As regards this idea, there is again a difference of opinion among
those who hold that it is a psychological idea, as to _what_ idea it
is. The majority seem to hold that it is to be defined, somehow, in
terms of desire; while others have held that what we are judging when
we judge that one state of things is or would be intrinsically better
than another, is rather that the belief that the one was going to be
realized would, under certain circumstances, give more pleasure to some
man or set of men, than the belief that the other was. But the same
objections seem to me to apply whichever of these two views be taken.
Let us take desire. About whose desires am I making a judgment, when I
judge that one state of things would be better than another?
Here again, it may be said, first of all, that I am merely making a
judgment about my own. But in this case the view that my judgment is
merely about my own psychology is, I think, exposed to an obvious
objection to which Westermarck's view that my judgments of moral
obligation are about my own psychology was not exposed. The obvious
objection is that it is evidently not true that I do in fact always
desire more, what I judge to be better: I may judge one state of things
to be better than another, even when I know perfectly well not only
that I don't desire it more, but that I have no tendency to do so. It
is a notorious fact that men's strongest desires are, as a rule, for
things in which they themselves have some personal concern; and yet
the fact that this is so, and that they know it to be so, does not
prevent them from judging that changes, which would not affect them
personally, would constitute a very much greater improvement in the
world's condition, than changes which would. For this reason alone the
view that when I judge one state of things to be better than another I
am merely making a judgment about my own psychology, must, I think, be
given up: it is incredible that we should all be making such mistakes
about our feelings, as, on this view, we should constantly be doing.
And there is, of course, besides, the same objection, as applied in
the case of moral obligation: namely that, if this view were true, no
two men could ever differ in opinion as to which of two states was the
better, whereas it appears that they certainly sometimes do differ in
opinion on such an issue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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