the assertion that such and such a thing is a duty, or has intrinsic
value, ever _a dictate of reason?_ But so far as I can gather, the
question really at issue, and expressed in these obscure ways, is the
one which I have tried to state. It is the question whether when we
judge (whether truly or falsely) that an action is a duty or a state
of things good, _all_ that we are thinking about the action or the
state of things in question, is simply and solely that we ourselves
or others have or tend to have a certain feeling towards it when we
contemplate or think of it. And the question seems to me to be of great
interest, because, if this is all, then it is evident that all the
ideas with which Moral Philosophy is concerned are merely psychological
ideas; and all moral rules, and statements as to what is intrinsically
valuable, merely true or false psychological statements; so that
the whole of Moral Philosophy and Ethics will be merely departments
of Psychology. Whereas, if the contrary is the case, then these two
ideas of moral obligation and intrinsic value, will be no more purely
psychological ideas than are the ideas of shape or size or number; and
Moral Philosophy will be concerned with characteristics of actions
and feelings and states of affairs, which these actions and feelings
and states of affairs would or might have possessed, even if human
psychology had been quite different from what it is.
Which, then, of these two views is the true one? Are these two ideas
merely psychological ideas in the sense which I have tried to explain,
or are they not?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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