The origin and development of the moral ideasWestermarck, Edward
Philosophy
The origin and development of the moral ideas
Westermarck, Edward
Ethics; Ethics -- History; Prehistoric peoples
From non-moral resentment we shall pass to the emotion of moral
indignation. That this is closely connected with anger is indicated by
language itself: we may feel indignant on other than moral grounds,
and we may feel "righteous anger." The relationship between these
emotions is also conspicuous in their outward expressions, which, when
the emotion is strong enough, present similar characteristics. When
possessed with strong moral indignation, a person looks as if he were
angry,[101] and so he really is, in the wider sense of the term. This
relationship has not seldom been recognised by moralists, though it
has more often been forgotten. Some two thousand years ago Polybius
wrote:--"If a man has been rescued or helped in an hour of danger,
and, instead of showing gratitude to his preserver, seeks to do him
harm, it is clearly probable that the rest will be displeased and
offended with him when they know it, sympathising with their neighbour
and imagining themselves in his case. Hence arises a notion in every
breast of the meaning and theory of duty, which is in fact the
beginning and end of justice."[102] Hartley regarded resentment and
gratitude {43} as "intimately connected with the moral sense."[103]
Adam Smith made the resentment of "the impartial spectator" a
corner-stone of his theory of the moral sentiments.[104] Butler found
the essential difference between sudden and deliberate anger to
consist in this, that the "natural proper end" of the latter is "to
remedy or prevent only that harm which implies, or is supposed to
imply, injury or moral wrong."[105] And to Stuart Mill, the sentiment
of justice, at least, appeared to be derived from "the animal desire
to repel or retaliate a hurt or damage to oneself, or to those with
whom one sympathises."[106]
[Footnote 101: Notice, for instance, Michelangelo's Moses.]
[Footnote 102: Polybius, _Historiae_, vi. 6.]
[Footnote 103: Hartley, _Observations on Man_, i. 520.]
[Footnote 104: Adam Smith, _op. cit._ _passim_.]
[Footnote 105: Butler, _op. cit._ p. 458.]
[Footnote 106: Stuart Mill, _Utilitarianism_, p. 79.]
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