SOCIAL PRAGMATISM
sm,—I must protest at misinterpretation of my views in Mr. C. E. Vulliam?s review of my book Social Pragmatism. Whatever Mr. Vulliamy means by saying that I am " concerned with a systematic achievement of happiness "—and I devote considerable space to my reasons for rejecting the view that happiness is normally to be regarded as an object of pursuit—his statement that my " doctrine is tbat.of eudemonism " must be flatly contradicted. Eudemonism, both individual and social, is a system of ethics, and to represent me as advancing any type of ethic is to misstate my whole position. My " doctrine" is not eudemonism, but social pragmatism,, which dispenses entirely with the moral " ought,' whether overt or implied; and " deals solely in counsels of expediency derived from ideas of universal desirability " (a term I define), and that my book is no more ethical than a cookery-book? The principal aim of my 'book was to point out that there already exists a non-ethical stand- point of -evaluation from which ethical systems themselves can be judged. On this basis, having defined my terms, I proceed to argue that moralism Is on balance a bad thing.
Secondly : Mr. Vulliamy ascribes . to me " something very like a disguised revival of Cartesian dualism." This is cautious criticism but none the less calls for rebuttal. The reference is to my discussion of physical and psychological determinism. These I treat. as equally legitimate modei of interpretation, according to the context of the enquiry, so that I accept the existence of two Separate standpoints from which one particular chain of events, i.e., human activity, can be viewed. There is not an iota of Cartesian dualism, or any other metaphysic, in this. On the contrary I say (p. 40) ; " The view that there are two sets of causal Jaws, the psychological and the physical, is unhelpful.because it introduces an element of dualism into our world-view, involving insoluble problems at the point of interaction between-mind and matter."—Yours faithfully,
Pine Hill, Hazlemere, Higlr,Wycombe, Bucks. LAN FREED.
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