Again, if the end sought were more strictly scientific form for the moral sentiments, there would have to be ground for presuming that the student is able to appreciate that form and has acquired skill in the use of logical methods. The study of logic, together with appropriate exercises, would obviously be a necessary preliminary step. Prerequisites like these need to be borne in mind, especially in the case of lower schools and all other institutions that do not, as a rule, lead to the university.
[313.] Erroneous systems of ethics, moreover, might occasion the adoption of very absurd measures, concerning which, on account of the importance of the subject, at least something has to be said. Everything would be turned upside down, if, instead of bringing together and uniting maxims under the concept virtue, the attempt were made to deduce from some one formula of the categorical imperative a multiplicity of maxims and from these, rather than from the original ethical judgments, the estimates of will values, the final undertaking being, perhaps, to divert the will itself by such operations.
On the contrary, the will must early have been given such direction by government and training, that its lines of tendency will of themselves coincide as nearly as possible with the paths disclosed later, when the pupil is being shown the way through ethical judgments. Those beginnings of evil noted above ([305]) must not be permitted to appear at all, for their consequences usually prove ineradicable. But even so, it is not certain that a way can be hewn through the errors of others to truer judgments. When, however, both ends have been gained, experience and history and literature must next be called in, in order to show clearly the confusion into which the maxims based upon pleasure and passion plunge human beings. Not until now has the time come for more or less systematic lectures, or for the study of suitable classical writers. Lastly, there will still be need of frequent appeals to moral obedience, and it will be found necessary to reinforce these appeals by reflections of a religious character.
[ CHAPTER III
The Effects of Training]
- Training prevents passions in that it:—
- (1) satisfies needs,
- (2) avoids opportunities for violent desires,
- (3) provides employment,
- (4) accustoms to order,
- (5) demands reflection and responsibility.
- Training influences the emotions in that it:—
- (1) checks violent outbreaks,
- (2) creates other emotions,
- (3) and supplements self-control.
- Training impresses the courtesies of life (counteracts bad
manners), consequently:—
- (1) the deportment of individuals is made approximately uniform;
- (2) the number of possible points of social contact becomes much greater than where strife and contention rule;
- (3) while the development of one or the other individual is checked, the more important energies are not stifled, provided excess of severity be avoided.
- Training makes cautions, for:—
- (1) It restricts foolhardiness,
- (2) It warns against dangers,
- (3) It punishes in order to make wiser,
- (4) It observes and accustoms the human being to the thought of being observed.
[315.] Looked at as a whole, these obvious and familiar effects of training show at once that, generally speaking, its power to lessen evil is very great, and that it is capable of effectively acting upon the interrelations of various masses of ideas. But they suggest also the presence of danger. Training, by driving evil from the surface, may give rise to clandestine deeds.
[316.] When this happens, the relations between teacher and pupils grow increasingly abnormal, since secret practices become general and concerted, and the pupils assume a studied behavior in the presence of the teacher.
The consequences are well known:—Inexorable severity in dealing with concealed offences when discovered; great leniency in the case of open transgressions; recourse to the machinery of supervision, often even to secret watching, in order that the system of concealment may not get the better of education.