Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
Sympathize, then, as we all must with these anti-happiness preachers,
we may point out that their intuitions are quite compatible with a
sane view of the ultimate meaning of morality. If morality does not
exist for human welfare, what is it good for? And what else can welfare
ultimately be but happiness? Other proposed ends we shall presently
consider. But the happiness-account of morality leads to no dangerous
laxity. If any eudemonistic moralists have lived loosely, it was
because they did not realize what really makes for happiness or had
not strength of will to cleave to it, not because they saw happiness
as the criterion. An immature perception of this as the criterion without
a full recognition of its bearings may have misled some; it is possible
to see a general truth clearly and yet evaluate wrongly in concrete
situations. But the converse of the truth that morality makes for
happiness is the truth that the way to attain happiness is morality.
No lesson could be more salutary. Correct concrete evaluations are
more important than correct abstract generalizations, and Carlyle is
nearly always on the right side in the former. But his influence would
have been still more wholesome if he had added to his sound sermonizing
a sane and clearly analyzed theory.
Does the end justify the means?
Our account of morality may be called the eudemonistic account, from
the Greek eudemonia, happiness, or the teleological account, from
telos, an end. It asserts, that is, that morality is to be judged by
the end it subserves; that end is happiness. We have seen the sort
of protest that arises with respect to the word "happiness." We may
now note a danger that arises from the use of the concept "end"; it
finds expression in the familiar proverb, "The end justifies the means."
Conduct is to be judged by the end it subserves; therefore, if the
end is good any means may be used to attain it. This has been the defense
of much wrongdoing. The Jesuits who lied, slandered, cheated, and
murdered, to promote the interests of the Church, the McNamara
brothers, who dynamited buildings and bridges as a means toward the
final end of attaining for laborers a just share of the fruits of their
labor, the suffragettes who have been burning private houses, sticking
up mail-boxes, and breaking windows, have justified their crimes by
reference to the great ends they expected thereby to attain. What shall
we say to this plea?
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