ABSTRACT

This chapter explains and defends the course of argument hitherto pursued, with special reference to the problems which concern a man's duties towards his fellows, and the rights which his fellows should accord him. To be brief, then, actions may be other-directed, and they should be other-directed in so far as they affect the welfare of others. The ethical standards which conform to these requirements are the very substance of justice and of equity as regards both rights and duties. The proper application of equity, it is true, is extraordinarily hard to discern, for human beings, and even the animals, are exceptionally complex, their potencies equally so, and their interlacing relationships more entangled still. Both the fact of personal selfhood and its extreme relevance to ethical enquiry are matters that deserve careful discussion; and no one has any business to assume them glibly and unthinkingly.