=69.= But this bearing upon practical Ethics, such as it is, is not
what is commonly meant when it is maintained that Ethics must be based
on Metaphysics. It is not the assertion of this relation which I have
taken to be characteristic of Metaphysical Ethics. What metaphysical
writers commonly maintain is not merely that Metaphysics can help us to
decide what the effects of our actions will be, but that it can tell us
which among possible effects will be good and which will be bad. They
profess that Metaphysics is a necessary basis for an answer to that
other and primary ethical question: What ought to be? What is good in
itself? That no truth about what is real can have any logical bearing
upon the answer to this question has been proved in Chapter I. To
suppose that it has, implies the naturalistic fallacy. All that remains
for us to do is, therefore, to expose the main errors which seem to
have lent plausibility to this fallacy in its metaphysical form. If
we ask: What bearing can Metaphysics have upon the question, What is
good? the only possible answer is: Obviously and absolutely none. We
can only hope to enforce conviction that this answer is the only true
one by answering the question: Why has it been supposed to have such a
bearing? We shall find that metaphysical writers seem to have failed to
distinguish this primary ethical question: What is good? from various
other questions; and to point out these distinctions will serve to
confirm the view that their profession to base Ethics on Metaphysics is
solely due to confusion.
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