Principia Ethica 10
Similarly, in answering the question ‘What ought we to aim at
securing?’ causal judgments are again involved, but in a somewhat
different way. We are liable to forget, because it is so obvious,
that this question can never be answered correctly except by naming
something which _can_ be secured. Not everything can be secured; and,
even if we judge that nothing which cannot be obtained would be of
equal value with that which can, the possibility of the latter, as
well as its value, is essential to its being a proper end of action.
Accordingly neither our judgments as to what actions we ought to
perform, nor even our judgments as to the ends which they ought to
produce, are pure judgments of intrinsic value. With regard to
the former, an action which is absolutely obligatory _may_ have no
intrinsic value whatsoever; that it is perfectly virtuous may mean
merely that it causes the best possible effects. And with regard to the
latter, these best possible results which justify our action can, in
any case, have only so much of intrinsic value as the laws of nature
allow us to secure; and they in their turn _may_ have no intrinsic
value whatsoever, but may merely be a means to the attainment (in a
still further future) of something that has such value. Whenever,
therefore, we ask ‘What ought we to do?’ or ‘What ought we to try to
get?’ we are asking questions which involve a correct answer to two
others, completely different in kind from one another. We must know
_both_ what degree of intrinsic value different things have, _and_
how these different things may be obtained. But the vast majority of
questions which have actually been discussed in Ethics--_all_ practical
questions, indeed--involve this double knowledge; and they have been
discussed without any clear separation of the two distinct questions
involved. A great part of the vast disagreements prevalent in Ethics is
to be attributed to this failure in analysis. By the use of conceptions
which involve both that of intrinsic value and that of causal relation,
as if they involved intrinsic value only, two different errors have
been rendered almost universal. Either it is assumed that nothing has
intrinsic value which is not possible, or else it is assumed that what
is necessary must have intrinsic value. Hence the primary and peculiar
business of Ethics, the determination what things have intrinsic
value and in what degrees, has received no adequate treatment at all.
And on the other hand a _thorough_ discussion of means has been also
largely neglected, owing to an obscure perception of the truth that
it is perfectly irrelevant to the question of intrinsic values. But
however this may be, and however strongly any particular reader may be
convinced that some one of the mutually contradictory systems which
hold the field has given a correct answer either to the question what
has intrinsic value, or to the question what we ought to do, or to
both, it must at least be admitted that the questions what is best
in itself and what will bring about the best possible, are utterly
distinct; that both belong to the actual subject-matter of Ethics; and
that the more clearly distinct questions are distinguished, the better
is our chance of answering both correctly.
=18.= There remains one point which must not be omitted in a complete
description of the kind of questions which Ethics has to answer. The
main division of those questions is, as I have said, into two; the
question what things are good in themselves, and the question to what
other things these are related as effects. The first of these, which is
the primary ethical question and is presupposed by the other, includes
a correct comparison of the various things which have intrinsic value
(if there are many such) in respect of the degree of value which they
have; and such comparison involves a difficulty of principle which has
greatly aided the confusion of intrinsic value with mere ‘goodness
as a means.’ It has been pointed out that one difference between a
judgment which asserts that a thing is good in itself, and a judgment
which asserts that it is a means to good, consists in the fact that
the first, if true of one instance of the thing in question, is
necessarily true of all; whereas a thing which has good effects under
some circumstances may have bad ones under others. Now it is certainly
true that all judgments of intrinsic value are in this sense universal;
but the principle which I have now to enunciate may easily make it
appear as if they were not so but resembled the judgment of means in
being merely general. There is, as will presently be maintained, a
vast number of different things, each of which has intrinsic value;
there are also very many which are positively bad; and there is a still
larger class of things, which appear to be indifferent. But a thing
belonging to any of these three classes may occur as part of a whole,
which includes among its other parts other things belonging both to
the same and to the other two classes; and these wholes, as such, may
also have intrinsic value. The paradox, to which it is necessary to
call attention, is that _the value of such a whole bears no regular
proportion to the sum of the values of its parts_. It is certain that
a good thing may exist in such a relation to another good thing that
the value of the whole thus formed is immensely greater than the sum
of the values of the two good things. It is certain that a whole formed
of a good thing and an indifferent thing may have immensely greater
value than that good thing itself possesses. It is certain that two
bad things or a bad thing and an indifferent thing may form a whole
much worse than the sum of badness of its parts. And it seems as if
indifferent things may also be the sole constituents of a whole which
has great value, either positive or negative. Whether the addition of
a bad thing to a good whole may increase the positive value of the
whole, or the addition of a bad thing to a bad may produce a whole
having positive value, may seem more doubtful; but it is, at least,
possible, and this possibility must be taken into account in our
ethical investigations. However we may decide particular questions, the
principle is clear. _The value of a whole must not be assumed to be the
same as the sum of the values of its parts._
A single instance will suffice to illustrate the kind of relation in
question. It seems to be true that to be conscious of a beautiful
object is a thing of great intrinsic value; whereas the same object, if
no one be conscious of it, has certainly comparatively little value,
and is commonly held to have none at all. But the consciousness of a
beautiful object is certainly a whole of some sort in which we can
distinguish as parts the object on the one hand and the being conscious
on the other. Now this latter factor occurs as part of a different
whole, whenever we are conscious of anything; and it would seem that
some of these wholes have at all events very little value, and may
even be indifferent or positively bad. Yet we cannot always attribute
the slightness of their value to any positive demerit in the object
which differentiates them from the consciousness of beauty; the object
itself may approach as near as possible to absolute neutrality. Since,
therefore, mere consciousness does not always confer great value upon
the whole of which it forms a part, even though its object may have
no great demerit, we cannot attribute the great superiority of the
consciousness of a beautiful thing over the beautiful thing itself
to the mere addition of the value of consciousness to that of the
beautiful thing. Whatever the intrinsic value of consciousness may
be, it does not give to the whole of which it forms a part a value
proportioned to the sum of its value and that of its object. If this
be so, we have here an instance of a whole possessing a different
intrinsic value from the sum of that of its parts; and whether it be so
or not, what is meant by such a difference is illustrated by this case.
=19.= There are, then, wholes which possess the property that their
value is different from the sum of the values of their parts; and the
relations which subsist between such parts and the whole of which they
form a part have not hitherto been distinctly recognised or received
a separate name. Two points are especially worthy of notice. (1) It
is plain that the existence of any such part is a necessary condition
for the existence of that good which is constituted by the whole. And
exactly the same language will also express the relation between a
means and the good thing which is its effect. But yet there is a most
important difference between the two cases, constituted by the fact
that the part is, whereas the means is not, a part of the good thing
for the existence of which its existence is a necessary condition. The
necessity by which, if the good in question is to exist, the means to
it must exist is merely a natural or causal necessity. If the laws of
nature were different, exactly the same good might exist, although
what is now a necessary condition of its existence did not exist.
The existence of the means has no intrinsic value; and its utter
annihilation would leave the value of that which it is now necessary
to secure entirely unchanged. But in the case of a part of such a
whole as we are now considering, it is otherwise. In this case the
good in question cannot conceivably exist, unless the part exist also.
The necessity which connects the two is quite independent of natural
law. What is asserted to have intrinsic value is the existence of the
whole; and the existence of the whole includes the existence of its
part. Suppose the part removed, and what remains is _not_ what was
asserted to have intrinsic value; but if we suppose a means removed,
what remains is just what _was_ asserted to have intrinsic value. And
yet (2) the existence of the part may _itself_ have no more intrinsic
value than that of the means. It is this fact which constitutes the
paradox of the relation which we are discussing. It has just been
said that what has intrinsic value is the existence of the whole, and
that this includes the existence of the part; and from this it would
seem a natural inference that the existence of the part has intrinsic
value. But the inference would be as false as if we were to conclude
that, because the number of two stones was two, each of the stones was
also two. The part of a valuable whole retains exactly the same value
when it is, as when it is not, a part of that whole. If it had value
under other circumstances, its value is not any greater, when it is
part of a far more valuable whole; and if it had no value by itself,
it has none still, however great be that of the whole of which it now
forms a part. We are not then justified in asserting that one and the
same thing is under some circumstances intrinsically good, and under
others not so; as we are justified in asserting of a means that it
sometimes does and sometimes does not produce good results. And yet we
are justified in asserting that it is far more desirable that a certain
thing should exist under some circumstances than under others; namely
when other things will exist in such relations to it as to form a more
valuable whole. _It_ will not have more intrinsic value under these
circumstances than under others; _it_ will not necessarily even be a
means to the existence of things having more intrinsic value: but it
will, like a means, be a necessary condition for the existence of that
which _has_ greater intrinsic value, although, unlike a means, it will
itself form a part of this more valuable existent.
=20.= I have said that the peculiar relation between part and whole
which I have just been trying to define is one which has received no
separate name. It would, however, be useful that it should have one;
and there is a name, which might well be
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기