Conduct and the Cosmos
Ryan, John A.
March3o, x927 THE COMMONWEAL 575 CONDUCT AND THE COSMOS
By JOHN A. RYAN F ROM the title one might infer that Dr. Leigh- ton's book* is a treatise on sociology. However, it deals entirely...
...We find excellent chapters on justice, political authority, economic distribution, socialism, and democ- racy...
...There is no area of individual good which is without this relation...
...Not every violation of them affects the neighbor directly...
...and it is the dependence of the former upon the latter which seems, in the author's opinion, to be the more important aspect of this mutual relation...
...The theory of morals has to do pri- marily with the formulation of principles of conduct that should govern social relations," and has to do with private conduct only in so far as it "may trench upon social conduct...
...The primary end of conduct is to give glory to God in the way that God has ordained...
...Dancer Although she had not danced for years, Her plodding feet had not Forgotten steps that had been theirs, But her poor heart forgot To leap, with an exulting song, Beneath excitement's spur...
...The destiny of the individual seems to rise beyond any actual social order...
...If we deny free will, he says, "it is silly to talk of moral responsibility...
...how can it be shown that one is acting irrationally ? Moral obligation has no absolute force, unless it proceeds from a will which has the right to command...
...Even if one assumes that the "Cosmic Life" and "Cosmic Order" are realities, how can one be reasonably required to attribute to these entities a right to impose genuine moral obliga- tion...
...His third departure from the Catholic position is in relation to the ultimate sanction of morality...
...He be- lieves that the idea of God is useful, but mainly as a symbol: "God is the fittest symbol for faith in a Cos- mic Life which is the source or stream of tendency in the spiritual progress of the individual and of human...
...An act is good or bad according as it conforms "with some "rule or principle of conduct which prescribes what is good or bad for the members of the commu-nity...
...That summary covers four pages and the following is part of the final paragraph: Thus the dominating principle of the Christian thought and practice of the middle-ages was teleological and ethi- cal...
...with the "intrinsic values or goods of life...
...There is no Catholic name among the author's references in connection with chapters on socialism and political authority, or in the catalogue of General Works on Ethics at the end of the volume...
...A man may get drunk and, as a result of that condi- tion, commit physical assault...
...Possibly if he were better acquainted with Catholic authors, Dr...
...jority of present-day works on the subject...
...He does nothing of the sort as may be clearly inferred in the following sentences: "The ethical personality transcends the social order...
...The cosmological framework of the classical Christian ethic and metaphysic has been shattered...
...Leighton presents several chap- ters on the rise of these problems, the history of ethi- cal thought and the psychological basis of ethics...
...There is very little to which we could make strong ob- jection...
...From this for- mula we deduce the principle that man has a higher and a lower nature, and that the latter must always be subordinated to the former...
...and, finally, that he is related to his fellow-men as equals who, like himself, possess intrinsic worth, whence fol- low the duties of charity and justice and all the other 576 THE COMMONWEAL March 3 ~ , I927 social obligations...
...In it all interests, activities and things were pressed into the service of the good life...
...His idea of a Supreme Being or force in the universe is thus expressed: "a Cosmic Order, not ourselves, but of which we ourselves are offspring, that makes for personality...
...Obviously, no very compelling obligation could be accepted or defended by one whose belief in God is of this vague character...
...It is motiviated by a more exalted conception of the dignity and destiny of man than any naturalistic modern humanism...
...that man is related to God as creature to Creator, and that there are par- ticular obligations which this relation necessarily im- poses...
...How much clearer is the statement found in the ordinary Catholic manual of ethics: an act is good which conforms with rational nature adequately considered...
...He declares, indeed, that one has duties to oneself and that self-control and forti-tude are moral virtues...
...In his chapter on the Ethical Meaning of Freedom, he has an excellent defense of free will...
...In many of his fundamental positions and in most of his particular applications of ethical principles, the author is in substantial agreement with the Catholic position...
...The author's second divergence from the Catholic position, his concept of the norm of morality, follows from his inadequate concept of the field of ethics...
...In close relation to the author's undue minimizing of duties to self, stands his entire omission of duties to God...
...It must not be inferred, however, that, like many other writers who conceive ethics as entirely social, the author subordinates the individual to society...
...Before the man injured his neighbor, he had in- jured his own nature by subordinating the higher to the lower...
...This particular viola*The Individual and the 8ocial Order: ,fin Introduction to Ethics and 8ocial Philosophy, by Joseph d. Leighton...
...He defends the proposition that ethics is a normative science, not . mere positive or descriptive science...
...Under its individual aspect drunkenness is morally wrong, whether or not it issues in any social wrong...
...When he comes to discuss applied ethics he is very dose, indeed, to the Catholic position in most of his judgments...
...Not every exercise of them, however, has social aspects...
...March3o, x927 THE COMMONWEAL 575 CONDUCT AND THE COSMOS By JOHN A. RYAN F ROM the title one might infer that Dr...
...Part V deals with applied ethics or social philosophy...
...personal happiness is only a secondary, and necessarily resulting condition...
...If it be ascetic, monastic, otherworldly, it is with a great end in view...
...This supposition does not seem far fetched when we read the eloquent and sympathetic summary at the end of his chapter on the ethics of scholasticism...
...There is an enduring Cos- metic Order of which we ourselves are members, but which is very much greater than humanity...
...It deals with '"norms or standards of valua- tion for human conduct...
...Indeed, he does not believe in a personal God Who has authority to impose moral obligation...
...that is, in its constitution and its essential relations...
...It makes man only "a little lower than the angels to crown him with glory and worship...
...If it be an aristocratic ideal, it is such only in the true sense that distinctions of moral and spiritual quality are the only dis- tinctions than have inexpugnable value...
...This is the final flaw of every theory of morality, regardless of how noble its prescriptions may be, which tries to dispense with a Supreme Will having absolute validity...
...Why should one seek good rather than evil...
...The only logical alternative is that man is nothing but a chance and transient assemblage of physical particles and that all virtues, vices, ideals, values, choices and resolves, are but chemical ferments...
...This is a caricature, unless the author has in mind the conception of eternal happiness which prevails among Mohammedans...
...But can western culture afford to dis- pense with its spiritual core---the faith that man is, in part, a self-determining, responsible super-physical being...
...New York: D. dppleton and Company...
...that man is related to non-ratlonal creatures as end to means, and may treat them accordingly...
...It was writ- ten, the preface informs us, in the conviction "that Plato and Aristotle were right in their emphasis on the intimate interdependence of ethics and social phil- osophy...
...Nevertheless, he has some doubt, not merely of the efficacy, but of the objectivity of this sanction...
...3.50...
...and this moral element is important in itself and for its own sake...
...tion of the virtue of temperance does, indeed, have a "social reference," but its individual character comes first...
...The saddest thing about Dr...
...in the lists covering Part V (Applied Ethics) there is only one...
...One can grant, in reply, that the individual virtues have social relations and that they come to "full frui- tion only in a favorable community life...
...Leighton's ethical theory would have a sounder basis and would exhibit greater coherence, cogency, and certitude...
...apparently he is content "to assume as a working faith that in realizing and fur- thering the realization of integrated and intelligent individuality, we are rowing with and in the main stream of the Cosmic Life...
...parts from the Catholic position...
...Despite these defects in method and in fundamental principles, the author's treatment of general ethics is, in the main, much more sound than are the great ma...
...On three fundamental questions, however, he de...
...Suppose one prefers sensual delights taken here and now, and in general an ignoble kind of life...
...The three chapters on Christian ethics in the his- torical section are all good, particularly the one entitled The Ethics of Scholasticism...
...but they have significance only because they have "a social reference...
...Leighton's book is that his own substitute for "the classical Christian ethic and metaphysic" is not likely to impress the average man as having any greater authority than the ethics of materialism which the author detests and fears...
...Answering this question, he rejects the sanction of future rewards and punishments as "degrading...
...More- over, it misrepresents the theistic and the Christian positions even more seriously...
...To assume that, because the in- dividual reaches normal development only in society, therefore the ethical aspect of every one of his actions is social only, and has no importance in relation to the individual himself, is not only illogical but contrary to obvious and abundant experience...
...This was a magnificent ideal which prob- ably more completely penetrated and controlled western civilization in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than ever since then...
...Concerning the scope of ethics, he objects to the "extension of the idea of morality to cover the whole field of human conduct...
...However, it deals entirely with social ethics...
...As a background for his discussion of ethical and social problems, Dr...
...with the things which are "worth while for their own sakes...
...She was not dancing in that throng, But a thin ghost of her ! Joan HANLON...
...Leighton goes on to declare that no external sanction for good con-duct is needed: "The highest sanction of the good life is reverence and love for the attainment and enjoy- ment of the fullest possible moral and spiritual indi-viduality in others and in oneself...
...This formulation of the moral standard exhibits the fields of ethics as being three- fold, comprising duties to oneself, to God, and to the neighbor...
...Throughout the book one finds many references to the "moral standard," but the following seems to be the nearest thing to a definite formulation: "Any activity is good which yields lasting satisfaction to the inter- ests of the self in the direction which makes for the maximum harmonious energizing of his capacity as a member of the community of persons...
...There is something sacred and eter- nal in human personality...
...In the lists after Part IV we find only three names: Montalembert, Rickaby, and Cronin...
...Then follow seven chapters on ethical principles...
...He represents this sanction as "balancing the pain of foregoing for a short time sensuous delight in order to ensure an infinity of future delight of the same kind...
...Nevertheless, we regret to note the paucity of Catholic works in the author's references...
Vol. 5 • March 1927 • No. 21
