Roger Scruton - Philosopher at Work

Roger Scruton on Pessimism and Optimism

W.D. Ross on Why Rightness is not Reducible to Goodness

I have always been intrigued by the British moral philosopher W.D. Ross. I mentioned such an interest to a colleague and said I had always been tantalized by Ross's separation of the right from the good. Until Ross, I think, most ethical theorists either made the right depend on the good or the good a function of the right. He simply held that they are independent realms of evaluation. But why?

W.D. Ross

Ross argues that in our most common moral deliberations (not the exceptional cases) whether an act is right tends to be a retrospective rather than projective process of reasoning (and goodness just the opposite). And that the meaning of right cannot be reasonably cashed out in the idea of "productive of so and so." Ross, for instance, argues:

"When a plain man fulfils a promise because he thinks he ought to do so, it seems clear that he does so with no thought of its total consequences, still less with any opinion that these are likely to be the best possible. He thinks in fact much more of the past than the future. What makes him think it right to act a certain way is the fact that he has promised to do so -- that and, usually, nothing more. That his act will produce the best possible consequences is not his reason for calling it right." (The Right and the Good)

So like his contemporaries, e.g. G.E. Moore, Ross turns to an analysis of the meaning of the terms and how they function in ordinary discourse, and concludes that the common morality does not reduce the right to the good (and vice versa).

A Liberal Decalogue

A LIBERAL DECALOGUE

By Bertrand Russell

Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
 1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
 2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
 3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
 4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
 5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
 6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
 7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
 8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
 9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
 10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness."

"A Liberal Decalogue" is from The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 3: 1944-1969, pp. 71-2.