The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Philosophy
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Economics; Philosophy
Goodness or badness, then, cannot be predicated of the motive. What is
good or bad in the man when actuated by one motive or another is his
disposition, or permanent attitude of mind, which is good or bad as
tending to produce effects beneficial to the community. It is to be
considered in regard to its influence on (1) his own happiness; (2)
other people's. The legislator is concerned with it so far as it is
mischievous to others. A man is held to be of a mischievous disposition
when it is presumed--for it is a mere presumption--that he inclines to
acts which appear to him mischievous. Here it is that "intentionality"
and "consciousness" come in.
Where the tendency of the act is good, and the motive is a social one, a
good disposition is indicated; where the tendency is bad, and the motive
is self-regarding, a bad disposition is indicated. Otherwise, the
indication of good or bad disposition may be very dubious or
non-existent; as may easily be seen by constructing examples. Now, our
problem is to measure the depravity of a man's disposition, which may be
defined as the sum of his intentions. The causes of intentions are
motives. The social motives may be called tutelary, as tending to
restrain from mischievous intentions; but any motive may become tutelary
on occasion. Love of ease, and desire of self-preservation, in the form
of fear of punishment, are apt to be tutelary motives.
Now we can see that the strength of a temptation equals the sum of the
impelling motives, minus the sum of the tutelary motives. Hence, the
more susceptible a man is to the standing tutelary motives, the less
likely is he to yield to temptation; in other words, the less depraved
is his disposition. Hence, given the strength of the temptation, the
mischievousness of the disposition is as the apparent mischievousness of
the act. Given the apparent mischievousness of the act, the less the
temptation yielded to, the greater the depravity of disposition; but the
stronger the temptation, the less conclusive is the evidence of
depravity. It follows that the penalty should be increased--_i.e._, the
fear of punishment should be artificially intensified, in proportion as,
apart from that fear, the temptation is stronger.
We now come to consequences. The mischief of the act is the sum of its
mischievous consequences, primary and secondary. The primary mischief
subdivides into original, _i.e._, to the sufferer in the first instance;
and derivative, to the definite persons who suffer as a direct
consequence, whether through their interest, or merely through sympathy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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