Lectures on Ethics, 1900 - 1901: John Dewey

Introduction. The Fundamental Ethical Categories

INTRODUCTION The Fundamental Ethical Categories 1. Do They Constitute a System? Three Schools of Thought Lecture I. October 2,1900 THE PURPOSE OF this course will be the consideration of the fundamental ethical concepts, to discover whether they have any intrinsic relation to each other, whether they constitute a system of ideas. Duty, obligation, freedom, a standard, responsibility, the law: These are what we mean by fundamental ethical categories. The first part of the course (which runs through the whole year) is the most abstract, the latter part being a development and application of the concepts. At present the chief interest in these questions grows out of the recent tremendous scientific development which has brought about an apparent incompatibility between the scientific point of view and the ethical view of the world. The scientific view of the world is based upon the idea of causation, of uniformity of nature, and necessity. The scientist is primarily interested in gaining insight into the relation of events stated in quantitative terms ofspace and time, changes bearing an exact quantitative relation to each other. The development ofscience has made it impossible to keep up the naive dualism ofmind and matter current since Plato, especially during the middle ages. The development of science in biology, physiological psychology, and social science and statistics, has assumed the right of the scientific method in the fields ofmental phenomena heretofore reserved for an entirely different treatment . Thus, the assertion that there is a science of psychology and sociology make it a problem whether there is any moral freedom if necessity covers the whole field. Is there anything morally bad, namely, 3 4 John Dewey a sin, ifthe constitution ofthe universe predetermines all action? How can there be any standard of what ought to be apart from what is? Comparatively few people in the practical avocations of life trace this logical conflict to its ultimate conclusion. In reflective thought upon this subject there are three general schools: 1. THE MATERIALISTIC SCHOOL. Some German writers, especially , have advocated brutal selfishness as the only basis of the materialistic-scientific view ofthe world as conceived under the law ofcausality. It has only been the demands ofsocial life, materialists themselves assert, that has prevented the general acceptance of this materialistic view.! 2. THE TRANSCENDENTAL SCHOOL. One ofthe chiefrepresentatives of this school was Kant, whose two Critiques were an attempt to mark offthe boundary line between morality and science, each conceived as a limited and independent sphere. One of the most prominent representatives of this point of view in modern writers is T. H. Green. In his Prolegomena to Ethics he has attempted a restatement of the position of Kant. He says there can be no science of ethics but only a metaphysics of ethics. 3. THE EMPIRICAL SCHOOL. This point ofview is less logical but much more widespread than the first. Representatives of this school would beJohn StuartMill, [Alexander] Bain, [Herbert] Spencer . Their method is simply to catalog what men do, to make generalizations and empirical observations, and try to draw therefrom moral categories. We may ask [of them] how desires as observed can be stated as what men ought to do. In considering these three points of view the question naturally arises whether there is any theory that admits the rights ofboth the is and the ought, and yet brings them into close and organic relations to each other. See [Thomas Hill] Green, Prolegomena to Ethics; [Emanuel] Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction; [Josiah] Royce, The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, Chapter XII. 2. Outline of the Position That Will Be Taken in This Course Lecture II. October 3, 1900 1. Ethical categories (fundamental ethical notions) arise out of reflection upon conduct. These categories necessarily arise whenever the individual or the race begins to think. 1. But Dewey never discusses materialism as an ethical school, despite this reference and perhapsanindirectallusionto the doctrine inthediscussionofthescientificinterpretation ofthe world inSection5ofthisIntroduction. Materialismfrom thepsychologicalstandpoint is discussed at the end ofthe Lectures on the Psychology ofEthics, pp. 262-63. Logic of Ethics 5 2. The various categories form an interrelated system because they stand for and imply successive and progressive degrees ofconsciousness of the nature of our conduct. They imply each other, and mutually necessitate and complete each other. Ifwe begin to think about conduct we must not only think it in the form of an act, an idea, but also in the form of law and standard, in...