Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
very little discussed, and in the employment of this great power we
are astonishingly backward.
A practicable mechanism of self-control.
Let us, then, outline briefly the chief points necessary to note in
using this force for our own benefit. A necessary preliminary is to
study our problems, analyze our difficulties, make sure exactly what
we want to do and wherein we fail; and thereby to pin our aspirations
down to definite resolves to act in certain ways rather than in certain
other ways. Our ideals are apt to be vague and even conflicting, or
else so abstract and general as to fail to direct us with precision
to any concrete act. We realize dumbly that we are not what we
should be, and we grope for better things; but just wherein the
difference consists, just where is the point where we go off the track,
is uncertain in our minds. As in physical achievement, half the success
lies in applying the effort at just the right place. The men who have
accomplished much are those who have known exactly what they wanted
to do and have concentrated their energies upon that. If we have so
much self-reformation to accomplish as to dissipate our attention,
it may be wise to decide which changes are most immediately important
and to limit our endeavors at first to those.
Included in this preliminary task is the fixation in our minds of the
reasons for the lines of conduct we intend to follow, all the motives
that draw us toward them. This will show us whether we, i.e., our
better selves, really wish to acquire these new habits, are really
convinced that they are right, or whether we are merely putting before
ourselves some one else's ideal which we vaguely feel we ought or are
expected to follow. One can often convince one's self quite thoroughly
of ideas one did not really believe in by this method of suggestion;
but if we are to control our own morals we wish to control them not
by some one else's ideals but by our own. If a thing is really right
to do there must be definite and legitimate reasons for the doing which
can appeal to our intelligence and our emotions; these we should bring
into the foreground of our thought and express as clearly and forcibly
as possible.
We have now the material for our work. We must so hammer these
resolutions and the motives to them into our heads that they will be
vividly conscious to us when they are needed. In this process there
are three main points to be remembered - Concentration, Iteration,
and Assertion.
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