Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers Volume 1; Selected from the Spectator (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908-01-01 Excerpt: ...of happiness, there is no such reason for the failure of the direct aim. According to the utilitarian, the final aim is happiness, and any other ideal aim is good only so far as it results in happiness. Why, then, should it be necessary to put the cart before the horse, the means before the end? In the other case, the public good is held to be a better end than the possession of power, to which power should only be a means, and therefore the man who visibly pursues the means with more eagerness than the end, is not likely to succeed even in getting the means. But in the belief of utilitarians, all ideal ends, even including 'good' itself, are only names for the various ways to happiness. It seems, then, to be perfectly inexplicable why it should be advisable to hoodwink yourself as to the end, and aim only at the means for the purpose of attaining the end. Take another case where the pursuit of the end defeats itself. The love of being loved, the love of social admiration and popularity, is, as we all know, apt to defeat itself. The man who aims at being popular and admired is not nearly so likely to be popular and admired as the man who thinks little or nothing about it, but aims simply at his own individual ideal. Here, again, the failure of the direct aim appears to be due to its real and perceived inferiority to those aims which usually secure it. The man who directly aims at getting admiration and esteem will hardly deserve them, for he cannot deserve them without cherishing plenty of aims which would be very likely to risk or forfeit other persons' admiration and esteem. The man who lives for the good opinions of others cannot be deserving of those good opinions, for he cannot contribute much to teach others, by the independence of his own life, ...