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Ethics, if it is anything, is supernatural and our words will only
express- facts; as a teacup will only hold a teacup full of water and if I
were to- pour out a gallon
over it. ‒ ‒ ‒
I said that so far as facts and
propositions- are concerned there is only relative value and
relative good, right etc. -
And let me, before I go on, illustrate this by a rather
obvious example.-
The right road is the road which leads to an arbitrarily predetermined
end- and it is quite clear to us all that there is no sense in talking
about the- right road apart from such a predetermined goal.
Now let us see what we- could possibly mean by the expression
“the absolutely right road”.
I think- it would be the road which everybody on seeing
it would, with logical- necessity have to go, or be ashamed for
not going.
And similarly the- absolute good, if it is a
describable state of affairs would be one which- everybody, independent of
his tastes and inclinations, would necessarily- bring about or
feel guilty for not bringing about.
And I want to say that- such a state of affairs is a chimera.
No state of affairs has in itself,-
what I would like to call, the coercive
power of an absolute judge. – -
Then what have all of us who, like myself, are still tempted to use
such- expressions as “absolute good”,
“absolute value” etc.,
what have we in mind- and what do we try to express?
Now whenever I try to make this clear to- myself it is natural that I
should recall cases in which I would certainly- use these expressions and
I am then in the situation and in which you would- be if, for instance, I
were to give you a lecture on the psychology of- pleasure.
What you would do then would be to try and recall some typical-
situation in which you always felt pleasure.
For, bearing this situation in- mind, all I should say to you would
become concrete and, as it were,- controllable.
One man would perhaps choose as his stock example the sensation
when taking a walk on a fine summer's day.
Now in this situation I am- if I want to fix my mind on what I mean by
absolute or ethical value.-
And there, in my case, it always happens that the idea of one
particular- experience presents itself to me which therefore is, in a
sense, my experience par excellence and
this is the reason why, in talking to you now,- I will use this experience
as my first and foremost example.
(As I have- said before, this is an entirely personal matter and
others would find- other examples more striking.)
I will describe this experience in order, if- possible, to make
you recall the same or similar experiences, so that we- may have a common
ground for our investigation.
I believe the best way of- describing it is to say that when I
have it I wonder at the existence of- the world.
And I am then inclined to use such phrases as “how
extraordinary that anything should exist” or
“how extraordinary that the world- should
exist”.
I will mention another experience straight away which I also- know
and which others of you might be acquainted with: it is, what one-
might call, the experience of feeling absolutely safe.
I mean the state of- mind in which one is inclined to say
“I am safe, nothing can injure me- whatever
happens”.
Now let me consider these experiences, for, I believe,- they exhibit the
very characteristics we try to get clear about.
And there-
the first thing I have to say is, that
the verbal expression which we give- to these experiences is
nonsense!
If I say “I wonder at the existence of- the
world” I am misusing language.
Let me explain this: It has a perfectly- good and clear
sense to say that I wonder at something being the case, we- all understand
what it means to say that I wonder at the size of a dog which- is bigger
than anyone I have ever seen before or at any thing which, in the- common
sense of the word, is extraordinary.
In every such case I wonder at- something being the case which I
could conceive not to be the case.
I wonder- at the size of this dog because I could conceive of a
dog of another, namely- the ordinary size, at which I should not
wonder.
To say “I wonder at such and- such being the
case” has only sense if I can imagine it not to be
the case.-
In this sense one can wonder at the existence of, say, a house when one
sees- it and has not visited it for a long time and has imagined that it
had been- pulled down in the meantime.
But it is nonsense to say that I wonder at the- existence of the world,
because I cannot imagine it not existing.
I could of- course wonder at the world round me being as it
is.
If for instance I had this- experience while looking into the blue sky,
I could wonder at the sky being- blue as opposed to the case when it's
clouded.
But that's not what I mean.-
I am wondering at the sky being whatever it is.
One might be tempted to say- that what I am wondering at is a
tautology, namely at the sky being
blue or- not blue.
But then it's just nonsense to say that one is wondering at a-
tautology.
Now the same applies to the other experience which I have
mentioned, the experience of absolute safety.
We all know what it means in ordinary life to be safe.
I am safe in my room, when I cannot be run over by an-
omnibus.
I am safe if I have had whooping cough and cannot
therefore- get it again.
To be safe essentially means that it is physically impossible
that- certain things should happen to me and therefore it's nonsense
to say that- I am safe whatever happens.
Again this is a misuse of the word “safe” as
the- other example was a misuse of the word
“existence” or
“wondering”.
Now I want- to impress on you that a certain characteristic misuse of
our language runs-
through all ethical and
religious expressions.
All these expressions seem,- prima facie, to be just
similes.
Thus it seems that when we are using the- word right in an
ethical sense, although, what we mean, is not right in its- trivial sense,
it's something similar, and when we say “this is a good-
fellow”, although the word
“good” here doesn't mean
what it means in the sentence “this is a good football
player” there seems to be some similarity.-
And when we say “this man's life was valuable”
we don't mean it in the same- sense in which we would speak of some
valuable jewelry but there seems to- be some sort of analogy.
Now all religious terms seem in this sense to be- used as similes or
allegorically.
For when we speak of God and that he
sees- everything and when we kneel and pray to him all our terms and
actions- seem to be parts of a great and elaborate allegory which
represents him as- a human being of great power whose grace we try to win
etc. etc.
But this- allegory also describes the experience which I have just
referred to.
For,- the first of them is, I believe, exactly what people were
referring to when- they said that God had
created the world; and the experience of absolute- safety has been
described by saying that we feel safe in the hands of God.-
A third experience of the same kind is that of feeling guilty and again-
this was described by the phrase that God
disapproves of our conduct.
Thus- in ethical and religious language we seem constantly to be using
similes.-
But a simile must be the simile for something.
And if I can describe a fact- by means of a simile I must also be able
to drop the simile and to- describe the facts without it.
Now in our case as soon as we try to drop- the simile and simply to
state the facts which stand behind it, we find,- that there are no such
facts.
And so, what at first appeared to be a - simile, now
seems to be mere nonsense. –
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