The Ethics of Action

Abstract

Our search here, as in all ethics, is for the nature of the good and of its operation, and hence also for the approximation of its attainment. We are relying upon a general definition of the good, a definition in which all human considerations are not only encompassed but exceeded. The good is the quality which emerges from the relations between wholes. It is the ambition of every whole to become a proper part; that is to say, to fit in exactly where it ought, and it “ought” to fit where it is designed to fit. When the whole becomes a part, if that is followed by all the necessary wholes becoming parts, then we have a new whole, and moreover one which is related to other new wholes. The quality which emerge from the relation of whole to whole is the good (that which emerges from the relation of part to part, the beautiful).