Natural philosophy (including
the physical and psychological sciences), drawing its impartial map
of existence, is interesting and important; it informs us about our
environment and ourselves, shows us our resources and our powers, what
we can do and how to do it. Moral philosophy asks the deeper and more
significant question, What SHALL we do? For the momentous fact about
life is that it has differences in value, and, more than that, that
we can MAKE differences in value. Caught as we are by the irresistible
flux of existence, we find ourselves able so to steer our lives as
to change the proportion of light and shade, to give greater value
to a life that might have had less. This possibility makes our moral
problem. What shall we choose and from what refrain? To what aims shall
we give our allegiance? What shall we fight for and what against?
For the savage practically all of his activity is determined by his
imperative needs, so that there is little opportunity for choice or
reflection upon the aims of his life. He must find food, and
shelter, and clothing to keep himself warm and dry; he must protect
himself from the enemies that menace him, and rest when he is tired.
Nor are most of us today far removed from that primitive condition;
the moments when we consciously choose and steer our course are few
and fleeting. Yet with the development of civilization the elemental
burdens are to some extent lifted; men come to have superfluous
strength, leisure hours, freedom to do something more than merely
earn their living.
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