IV, V. F. Paulsen, book II, chap. I.
J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism. B. P. Bowne, Principles of Ethics, chap.
II. The classic accounts of a rational foundation of ethics are to
be found by the discerning reader in Plato's Protagoras, Gorgias, and
Republic (esp. books. I, II, IV), and Aristotle's Ethics (esp. books. I
and II). For refinements in the definition of right and wrong, see
G. E. Moore, Ethics, chaps. I-V; B. Russell, Philosophical Essays,
I, secs. II, III. International Journal of Ethics, vol. 24, p. 293.
Definitions of value without reference to pleasure or pain will be
found in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods,
vol. II, pp. 29, 113, 141. An elaborate and careful discussion will
be found in G. H. Palmer's Nature of Goodness.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MEANING OF DUTY
Why are there conflicts between duty and inclination?
IF virtue is simply conduct that makes most truly for happiness, why
are not all but fools virtuous? The answer is, in a word, because what
will bring about the greatest good in the long run, and to the most
people, is not always what the individual desires at the moment. The
two great temptations are the lure of the selfish and the lure of the
immediate. To purchase one's own happiness at the expense of others,
and to purchase present satisfaction by an act which will bring less
good in the end-these are the cardinal sins, and under these two
heads every specific sin can be put.
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