バートランド・ラッセル『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』7-9 - Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954
* 原著:Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954* 邦訳書:バートランド・ラッセル(著),勝部真長・長谷川鑛平(共訳)『ヒューマン・ソサエティ-倫理学から政治学へ』(玉川大学出版部,1981年7月刊。268+x pp.)
『ヒューマン・ソサエティ』第7章:罪 n.9 |
Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, chapter 7: Sin, n.9 | |||
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If "sin" means "disobedience to the known will of God", then clearly sin is impossible for those who do not believe in God or do not think that they know His will. But if "sin" means "disobedience to the voice of conscience", then it can exist independently of theological beliefs. If it means only this, however, it lacks some properties commonly associated with the word "sin". Sin is usually thought of as deserving punishment, not only as a deterrent or as an incentive to reform, but on grounds of abstract justice. The sufferings of hell, theologians assure us, do not make tortured souls morally better; on the contrary, they persist in sin through all eternity, and have no power to do otherwise. The belief in "sin" as something meriting the purely retributive infliction of pain is one which cannot be reconciled with any ethic at all analogous to that which I have been maintaining, though it has been advocated independently of theology, for instance in G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica. When retribution for its own sake is not thought a good, the concepts of "justice" and "punishment" need re-interpretation. |