The Data of EthicsWilliams and Norgate, 1879 - 288 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accompanying achieved actions activities acts to ends adapted adjustments of acts admitted aggregate altruism altruistic pleasure animals arises Aristotle becomes belief benefit bodily bring caused co-operation complete conceived conception connexions consciousness consequences considered constituted COVENT GARDEN creatures definite degree Dhimals division of labour doctrine effects efforts egoistic satisfactions emotions entailed ethical evils evolution of conduct evolved existence feelings fulfilment functions further gratification greater greatest happiness greatest happiness principle guidance habitually hedonism Hence human ideal ideas implied increase individual injurious justice kind labour larvæ less living means ment mental moral motions nature needs Negrito offspring organism paradox of Hedonism physical pleasures and pains principle Principles of Psychology produce prompted pursuit recognize reflex actions relations relative remote requirements respect savage sensations sentiency shown social SOCIAL STATICS society structures Suppose sympathy theory things tion trait truth ultimate utilitarianism welfare wrong yield
Popular passages
Page 19 - is a definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with external coexistences and sequences.
Page 222 - I must again repeat what the assailants of utilitarianism seldom have the justice to acknowledge, that the happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct is not the agent's own happiness but that of all concerned. As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator.
Page 164 - Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
Page 52 - For where no covenant hath preceded, there hath no right been transferred, and every man has right to everything and consequently, no action can be unjust. But when a covenant is made, then to break it is unjust and the definition of injustice is no other than the not performance of covenant. And whatsoever is not unjust is just.
Page 38 - as each one by close attention and reflection may convince himself, a natural and immediate determination to approve certain affections and actions consequent upon them ; " and since, in common with others of his time, he believes in the special creation of man, and all other beings, this " natural sense of immediate excellence " he considers as a supernaturally derived guide.
Page 123 - To make my position folly understood, it seems needful to add that, corresponding to the fundamental propositions of a developed Moral Science, there have been, and still are, developing in the race, certain fundamental moral intuitions ; and that, though these moral intuitions are the results of accumulated experiences of Utility, gradually organized and inherited, they have come to be quite independent of conscious experience.
Page 52 - Therefore before the names of just, and unjust can have place, there must be some coercive power, to compel men equally to the performance of their covenants, by the terror of some punishment, greater than the benefit \J they expect by -the breach of their covenant...
Page 123 - ... thought, apparently quite independent of experience; so do I believe that the experiences of utility, organized and consolidated through all past generations of the human race, have been producing corresponding nervous modifications, which, by continued transmission and accumulation, have become in us certain faculties of moral intuition — certain emotions responding to right and wrong conduct, which have no apparent basis in the individual experiences of utility. I also hold that just as the...