Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/162

 Our conclusion, then, is that the rightness and wrongness of actions depends not on the intended consequences alone, nor on the actual consequences alone, nor on the feelings of the agent alone, but on the total motive, which includes both the feelings of the agent and the end for the sake of which the action is performed. Unless both are good, the action will not be right.

§ 4. Why should I be Good? Suppose, in a given situation, it is clear that a given action is right. There is no doubt that this action, and this alone, is right. And suppose I say, "This action is doubtless right. It is the action that a good man would perform. But why should I do it? Why should I be good?" In attempting to answer this question, we must consider what are known as the sanctions of conduct. The word sanction is derived from the Latin word sanctio, which means "the act of binding" or "that which serves to bind." The word came to have a specifically legal sense. The sanction of a legal enactment is the penalty which is incurred when the law is broken. A man is "bound over" to keep the peace, and it is stipulated that unless he keeps the peace, he will have to pay the penalty. The fear of punishment is thus, from the legal standpoint, the sanction of his good conduct. Various sanctions may be appealed to as reasons why right actions should be done, and wrong ones avoided, but perhaps the most common is the sanction of punishment. If you do this wrong action, it is said, you will be punished; and if you don't do that right action, you will be punished.

§5. The Sanction of Punishment. Suppose a