The ethics of Hercules : $b A study of man's body as the sole determinant of ethical valuesGivler, Robert Chenault
Philosophy
The ethics of Hercules : $b A study of man's body as the sole determinant of ethical values
Givler, Robert Chenault
Ethics; Psychophysiology
And finally, we may say that it is time to recognize that since
each one of the “seven ages of man” has its own particular mental
and physical characteristics, so likewise does each of these ages
have its own particular virtues. Too long have parents whispered
themselves into the belief that the child ought to strive to copy
the man, for the result of this unconscious egotism has only forced
such parents to discover that when their child has grown up, they
immediately wanted him to be an infant again! But it is becoming
recognized among those who learn to look at the world without such
an exaggerated self-preference, that every phase of life,—infancy,
puberty, youth, manhood, middle-age, maturity, and senescence,—brings
with it ever new ethical opportunities in the appearance of traits
peculiar to each phase, and that it is in the development of these
various potentialities into their own natural end-product that the
ultimate ethical values consist.
_Is Vice the Opposite of Virtue?_
It now remains to be seen what the word “vice” means, first by
scanning the uses to which it is popularly put, and second, by
reference to its physiological implications. Accordingly, then, we
find the following general classes of things called vices.
Any fault, mistake, or error may be called a vice, as, for instance,
a “vice of method.” This signification is practically identical with
one use of the term “bad.” (E. g., bad workmanship, defective, below
par; sometimes called poor or worthless.)
Likewise, any imperfection, defect, or blemish falls under this
category, as “a vice of conformation,” “a vice of literary style.”
Here again this use of the concept may be identified with some of
the significations of “bad” and “wrong.” These first two classes of
vice may be related to one another in the sense that the first is
the cause, and the latter the effect,—the erroneous (vicious) method
producing the blemish (vice) in the product.
In our third class are found the significations most commonly implied
by this concept today, namely, those habits or actions contrary to
public policy, and especially those which arouse violent censure.
Such are gluttony, indolence, mendacity, drunkenness, debauchery, and
the like, which might also be included in any complete list of the
things which are called “bad,” “evil,” and “wrong.” The peculiarly
specific element which enters here, however, is the damage to the
organism which these vices entail. Sometimes, also, this concept is
used in the expression, “an age of vice,” a phrase which denotes
a period of time in which these censured practices are extremely
prevalent, or given particular notice.
The term “vice” is also used in describing animals not thoroughly
trained, as when it is said: “That bird-dog has the vice of mouthing
the quarry,” or “I must break this horse of his vice of cribbing.”
Formerly, indeed, some inherited bodily defects were spoken of as
“constitutional vices,” but this use of the term is now rare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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