Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(2) It is true that we admire good will without consideration of the
effects it produces, and even when it leads to disaster. But if good
will USUALLY led to disaster we should never have come to admire it.
Chance enters into this world's happenings and often upsets the normal
tendencies of acts. But we have to act in ways that may normally be
expected to produce good results. And we have to admire and cherish
that sort of action, in spite of the margin of loss. The admiration
that we have come to feel for goodness is partly the result of social
tradition, buttressing the code that in the long run works out to best
advantage; and partly, of course, the spontaneous emotion that rises
in us at the sight of courage, heroism, self-sacrifice, and the other
spectacular virtues. But however naive or sophisticated a reaction
it may be, its psychogenesis is perfectly intelligible, U and its
existence is no proof of the supernal nature of the goodness of "good
will."
(3) Kant argues as follows: "Nothing can possibly be conceived, in
the world or out of it, which can be called good WITHOUT
QUALIFICATION, except a good will." [Footnote: Op. cit, sec. I.]
He goes on to show that wit, courage, perseverance, etc, are all
bad if the will that makes use of them is bad as in the case of a
criminal; while health, riches, honor, etc, may inspire pride or
presumption, and so not be unmitigated thing that can in every
case be called good.
But is this so? May not a man have good will and yet do much mischief?
If courage, wit, etc, need to be employed by good will, so does good
will need to be joined with common sense, knowledge, tact, and many
other helpers. Good will is good only if it is sanely and wisely
directed; else it may go with all sorts of fanaticism. If one says,
"It is still good qua good will," we may reply, "Yes, but so are all
goods; courage is always good qua courage, knowledge qua knowledge,"
etc. All harmless joys are good without qualification, and all goods
whatever are good except as they get in the way of some greater good
or lead to trouble.
(4) Kant's formula "good will" is ambiguous. OF COURSE a GOOD act of
will is good; that is a mere tautology, and gives us no guidance
whatever. Which acts of will ARE good is our problem. Kant, however,
worked out his empty formula into a concrete maxim, "Act as if the
maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a universal law of
nature." But how should we WISH others to act in the given situation?
It would be quite possible for a lustful man to be willing that
unrestrained lust should be the general rule; he would be much more
comfortable and freer if it were. There is nothing in the law of
consistency to direct him; men might be consistently bad as well as
consistently good. We have still no criterion, only an appeal to
coolness, to detachment from hot impulses and selfishness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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