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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by Borden Parker Bowne
That was not first which was spiritual, but that which was natural, and afterward that which was spiritual. But the spiritual is not something apart from the natural, as a kind of detached movement; it is rather the natural itself, rising toward its ideal form through the free activity of the moral person. The natural can be understood only through the spiritual, to which it points; and the spiritual gets contents only through the natural, in which it roots. As a consequence, the field of ethics is life itself, and, immediately, the life that now is. And our moral task is to make this life, so far as possible, an expression of rational good-will. In this work we have a double guide. Internally, we have a growing moral ideal; externally, we have a growing insight into the tendencies of conduct. Neither of these can be deduced from the other, and both are alike necessary. For life has two poles. It demands for its perfection both outward fortune and happiness and inward worth and peace. A conditioned life like ours cannot reach an ideal form, unless it be in harmony both with its objective environment and with its subjective ideals. Either of these elements, when viewed apart from the other, is an abstraction of theory, and a source of confusion, if not a mischief. If we consider only the inner worth and peace, ethics runs to leaves. If we consider only the outer fortune and happiness, ethics runs to weeds. There is no need to ask which factor is first, as both should be first, last and always. The moral life finds its chief field in the service of the common good. Neither virtue nor happiness is attainable as a direct abstract aim. It is a commonplace that happiness eludes direct pursuit; and it is equally true, though less generally recognized, that virtue is alike elusive. Our nature acts spontaneously and normally only when we are taken out of ourselves and our attention is directed to our normal objects. The man who is seeking to do as he would be done by, and to love his neighbor as himself, is in a much better way than the man who is engaged in self-culture and the pursuit of virtue. The greatest need in ethics is the impartial and unselfish will to do right. With this will, most questions would settle themselves; and, without it, all theory is worthless. The selfish will is the great source not only of wars and fightings, but also of dishonest casuistry and tampering with truth and righteousness. One bent on doing wrong never lacks an excuse; and one seeking to do right can commonly find the way. Presupposing this will to do right, the great need in ethical theory is to renounce abstractions, as virtue, pleasure, happiness, and come into contact with reality. Most of the theoretical contentions of the world would vanish if brought out of their abstraction. Mr. Mill did once suggest that two and two might make five, but he prudently located the possibility in another planet. That is, it was a purely verbal doubt, which neither he nor any one else ever dreamed of tolerating in concrete experience. Ethics, in particular, has suffered from this verbalism; and all the more because it is a practical science, which has to do with life rather than speculation. Concrete relations and duties have been overlooked in the name of various abstractions -- all of them thin and bloodless, and admitting of endless verbal manipulation. It is in this region of abstractions that most ethical debate has been carried on. Hence its sterility of anything but mischief. As Mr. Mill's doubt did not touch practical arithmetic, so the doubts of the ethical schools vanish before concrete matter. The men of good will who are desirous of leading a helpful and worthy human life will generally agree in the great outlines, and also in the details, of duty, whatever their ethical philosophy. And even the tedious vaporers about the indifference of vice and virtue succeed in believing their own whims only so long as they keep clear of the concrete. A blindness more than Judicial can easily be induced concerning the facts of human life by bringing in a few such terms as sin and plunging into the labyrinths of theological controversy. So great is the deceit of words! Hence the importance of rescuing ethics from its abstractions and bringing it into contact with life. The great need of ethical practice, next to the good will, is the serious and thoughtful application of intellect to the problems of life and conduct. As error arises less from wilful lying than from indifference to truth, so misconduct and social evils in general arise less from a will to do wrong than from an indifference to doing right. As of old, the "people do not consider;" and in the ignorance thus engendered terrible things are done or ignored. There is really moral life enough to make vast and beneficent reforms, if the people would only consider. And until they do consider we must worry along in the old way, with an embryonic conscience, drugged by custom and warped into artificiality, while life is directed not by wise and serious reflection, but by conflicting passion and selfishness. We shall escape from this condition only as we control the mechanical drifting of thoughtlessness, and advance beyond the narrowness of the conventional conscience, and devote all our good will and all our intellect to the rationalization and moralization of life. We shall also do well to remember that righteousness is nothing which can be achieved once for all, whether for the individual or for the community. The living will to do right must be ever present in both, forever reaffirming itself and adjusting itself to new conditions. The tacit dream of the half-way righteous in both fields is that some stage may be reached where the will may be relaxed, and given a vacation. But this dream also must be dismissed. Both individual and social righteousness are likely long to remain militant. As we are now constituted, righteousness cannot be so stored away in habits as to dispense with the continuous devotion of the living will. Especially is this devotion demanded in social righteousness. Here the error is perennial of thinking that justice and wisdom may be so stored up in laws and constitutions as to run of themselves, while the citizens are left free to go to their farms and merchandise. This is one of the most pernicious practical errors of our time. Social righteousness may be expressed in laws, but it lives only in the moral vigilance of the people. In a very important sense the respectable class is the dangerous class in the community. By its example it degrades the social conception of the meaning of life, and thus materializes, vulgarizes, and brutalizes the public thought. Also, by its indifference to public duties, it constitutes itself the guilty accomplice of all the enemies of society. By this same indifference, too, it becomes the great breeder of social enemies; for only where the carcass is are the vultures gathered together. The ease with which self-styled good people ignore public duties and become criminal accomplices in the worst crimes against humanity is one of the humorous features of our ethical life. In the application of principles to life there will long be a neutral frontier on the borders of the moral life, where consequences and tendencies have not so clearly declared themselves as to exclude differences of opinion among men of good will. Here men will differ in judgment rather than in morals. It is very common to exaggerate this difference into a moral one; and then the humorous spectacle is presented of friends who ignore the common enemy and waste their strength in mutual belaborings. This is one of the great obstacles to any valuable reform. Finally, in reducing principles to practice we must be on our guard against an abstract and impracticable idealism. Even in the personal life conscience may be a measureless calamity, unless restrained by a certain indefinable good sense. Many principles look fair and even ideal when considered in abstraction from life, which cannot, however, be applied to life without the most hideous or disastrous results. Here is the perennial oversight of off-hand reformers and socialistic quacks. Ethics when divorced from practical wisdom prevents the attainment of its own ends. The abstract ethics of the closet must be replaced by the ethics of life, if we would not see ethics lose itself in barren contentions and tedious verbal disputes. Excerpted from The Principles of Ethics, by Borden Parker Bowne |
Representative
Essays of Borden Parker
Bowne,
Essence
of Religion, Personalism
and the Problems of Philosophy: An Appreciation of
the Works of Borden Parker
Bowne,
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