--were pure
pleasure, why should there be any movement, any act at all? The feeling
which moves must be in so far complex: over against the pleasure felt
in the anticipation of an end as satisfying, there must be pain felt in
the contrasting unsatisfactory present condition. There must be tension
between the anticipated or ideal action, and the actual or present
(relative) non-action. And it is this tension, in which pain is just
as normal an element as pleasure, which moves. Desire is just this
tension of an action which satisfies, and yet is only ideal, against an
actual possession which, in contrast with the ideal action, is felt as
incomplete action, or lack, and hence as unsatisfactory.
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