ultimate values, and an adequate appreciation of the relative worth and mutual compatibility of various goods. (This "intuition," or appreciation, it should be stated, is a matter of feeling and will, and not of reason alone.) If the good end is to be intelligently chosen, then, there must be an appreciation of the superior worth of absolute and permanent values, as com- pared with such as are but instrumental and temporary. But more than this is necessary. On the basis of an appreciation of the absolute value (potential, if not actual) of all personal life, the goods appreciated as absolute must be desired for all per- sons, and their greatest possible ultimate well-being made the end of individual action. That is wrong conduct in which some- thing less than the greatest total true good of all persons is made the end of action. Lack of appreciation of the highest (i. e., the absolute and eternal) goods, as compared with those the appre- ciation of which calls for less spiritual development, may be called sensuousness. It is being guided by animal impulse, rather than by the highest ideals. On the other hand, lack of appreciation of the equal rights of others to be regarded as ends, instead of being used as mere means, is selfishness. But fully right conduct must not only aim at the highest possible good of all concerned; it must employ the best available means for realizing these imperative ends. What the best means are must be discovered ultimately by empirical methods- observation and experiment. For conduct is sometimes wrong through ignorance of the best means to employ in order to realize ends rightly recognized as valid. But it often happens that wrong conduct is not due to ig- norance alone or principally, Socrates to the contrary not- withstanding. Even when there is correct information as to the sequence of cause and effect, and therewith as to the right means to employ in order to realize desired ends, often the right action does not follow. It is not that the intellect is mistaken, but that the will is bad. Nor is this always due to the individual's nature having not yet learned to appreciate the higher values, although this is often a factor. Neither is it enough in all cases to point to an unfortunate inheritance of instinct, or to the fact of long habituation to an inadequate way of acting, or to the individual will being overborne by social pressure, i. e., temptation of one -82- |