[32.] Many a one will, perhaps, think to himself that the three cases which I have set forth are so self-evident and insignificant that it is a matter for surprise that I have lingered over them at all. Self-evident they are of course, and this must be so, since we have here to do with what has to serve as a fundamentum. The case would be worse if they were insignificant; for, I confess it frankly, I have scarcely another further case to add: in all, or, at any rate, most of the cases not here included a criterion fails us completely.[38]
An example. All insight is, we have said, something good in itself, and all noble love is likewise something good in itself. We recognize both these things clearly. But who shall say whether this act of insight or that act of love is in itself, the better? There have, of course, not been wanting those who have given a verdict on this point; some have even asserted that it is certain every act of noble love for its own sake is a good so high that, taken by itself, it is better than all scientific insight taken together. In my judgment this view is not only doubtful but altogether absurd. For a single act of noble love worthy as it is, is yet a certain finite good. But every act of insight is also a finite good and if I keep adding this finite quantity to itself ad libitum, its sum is bound some time to exceed every given finite measure of good. On the other hand, Plato and Aristotle were inclined to regard the act of knowing considered in itself as higher than ethically virtuous acts, this also quite unjustly, and I only mention it since the opposition of opinions here is a confirmatory proof of the absence of any criterion. As often happens in the sphere of the psychical,[39] so also here, real measurements are impossible. Now where the inner preference is not to be detected there holds good here what was said in a similar case of simple goodness—as far as our knowledge and practical concern go it is as good as non-existent.
[33.] There are some who, in opposition to the clear teaching of experience, assert that only pleasure is good for its own sake, and pleasure is the good. Assuming this view to be right, would it have the advantage, as many have believed, and as Bentham in particular maintained in its favour,[40] that we should at once attain to a determination of the relative value of goods, seeing that now we should have only homogeneous goods and these admit of being measured side by side? Every more intense pleasure would then be a greater good than one less intense, and a good having double the intensity would be equal to two of half the intensity. In this way everything would become clear.
A moment’s reflection only is needed to shatter an illusion born of such hope. Are we really able to find out that one pleasure is twice as great as another? Gauss[41] himself, who knew something about measurements, has denied this. A more intense pleasure is never really made up of twelve less intense pleasures distinguishable as equal parts within it, as a foot is made up of twelve inches. So the matter presents itself even in simpler cases. But how foolish would any one appear were he to assert that the pleasure he had in smoking a good cigar increased 127, or, let us say, 1077 times in intensity yielded a measure of the pleasure experienced by him in listening to a symphony of Beethoven or contemplating one of Raphael’s madonnas![42] I think I have said enough, and do not need to allude to the further difficulty involved in comparing the intensity of pleasure with that of pain.
[34.] Only therefore to this very limited extent are we able to derive from experience a knowledge of what is better in itself.
I can well understand how any one, reflecting upon this for the first time, will be led to fear that the great gaps which remain must, in practice, prove in the highest degree embarrassing. Yet as we proceed and make a vigorous use of what we do possess, we shall find that the most sensible deficiencies may fortunately turn out harmless in practice.
[35.] For, from the cases we adduced of preference qualified as right, the important proposition follows that the province of the highest practical good embraces everything which is subject to our rational operation in so far as a good can be realized in such matter. Not merely the self but also the family, the town, the state, the whole present world of life, even distant future times, may here be taken into account. All this follows from the principle of the summation of the good. To promote as far as possible the good throughout this great whole, that is manifestly the right end in life, towards which every act is to be ordered; that is the one, the highest command upon which all the rest depend.[43] Self-devotion and, on occasion, self-sacrifice are, therefore, duties; an equal good wherever it be, and therefore in the person of another also, is, in proportion to its value, and, therefore, everywhere equally to be loved, and jealousy and malignant envy are excluded.
[36.] And now, since all lesser goods are to be made subservient to the good of this widest sphere, light may also be shed from utilitarian considerations upon those dark regions where before we found a standard of choice wanting. If, for example, it was true that acts of insight and acts of noble love are not to be measured as to their inner worth in terms of one another, it is now clear that at any rate neither of these two sides may be entirely neglected at the expense of the other. If one person had perfect knowledge without noble love, and another perfect noble love without knowledge, neither would be able to use his gifts in the service of the still greater collective good. A certain harmonious development and exercise of all our noblest powers seems, therefore, from this point of view to be, at any rate, what we must strive after.[44]
[37.] And now after seeing how many duties of love towards the highest practical good come to light, we proceed to the origin of duties of law. That association which renders possible a division of labour is the indispensable condition of the advancement of the highest good as we have learnt to understand it. Man therefore is morally destined to live in society, and it is easily demonstrable that limits must exist in order that one member of society may not be more of a hindrance than a help to another,[45] and that these limits (though much in this respect is settled by considerations of natural common-sense) require to be more exactly marked by positive laws, and need the further security and support of public authority.
And while in this way our natural insight demands and sanctions positive law in general, it may, in particular, raise demands on the fulfillment of which depends the measure of the blessing which the state of law is to bring with it.