TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY. 99- 



sharply and clearly. The mere heading- of the 

 section, "From 'Each for Himself to 'Each for 

 All' No Road," speaks volumes. The criticism 

 has often been made before, but seldom with such 

 precision and incisiveness. Mill's attempt to find 

 a qualitative difference in pleasures is only an 

 attempt to throw a bridge over an impassable 

 chasm. The Hedonist, who substitutes others for 

 himself, becomes moral by turning his rational 

 preferences upside down, or "by the practical 

 paradox of attaining pleasure by aiming at 

 something else," " Hedonistic advance " to any 

 higher love being not less impossible than "hori- 

 zontal movement uphill." Though there have no 

 doubt been moralizing divines " who recommended 

 the cultivation of disinterested and devout affec- 

 tions as a good investment," we may find the 

 cause of it in the low spiritual level of their age, 

 and the effect in the " notorious inefficacy " of 

 their teaching. We arrive, then, at the conclusion 

 that, notwithstanding the provision in our nature 

 for the partial conversion of interested into dis- 

 interested feeling, we cannot identify the greatest 

 happiness of self with the greatest happiness of 

 all, nor get duty out of prudence, nor virtue from 

 self-love. 



The main issue is not really changed when 

 evolution supplements Hedonism, and the indi- 

 vidual, society, and the world are treated no longer 



