Outlines of a Critical Theory of EthicsDewey, John
Philosophy
Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
Dewey, John
Ethics
Thus Green says (Op. cit., p. 244): "In truth a man's
reference to his own true happiness is a reference to the
objects which chiefly interest him, and has its controlling
power on that account. More strictly, it is a reference
to an ideal state of well-being, a state in which he
shall be satisfied; _but the objects of the man's chief
interests supply the filling of that ideal state_." See the
argument as put by Alexander (Moral Order and Progress,
pp. 199-200). Alexander has also brought out (Ibid., pp.
207-210) that even if we are going to use a quantitative
standard, the idea of a sum is not a very happy one. It
is not so much a sum of pleasures we want, as a certain
proportionate distribution and combination of pleasures.
"To regard the greatest sum of pleasures as the test of
conduct, supposing that we could express it in units of
pleasure, would be like declaring that when you had an
atomic weight of 98 you had sulphuric acid. The numerical
test would be useless unless we knew what elements were
to be combined, and in what proportion. Similarly till we
know what kinds of activities (and therefore what kinds
of pleasures) go with one another to form the end, the
greatest sum of pleasures will give us only the equivalent
of the end, but will not tell us what the composition of
the end is, still less how to get at it; or, to put the
matter more simply, when we know what the characters of
persons are, and how they are combined in morality, we then
estimate the corresponding sum of pleasures." (p. 209.)
II. A certain quality of pleasure the end. Some moralists, notably John
Stuart Mill, introduce considerations regarding the quality of pleasure
into the conception of the end. "It is quite compatible," says Mill,
"with the principle of utility to recognize the fact that some kinds
of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others." (p.
310.) Is it compatible? Is kind of pleasure the same thing as pleasure?
does not strict hedonism demand that all kinds of pleasure equally
present as to intensity in consciousness shall be of the same value?
To say otherwise is to give up pleasure as such as the standard and to
hold that we have means for discriminating the respective values of
pleasures which simply, _as feelings_, are the same. It is to hold,
that is to say, that there is some standard of value external to the
pleasures as such, by means of which their moral quality may be judged.
In this case, this independent standard is the real moral criterion
which we are employing. Hedonism is surrendered.
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