Natural law. An essay in ethics

Front matter

THE

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN

PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY.

Contents

i.

NATURAL LAW.

PAGB

II. Customary And Positive Law

Positive law deals with the constant relations of men to each other

following from their nature as men . . . 19

Query, Have these relations any common quality ? . 19

Most general natural law that society could not subsist without law,

i.e., if all volitions were incalculably unstable . . .20 viii

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Customary law = a record of the habitual performance, by men of the same kind, of actions of the same kind, similar causes producing similar effects till some of the conditions vary . 21 Consciousness of constraint, the characteristic of positive law : acts that "have to be done," without desire, in obedience to external pressure voluntarily submitted to . . .22 Custom passes into law when uniform practices cease to be instinctive, and men become conscious of the generality of an usage as a motive for conforming to it, or a deterrent from its breach 24 When customs have become divergent, the will of the community

expresses itself through a special official organ . . .25

Influence of political centralisation on legislation . . .27

Distinction between legislation and government . . .28

Differentiation of sovereign and subject . . . .29

Law requires the co-operation of two natures, tendencies, or wills,

i.e., the subject's consent . . . . -3°

Natural history of primitive potentates, the patriarch and the chief 31 Law formulates the real relations inter se of the subjects of law . 37 "Whence the feeling that natural constancies of relation " ought " to

be maintained ? . . . . . . . .38

Distinction between fact and law . . . . .41

Law only gives the rule of life for the normal man . . 43

Distinction between jus and justa. We ask, both, What is justice ?

and What kind of actions are just? . . . .46

Natural selection of possibilities in the direction of equity . . 48

Littre" and Kant . . . . . 51

Justice = the best general rule practically applicable . . 52

No standard of right or justice except the real tendency of the kind

to its own good . . . . . . -54

The only " natural right " of individuals what the common good

requires them to have ..... 59

Metaphysical theories of the source of legal obligation . . 62

III. Morality

Sense of obligation = consciousness of causation . . .75 Habit not a motive . . . . . . 77

Difficulty of separating the practical and speculative side of moral

Duty always conceived as relative to a person owning the obligation 79 Human feelings conditioned by natural facts, and not conversely 83 Divergent theories of obligation, theistic, sentimental, and utilitarian ........ 85

Right being relative to the conscience, what is the good commonly

thought right or moral ? .... 86

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Three kinds of good : natural good, or full healthy life . . 87

Sensible good, or pleasure . . . . . .90

Moral good, or the pursuit of natural good through obstacles which

make the pursuit self-conscious . . . . .98

Such obstacles threefold . . . . . -99

Utilitarianism fails to motive evolution, or to explain the cases in

which sensible and natural good do not coincide . . 101

Natural necessity of self-denial ..... 107

A morality of some kind — or formula of obligation, imposed by the nature of the agent in its fixed relations with the surrounding medium — exists necessarily, whatever the nature of its actual injunctions . . . . . . 117

The tendencies commonly called moral, those which conduce to the

natural good of the kind . . . . .119

A kind could not subsist with essentially self-destructive tendencies 121 The sacrifice of the natural good of individuals only liable to become moral because men are members of a social body, so that their natural perfection includes the discharge of social functions, in the manner most conducive to the natural perfection of the whole ........ 126

IV. Religion

The natural history of emotion . . . . 133

Comparative authority of feeling and reason -. . . 135

All human knowledge, belief, and perception natural, because ali received through the natural faculties of man . . .136 Men find themselves affected by forces that are Not-man, and do not

at once conceive any of these to be unconscious . 139

Ceremonial observances associated with religion . . . 141

Religious feeling first a reaction under the apprehension of uncontrollable power ....... 142

Then under an apprehension of the moral influences of the Not-self

Agnosticism and the Cultus of the Unknowable . . . 147

The metaphysics of ignorance . . . . . 151

Personification of the imagined cause of a felt impression . .154 Arbitrary grouping of events by each several centre of consciousness . . . . • . . . . 156

Emotional vicissitudes explained in the same way as material incidents . . . , 1 . . . 158 Historical idolatries . . . „ , , .165 Dualism ..,.„... 168 Pantheism 169

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Mystical and natural love and worship . . . .171

Comte : Humanity great, but not supreme . . . .178

The religious sentiment one of complete dynamic acquiescence . 182 Eeligious " conversion " of the will to such acquiescence in the real

tendency of all that is . . . . . .183

" Conviction of sin" ...... 185

Naturalistic piety and its limits ..... 190

Whether the religious sentiment is equally reasonable in all ages . 193 Piety most rational when human aspirations after the Best possible

find themselves most nearly in harmony with the spontaneous

course of things . . . . . . .196

Atheistical religion ....... 198

Eational faith only belief in the reality and trust in the power of

Discrepancy between, even, lawful wishes and powers . . 205

V. The Natural History Of Altruism

Eetrospect ........

The "sufficient reason" for moral conduct naturally identified with the standard of morality .....

The standard of Conscience ......

Of Utility . . . . . . ...

Of Perfection . .

Action instinctive or rational .....

Instinctive action disinterested as often as not

Power of acting develops more freely than power of enjoying

Power of acting with or upon other men craves exercise as it develops . .

The natural history of Altruism ...

Social discords accidental ......

Social wisdom and virtue consist mainly in harmonising the tendencies that exist, not in bringing them all into conformity with some outer standard ......

The general law of social duty enforced by penal sanctions, the force of which upon the human will is due to the same tendencies which caused the law to be proclaimed ....

VI. The Natural Sanctions Of Morality

Causes and effects inseparable, so the dislike felt for the natural consequences of an immoral act, otherwise attractive, acts as a sanction of the law against it . . . . 245

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The natural law against murder and theft .... 246

Against inconstancy ....... 247

Against suicide ....... 252

The natural history of charity ..... 254

The pleasures of vice ....... 258

Waste of moral force in the exercises of false religion . . 260

Doctrine of remission of sins an immoral evasion of the stringency

of the natural sanction that no accomplished act can be undone 261 Remorse, the consciousness of having acted against the true nature 265 Human will gives voice and effect to human nature . . .271

VII. Social And Individual Perfection

The best possible attainment, at any given period, a question of fact 275 Various types of specific excellence only comparable when tried by

the standard of social serviceableness .... 278

Mutual dependence of the ruling few and the subservient many . 280 Alternative vocations : politics, industrialism, art, science, philanthropy ........ 280

Political ideals : postulates ; that progress is normal and privilege

unjust : definition of social progress .... 282

Danger of social disorganisation comes not from the fact of social

development, but from its partial and unequal extent . . 283

Popular and providential theories of the function of government . 284 Differentiation of social functions; self-willed service honourable

and compulsory obedience base ..... 288

Natural ability privileged to render the most honourable services . 289 But beneficial services must be accepted as well as proffered, and so

far the leaders of society are at the mercy of their followers . 292 Growing complexity of the social ideal which makes the obligations of individuals less clear and notorious .... 295 The ideal in legislation neither more nor less attainable than the

ideal in government ...... 300

Legal rights of property subject to the common interest . . 302

Effect on proprietary rights of an absolute physical limitation of

supply in the case of any commodity in demand, e.g., land . 304

The waiving of anti-social rights a step towards the formation of

improved social custom which may in time rank as law . 307

Organisation of public services ..... 308

Theory of the production and distribution of wealth . . 309

Natural versus competitive value : cost and utility the essential

Third element in the price of labour : the WiUe zum Leben of the xii

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Personal motives not always forthcoming to urge every one to the end generally most desirable . . . . . 315

Inexpedient to interfere with the accidental consequences of unequal natural ability . . . ' . . . 317 Desirable to substitute a rational estimate of value for the fluctuating

competitive price ...... 318

Partition of the " unearned increment " of social wealth . . 318 Natural value not diminished by increased production, nor real purchasing power ....... 323

- Honorary services the natural price of unearned wealth . -325 The ideal state on all points practically unattainable ; query, Whether

the best possible be an approach to the unattainable ? . . 32*6 Demand that ethical theories shall carry with them their application

to the practical emergencies which concern us . . . 327 The duty of individuals traced out by the social and the personal

ideal conjointly ....... 328

Temporary, reluctant and conditional exaltation of the philanthropic reformer . . . . . .331

^Esthetic emotion ....... 335

Positive truth ....... 337

Moral diffidence of a critical introspective age . . . 339

The asceticism of secular fastidiousness .... 341

No real antagonism possible between the claims of social duty and

individual perfection .' . . . . 344

Specialisation of function among individuals usually a gain, but increasing differentiation of classes a loss, if it extends beyond an external division of labour to a radical contrast of nature , ^46

Personal completeness a condition of the best action, however highly

specialised ....... 34/