concepts without percepts are empty; that the term means
nothing except the conceptual interpretation of a unique synthetic
process in which an act placed in relation to a standard is thereby
given new meaning. So long as custom or law forms the only or the
dominant factor in the process, we have little development of the ideal
concept right as distinct from a factual standard. But when reason and
intelligence enter, particularly when that creative activity of
intelligence enters which attempts a new construction of ends, a new
ordering of possible experience, then the standardizing process is set
free; a new self with new possibilities of relation seeks expression.
The concept "right" reflects the standardizing, valuing process of a
synthetic order and a synthetic self. Duty born similarly in the world
of social relations and reflecting especially the tension between the
individual and the larger whole is likewise given full moral
significance when it becomes a tension within the synthetic self. And as
thus reflecting the immediate attitudes of the self to an ideal social
order both right and duty are not to be treated merely as means to any
value which does not include as integrant factors just what these
signify.

This view is contrary to that of Moore, for whom "right does and can
mean nothing but 'cause of a good result,' and is thus identical with
useful."[70] The right act is that which has the best consequences.[71]
Similarly duty is that action which will cause more good to exist in the
Universe than any possible alternative. It is evident that this makes it
impossible for any finite mind to assert confidently that any act is
right or a duty. "Accordingly it follows that we never have any reason
to suppose that an action is our duty: we can never be sure that any
action will produce the greatest value possible.[72]

Whatever the convenience of such a definition of right and duty for a
simplified ethics it can hardly be claimed to accord with the moral
consciousness, for men have notoriously supposed certain acts to be
duty. To say that a parent has no reason to suppose that it is his duty
to care for his child is more than paradox. And a still greater
contradiction to the morality of common sense inheres in the doctrine
that the right act is that which has the best consequences. Considering
all the good to literature and free inquiry which has resulted from the
condemnation of Socrates it is highly probable--o