The Root Is Man by Dwight Macdonald

Author:Dwight Macdonald [Macdonald, Dwight]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781570270178
Amazon: 1570270171
Publisher: Autonomedia
Published: 1994-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

7. Scientific Method and Value Judgment

The question of what we base our value judgments on, how we know what is Good and what is Evil, may seem remote and academic in an age which has witnessed Maidanek and Hiroshima. Confronted by such gross violations of the most modest ethical code, may we not take it for granted that there is general agreement that such things are Evil, and instead of splitting hairs about metaphysical questions like the nature of values, devote ourselves rather to the practical implementation of this universal agreement? In a word, when Evil is so patent, is our problem not a scientific one (devising Means to an agreed-on End) rather than an ethical one (deciding what Ends we want)?

This is “just common sense” — which means it will not stand close examination. That extreme Evils are committed today, with no large-scale opposition, by the agents of great nations — this leads me to conclude not, with the liberals and the Marxists, that the peoples of those nations are horrified by these Evils, groaning under the bondage of a system which permits such things to happen, and waiting expectantly for a practical program to be put forward which will eliminate them; but rather that, on the contrary, these Evils are rejected only on a superficial, conventional, public-oration and copy-book-maxim plane, while they are accepted or at least temporized with on more fundamental, private levels. How deeply does modern modern man experience the moral code he professes in public? One recalls the encounter of two liblab American journalists with a Labor member of the British cabinet during the war. They asked him for “some sort of idea about what Britain was fighting for.” The Laborite was puzzled. “Then he smiles and said that Britain, of course, could state the sort of aims we seemed to demand, of course, Britain could get out a list of points. But he asked us what they would mean — they would be mere platitudes. He was intensely sincere and he could not understand why we should be shocked...” (P.M., January 30, 1941.)

The fact that “everybody” agrees that war, torture, and the massacre of helpless people are Evil in not reassuring to me. It seems to show that our ethical code is no longer experienced, but is simply assumed, so that it becomes a collection of “mere platitudes.” One does not take any ricks for a platitude. Ask a dozen passersby, picked at random, whether they believe it is right to kill helpless people; they will reply of course not (the “of course” is ominous) and will probably denounce the inquirer as a monster for even suggesting there could be two answers to the question. But they will all “go along” with their government in World War III and kill as many helpless enemy people as possible. (While the monstrous questioner may well become a C.O.) Good and Evil can only have reality for us if we do not take them for granted, if they are not regarded as platitudes but as agonizing problems.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.