17. Pleasure as the Moral End. But, it might be said, although pleasure or happiness is not the end at which men aim, consciously or unconsciously, they ought to aim at it. Why, however, ought they to aim at it? we ask. To say that one ought to do a thing can mean: (1) that, if one desires to realize a certain end, one ought to use certain means; or (2) that one is absolutely bound to do a certain thing. Now if we say that man ought to make pleasure the goal, taking the ought relatively as in the first case, then we are practically making pleasure a means to some other end. If the ought is taken in the second sense, and we say that man is bound unconditionally to seek his happiness, that he is obliged to seek it, morally obliged, perhaps, — we are simply making a dogmatic assertion which cannot be proved, and which will not be accepted by every one without qualification. It cannot be proved that one ought to strive after some highest good; this is a matter of feeling. Now, do all human beings feel that they ought to seek pleasure regardless of everything else, and do they feel that they ought to seek everything else for the sake of pleasure?

CHAPTER IX

THE HIGHEST GOOD1

1. The Question of Ends or Ideals. Our examination has shown us that pleasure cannot be regarded as the end of action, in whatever sense we take the word end. Then what is the end? If we mean by the question, What is the motive to action? we cannot answer in a single word. All ideas are more or less impulsive, indeed every conscious state tends to translate itself into movement; consciousness is motor. If we mean by the question, What is the final goal at which human beings are consciously and deliberately aiming? then our answer must be, Human beings have not a definite end in view toward which they are consciously and methodically moving. We do not plan our lives so carefully, we do not first set up an ideal and then try to realize it. Individuals and nations may be said to have certain ideals, but not in the sense that they are clearly conscious of them.

1 See the authors mentioned in chap. vii, especially Stephen, Science of Ethics, chaps. iv, ix, x; Jhering, Zweck im Recht, Vol. II, 95 ff.; Wundt, Ethics, pp. 493 ff.; Höffding, Ethik, VI; Paulsen, Ethics, Introduction, also pp. 275 ff.; also Ziegler, Sittliches Sein und sittliches Werden; Williams, Evolutional Ethics, Part II, chaps. vii, viii, ix. See also my article, "The Moral Law," in the International Journal of Ethics, January, 1900.

We can say, however, that every animal desires to live in its own peculiar way. The lion desires to live the life of a lion, man the life of a man. The brute is, of course, not conscious of the ultimate consequences of its strivings. It desires food and cares for its young not because it has before its consciousness the idea of individual and race preservation. It is not necessary that it should know all these things; the important thing is that it should do them.

When we examine the acts desired by animals, we find that they are purposive, that they realize a purpose. The lion roams over the desert seeking for prey, and when he finds it he acts in a manner appropriate to his purpose. The lioness cares for her young much like a human mother. We may say that the actions of these animals tend toward their self-preservation as well as toward the preservation of the species. And we may, therefore, say in a certain sense that these animals desire their own and their species' good, not, however, that they have in consciousness an ideal toward which they are working, and for the realization of which they are using everything else as a means. Their desires are directed toward concrete acts, which we may embrace under different classes, not toward abstract ideals.

Now, human beings, like other animals, have their minds fixed upon specific acts without being necessarily conscious of the ultimate consequences of these acts. They desire these acts, not for the sake of any

ultimate good, but for the sake of the acts themselves and their immediate consequences. I may benefit others because I love to do so, without being aware that I am thereby bettering humanity, and without consciously striving after that end. I may study from a love of study, because I have certain intellectual impulses, without being conscious that the realization of my desires will assist in civilizing the world, and without intending to work for progress. Or I may be thoroughly conscious of what I am doing and for what I am doing it, I may be governed in all my conduct by a clearly conceived ideal.

Now, different persons may have different ideals (meaning by ideals the direction which their impulses are taking, whether they are conscious of it or not). And the same individual may have different ideals at different times, nay, even, different ideals at the same time. One ideal may give way to another, which in turn may be relieved by a third. Moreover, ideals are more clearly presented in some consciousnesses than in others, and govern the lives of some individuals more characteristically than those of others.

Collective bodies like individuals move in certain directions in obedience to their characteristic desires, and have their ideals. Different nations have different ideals, and the same nation may have different ideals at different times. A nation's ideal manifests in its religion, philosophy,

itself in all its products

poetry, art, literature, science, politics, morality, etc.

The ideals of the were not the same.

Jews, Athenians, and Spartans

The ideal of the earlier Romans

differed largely from that of the Empire, and the ideal of the modern times does. not agree with the ideal of the Middle Ages.

2. The Ideal of Humanity. — All these facts show us how hard it must be to answer the question, What is the highest good or ideal which humanity is striving to reach? in anything but a very general way. We can say that human beings desire to live human lives, which is a general statement of the fact that they have specific impulses, desires, or tendencies. They not only desire to live, but to live in specific ways. They love to exercise their powers and to develop their capacities. In the words of Paulsen "The goal at which the will of every living creature aims, is the normal exercise of the vital functions which constitute its nature. Every animal desires to live the life for which it is predisposed. Its natural disposition manifests itself in impulses, and determines its activity. The formula may also be applied to man. He desires to live a human life and all that is implied in it; that is, a mental, historical life, in which there is room for the exercise of all human mental powers and virtues. He desires to play and to learn, to work and to acquire, to possess and to enjoy, to form and to create; he desires to love and to admire, to obey and to rule, to fight and to win, to make poetry and to dream, to think and to investigate. And he desires to do all