 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
And when we examine disagreements as to what ought to be done, we find, usually, though perhaps not always, that they are derived from disagreements as to the effects of actions. A savage may believe that infringing a tabu causes death; some Sabbatarians believe that working on Sunday leads to defeat in war. Such considerations suggest that moral rules are really based on an estimate of consequences even when they seem to be absolute. And if we judge the morality of an act by its consequences, we seem driven to adopt some such definition of "ought" as that suggested at the end of the last paragraph. Our present theory is, therefore, a definite improvement upon the theory which makes "ought" indefinable.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 9：Is there ethical knowledge ?
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When attacked by another country, we exercise our right to self-defense and carry out retaliatory attacks. A country with strong military power will carry out a counterattack that will outweigh the damage it has suffered in order to prevent the other country from attacking again. Then, counterattacks (including terrorism) will occur. This creates a situation where it is easy to start a war, but difficult to end it. If, as Russell says, ``the morality of an action should be judged by its consequences,'' then one would think that it would be better to refrain from excessive counterattacks (in order to prevent war from escalating). But that won't happen. Driven by patriotism, the voices of the people to ``defeat the other party to the hilt'' become louder, and the government can no longer ignore them. In that way, the "principle of conduct" that Russell mentioned just before disappears somewhere. That is, ``The act having most intrinsic value is the one likely to produce the greatest balance of intrinsic value over intrinsic disvalue, or the smallest balance of intrinsic disvalue over intrinsic value”. An intrinsic value and an intrinsic disvalue are defined as equal when the two together have zero intrinsic value.”