Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/146

 tells baby that he is naughty when he cries. The same moral judgment is passed on the same kind of action.

But the child also has a natural tendency to originate, to initiate, to invent. Hence he applies the moral judgments which he has learned by imitation to actions other than those to which they were originally attached. Nurse is naughty when she puts him to bed too early for his taste. Mother is naughty when she refuses to give him a biscuit. The child has originated these moral judgments. But he soon comes to realise that the moral judgments which he has originated do not seem to have the same validity as mother's moral judgments. When he cries, mother's moral judgment is, "You are naughty"; and if he persists, mother makes her judgment effective by whipping him. On the other hand, when he says to mother, "You are naughty," he cannot make his judgment effective, and if he tries to do so, mother passes the judgment "You are naughty" on him, and very soon makes this judgment effective. From such experiences as these, the child gradually learns that (1) when mother makes a judgment, it is so; (2) when he makes a judgment on his own initiative, it may not be valid; and (3) when he makes a judgment in strict imitation of mother's, e.g. upon baby crying, the moral judgment is sound. Hence he comes to accept mother's moral judgment as his standard.

§ 2. The Standard as Private Opinion. Now the moral judgments of the mother may be based simply on her private opinion. So long as the child comes in contact only with her private opinion, her judgments