"
[Footnote: _The Methods of Ethics_, Book II, chapter ii, Sec 2, 4th
Edition. SIDGWICK never appreciably modified this opinion, which is most
clearly expressed in the Edition quoted.]
When we seek, then, to "give pleasure," are we doing nothing else than
giving recognition to the desire and will of our neighbor? What has
become of the Greatest Happiness Principle? Has it not dissolved into the
doctrine of the Real Social Will?
CHAPTER XXVI
NATURE, PERFECTION, SELF-REALIZATION
I. NATURE
115. HUMAN NATURE AS ACCEPTED STANDARD.--The three doctrines, that the
norm of moral action is to follow nature, that it is to aim at the
attainment of perfection, and that it is the realization of one's
capabilities, have much in common. They may conveniently be treated in
the same chapter.
Early in the history of the ethics we find the moralist preaching that it
is the duty of man to follow nature, and branding vice as unnatural and,
hence, to be abhorred.
The word "nature," thus used, has had a fluctuating meaning.
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