Reason and Right: A Critical Examination of Richard Price's Moral Philosophy

217 Pages·1970·6.172 MB·English

by  William Donald Hudson

^4-
REASON
AND
RIGHT
A Critical Examination of
Richard Price’s Moral Philosophy
W. D. HUDSON
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
University of Exeter
FR (
17
© W. D. Hudson 1970
Copyright, © 1970 by Freeman, Cooper & Company
All rights to reproduce this book in whole or in part
are reserved, with the exception of the right to use
short quotations for review of the book.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 76-719372
SBN-8S735-511-8
To my children
I
i
I
Contents
PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
Chapter i THE QUESTION STATED I
I. The Discernment of Right and Wrong I
II. Naturalism in Ethics 4
II.i. The Naturalistic Fallacy 5
II.ii. Dispute about the Faculty that Perceives Rightness 8
Il.iii. Antecedent Right 9
Chapter 2 EPISTEMOLOGY ii
I. Reason ‘Superior’ to Sense 13
II. The Understanding as a Source of New, Simple Ideas 18
II.i. Kinds of Ideas 19
II.ii. Uses of‘Idea’ 21
Il.iii. Ideas of the Understanding 22
Substance 23
Cause 26
Abstract Ideas 32
II. iv. Intuitionism 37
(a) Intuition and Learning 40
(/>) Intuition and Valid Reasoning
4i
(c) Degrees of Intuition? 43
Chapter 3 MORAL EPISTEMOLOGY 45
I. Price’s Moral Intuitionism 45
Li. Right is a Simple Idea 46
1.11. Is Rightness a Relation or a Quality? 48
I. iii. Reason and Sense in Morals 50
II. Right and the Nature of Things 59
II. i. Moral Ideas and Necessary Truth 6o
11.11. Moral Fitness as Sui Generis 63
viii CONTENTS
III. Criticism of Price 64
IH.i The Connexion between Moral Judgements and Action 64
Ill.ii. The Meaning of Moral Language 67
Ill.iii. Right and Reasons Why 73
Chapter 4 OBLIGATION 84
I. Right and Ought 84
II. Reason and Happiness 86
III. Good and Ill Desert 89
IV. Benevolence Not the Whole of Virtue 95
V. The Heads of Virtue 102
V.i. Duty to God 102
(«) Empirical Statements about Human Psychology 102
(/>) Metaphysical or Theological Statements 103
(c) Statements about the Deliverances of the Developed
Moral Consciousness 104
V.ii. Duty to Self 105
V.iii. Beneficence 109
V.iv. Gratitude 109
V.v. Veracity no
V. vi. Justice 113
VI. Issues Arising 116
VI. i. How Docs the Idea of Obligation Arise? 116
VI.ii. Do All Men Intuit the Heads of Virtue? 118
Vl.iii. Can Moral Principles be Unified? 121
VI.iv. What Do Price’s Illustrations Prove? 126
VI.v. What Is the Relation between Deontological and
Teleological Theories? 128
Chapter 5 PRACTICAL VIRTUE 131
I. Absolute and Practical Virtue 131
II. The Essentials of Practical Virtue 138
Il.i. Liberty 138
(a) The Alleged Self-evidence of Liberty 138
(t) Motives and the Self 139
(c) Responsibility and Freedom 140
(i) Libertarianism or Indeterminism 141
(ii) Self-determinism 146
(</) Necessity and Freedom 152
CONTENTS ix
II.ii. Intelligence 161
Il.iii. Regard for Rectitude 162
(<i) Is Regard for Rectitude a Sufficient Principle of Action? 167
(6) Is Regard for Rectitude the Only Principle of Actions
which Engage our Esteem of the Agents? 171
Il.iv. Essentials of Good Character 173
Chapter 6 MORALITY AND THE DIVINE
NATURE 176
I. The Relation of Morality to the Divine Nature 176
II. The Teleological Argument 179
III. The Cosmological Argument 181
IV. Benevolence and Virtue in God 182
V. Rewards and Punishments 183
NOTES 187
INDEX 203
■
Preface
Richard Price, with whose thought I shall be mainly concerned
in this book, participated in the great eighteenth-century debate about
the nature and content of conscience, which was conducted among
British philosophers. His Review brings the issues involved in that de­
bate into clear focus and presents skilfully and persuasively the ease for
rational intuitionism. Many of the issues with which Price dealt arc
matters of lively controversy among present-day philosophers. The
Review still provides a valuable introduction to the principal questions
and difficulties in morals. Price is not so well known as some of his
contemporaries but he was a better philosopher than most of them. He
deserves more attention than he has received, and this book is offered
as a contribution to the interest in him which seems of late to have been
reviving.
My aim has been both expository and critical. I have tried to set forth
Price’s views as clearly as possible, to indicate their relevance in the
debate about conscience to which they were a contribution, and to
show how they appear in the light of contemporary analytical moral
philosophy. I hope that this book will provide readers who come new
to ethical theory with an introduction to the subject which has the
advantages of being rooted in the thought of one moral philosopher
while at the same time drawing upon the work of many others in
subjecting his thought to critical examination. Scholars, I venture also
to hope, will find it useful to have a full-length study of Price’s Review.
I gladly acknowledge the debt which I owe to other writers in moral
philosophy and which will be apparent throughout the following
pages. In particular, I should like to record my thanks to Professor
D. J. O’Connor, Head of the Department of Philosophy in this Uni­
versity, who supervised my early work on Price and who, in the
production of this book as in so many other ways, has been unfailingly
helpful and shown me many kindnesses. My thanks arc also due to
Mrs Pamela Huby of the University of Liverpool, with whom I
xii PREFACE
discussed some of the matters dealt with in this book. I hardly need
add that the persons named bear no- responsibility for the opinions
which I have expressed or any of the mistakes which I may have made.
Two secretaries, Miss M. Gardiner and Miss P. Ffookes, assisted me in
preparing the typescript and I am grateful to them for their patience
and industry, as I am also to Mrs E. Ridgeon for her help in correct­
ing the proofs.
DONALD HUDSON
University of Exeter
fa