FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68  
69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   >>   >|  
y. It is the study of human action as productive, or non-productive, of some certain general good. But here comes the point at issue--What is this general good, and what is included by it? The positive school contend that it is general happiness; and there, they say, is the answer to the great question--What is the test of conduct, and the true end of life? But though, as we shall see in another moment, there is some plausibility in this, there is really nothing in it of the special answer we want. Our question is, What is the true happiness? And what is the answer thus far?--That the true happiness is general happiness; that it is the happiness of men in societies; that it is happiness equally distributed. But this avails us nothing. The coveted _happiness_ is still a locked casket. We know nothing as yet of its contents. A happy society neither does nor can mean anything but a number of happy individuals, so organised that their individual happiness is secured to them. But what do the individuals want? Before we can try to secure it for them, we must know that. Granted that we know what will make the individuals happy, then we shall know what will make society happy. And then social morality will be, as Professor Huxley says, a perfectly legitimate subject of scientific enquiry--then, but not till then. But this is what the positive school are perpetually losing sight of; and the reason of the confusion is not far to seek. Within certain limits, it is quite true, the general good is a sufficiently obvious matter, and beyond the reach of any rational dispute. There are, therefore, certain rules with regard to conduct that we can arrive at and justify by strictly scientific methods. We can demonstrate that there are certain actions which we must never tolerate, and which we must join together, as best we may, to suppress. Actions, for instance, that would tend to generate pestilence, or to destroy our good faith in our fellows, or to render our lives and property insecure, are actions the badness of which can be scientifically verified. But the _general good_ by which these actions are tested is something quite distinct from happiness, though it undoubtedly has a close connection with it. It is no kind of happiness, high or low, in particular; it is simply those negative conditions required equally by every kind. If we are to be happy in any way, no matter what, we must of course have our lives, and, next to our live
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68  
69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

happiness

 

general

 

answer

 

actions

 

individuals

 

equally

 

scientific

 

society

 
matter
 

conduct


question

 

productive

 

school

 
positive
 

justify

 
tolerate
 
required
 
methods
 

demonstrate

 
conditions

arrive

 

strictly

 

negative

 

obvious

 

sufficiently

 

rational

 

dispute

 

regard

 

scientifically

 
verified

badness
 
insecure
 
render
 

property

 

limits

 

tested

 
undoubtedly
 
distinct
 
connection
 

fellows


Actions
 

simply

 

instance

 

suppress

 

destroy

 

pestilence

 

generate

 

Before

 

special

 

moment