The data of ethics / by Herbert Spencer.

  • Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The data of ethics / by Herbert Spencer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    CHAPTER III. GOOD AXD BAD CONDUCT. § 8. By comparing its meanings in different connexions and observing wliat tliey have in common_, we learn the essential meaning of a word; and tlie essential meaning of a word tliafc is variously applied^ may best be learnt by comparing with one another those applications of it which diverge most widely. Let us thus ascertain what good and bad mean. In which cases do we distinguish as good^ a knife, a gun, a house? And what trait leads us to speak of a bad umbrella or a bad pair of boots ? The characters here predicated by the words good and bad, are not intrinsic characters; for apart from human wants, such things have neither merits nor demerits. We call these articles good or bad according as they are well or ill adapted to achieve prescribed ends. The good knife is one which will cut; the good gun is one which carries far and true; the good house is one which duly yields the shelter, comfort, and accommodation sought for. Conversely, the badness alleged of the umbrella or the pair of boots, refers to their failures in fulfilling the ends of keeping off the rain and comfortably protecting the feet, with due regard to appear- ances. So is it when we pass from inanimate objects to inanimate actions. We call a day bad in which storms prevent us from satisfying certain of our desires. A