Fundamental Ethics: An Ethical Analysis, Conducted By Way Of Question And Answer, For Use In Classes Of Moral Philosophy

Front matter

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Preface

The following pages contain a condensed treatise on the general philosophy of morals. The character of the work is fully indicated in the title "Fundamental Ethics/'

An endeavor has been made, throughout, 1. To give short, clear definitions of all essential terms ;

2. To force into prominence the groundwork and principles of practical ethical science;

3. To illustrate the abstract principles, when necessary, by examples from which their practical application in other cases may be readily inferred;

4. To concentrate attention upon the fact that there are fixed principles of conduct.

In the method employed, that of question and answer, the convenience, if not the need of beginners has been consulted. Students of ethics often spend much time upon concrete question whilst devoting very little to the principles that are necessary for the solution of those questions. Thus it is that in spite of their study they may remain with very vague views regarding many serious matters ; whereas, had they but acquired a thorough understanding of the principles, their mastery of practical problems would have been at once easy, rapid and secure. The direct question calls attention to important points which, in an undue haste to leave the abstract and

PREFACE.

take up the concrete, are too frequently accepted without examination. Yet the study of the concrete can never be scientific, and must always be uncertain in its conclusions, if the worthiness of the principles upon which it is based has not been subjected to the proper test. With these truths in view, it has been judged that the method here applied to the ethics is the one that holds out greatest hope of ensuring most widely the aim of the •book; since there is no scrutiny so exhaustive as the questioning analysis.

Contents

Page

Chapter I. Ethics And Man

Article I. Nature and Requirements of Ethics.

Nature of Ethics — Previous truths to be admitted — The will of man, though free, is responsible to its

Article II. Standard of Good and Evil.

Good and evil — Right and wrong — How to find the standard — A fundamental fact and a consequence — The purpose of creation — The system of the universe — The order of nature — The order broken .13

Article III. Man.

Man — Body and soul a unit — Reason and free will in right and wrong 16

Article IV. The End and the Good.

The end of anything — How found — Proximate, ultimate, and intermediate end — The "good" — The highest good — All goods, for man, subordinated to the highest good, as all man's acts are subordinated to the highest exercise of the act peculiar to human nature . 17

Chapter II. The Human Act

Article I. The Human Act and the Innate Tendency. The human act — The act of the man — Knowledge and free will — The purpose — The final purpose — The mistaken purpose — The good of reason — The good of the will — The innate tendency . 20

Creator

CONTENTS.

Page

Article II. The True and the Apparent Good.

The choice of the will — The true good and the apparent good — Evil, as evil, never chosen — Two guiding rules 24

Article III. Perfect Happiness.

Perfect happiness — Desired by all —Attainable — Found in the possession of the highest good — Not attainable in this life — How to arrive at it 26

Article IV. The Voluntary and the Free.

Spontaneous action — Voluntary and involuntary act — Elicited and commanded act — The voluntary, indirect and virtual — Distinction between free and voluntary . 30

Article V. Circumstances Affecting the Volutary.

Ignorance and concupiscence — Violence and fear — Invincible, vincible, and studied ignorance — A forced act — The voluntary in the habit 35

Article I. Moral Good and Moral Evil.

Morality — It belongs to the human act — Moral good and moral evil — The keeping or disturbing of the natural order of things — Moral good and moral evil for man — The human act, morally good, keeps man directed towards his last end — The word "moral" . . .41

Article II. Determinants of Morality.

Determinants of morality — Purpose, means, circumstances — Circumstances: relevant, irrelevant, aggravating, extenuating, specifying — Act: when materially or formally bad — The intention or the desire not accomplished — The indifferent act 44

Article III. False Views.

Opinion or human law does not affect the intrinsic morality of an act — No rule of morality in atheism, pantheism, materialism — The so-called "moral sense" . 49

Chapter III. Morality. Contents

Page

Article IV. Imputability.

Imputability — Attributable and imputable — An act im-

Chapter IV. Law

Article I. The Moral Law.

Law — The moral law — Its binding force — Law, rule, precept — Characters of law — Law binding only when

Article II. The Natural Law.

The natural law — Its existence — Readily known — A special testimony — The natural law is divine — It is that part of the eternal law which applies to man's free acts

— Natural law irrevocable, unchangeable . .54

Article III. Promulgation of the Natural Law.

Natural law promulgated by reason — Reason is not the law — False position of Kant — How rectified — What is meant by the expression "law of reason" . . . .57

Article IV. Obligation.

Obligation — Physical and moral freedom — Foundation of obligation — Mistake of rationalists — Office of reason

— Law prior to obligation 60

Article V. Knowledge of the Natural Law.

Knowledge of the natural law — Fundamental principles

— Immediate and remote conclusions — The first principle 63

Article VI. Command and Prohibition.

Affirmative and negative precepts — How they oblige . 65

Article VII. Sanction of Law.

Sanction — Sanction of the natural law — Natural consequence of violated law — Partial and complete sanction

— Sanction known — Threefold sanction .... 66 putable in so far as voluntary promulgated

CONTENTS.

Page

Article VIII. Positive Law.

Positive law — Its possibility — Divine and human — How known — Ultimate basis — Presupposes natural law — The unjust law — Ignorance in the transgressor of

Article IX. A Summary.

Summary — Essential difference between natural and positive law — Natural law enforced by the civil law . 73

Chapter V. Moral Conscience

Article I. Moral Conscience.

Moral conscience — True and false conscience — Culpability and fake conscience 75

Article II. Moral Certainty and Doubt.

Moral certainty — Inquiry — Invincible ignorance — Doubt — Examination — The unpromulgated law — An important restriction — Example — Education of conscience — "Feelings" are not conscience .... 77

Chapter VI. Aids And Hindrances To Observance Of Moral Order

Article I. The Passions.

The passions — Of the sensitive order — An instrument of the will — Not our guide — Why called bad — The primary passions 81

Article II. Habits: Virtues, Vices.

Habits — An act and a habit — A moral habit — Virtue and vice — The cardinal virtues : prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance 86

Sentimentalism — Sensism — Sensualism — Positivism — Utilhuman law

Chapter VII. Some Errors

itarianism

CONTENTS. 9

Page

Chapter VIII. Duty And Right

Duty and right — Moral obligation and moral power — Free will under law — Our essential relations . . .93

Chapter IX. Rights

Article I. Basis and Nature of Rights.

Law the principle of right and duty — Enforcing of rights — Impeded right — Inviolable moral power — Subject, term, matter, and title of right 96

Article II. Partition of Rights.

Innate and acquired rights — Alienable and inalienable rights 98

Chapter I. Ethics And Man

Article I. Nature and Requirements of Ethics.

Nature of Ethics — Previous Truths to be Known — The Will of Man, Free and Responsible.

1. Q. What is ethics?

A. The science of the rule of right and wrong.

2. Q. Why is it called a science ?

A, Because it gives the rule and the reason for the rule.

3. Q. What truths must be taken as a foundation by one who would study ethics ?

A, Sound ethics must be based on sound metaphysics. Sound ethics, therefore, must start by recognizing, especially, —

(1) The existence of one God, omnipotent, creator, infinitely wise and just ;

(2) The finite nature of man, composed of animal body and rational soul, which form one person ;

(3) The veracity of the faculties;

(4) The immortality of the human soul;

(5) The liberty of the human will.

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICS.

4. Q. Are these truths proved anywhere in philosophy?

A. Yes : they are proved in logic and in general and special metaphysics.

5. Q. Why are these truths required as a basis in ethics ?

A. Because (1) To deny the existence of God would be to deny the binding force of all law upon the will of man.

(2) To deny man's finite composite nature would be to deny him to be what he is and hence to deny the purpose of ethics.

(3) To deny the truthfulness of the faculties would be to doubt everything and thus render all reasoning useless.

(4) To deny the immortality of the soul would be to take away the final safeguard for the observance of the rule of right and wrong.

(5) To deny human liberty would be to deny all responsibility on the part of man; and hence to deny the very distinction between right and wrong in the human act.

6. Q. Do we here treat ethics, right and wrong, from the side of supernatural revelation?

A. No: we treat it as it is knowable by natural means, as natural knowledge. And we do not enter into the question how far our natural knowledge has been preserved free from error by supernatural revelation.

7. Q. For whom or for what is this rule of which we speak ?

A. For the human will.

8. Q. Is this rule a law ?

A. Yes: as we shall see later on.

ETHICS AND MAN.

9. Q. But, if the human will is free, how can it be subject to a law?

A. That question touches the keynote of ethics.

10. Q. How does it touch the keynote of ethics? A. Because there is no such thing as ethics unless

we recognize man to be both free and responsible, at the same time: free with the physical power to use his will one way or another, responsible for the way in which he uses it.

11. Q. To whom can a free will be responsible for the use of its free choice ?

A. To the one sole Being who has authority over a free created will, to its Author, God.

Article II. Standard of Good and Evil.

Good and Evil; Right and Wrong — How to Find the Standard — A Fundamental Fact and a Consequence — The Purpose of Creation — The System of the Universe — The Order of Nature — The Order Broken.

12. Q. Is the rule of right and wrong, then, simply the will of God in such sense that no matter what a thing is in itself, it can become good to-day and evil to-morrow, merely as God orders or forbids it?

A. Not so fast. There are things which are in themselves good, and things which are in themselves evil. That which is in itself good can never become in itself evil. That which is in itself evil can never become in itself good. There is a standard of good and evil — right and wrong, — an unfailing standard. God cannot but wish us to choose the good and reject the evil. His will, however, is law for the created will. Hence the rule of right and wrong becomes law for the human will.

13. Q. How shall we find the standard of good and evil — right and wrong?

A. By studying the nature of things.

14. Q. Does "good and evil" mean the same as "right and wrong"?

A. Not precisely. "Good" and "evil" refer to that to which the will may be directed, which the will may choose. "Right" and "wrong" refer to the act of the will, willing, choosing the good or the evil. Still the words are often substituted for one another. We are accustomed, in conversation, to call "good" "right," and "evil" "wrong," because it is right to will the good and wrong to will the evil.

15. Q. How then shall we discover what is good and what is evil?

A. By studying the nature of things.

16. Q. Will not this be an endless study?

A. No. What we want is a standard; and this we can get by taking account of some general principles.

17. Q. How must we begin?

A. By recognizing the fact of creation. In laying the foundation of ethics, it is absolutely necessary to keep steadily in mind the fact of creation by a Creator infinite in wisdom and in justice.

18. Q. What follows from this fact?

A. It follows that an infinitely wise Creator must have had a purpose in creating; for it is not the part of wisdom to act without a purpose.

19. Q. What is the general final purpose of the whole creation?

A. The general final purpose of the whole creation

ETHICS AND MAN.

must be something that refers to the Creator himself; for there is nothing beneath him that could be counted worthy of his action. Moreover, this same final purpose of the whole creation, taken as a unit, must of course be the final purpose of the existence of each individual being in the creation.

20. Q. How can each individual thing in creation tend to this final purpose?

A. Each individual thing in creation has its own peculiar special nature, with a special kind of action adapted thereto, and it can tend to the final purpose only by the orderly exercise of that peculiar nature placed in it by the Creator.

21. Q. What do we call the combination of the various beings of the created universe in their various relations to one another?

A. We call it the system of the universe.

22. Q. What do we call the proper subordination of these various parts of this system, and the subordinated harmony of these multifarious natures?

A. We call it the order of nature.

23. Q. How does each being contribute to the order of nature?

A. By acting according to its own nature.

24. Q. Are there beings that can act contrary to their own nature?

A. Yes.

25. Q. What beings are they?

A. Those that have free will — that is ourselves — human beings.

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICS.

Article III. Man.

Man — Body and Soul a Unit — Reason and Free Will in Right and Wrong

26. Q. What is a human being?

A. The human being, called man, is a composite being, made up of a material animal body and a spiritual soul. This spiritual soul is endowed with reason and free will.

27. Q. Is not man then two beings?

A. No. Spiritual and animal nature conspire in him to form the person, the unit, the man, governable by reason and free will.

28. Q. When does man act according to his nature? A. When he acts according to reason with free will ;

that is, when he acts freely, deliberately, according to his reason.

29. Q. What is it to act according to reason?

A. It is to do that which reason points out to be in keeping with the nature of things.

30. Q. What is it to act according to reason with free will?

A. It is to will deliberately that which reason points out to be in keeping with the nature of things.

31. Q. What, then, once more, do we mean by right and wrong?

A. Right and wrong refer to the direction of the will. We are said to do right when, after reason has pointed out something to be in keeping with the nature of things, we deliberately direct our will towards that something whether by choice, desire, approval, command, etc. We are said to do wrong, when we deliberately direct our

ETHICS AND MAN.

wills by choice, desire, approval, command, etc., to that which reason shows us to be a perversion of the order of things.

Article IV. The End and the Good.

The Bnd of Anything — How Found — Proximate, Ultimate, Intermediate End — The "Good" — The Highest Good — All Goods, for Man, Subordinated to the Highest Good, as All Man's Acts Are Subordinated to the Highest Exercise of the Act Peculiar to Human Nature.

32. Q. It has been said that the final purpose of each individual in the creation is the same as the final purpose of the whole creation. Has each individual in the creation also an immediate or proximate end of its existence ?

A. Yes. Since each individual in the creation has its own peculiar nature, this was given to it by the Creator to be exercised in its own peculiar manner : and the exercise of this nature or activity is the immediate or proximate end of its existence.

33. Q. What is meant by an end of anything? A. The purpose for which it exists.

34. Q. How can this purpose be discovered?

A. By studying the nature of the thing in question.

35. Q. Whose purpose is this?

A. The purpose of the Creator who gave things their nature.

36. Q. Are there various divisions of ends or purposes?

A. Yes. For, one purpose intended may be intended

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICS.

for another purpose ; and this for a third ; and the third for a fourth ; and so on.

37. Q. What is the first one intended (the nearest) called ?

A. The proximate end.

38. Q. What is the last one intended (the farthest off) called?

A. The ultimate end. If there be but one end intended, it is of course first and last, or proximate and ultimate.

39. Q. What do we call any purpose which is directed to a further purpose ?

A. An intermediate end or a means.

40. Q. What do we call the object which serves as the material upon which any natural power or activity exercises itself?

A. We call it the good of that power. Thus light is the good of vision; sound, of hearing; truth, of intelligence, etc. Sound cannot be called good for sight, nor light for hearing.

41. Q. When an object is found which fills the highest capacity for action of a being, what is such object called ?

A. Such object is called the highest good of that being, its summum bonum.

42. Q. How then is it with man? Since he possesses within himsdf so many faculties of different orders, — of the animal order and of the purely spiritual order, — has each of them its own good?

A. If we consider the separate faculties or capacities for action independently of one another, and independently of the person, man, to whom they belong, then of course each one has its own peculiar object upon which

ETHICS AND MAN.

it is good for such faculty to exercise itself. But we must remember that the faculties are not things independent and by themselves, but are for the person, the compound, man, taken as a unit, to whom they belong. They are subordinated to the compound in their existence. Hence they are naturally subordinated in their exercise, to the exercise of the compound, man, taken as a unit. Hence their exercise upon their objects will be good even for them only as subordinated to the exercise of the activity peculiar to the compound being, man.

43. Q. What is the proper, peculiar action of the composite being, man, called ?

A. A human action — a human act.

Chapter II. The Human Act

Article I. The Human Act and the Innate Tendency.

The Human Act — The Act of the Man — Knowledge and Free Will — The Purpose — The Final Purpose — The Mistaken Purpose — The Good of Reason — The Good of the Will — The Innate Tendency.

44. Q. What is a human act?

A. A human act is an act performed by man with knowledge and free will.

45. Q. Is every act of man a human act?

A. Not every act of man is a human act, because not every act of man is performed with knowledge and free will.

46. Q. It was said that the final purpose of the existence and action of man is a purpose that is in the will of the Creator. Now as man is endowed with intelligence and free will — to know and to choose — can he also set himself a purpose in his acts ?

A. Yes.

47. Q. When man acts without purpose can we call his act a human act ?

A. No. Because he does not bring into play those very faculties, intelligence, and free will, which characterize him as a human being.

THE HUMAN ACT.

48. Q. What then do you call such an act performed without a purpose, that is, performed without intelligence or free will?

A. It is called simply an act of the man, but not a human act. This is the case whenever either knowledge or free will is wanting. Thus, when persons talk in their sleep, they do not perform human acts because they do not know what they are doing. On the other hand, a person may stumble and fall. He really falls. He knows at the time that he is falling, but the falling is not the result of his free will; it is against his will. The act is not a human act. Again, a person may drink poison, thinking it to be pure water. He knows that he is drinking and drinks of his own free will. In so far, therefore, as the mere drinking is concerned, there may be said to be a human act. But he neither knows that he is drinking poison nor does he will to drink poison. Hence his drinking poison is not a human act. He knows and wills the drinking, but not the drinking poison.

49. Q. What is the purpose for which man acts in a human action ?

A. Always something which the will chooses to attain as presented to it by the understanding.

50. Q. Can the will aim at one purpose for the sake of attaining a further end, and this for a third, and so on?

A. Yes, the will can keep on intending a further purpose, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth, and so on, until there is no further purpose, that is, until it reaches a final end or purpose.

51. Q. What end or purpose does the will propose to itself in willing?

A. The will is free and can intend various purposes.

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICS.

52. Q. But is there not some common purpose intended by all the acts of the will ?

A. Yes, the will always proposes some good of the person willing.

53. Q. Is this good always the good of the whole man, the person taken as a unit ?

A. No. It may be the good of a single faculty, of a single capacity, whose action, at the time or in the manner chosen, may be detrimental to the whole man taken as a unit. Just as in the case of the animal body, a man may will the satisfaction of his palate in a degree or at a time that will make the acquisition of such local and partial good, really detrimental to the whole body; so in regard to the entire man, the will may choose some individual good of a particular faculty that will be detrimental to the unit, the human being, the composite personality of the man.

54. Q. When does the willing of a particular good become detrimental to the good of the human being?

A. Whenever it interferes with the acquisition of the goods that are suitable for the activities that characterize the human being as a human being ?

55. Q. Which activities are these?

A. Reason, and free will under the guidance of reason.

56. Q. What object constitutes the good of reason? A. Truth.

57. Q. Is it this or that particular truth regarding the things about us ?

A. No. Because this or that particular truth will not fill the capacity of the mind for knowing.

58. Q. Will it then be the collection of truths reasoned out one after another ?

THE HUMAN ACT.

A. No, for thus we should never get through. There would always be something more to know and our capacity would ever remain unsatisfied. Now, we cannot admit that an infinitely wise Creator gave man an endless tendency which could not possibly attain its . object.

59. Q. What then?

A. Then it follows that there must be some one object which of itself constitutes the good of reason; which must be attainable by reason; and which, being known, will fill the capacity of the mind for knowing.

60. Q. But is such object attainable by reason?

A. It must be, or we shall have to admit that an infinitely wise Creator created man without an object, that is to say, put in him a tendency at once inevitable and insatiable.

61. Q. What constitutes the good of the will?

A. The real good of the Will must be that which is the good of the person to whom the will belongs. The will is a blind faculty. It has nothing to do but to choose, and to command the other faculties in keeping with its choice.

Every being in the Creation has an innate tendency to its own peculiar good, and no innate tendency to any other good. No being in creation can act directly against this tendency for the simple reason that it is not endowed with the power so to act.

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICS.

Article II. The True and the Apparent Good.

The Choice of the Will— The True Good and the Apparent Good — Evil, as Evil, Never Chosen — Two Guiding

62. Q. If every being in the creation has an innate tendency to its own peculiar good, and if no being can act directly against this tendency, how does it come to pass that man does, sometimes, choose that which is not the good of the entire personality of man, taken as a unit?

A. To understand this we must remember that the will does not see for itself. It chooses only upon the representation of the intelligence. Now ignorance, prejudice, passion, may go far towards giving a bias to the mind and putting out in strong light the good of a part of the man, of a single faculty, and hiding the good of the whole being.

We must distinguish between the true good and the apparent good of anything. The true good is the object suited to perfect the whole being by giving play to the faculties in whose exercise lies the perfecting of such being; or we may say that their very exercise is the true good of such being. Hence if we have a being composed of various parts which conspire to make one specific entity, the true good of that being cannot be the good of any particular part or faculty, but it must be that which is the good of the whole being. Hence as in such a being each particular part will have its own special nature, hence its own special mode of action, and hence its own special proximate end, and hence its own special suitable good; and just as these special natural modes of action must be sub-

Rules.

THE HUMAN ACT.

ordinated to one another to produce the proper resultant which is the true natural action of the whole being, so in like manner are the respective goods subordinated to one another. The true good of the being will be what perfects the being considered as a unit. That which perfects only one or another part or faculty, considered separately and apart from the view of the whole, is but an apparent good. Hence it is, that the natural special end of any being and its highest good must be sought from the knowledge of the complete specific nature of that being; from the sum of all its faculties in proper subordination ; from the natural resultant tendency which is the specific tendency of that being.

63. Q. Does the will then never choose evil under the aspect of evil?

A. Never. When that which it chooses is really detrimental to the person, it chooses the same under the aspect of good, as an apparent good, the reason being averted whether wilfully or not from the consideration of the true nature of the thing as evil.