Single Idea 5942

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 2. Duty]

Full Idea

We may like better the man who acts more instinctively, from love, but we are bound to think the man who acts from sense of duty the better man.

Gist of Idea

We like people who act from love, but admire more the people who act from duty

Source

W. David Ross (The Right and the Good [1930], §VII)

Book Reference

Ross,W.David: 'The Right and the Good' [OUP 1930], p.164


A Reaction

So why don't we like better men? Presumably a person who only acts from love might equally have acted from some other much worse feeling. Aristotle is right: we both like and admire those who act from love of virtue, not from mere self-control.