From time immemorial, many philosophers and poets have held that the sufficient ethical guide for man was to “follow the laws of nature.”

Taken literally, the advice is unnecessary and absurd. It is impossible to violate the laws of nature; man cannot help obeying them.

1. The Cult of Self-Torture

Deeply embedded in the Christian ethical tradition—in fact, deeply embedded in nearly every ethical tradition that rests on a religious foundation, is a broad vein of asceticism. So deep does this go that even today a “moralist” is usually thought of as a killjoy, and most writers on ethics are at best rather patronizing toward pleasure and seem fearful of repudiating the ascetic principle except in its more extreme forms.

And he went on to ridicule its logical basis:

1. One-Sided Skepticism

Hume begins his Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by dismissing “those who have denied the reality of moral distinctions” as “disingenuous disputants” who “really do not believe in the opinions they defend, but engage in the controversy from affectation, from a spirit of opposition, or from a desire of showing wit and ingenuity superior to the rest of mankind.” And he contemptuously suggests that “the only way . . . of converting an antagonist of this kind is to leave him to himself.”

1. Justice and Freedom

The key terms used by moral philosophers—“good,” “right,” “ought,” etc.—all seem to be indefinable except in other terms that already imply the same notion. Such a term is Justice. Ask the average man what he means by justice and he will probably reply that what is just is what is “equitable” or what is “fair.” To the Institutes of Justinian we owe the famous definition that justice is the constant and continual purpose which gives to everyone his own.

The problem of equality vs. inequality has been touched upon in the preceding chapter on Justice, and will be dealt with again when we come to compare the ethical merits of capitalism and socialism. But it may be instructive to consider it briefly in a chapter by itself.

The words liberty and freedom are used both in the legal-political and in the moral realm. In the legal and political realm the truest, or at least the most useful and fruitful concept, seems to me to be the one set forth by John Locke in The Second Treatise of Civil Government (sec. 57):

1. The Fallacies of Materialism

It is possible to write a book on ethics without referring to the immemorial problem of Free Will vs. Determinism. Many modern books on ethics omit any discussion of it. I should myself be happy to do so, if it were not for a still widespread belief that the answer we make to the question may have crucial practical importance. “If all a man’s actions are determined,” ask those who hold this belief, “and if his will is not free, how can he be held responsible for his actions?

1. Legal Rights

In other words, just because every person under the rule of law is divested of an unlimited liberty of action, a certain liberty of action within the legal limits is conceded and guaranteed to him by right.

1. Cooperation Again

In a world that is not only haunted by the specter of Communism but lives in the shadow of the nuclear bomb, a book on ethics that omitted these topics would be omitting precisely the ethical problems that trouble us most. For problems of personal ethics, after all, custom and tradition have worked out fairly satisfactory answers, and prescribe reasonably adequate guides for day-to-day conduct even if their philosophical basis is uncertain or obscure.

1. A Socialist Smear Word