[HEDONICS SEPARATE FROM ETHICS.]
I am not at all satisfied with the coupling of happiness with ethics, as
is usually done. Ethics is the sphere of duty; happiness is mentioned
only to be repressed and discouraged. This is not the situation for
unfolding all the blossoms of human delight, nor for studying to allay
every rising uneasiness. He would be a rare ethical philosopher that
would permit full scope to such an operation within his grounds; neither
Epicurus nor Bentham could come up to this mark. But even if the thing
were permitted, the lights are not there; it is only by combining the
parent psychology and the hedonic derivative, that the work can be done.
It is neither disrespect nor disadvantage to duty, that it is not
mentioned in the department until the very end. To cultivate happiness
is not selfishness or vice, unless you confine it to self; and the mere
act of inquiring does not so confine it. If you are in other respects a
selfish man, you will apply your knowledge for your own sole behoof; if
you are not selfish, you will apply it for the good of your fellows
also, which is another name for virtue.
But the obstacles to a science of happiness are not solely clue to the
gaps and deficiencies in our psychological knowledge; they are equally
owing to the prevailing terrorism in favour of self-denial at all hands.
Many of the maxims as to happiness would not stand examination if people
felt themselves free to discuss them. You must work yourselves into a
fervour of revolt and defiance, before you call in question Paley's
declaration that "happiness is equally distributed among all orders of
the community". I do not know whether I should wonder most at the
cheerful temperament or the complacent optimism of Adam Smith, when he
asks, "What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health,
who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience?"[13] When the greatest
philosophers talk thus, what is to be expected from the unphilosophic
mob? The dependence of health on activity is always kept very loose, it
may be for the convenience of shutting our mouths against complaints of
being overworked. To render this dependence precise is a matter of pure
psychology.
* * * * *
[SOCIOLOGY.]
Before coming to Ethics I must, as a preparation, view another
derivative branch of psychology, the old subject of politics and
society, under its new name, SOCIOLOGY. It is obvious that all terms
used in describing social facts and their generalities are terms of
mind: command and obedience, law and right, order and progress, are
notions made up of human feelings, purposes, and thoughts.
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