Los datos de la ética
- Idioma:
- inglés
- Estado:
- Obra completa
- Autoría:
- Escrita por el autor
- Estado del texto:
- Texto limpio
- Extensión:
- ~110.000 palabras · 546 pasajes
Cita esta obra
- APAHerbert Spencer. (n.d.). Los datos de la ética. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/herbert-spencer/the-data-of-ethics
- MLAHerbert Spencer. "Los datos de la ética." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/es/works/herbert-spencer/the-data-of-ethics.
- ChicagoHerbert Spencer. Los datos de la ética. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/herbert-spencer/the-data-of-ethics.
De qué trata
El libro de 1879 en que Spencer intentó fundar la moral sobre la biología: la conducta buena es la que favorece la vida, y la evolución nos lleva a ella.
Contexto e historia
Es la primera parte de su sistema de ética, y la publicó adelantada porque temía morir sin escribirla. El argumento encadena tres pasos: la conducta es una adaptación de medios a fines; una conducta es más evolucionada cuanto mejor mantiene la vida de quien la hace, de sus hijos y de sus semejantes; y por tanto el desarrollo moral consiste en hacer que esas tres cosas dejen de chocar. Spencer creía que la evolución lleva a ello sola y que llegaría un estado en que el deber ya no haría falta porque hacer el bien sería placentero. Es una de las tentativas más serias de derivar el «debe» del «es», y G. E. Moore la tomó precisamente como ejemplo de lo que llamó la falacia naturalista.
Contexto editorial, no una fuente citable: a diferencia de los pasajes de la obra, estos datos no se pueden comprobar contra el corpus.
A reference to the programme of the "System of Synthetic Philosophy" will show that the chapters herewith issued constitute the first division of the work on the _Principles of Morality_, with which the System ends. As the second and third volumes of the _Principles of Sociology_ are as yet unpublished, this installment of the succeeding work appears out of its place. I have been led thus to deviate from the order originally set down by the fear that persistence in conforming to it might result in leaving the final work of the series unexecuted. Hints, repeated of late years with increasing frequency and distinctness, have shown me that health may permanently fail, even if life does not end, before I reach the last part of the task I have marked out for myself. This last part of the task it is to which I regard all the preceding parts as subsidiary. Written as far back as 1842, my first essay, consisting of letters on The _Proper Sphere of Government_, vaguely indicated what I conceived to be certain general principles of right and wrong in political conduct, and from that time onward my ultimate purpose, lying behind all proximate purposes, has been that of finding for the principles of right and wrong, in conduct at large, a scientific basis. To leave this purpose unfulfilled, after making so extensive a preparation for fulfilling it, would be a failure the probability of which I do not like to contemplate, and I am anxious to preclude it, if not wholly, still partially. Hence the step I now take. Though this first division of the work terminating the Synthetic Philosophy, cannot, of course, contain the specific conclusions to be set forth in the entire work, yet it implies them in such wise that, definitely to formulate them requires nothing beyond logical deduction.