Readings in Ethical Theory PDF
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Readings in Ethical Theory Readings in Ethical Theory [ica Selected and Edited by WILFRID SELLARS and JOHN HOSPERS Department of Philosophy University of Minnesota New York APPLETON .-CENTURY-CROFTS, INC. COPYRIGHT, 1952, BY APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS, INC. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. 6914 PRINTED IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA one Contents PREFACE INTRODUCTORY The Elements of Ethics . . . . . . . . Bertrand Russell I A SAMPLE ETHICAL THEORY Utilitarianism . . . . . . . . . . . .G.E. Moore 35 I MOORE AND THE NATURALISTIC FALLACY The Indefinability of Good . . . . . . . .G.E. Moore The Place of Definition in Ethics . . . . . . G.C. Field 92 The Naturalistic Fallacy . . . . . . . .W.K. Frankena 103 Subjectivism and Naturalism in Ethics . . . . .A4. C. Ewing 115 jun THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHICAL INTUITIONISM Ethical Judgments . . . .Henry Sidgwick 137 Does Moral Philosophy Rest ona Mistake? . . H. A. Prichard 149 The Meaning of “Right” . . . . . . . . Sir David Ross 163 What Makes Right Acts Right? . . . +. Sir David Ross 174 Different Meanings of “Good” and “Ought” . . . A.C. Ewing 210 A Suggested Non-Naturalistic Analysis of Good . . 4. C. Ewing 231 Ethical Intuitionism . . . . . . . . P.F. Strawson 250 wv THE NATURALISTIC REJOINDER Hypostatic Ethics . . . . . . . . . George Santayana 263 The Construction of Good . . . . . . . . Jobn Dewey 272 25607 CONTENTS vi 292 Value as Any Object of Any Interest . . . . R. B. Perry The Nature of Goodness . . . . . . Sir David Ross 310 Value and Obligation in Dewey and Lewis .. Morton G. White 332 Moral and Non-Moral Values: a Study in the First Principles of Axiology . . . . . . C4. Campbell 340 Some Reflections on Moral-Sense Theories in Ethics . C.D. Broad 363 Vv THE EMOTIVE THEORY A Suggestion about Value . . . . . . .W.H.F. Barnes Critique of Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . 4] Ayer 393, of Critique of Ayer . . . . . . . . Sir David Ross 405 Moral Positivism and Moral Aestheticism . . . . EF Carritt The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms . . . C. L. Stevenson 415 The Emotive Theory of Values . . . . . . . A J. Ayer 430 A Reply to My Critics (Excerpt) . . . . . .G.E. Moore 432 Vi THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONDUCT AND THE CONCEPT OF OBLIGATION Mill and the Hedonistic Principle . . . . . .G.E. Moore 443 Bishop Butler's Conception of Human Nature . . C. D. Broad 451 Remarks on Psychological Hedonism . . . . . C.D. Broad 464/ Duty and Interest (Excerpt) . . . . . . . H.A. Prichard 469 A Criticism of Kant . . . . . . . . . . GC. Field 485” “Ought” and Motivation . . . . . . . . . W.D. Fak 492 Obligation and Motivation . . . . . . . Wilfrid Sellars 511 Evaluation and Obligation: Two Functions of Judgments in the Language of Conduct . . . . H.D. Aiken 518 vil MORAL FREEDOM, GUILT, AND RESPONSIBILITY Free Will and Responsibility . . . . . . . . A K. Stout 537 Ethical Judgments and Avoidability . . . . . C. L. Stevenson 549 Free-Will and Psychoanalysis = . . . . . John Hospers 560 Moral Freedom in Recent Ethics . . . . . . H.D. Lewis 576 Guilt and Freedom . . . . . .H. D. Lewis 597 H. D. Lewis on the Problem of Guile Lo... . G. A Paul 621 vii CONTENTS VIII THE PROBLEM OF JUSTIFICATION Prolegomena to a Theory of the Moral Criterion . C. A. Campbell 631 On the Idea of a Philosophy of Ethics . . . . James Balfour 645 Ethics as Pure Postulate . . . . . . . . D.C. Williams 656 Validation and Vindication: An Analysis of the Nature and the Limits of Ethical Arguments . Herbert Feigl 667 Objectivity in Morals. . . . . . . . . William Kneale 681 SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS Books Lo 701 Articles and Essays 703 Preface The enthusiastic response to Readings in Philosophical Analysis has reinforced our conviction that there is a genuine need for collections of important papers and other readings in the various areas of philosophy. The present volume is an attempt to satisfy this need in the field of ethical theory. More specifically, our aim has been to provide a balanced and first-hand account of the theoretical controveries that have developed in ethics since the publication in 1903 of Moore's Principia Ethica. With the exception of a very few cases in which it seemed clear from the beginning that an item belonged in our collection, we have pon- dered our choices seriously and long. In many cases it was extremely dif- ficult for us to make up our minds. More than one “final” list was scrapped when excluded items made their absence felt, and had it not been for the necessity of meeting a deadline, this process might have gone on indefi- nitely. “In Deliberation, the last Appetite . . . immediately adhaering to the action . . . is that wee call the WILL. . . .”* In this sense only did we “will” the following group of selections rather than any one of a number of lists between which, like Buridan’s ass, we hesitated. Though the volume as 2 whole is organized by topics rather than by publication date, we have followed, ceteris paribus, the chronological or- der of items within each section, thus reproducing the sequence in which controversy developed. However, we have occasionally seen fit to violate chronological order even here, namely when the logical or pedagogical order of ideas was such that an issue could be more clearly grasped by doing so. For example, in Part VII, the essay “Free-will and Psychoanaly- sis,” though chronologically later, has been placed before the three re- maining essays of the section, inasmuch as the empirical material it con- tains gives body to the more abstract treatment of moral freedom in the remaining essays. And Campbell's “Prolegomena to a Theory of the Moral Criterion,” though it appeared much later than the essay by Bal- four which follows it, has been placed at the beginning of Part VIII be- cause of its continuity with the closing items of the previous section. * Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part 1, Chapter 6, quoted from the Clarendon Press (Oxford) edition, 1909, p. 46. . 1x XxX PREFACE Teachers who use this book should by no means feel it incumbent upon them to assign the material in the order in which it is presented in this anthology. As a matter of fact, the order in which the selections are printed is the result of highlighting only a few of the complex interrela- tionships which exist between them. It is useful primarily as a point dappui for the exploration of the controversies within controversies to be found in the literature of ethical theory, but it is not the order in which the selections are necessarily to be read or taught. We can conceive of several equally valid sequences in which the readings might be studied, and have no doubt that colleagues who use the book will think of still others. Since many of the essays deal with a variety of topics, it was by no means obvious in many cases where a given essay belonged, and our grouping has been accompanied by an awareness of the fact that the com- partments are not water-tight and many selections bulge their compart- ments. We hasten to add that we did not begin with the Part headings and look for material appropriate to them; rather the headings varied with the successive lists of essays in a process of mutual accommodation. Our thanks are due to the many friends and colleagues who have aided and encouraged us in this enterprise, and particularly to Professor William Frankena of the University of Michigan, whose detailed sugges- tions and comments at all stages have been invaluable, though he must not be held responsible for the contents of the volume. We wish finally to tender our apologies and regrets to those whose essays, sometimes at the last moment, we were obliged to omit; particularly in those cases where permission to reprint had already been secured from both author and publisher. The bibliography at the end of the volume exhibits the richness from which we had to choose, and our publishers have indeed been generous in giving us as much space as they have. This book should be of particular use in introductory courses in ethics at the senior college level, second courses in ethics, courses in eth- ical theory, and seminars in moral philosophy and theory of value, It also contains invaluable material for courses and seminars in contemporary philosophy and in philosophical analysis. We wish to express our deep appreciation to the authors of the arti- cles included in this anthology for their kind permission to reprint, either in full or by way of excerpt, the material here presented. Our gratitude is also extended to the original editors and publishers of these essays for their friendly codperation. Specific acknowledgment is made on the first page of each section. Ww. S. J. H. INTRODUCTORY
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