Section 3: Detailed Reading that you will fail altogether to find stamp-collecting interesting. Only what genuinely interests you can be of any use to you, but you may be pretty sure that genuine objective interests will grow up as soon as you have learnt not to be immersed in self 6 The happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life. Professional moralists have made too much of self- denial, and in so doing have put the emphasis in the wrong place. s Conscious self-denial leaves a man self-absorbed and vividly aware of what he has sacrificed; in consequence it
6 The happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life. Professional moralists have made too much of selfdenial, and in so doing have put the emphasis in the wrong place. Conscious self-denial leaves a man self-absorbed and vividly aware of what he has sacrificed; in consequence it Section 3: Detailed Reading that you will fail altogether to find stamp-collecting interesting. Only what genuinely interests you can be of any use to you, but you may be pretty sure that genuine objective interests will grow up as soon as you have learnt not to be immersed in self
Section 3: Detailed Reading fails often of its immediate object and almost always of its ultimate purpose. What is needed is not self-denial,but that kind of direction of interest outward which will lead spontaneously and naturally to the same acts that a person absorbed in the pursuit of his own virtue could only perform by means of conscious self-denial. I have written in this book as a hedonist, that is to say, as one who regards happiness as the good, but the acts to be recommended from the point of view of the hedonist are on the whole the same as those to be recommended by the sane moralist
Section 3: Detailed Reading fails often of its immediate object and almost always of its ultimate purpose. aaaWhat is needed is not self-denial, but that kind of direction of interest outward which will lead spontaneously and naturally to the same acts that a person absorbed in the pursuit of his own virtue could only perform by means of conscious self-denial. I have written in this book as a hedonist, that is to say, as one who regards happiness as the good, but the acts to be recommended from the point of view of the hedonist are on the whole the same as those to be recommended by the sane moralist
Section 3: Detailed Reading The moralist, however, is too apt though this is not, of course,universally true, to stress the act rather than the state of mind. The effects of an act upon the agent will be widely different, according to his state of mind at the moment. If you see a child drowning and save it as the result of a direct impulse to bring help, you will emerge none the worse morally. If, on the other hand, you say to yourself, "It is the part of virtue to succour the helpless, and i wish to be a virtuous man, therefore I must save this child, you will be an even worse man afterwards than you were before. QUESTION
Section 3: Detailed Reading The moralist, however, is too apt, though this is not, of course, universally true, to stress the act rather than the state of mind. The effects of an act upon the agent will be widely different, according to his state of mind at the moment. If you see a child drowning and save it as the result of a direct impulse to bring help, you will emerge none the worse morally. If, on the other hand, you say to yourself, “It is the part of virtue to succour the helpless, and I wish to be a virtuous man, therefore I must save this child”, you will be an even worse man afterwards than you were before. QUESTION
Section 3: Detailed Reading What applies in this extreme case applies in many other instances that are less obvious 4 7 There is another difference somewhat more subtle,between the attitude toward life that i have been recommending and that which is recommended by the traditional moralists. The traditional moralist, for example will say that love should be unselfish. In a certain sense he is right, that is to say, it should not be selfish beyond a point, but it should undoubtedly be of such a nature that ones own happiness is bound up in its success
Section 3: Detailed Reading What applies in this extreme case applies in many other instances that are less obvious. 7 There is another difference, somewhat more subtle, between the attitude toward life that I have been recommending and that which is recommended by the traditional moralists. The traditional moralist, for example, will say that love should be unselfish. In a certain sense he is right, that is to say, it should not be selfish beyond a point, but it should undoubtedly be of such a nature that one’s own happiness is bound up in its success
Section 3: Detailed Reading If a man were to invite a lady to marry him on the ground that he ardently desired her happiness and at the same time considered that she would afford him ideal opportunities of self- abnegation, i think it may be doubted whether she would be altogether pleased. Undoubtedly we should desire the happiness of those whom we love, but not as an alternative to our own. In fact the whole antithesis between self and the rest of the world, which is implied in the doctrine of self-denial disappears as soon as we have any genuine interest in persons or things outside ourselves. e曰
Section 3: Detailed Reading If a man were to invite a lady to marry him on the ground that he ardently desired her happiness and at the same time considered that she would afford him ideal opportunities of selfabnegation, I think it may be doubted whether she would be altogether pleased. Undoubtedly we should desire the happiness of those whom we love, but not as an alternative to our own. In fact the whole antithesis between self and the rest of the world, which is implied in the doctrine of self-denial, disappears as soon as we have any genuine interest in persons or things outside ourselves