Now, in the foregoing interpretation no reference has been made to any
conditions peculiar to the physical type of judgment-situation. The
ground of explanation has been the feature of arrest of activity for the
sake of reconstruction, and this, if our analyses have been correct, is
the essence of the ethical and economic situations as well as of the
physical. Can there then be found in these two spheres experiences of
the same nature and emerging under the same general conditions as our
Perception and Recognition coefficients of reality? If so, then our case
for the objective significance and value of ethical and economic
judgment is in so far strengthened. (1) In the first place, then, the
object in its economic character is problematic, assuming a desire on
the agent's part to apply it, as means, to some new or freshly
interesting end, because it has already been, and accordingly now is,
set apart for other uses and cannot thoughtlessly be withdrawn from
them. Extended illustration is not needed to remind one that these
established and hitherto unquestioned uses will haunt the economic
conscience as obtrusively and inhibit the desired course of economic
conduct with as much energy of resistance as in the other case will any
of the contrary promptings of a physical object. Moreover, the
Recognition coefficient may as easily be identified in this connection.
If one's scruples gain the day, in such a case one has at least a sense
of comforting assurance in the conservatism of his choice and its
accordance with the facts, however unreconciled in another way one may
be to the deprivation that has thus seemed to be necessary. If, however,
the new end in a measure makes good its case and the modes of
expenditure which the "scruples" represented have been readjusted in
accordance with it, then the means, no less than before the new
interpretation had been placed upon them, will enjoy the status of
Reality in the economic sense. They will be real now, however, not in
the obtrusive way, as presenting aspects which inhibit the leading
tendency in the judgment-process, but, instead, as means having a fixed
and certain character in one's economic life, which, after the
hesitation and doubt just now superseded, one may safely count upon and
will do well to keep in view henceforth. (2) In the second place, mere
mention of the corresponding ethical experiences must suffice, since
only extended illustration from literature and life would be fully
adequate: on the one hand, the "still small voice" of Conscience or the
authoritativeness of Duty, "stern daughter of the voice of God;" and, on
the other, the restful assurance with which, from the vantage-ground of
a satisfying decision, one may look back in wonder at the possibility of
so serious a temptation or in rejoicing over the new-won freedom from a
burdensome and repressive prejudice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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