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Reflecting on Morals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009
Extract
In order to do anything intelligently a certain degree of reflection is necessary. This is particularly obvious with regard to any practical activity or occupation. Take, for example, the case of a naїve bricklayer. Let us assume that this man never reflects upon the nature of his occupation, but simply looks upon it as a more or less mechanical procedure of laying one brick upon another for a certain period of time during the day. He does not relate his occupation with the occupations of his fellow–workmen, or even with the purpose of erecting buildings. If such a man were left to his own devices on a desert island with a plentiful supply of bricks and mortar, we could imagine him erecting a gigantic pinnacle of bricks, without purpose or meaning, where a more intelligent man would have endeavoured to construct a shelter against the rigours of the climate.
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- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1956
References
1 See the books Ethical and Political Thinking and The Foundations of Ethics of these respective authors.
page 113 note 1 On this distinction, see G. Ryle's article on “Feeling”: Philosophical Quarterly, April 1951.