Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
What we need is not to abandon but to steadily improve our code; and
whereas any one can pick flaws, only the man of trained mind and
controlled desire can discover feasible lines of advance. "When all
is said, there is nothing as yet to be changed in our old Aryan ideal
of justice, conscientiousness, courage, kindness, and honor. We have
only to draw nearer to it, to clasp it more closely, to realize it
more effectively; and, before going beyond it, we have still a long
and noble road to travel beneath the stars." [Footnote: Maeterlinck,
"Our Anxious Morality," in The Measure of the Hours.] The conception
of morality as the organization of interests will be found in Plato's
Republic and Aristotle's Ethics, and in many recent ethical books and
papers. Among them are R. B. Perry's Moral Economy, G. Santayana's
Reason in Science (chap. IX); William James, "The Moral Philosopher
and the Moral Life" (in the Will to Believe and Other Essays).
A discussion of whether morality really makes for happiness will be
found in Leslie Stephen, System of Ethics, chap. X; W. L. Sheldon,
An Ethical Movement, chap. VIII. For Nietzsche's theory, see his Beyond
Good and Evil. There are many excellent replies; a brief but adequate
one will be found in Perry, op. cit, chap. I.
PART III
PERSONAL MORALITY
CHAPTER XV
HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY
With the general nature and justification of morality in our minds,
we may now seek to apply our criteria of conduct to the concrete
problems that confront us, first taking up those problems which,
however important their social bearings, are primarily problems of
private life, problems for the individual to settle, and then turning
to those wider problems which the community as a whole must
grapple with and solve by public action.
Bodily health is the foundation of personal morality; to act at all
there must be physical energy available; and, other things equal,
the man with the greatest store of vitality will live the happiest and
most useful life. Christianity has too often forgotten this fundamental
truth, which needs emphasis at the very outset of our concrete studies
in morality.
What is the moral importance of health?
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