WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

T1 Ethical Thought

In other words, what Bradley does with Naturalism is try to bring together the two theories of Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics by taking their theories with all their inadequacies and imperfections and attempting to unify them without any deficiencies. What he ended up with was a developed ‘naturalistic’ philosophy of ethics in one chapter of his book ( My Station and its Duties ). However, this philosophical position in itself Bradley saw as deficient due to the incompleteness of its metaphysical end ( self-realisation ). By the end of his book, Bradley had again shifted position towards a more metaphysical, idealist position. Mary Warnock observes: ‘The last two essays in Ethical Studies are devoted to further elaboration of this notion of the end ( self-realisation ) … and to a discussion of the relation between religion and morality. The respects in which the theory is essentially metaphysical are perhaps now clear. More specifically, it is essentially an idealist moral philosophy, deriving from the idealist view of the unity and coherent nature of reality.’ The confusion sometimes repeated in books is to associate Bradley with Naturalism without qualification. Whilst Bradley himself was no Naturalist philosopher by any means, his essay My Station and its Duties , does present us with a very refined form of Naturalism. Bradley’s Hegelian Ethics and the development of the Naturalist philosophy It is in the essay entitled My Station and its Duties (chapter five of Bradley’s book Ethical Studies , 1867), where he attempts to unify Kant’s theory of duty with the Naturalism of Utilitarianism. As mentioned above, Ethical Studies is a progressive work in that it contains seven different proposals about, and positions on, ethical theories, each of which is seen as superior to the previous one and yet at the same time retaining some of the validity of its predecessor. Therefore, the presentation of this in essay five is seen to be an advancement of one type of Naturalism (ethical Hedonism and Utilitarianism) and an improvement on the deontology and transcendental idealism of Kant. In true Hegelian fashion, Bradley rejects both Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics but in My Station and Its Duties combines (through dialectical synthesis) the empirical basis of Naturalism with the idea of universal obligation evident in Kant’s idealist ethical theory. Bradley is attracted by the Naturalist approach of Utilitarianism but is uncomfortable with its subjective nature and the lack of unity that it brings, as Norman confirms, the aim of My Station and its Duties is to present ‘all these particulars into a coherent whole’. Bradley is also interested in Kant’s transcendental notion of duty, but yet is dissatisfied with the detachment from the

Key terms Deontology: ethical system that outlines a set of duties Self-realisation: Bradley’s view that the self wanders through a philosophical course of discovery that ends with the one being united with the whole Transcendental Idealism: Kant’s philosophy that the human self, or transcendental ego, constructs knowledge out of sense impressions and from universal concepts called categories that it imposes upon them

1.6 How did the philosopher Hegel try to overcome dualism?

DRAFT

Key quotes The concept of ‘My Station and its Duties’ is the core of Bradley’s moral theory. (Warnock) This view, the belief in the necessary dependence of people upon one another and upon their circumstances, is set out in explicit opposition in the first place to individualism, that is to utilitarianism interpreted as a kind of egoistic hedonism, and secondly to the Kantian and abstract formulae of duty for duty’s sake. (Warnock)

empirical realm that is, according to Norman, ‘divorced from any way of becoming particular and concrete’. Norman continues, ‘The initial movement is from the hedonistic utilitarianism of “pleasure for pleasure’s sake” to the Kantian morality of “duty for duty’s sake”, and from that to the social morality of “My Station and its Duties”.’

The famous philosopher Emmanuel Kant

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