Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(1) The abstract duty to refrain from hurting our fellows, and to give
positive help, to whomever we can, will find constant application in
connection with each specific problem we are to study. But a few
general remarks may be pertinently made here. In the first place, we
need to be reminded that to help requires insight and tact and
ingenuity; it is not enough to respond to obvious needs or actual
requests; we must learn to understand our fellows' wants, remember
their tastes, seek out ways to add to their happiness or lighten their
burdens. For another must realize the importance of manners, cultivate
kindliness of voice and phrase, courtesy, cheerfulness, and good humor.
Surliness and ill temper, glumness, touchiness, are inexcusable; nor
may we needlessly burden others with our troubles and disappointments
- the motto, "Burn your own smoke," voices an important duty. Again,
we must remember that people generally are lonely and in need of love;
we must be generous in our affection. It is sometimes said that love
given as a duty is a mockery; and doubtless spontaneous and irresistible
love is best. But it is possible to cultivate love. If we think of
others not as rivals or enemies, but as fellows whose interests we
ourselves have at heart, if we try to put ourselves in their place,
see through their eyes, and enjoy their pleasures and successes, we
shall find ourselves coming to want happiness for them and then feeling
some measure of affection. Men and women do not have to be perfect
to be loved; all or nearly all are love worthy, if we have it in us
to love.
(2) The question how far we should tolerate what we believe
to be wrong in others, and how far we should work to reform them, is
of the most difficult. Certainly moral evil must be fought; the counsel
to "resist not evil" cannot be taken too sweepingly. No one can sit
still while a big boy is bullying a smaller, while vice caterers are
plying their trades, while cruelty and injustice of any sort are being
perpetrated. In lesser matters, too, we must not be inactive, but use
our influence and persuasion to call our fellows to better things.
They may well at some later day reproach us if we shirk our duty to
help them see and correct their faults; still more may we be reproached
by others who have been harmed by faults that we might have done
something toward curing. Often a single gentle and tactful admonition
has turned the whole current of a man's life. The truest friendship
is not too easy- going; it stimulates and checks as well as comforts.
Emerson happily phrases this aspect of the matter: "I hate, when I
looked for a manly furtherance, or at least a manly resistance, to
find a mush of concession. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend
than his echo."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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