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』13-10- 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13章:倫理的制裁 n.10 |
Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, chapter 13: Ethical Sanctions, n.10 | |||
以上のような理由から、現代のより良い社会では、ほとんどの人々が、自分自身だけでなく、他人のためにもなるような活動をすでに行っている。これは道徳律が利己的でないことを命じているからではなく、彼らの住む社会がそうである以上、彼らの衝動や欲望がそうさせるのである。よりよい制度、よりよい情操教育、よりよい賞賛と非難の配分によって、人々の行動が地域社会の幸福を促進する度合いがすでにかなり高まっていることは明らかである。超自然的な制裁を復活させるのではなく、そのような原因にこそ、私たちは倫理的進歩を求めなければならないのである。 |
Apart from these ways in which self-regarding motives can be made generally useful, there are in most human beings direct impulses concerned with other people. These may be impulses of hate, and then in all likelihood do harm. But such motives as family affection and friendship are common except in times of very unusual stress. There is also, more commonly I think than is sometimes realized, a motive of general benevolence, which comes to the fore in times of large natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. And lastly, though this is as apt to be bad in its effects as to be good, there is pride in one's group ? family or city or nation or whatever it may be. These motives are quite as much part of ordinary human nature as the purely self-regarding motives. For the above reasons most people in the better communities of the present day are already engaged, as regards most of their activities, in ways that are useful to others as well as to themselves. This is not because the moral law enjoins unselfishness, but because, given the society in which they live, it is the way in which their impulses and desires prompt them to act. It is clear that better institutions, better education of the emotions, and a better apportioning of praise and blame, would increase the already considerable extent to which people’s actions further the well-being of their community. It is to such causes, rather than to a revived belief in supernatural sanctions, that we must look for ethical progress. |