G. A. Johnston

“ These associations and consequences are all non-moral; they are all external to the action. A man who abstains from an evil action only because he fears the physical consequences of it, or the legal penalties which it involves, or the social unpopularity which it will reflect upon him, or the pains which religion attaches to it, is not really good. He has abstained from the wrong act, not because it is wrong, not because his character is good and abhors it, but solely because he fears the consequences of the action. ”

“ It is monstrous to make the rightness of an action depend on the actual consequences, for these are often not in the power of the agent. When we judge that an action is right or wrong, we are always passing a judgment at the same time on the character of the agent, whose action it is. ”

“ If motive be taken in the former sense, it means the actual feeling, emotion, or desire, which impels the action or accompanies it during its performance. A man may be moved by compassion for a beggar, and this emotion may impel the action of giving him a coin. Or he may be carried away by intense anger, and be immediately impelled to action. But in every case in which a man acts in obedience solely to the impulsion of a feeling, his action is not really a completely moral action. ”

“ Morality contains in itself its own sanctions. To the man of good character, his own approval is the highest reward, and his own remorse the severest punishment. Goodness is an intrinsic thing, which depends on no external sanctions and extraneous associations.
§ 8. The Educational Value of External Sanctions. Yet these sanctions have a certain educational value. The child cannot understand the absoluteness of morality. "Be good simply because it is good" seems to him an intolerably vague precept. If he asks, "Why should I do this particular right action?" ”

“ If a man gives £50,000 to build an hospital, his act is not morally right unless he feels sympathy with the people whose sufferings his money is destined to alleviate. Here again we see that an action is morally right only if the motive is complete, i.e. comprehends both the end purposed and the emotions felt.
Again, those who maintain that consequences constitute the criterion of the rightness or wrongness of actions often do not make clear what precisely they mean by consequences. ”

“ It is impossible to give any particular reasons for doing right and being good that will be absolutely true, not because there are no reasons for being good, but because there is every possible reason. ”

“ If external sanctions be used in a prudent way to persuade children to courses of action for which at first they have no natural inclination, they may prove a very valuable educational instrument.
(3) Their value depends on the fact that it is important that children should learn to act rightly, or as a good person would act, even before they can be expected to know why they act rightly. The average man acts rightly all his life without reflecting why he does so. And though moral theory is important, moral practice is still more important. ”

“ The social sanction has even more obvious advantages to offer. If you are good, you will be well thought of by society. You will gain reputation, society will give you a "good character," and conformity to social convention will go far to advance your success. ”

“ If we revert to the case of the boy and the apples, it is clear that he will have no difficulty in understanding the nature of the sanctions to which his mother appeals. He knows what it is to have a sore stomach. He knows what a policeman is. He knows what it is to be regarded by the whole household as a "naughty boy." And he has been impressed with the awfulness of the "bad place." External sanctions are educationally valuable because they are easily understood, and make an immediate impression on the mind. ”

“ According to the physical sanction, if you live a temperate life, you will be healthy. You will have the physical reward of your moral goodness. Health is almost essential to success. Hence, if you would be successful, live a good life. ”

“ External sanctions have great persuasive value. When the object is simply to get a child to do an action, they are often indispensable. The child may be very unwilling to perform an action which seems disagreeable to it. ”

“ Actions which are done in obedience to the external sanctions of morality, and in accordance with the rules which they imply, may be outwardly indistinguishable from right actions, but they are not right. If a suburban lady gives half-a-crown to a charitable institution simply because all the other ladies in the Terrace do so, she is acting in obedience to the external social sanction, and her action has no moral worth. Her action would be right only if the motive were good, i.e. ”

“ As we saw in an earlier chapter, we form good habits only by repeatedly doing right actions. Hence it is exceedingly important that the child should, as soon as possible, be encouraged to do habitually the right actions. ”

“ If you conform to the laws of the land, says the political sanction, they will forward your success. The laws prevent your clerks embezzling your money, they protect the ships in which your merchandise is carried, and they preserve the integrity of your country. ”

“ Now, in neither of these senses do the consequences of an action supply an adequate test of the rightness or wrongness of that action. With regard to the former case, in which "consequences" is taken to mean "intended consequences," it will be enough to point out that it shares the defect which we have just found to be inherent in the view that the criterion is motive regarded solely as end. It does not take into account the feeling-disposition of the agent. ”