INTUITIONISM
90. WHAT IS IT?--"We come into the world," said Epictetus, "with no
natural notion of a right-angled triangle, or of a quarter-tone, or of a
half-tone; but we learn each of these things by a certain transmission
according to art; and for this reason those who do not know them do not
think that they know them. But as to good and evil, and beautiful and
ugly, and becoming and unbecoming, and happiness and misfortune, and
proper and improper, and what we ought to do and what we ought not to do,
who ever came into the world without having an innate idea of them?"
[Footnote: _Discourses_, Book II, chapter xi, translation by GEORGE
LONG.] Seneca adds his testimony to the self-luminous character of moral
truth: "Whatever things tend to make us better or happier are either
obvious or easily discovered." [Footnote: _On Benefits_, Book VII,
chapter i.]
With the general spirit of these utterances the typical intuitionist is
in sympathy, although he need not assent to the doctrine of innate ideas,
nor need he hold that all moral truths are equally self-evident. There
are intuitionists of various classes, and there are sufficiently notable
differences of opinion. Still, all intuitionists believe that some moral
truth, at least, is revealed to the individual by direct inspection
(_intueor_), and that we must be content with such evidence and must
not seek for proof. It may be maintained that our moral judgments--or
some of them--are the result of "an immediate discernment of the natures
of things by the understanding." and appeal may be made to the analogy
furnished by mathematical truths. [Footnote: This appeal has been made by
famous intuitionists from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth--
Cudworth, More, Locke, Clarke, Price, Whewell.]
91. VARIETIES OF INTUITIONISM.--Forms of intuitionism have been
conveniently classified as Perceptional, Dogmatic and Philosophical.
[Footnote: SIDGWICK, The Methods of Ethics, Book I, chapter viii, Sec 4.]
To this nomenclature it may be objected that the term "dogmatic" carries
with it a certain flavor of disapprobation, and predisposes one to the
assumption of a critical attitude, while the term "philosophical" has the
reverse suggestion, and smacks of special pleading. While admitting that
there is something in the objection, I retain the convenient terms,
merely warning the reader to be on his guard.
(1) Perceptional Intuitionism falls back upon the analogy of perception
in general. I seem to perceive by direct inspection that my blotter is
green, and that my penholder is longer than my pencil. I do not seek for
evidence; I do not have recourse to any chain of reasonings to establish
the fact. And I am concerned here with facts, not with some general
proposition applicable to many facts. Even so, I may maintain that, in
specific situations, the rightness or wrongness of given courses of
action may be perceived immediately.
He who accepts the spontaneous deliverances of his conscience, when
confronted with the necessity of making a decision, as revelations of
moral truth, may be called a perceptional intuitionist. The deliverances
must, however, be spontaneous and immediate, not the result of reasoning.
If a man reasons, if he falls back upon general considerations, if he
looks into the future and weighs the consequences of his act, and, as a
result, decides what he ought to do, he is no longer a perceptional
intuitionist.
The perceptional intuitionist, consistently and unreservedly such, is
rather an ideal construction than an actually existing person. Most men,
on certain occasions, are inclined to say, "I feel this to be right, and
will do it, although I cannot support my decision by giving reasons."
Many men are, at times, tempted to maintain that a given course of action
is evidently right and should be followed irrespective of consequences.
But this is not the habitual attitude even of men very little gifted with
reflection, and it is highly unsatisfactory to those who have the habit
of thinking.
Primitive man supports his decisions by an appeal to custom. Civilized
man turns to custom, to law, or to general principles of some sort, which
he accepts as authoritative, and which he regards as having a bearing
upon the particular instance in question. That individual decisions
should be capable of some sort of justification by the adduction of a
reason or reasons is generally admitted. No sane man would maintain the
general proposition that the consequences of acts should be wholly
disregarded in determining whether they are or are not desirable.
(2) Thus, Perceptional Intuitionism gives place to what has been called
Dogmatic Intuitionism--to the doctrine that certain general moral rules
can be immediately perceived to be valid. The application of such general
rules to particular instances implies discrimination and the use of
reason.
Here decisions are not wholly unsupported. Reasons may be asked for and
given. In answer to the question: Why should I say this or that? it may
be said: Because the law of veracity demands it. In answer to the
question: Why should I act thus? it may be said: Because it is just, or
is in accordance with the dictates of benevolence. The general rule is
accepted as intuitively evident, but it is incumbent upon the individual
to use his judgment in determining what may properly fall under the
general rule.
But there are rules and rules. It is not easy to draw a sharp line
between Perceptional Intuitionism and Dogmatic, just as it is not easy in
other fields to distinguish sharply between knowledge given directly in
perception, and knowledge in which more or less conscious processes of
inference play a part. Do I perceive the man whom I see, when I look into
a mirror, to be behind the mirror or in front of it? Do I perceive the
whereabouts of the coach which I hear rattling by my window, or does
reasoning play its part in giving me information? And if I follow my
conscience in not withholding from the cabman the small customary fee in
addition to his fare, am I prompted by an unreasoned perception of the
rightness of my act, or am I influenced by general considerations--the
thought of what is customary, the belief that gratuities should not be
withheld where services of a certain kind are rendered, etc.?
Even so, it is difficult to draw a sharp line between Dogmatic
Intuitionists and Philosophical, or to regard Dogmatic Intuitionists as a
clearly defined class of any sort. A man may accept it as self-evident
that a waiter should receive ten per cent of the amount of his bill; a
woman may find it obviously proper that an old lady should wear purple.
Those little given to reflection may accept such maxims as these without
attempting to justify them by falling back upon any more general rule. We
all find about us human beings who have their minds stored with a
multitude of maxims not greatly different from those adduced, and who
find them serviceable in guiding their actions. But thoughtful men can
scarcely be content with such a modicum of reason, and they distinguish
between ultimate principles and minor maxims which stand in need of
justification by their reference to principles.
The intuitional moralists by profession draw this distinction. We find
them setting forth as ultimate a limited number of ethical principles of
a high degree of generality. It is obvious that, the more general the
principle, the more room for conscious reasoning in its interpretation
and application. The man to whom it appears as in the nature of things
suitable that the waiter should receive his ten per cent is relieved from
many perplexities which may beset the man who feels assured only of the
general truth that it is right to be benevolent.
A glance at a few of the moralists who are treated in the history of
ethics as representative intuitionists reveals that they are little in
harmony as touching the particular moral intuitions which they urge as
the foundation of ethics.
Thus, John Locke maintains that from the idea of God, and of ourselves as
rational beings, a science of morality may be deduced demonstratively; a
science: "wherein I doubt not but from self-evident propositions, by
necessary consequences, as incontestible as those in mathematics, the
measures of right and wrong might be made out to anyone that will apply
himself with the same indifferency and attention to the one, as he does
to the other of those sciences." [Footnote: _Essay Concerning Human
Understanding_, Book IV, chapter iii, Sec 18.]
Among Locke's self-evident propositions or moral axioms we find: where
there is no property there is no injustice; no government allows absolute
liberty; all men are originally free and equal; parents have the power to
control their children till they come of age; the right of property is
based upon work, but is limited by the supply of property left for others
to enjoy. [Footnote: See above, chapter iii, Sec 10.]
These axioms cannot be identified with Samuel Clarke's four chief rules
of righteousness, which inculcate: piety toward God, equity in our
dealings with men, benevolence, and sobriety. [Footnote: _A Discourse
concerning the Unalterable Relations of Natural Religion_, Prop. I.]
Richard Price gives us still another choice, in dwelling upon our
obligation as regards piety, prudence, beneficence, gratitude, veracity,
the fulfillment of promises, and justice. [Footnote: _A Review of the
Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals_, chapter vii.] And
Whewell, emulating the performance of Euclid, tried to build up a system
of morals upon axioms embodying the seven principles of benevolence,
justice, truth, purity, order, earnestness, and moral purpose. [Footnote:
_The Elements of Morality_, Book III, chapter iv.]
These moralists press the analogy of mathematical truth. It must be
confessed, however, that a row of text-books on geometry, with so
scattering and indefinite a collection of axioms, would do little to
support one another; and little to convince us that they represented a
coherent and consistent body of truth in which we might have
unquestioning faith.
(3) It is not unnatural that some thoughtful intuitionists, dissatisfied
with a considerable number of independent moral principles, should aim at
a further simplification. Such a simplification Kant finds in the
Categorical Imperative, or unconditional command of the Practical Reason:
"Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it
should become a universal law." [Footnote: _Fundamental Principles of
the Metaphysic of Morals_, Sec 2.] And Henry Sidgwick, refusing to
regard all intuitions as of equal authority, selects two only as
ultimately and independently valid--that which recommends a far-seeing
prudence, and that which urges a rational benevolence. [Footnote: _The
Methods of Ethics_, Book III, chapter xiii, Sec 3.] Those who make their
ultimate moral rules so broad and inclusive base upon them the multitude
of minor maxims to which men are apt to have recourse in justifying their
actions. Whether their doctrine may be called philosophical in a sense
implying commendation is matter for discussion.
92. ARGUMENTS FOR INTUITIONISM.--What may be said in favor of
intuitionism?
(1) It may be urged that it is the doctrine which appeals most directly
to common sense, and that it is found reasonably satisfactory in practice
by men generally.
Intuition appears to be, in fact, man's guide in an overwhelming majority
of the situations in which he is called upon to act. In the face of the
concrete situation he _feels_ that he should say a kind word, help a
neighbor, stand his ground courageously, speak the truth, and a thousand
other things which a moralist might, upon reflection, approve.
That he "feels" this does not mean merely that he is influenced by an
emotion. We constantly employ the word to indicate the presence of a
judgment which presents itself spontaneously and for which men cannot or
do not seek support by having recourse to reasons.
He who, without reflection, affirms, "this action is right," has framed a
moral judgment. He has in a given instance distinguished between right
and wrong, although he has not raised the general problem of what
constitutes right and wrong. He has exercised the prerogative of a moral
being, though not of a very thoughtful one.
We have seen above, that perceptional intuitionism tends to pass over
into dogmatic intuitionism of some sort, even in the case of minds little
developed. The egoistic rustic may defend his selfishness by citing the
proverb, "my shirt is closer to me than my coat." If he does so, it means
that a doubt has been suggested, a conflict of some sort called into
being. Were such conflicts, causing hesitation and deliberation, of very
frequent occurrence, life could scarcely go on at all. Conversation would
be impossible were no word placed and no inflection chosen without
conscious reference to the rules of grammar. No man could conduct himself
properly in a drawing-room or at a table, were his mind harking back at
every moment to the instructions contained in some volume on etiquette.
He who must justify every act by reflection is condemned to the jerkiest
and most hesitant of moral lives. Perceptional moral intuition must stand
our friend, if there is to be a flow of conduct worthy of the name.
There are, however, occasions for checking the flow by reflection. Then
men are forced to think, and we find them appealing to custom, citing
proverbs, quoting maxims, taking their stand upon principles. Recourse
may be had to generalizations of a very low or of a very high degree of
generality.
But low or high, it is upon intuitions that men actually fall back in
justifying their actions. Benevolence, justice, honesty, truthfulness,
purity, honor, modesty, courtesy, and what not, are intuitively perceived
to be right, and an effort is made to bring the individual act under some
one of these headings. The mass of men, even in enlightened communities,
do not feel impelled to justify these general moral maxims, to reduce
them to a harmonious system, or to reconcile with each other the
different lists of them which have been drawn up. They find it possible
in practice to resolve most of their doubts by an appeal to this maxim or
to that. From such doubts as refuse to be resolved they are apt to turn
away their attention. But the moral life goes on, and to intuitions it
owes its guidance.
As to the few who reduce the moral intuitions to a minimum, and, like
Kant and Sidgwick, end with one or two ultimate intuitional moral
principles, we may say that they, like other men, are compelled, in the
actual conduct of life, to turn to intuitions of lower orders. All sorts
of moral intuitions are actually found helpful by all sorts of men.
(2) To the minds of men differing in their education and traditions, and
at different stages of intellectual and moral development, very different
moral judgments spontaneously present themselves. It is not a matter of
accident that this man may "feel" an action to be right, and that man may
"feel" it to be wrong. There is evident adaptation of the judgments to
history and environment. They spring into being because the men are what
they are and are situated as they are.
It is this adaptation that renders the moral intuitions serviceable in
carrying on the actual business of life. It is more complete, the less
abstract the moral intuitions which come into play. Plato, who in his
"Laws" enters very minutely into the question of the permissible and the
forbidden in the life of the citizens of his ideal state, finds it
necessary to leave some things to the judgment of the individual. Thus,
he finds it impossible to determine exhaustively what things are, and
what things are not, worthy of a freeman. He leaves it to the virtuous to
give judgments "in accordance with their feelings of right and wrong."
[Footnote: Book XI; see the account of the occupations permissible to the
landed proprietor.] The intuitions of the mediaeval saint, of the upright
modern European, of the virtuous Chinaman, would have impressed him as
without rhyme or reason. He appealed to the Greek gentleman, whose sense
of propriety was Greek, and might be expected to be adjusted to the
situation.
(3) The intuitive judgment of a sensitive moral nature may often be more
nearly right than moral judgments based upon the most subtle of
reasonings.
It is not hard to find, with a little ingenuity, apparent justification
for actions which the consciences of the enlightened condemn at first
sight. Scarcely any action may not be brought under some moral rule, if
one deliberately sets out to do so. A narrow selfishness is defended as
caring for one's own; a refusal of aid to the needy is justified by a
reference to the evils of pauperization; patriotism becomes the excuse
for hatred, wilful blindness and untruthful vilification. To the
sophistries of those who would thus make the worse appear the better, the
intuitive judgment of the moral man opposes its unreasoned conviction.
That the conviction is not supported by arguments does not prove that it
is not a just one.
93. ARGUMENTS AGAINST INTUITIONISM.--What may be urged against
Intuitionism?
(1) It may be pointed out that such considerations as the above
constitute an argument to prove the value of moral intuitions, and not
one to prove the value of intuitionism as an ethical theory. That moral
intuitions are indispensable may be freely admitted even by one who
demurs to the doctrine that intuitionism in some one of its forms may be
accepted as a satisfactory theory of morals.
(2) Perceptional Intuitionism, at least, cannot be regarded as embodying
a rational theory or furnishing a science of any sort. Its one and only
dogma must be that whatever actions reveal themselves to this man or that
as right, are right, and there is no going behind the judgment of the
individual.
Shall we say to men: "In order to know what is right and what is wrong in
human conduct, we need only to listen to the dictates of conscience when
the mind is calm and unruffled"? [Footnote: THOMAS REID, _Essays on the
Active Powers of Man_, v, Sec 4.] As well say: "The right time is the
time indicated by your watch, when you are not shaking it." If men are to
keep appointments with each other, they must have some other standard of
time than that carried by each man in his vest-pocket.
Perceptional Intuitionism ignores the fact that consciences may sometimes
disagree, and that there may be a choice in consciences. The consistent
perceptional intuitionist is, however, scarcely to be found, as has been
said above; and we actually find those, some of whose utterances read as
though the authors ought to be adherents of such a school, dwelling upon
the desirability of the education of the conscience, i.e., upon the
desirability of acquiring a capacity for having the right intuitions. In
other words, they tell us to follow our noses--but to make sure that they
point in the right direction. [Footnote: See THOMAS REID, _Essays on
the Active Powers of Man_, iii, Part 3, Sec 8] In which case the
determination of the right direction is not left to perceptional
intuition.
(3) The Dogmatic Intuitionist has difficulties of his own with which to
cope. It is not enough to possess a collection of valid and authoritative
rules. The rules must be applied; there is room for the exercise of
judgment and for the possibility of error. Error is not excluded even
when the rule appears to be at only one or two removes from the
individual instance; where the rule is one of great generality the
problem of its application becomes correspondingly difficult. The
interpretation of the rule is not given intuitively with the rule. This
means that the rule must, in practice, be supplemented.
Always and everywhere, a straight line appears to be the shortest
distance between two points. What is meant by shortness hardly seems to
be legitimate matter for dispute. But the man convinced that he ought to
pay his workman a fair wage, and that he ought to do his duty by his son,
may be in no little perplexity when he attempts to define that fair wage
or that parental duty. If he turns for advice to others, he will find
that history and tradition, time, place and circumstance, very
perceptibly color the advice they offer.
The application of the general rule is, hence, quite as important as the
rule. There is no such thing as conduct in the abstract. Let us admit
that benevolence is morally obligatory. How shall we be benevolent? Shall
we follow Cicero, and give only that which costs us nothing? or shall we
emulate St. Francis? The general rule may be a faultless skeleton, but it
is, after all, only a skeleton, and it cannot walk of itself.
Again. The dogmatic intuitionist has quite a collection of rules by which
he must judge of his actions. They are severally independent and
authoritative. Suppose an act appears to be commanded by one rule and
forbidden by another? Who shall decide between them? Prudence and
benevolence may urge him in opposite directions. Benevolence and justice
may not obviously be in harmony. The rule of veracity may seem, at times,
to prescribe conduct which will entail much suffering on the part of the
innocent. To what court of appeal can we refer the conflicts which may
arise when ultimate authorities disagree? He who, in war time, can
conscientiously shoot a sentry, but cannot conscientiously lie to him,
may, later, have his misgivings, when the Golden Rule knocks at the gate
of his mind.
(4) Nor does he leave all difficulties behind him, who abandons Dogmatic
Intuitionism and takes refuge in Philosophical.
Kant's maxim needs a vast amount of interpretation. As it stands, it is
little more than an empty formula. What I can wish to be the law of the
universe must depend very much upon what I am. The lion and the lamb do
not thirst for the same law. To the quarrelsome heroes of Walhalla a
world of perpetual fighting and feasting must seem a very good world, in
spite of knocks received as well as given. Kant's fundamental maxim
scarcely appears to be a moral rule at all, unless we make it read: "Act
on a maxim which a _wise and good man_ can will to be a universal
law." But how decide who is the wise and good man?
The philosophical intuitionist who accepts more than one ultimate moral
rule must face the possibility that he will meet with a conflict of the
higher intuitions to which he has had recourse. Shall his intuitions be
those recommending a rational self-interest and a rational benevolence?
Can he be sure that the two are necessarily in accord? Can there be a
rational adjustment of the claims of each? Not if there be no court of
appeal to which both intuitions are subject. [Footnote: With his usual
candor, SIDGWICK admits this difficulty. He leaves it unresolved. See,
_The Methods of Ethics_, in the concluding chapter.]
Furthermore, between the philosophical and the dogmatic intuitionist
serious differences of opinion may be expected to arise. He who makes,
let us say, benevolence the supreme law naturally allows to other
intuitions, such as justice and veracity, but a derivative authority. It
appears, then, that there may be occasions on which they are not valid.
To some famous intuitionists this has seemed to be a pernicious doctrine.
"We are," writes Bishop Butler, "constituted so as to condemn falsehood,
unprovoked violence, injustice, and to approve of benevolence to some
preferably to others, abstracted from all consideration, which conduct is
likeliest to produce an overbalance of happiness or misery." [Footnote:
Dissertations appended to the "Analogy," II, _Of the Nature of
Virtue_. Cf. DUGALD STEWART, _Outlines of Moral Philosophy_, Part
2, Sec 348.]
Butler thought that justice should be done though the heavens fall; the
philosophical intuitionist must maintain that the danger of bringing down
the heavens is never to be lost sight of. But this doctrine that there
are intuitions and intuitions, some ultimately authoritative and others
not so, raises the whole question of the validity of intuitions. How are
we to distinguish those that are always valid from others? By intuition?
Intuition appears to be discredited. And if it is proper to demand proof
that justice should be done and the truth spoken, why may one not demand
proof that men should be prudent and benevolent? One may talk of "an
immediate discernment of the nature of things by the understanding" in
the one case as in the other. If error is possible there, why not here?
94. THE VALUE OF MORAL INTUITIONS.--It would not be fair to close this
chapter on intuitionism, an ethical theory competing with others for our
approval, without emphasizing the value of the role played by the moral
intuitions.
They are the very guide of life, and without them our reasonings would be
of little service. They should be treated gently, gratefully, with
reverence. To them human societies owe their stability, their capacity
for an orderly development, the smooth working of the machinery of daily
life. Their presence does not exclude the employment of reasoning, but
they furnish a basis upon which the reason can occupy itself with profit.
They are a safeguard against those utopian schemes which would shatter
our world and try experiments in creation out of nothing.
Nevertheless, he who busies himself with ethics as science must study
them critically and strive to estimate justly their true significance. He
may come to regard them, not as something fixed and changeless, but as
living and developing, coming into being, and modifying themselves, in
the service of life. Does he dishonor them who so views them?