 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Or take the prohibition of incest. Suppose atomic bombs had reduced the population of the world to one brother and sister; should they let the human race die out? I do not know the answer, but I do not think it can be in the affirmative merely on the ground that incest is wicked.
To such casuistical problems there is no end, and clearly the only way in which an answer is theoretically possible is to discover some end which conduct should serve, and to judge conduct to be "right" when it is calculated to promote this end.
We are thus led to "good" and "bad", rather than "right" and "wrong", as the fundamental concepts of ethics.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 3
More info.:https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-0305.htm