Review of Paley's Moral Philosophy
- ISBN-10
- 1330122356
- ISBN-13
- 9781330122358
- Category
- Philosophy
- Pages
- 85
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-06-16
- Publisher
- Forgotten Books
- Author
- UNKNOWN. AUTHOR
Description
Excerpt from Review of Paley's Moral Philosophy Philosophy with him aspires to no more exalted-function than to explain the theory upon which practical rules depend. It is simply the antithesis of art. Hence his definition - "Moral Philosophy is that science which teaches men their duty and the reasons of it." It is related to life, as the science of agriculture to the business of the farmer, or the science of navigation to the business of a sailor. It prescribes rules, and tells us why they should be observed. Its end or office being thus exclusively practical, be proceeds to show the importance of such a science, by exposing the inadequacy of the rules that men are likely to adopt for the regulation of their conduct, if not instructed by philosophy. This is done in the first five chapters of the first book. These rules he makes to be the law of honour, the law of the land and the Scriptures. To these may be added conscience; for, although Dr. Paley does not formally mention it as a rule, in connection with the others, it is clear, from his chapter upon it, that he contemplated it in that light, and regarded it as no less defective than the laws of honour, of the land and of the Scriptures.) There are certainly men who profess to be governed by the dictates of conscience; and if these dictates are an adequate and perfect rule of life, there is no use, according to Dr. Paley's conception of its office, of such a science as Moral Philosophy. His vindication, accordingly, of the science which he proposes to expound, implies that, without it, there are no means of arriving to a complete standard of duty. We shall be left to guides that are unsatisfactory and uncertain. The practical tendencies of his mind are here very conspicuously displayed. Instead of attempting to prove, from the nature of the case, that science must furnish the rules of art, and that no art can be considered as perfect until the theory of its operations is understood and developed, he takes a survey of human life, notes the laws which different classes profess to obey, and exposes their incompetency to answer the ends of human existence. His argument is briefly this: We need and must have a science of morals; because experience shows that, independently of it, men are liable to serious mistakes in regard to their duty. No rule, not derived from it, has ever yet been perfect. He then assumes that the rules already mentioned exhaust the expedients of man in settling the way of life. The vindication of moral philosophy, upon the ground that all other means of compassing a perfect rule of life are defective, most evidently takes for granted, that it can supply the defect - that it can teach us, and teach us with at least comparative completeness, the whole duty of man. In the second book, accordingly, Dr. Paley undertakes to evince its competency to this end, by evolving a principle from which an adequate and satisfactory solution of all moral questions may be extracted. It is here that he determines the great problems of speculative morals, concerning the nature and origin of our moral cognitions. Here, then, we must look for his system of moral philosophy. From this general view it will be seen that the first book is an answer to the question, do we need a science of morals? The second book an answer to the question, is the need which is felt supplied by such a science? If this be, however, the order of thought, the discussions of the first book should have closed with the fifth chapter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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