バートランド・ラッセル『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』- Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954
* 原著:Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954* 邦訳書:バートランド・ラッセル(著),勝部真長・長谷川鑛平(共訳)『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』(玉川大学出版部,1981年7月刊。268+x pp.)
『ヒューマン・ソサエティ』第5章:部分的善と一般的善 n.8 |
Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, chapter 5: Partial and General Goods, n.8 | |||
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What a man desires need not be an experience of his own, or a series of experiences, or anything to be realized in his own life. It is not only possible, but usual, to have objects of desire which lie wholly outside our own lives. The most common example of this is parental feeling. A large percentage of mankind, probably a majority, desire that their children shall prosper after they themselves are dead. The same thing is true of wives, and of some women who are not wives; Charles II, in dying, hoped that Nell Gwyn would not be allowed to starve. The man whose desires are limited within the circle of his own experiences will find, as he grows older and his future becomes more circumscribed, that life grows continually narrower and less interesting, until nothing remains but to sit by the fire and keep warm. On the other hand, the man whose desires have a large scope outside his own life may retain to the end the zest of earlier years ; the Platonic Socrates, while he is dying, is as anxious as before to spread what he considers the true philosophy. Some men desire not only the welfare of their family and their friends, but of their nation, and even of all mankind. In some degree this is normal; there are few men whose last hours of life would not be rendered more unhappy if they could know that within a hundred years atomic bombs would extinguish human life. |