The Philosophy of the Practical: Economic and EthicCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
The Philosophy of the Practical: Economic and Ethic
Croce, Benedetto
Economics; Ethics; Will
We owe to the false conception by coordination, not only the two
monstrous little concepts of _disinterested actions_ and of those that
are morally _indifferent, licit, or permissive,_ but others also, which
have been deduced by means of a somewhat different casuistic from the
same general hypothesis. Indeed, in the preceding case, useful and
moral, posited as apart and parallel, were maintained one extraneous
to the other and at peace between themselves. But nothing forbade that
warlike plans should be attributed to those two entities, just as when
two coordinate animal species are posited, we may suppose, either
that the individuals of each one mind their own affairs and allow
the individuals of the other species to live and to prosper in peace,
or that the one takes to persecuting the other, sometimes injuring
or destroying it and sometimes being by it injured or destroyed.
Thus were and are obtained concepts of _moral anti-economic_ actions
and of _anti-economic moral_ actions, of _immoral economic_ actions,
and of _economic immoral_ actions, four concepts which are all four
to be rejected. Moral action can never be accomplished at a loss:
morality is for the moral man the supreme advantage in the situation
in which he finds himself, and it would be erroneous to measure it
by comparison with what an individual without morality would do in
the same situation, for, as we know, individual and situation are
all one, in such a way that a like comparison is impossible. In a
similar manner, an anti-economic action can never be moral; at the
most it will not even be amoral, or will not even posit the primary
and generic condition of morality, that is, it will not be action,
but inert contemplation. An immoral action can never be economic,
because immorality implies internal disagreement and strife between
one volition directed to the universal and another directed to the
merely individual, hence the result will be practical inconclusion
and infecundity, dissatisfaction and remorse; that is to say, just
the opposite of utility and economicity. In like manner, an economic
action can never be immoral: at the most (when it is merely an economic
action), it will be amoral.
[Sidenote: Pleasure and the economic activity, happiness and virtue.]
The bond of unity and distinction that exists between the concepts of
the useful and the moral and the consequent negation of the formula of
coordination, help to solve in a definite way the intricate questions
relating to _pleasure and morality, happiness and virtue._
[Sidenote: _Pleasure, pain and feeling._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account