Читать книгу A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution - Cora May Williams - Страница 30

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Alfred Barratt's "Physical Ethics" (1869) deals with First Principles, "Pure," as distinguished from "Applied," Ethics, the aim of the science, as stated by the author, being "to try to establish the first principle which is the condition of further progress. If we can establish a principle a priori, and then verify its universality by an appeal to mental phenomena and to philosophical theories, its existence as a fact will be made certain; if, in addition to this, we can connect it with laws still more general and with the family of natural sciences, it will be no longer a fact, but become a scientific law, a section of the universal code; and the title of this essay will be justified."

Part First of "Physical Ethics" is occupied with the statement of axioms, definitions, and propositions "derived from general experience." They are as follows:—

"Axiom 1.—Actions, like objects, are capable of being classified according to their properties, and of being measured by a definite standard.

"Obs.—This axiom merely means that the qualities of actions, like those of objects, are fixed and constant, so that the same action has always the same properties and moral value, and, under the same circumstances, always produces the same effect. … It follows from this axiom that it is possible to act so as to attain a definite object, and thus a general end of action may be arrived at. …

"Axiom 2.—The end of action (being some common property or effect) is a possible object of knowledge.

"Axiom 3.—We are capable of being affected by any external object only through our faculties, or (in other words) as a part of our consciousness.

"Axiom 4.—Faculties are known only by their action, or (in other words) so far as they are portions of our consciousness.

"Axiom 5.—The sphere of action lies in the adaptation of 'inner' to 'outer' sequences, of faculties to the laws of nature.

"Axiom 6.—The constitution of man and other animal beings is an organism consisting of a number of parts, each having its appropriate function, and the end of each part results from the performance of its function.

"Axiom 7.—Approbation is the standard whereby we judge of the moral value of actions, and is the universal mark of the due performance of a function and of the attainment of an end."