The Engineering Design Process

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ...seen in a writer such as J. S. Mill, there is a constant goal always set to it in the possible maximum of pleasant feeling. It would not have been inconsistent for him, however, to look upon human nature as capable of developing new susceptibilities for pleasure. Progress is made by increasing the amount of pleasure actually got. And so far, the ideal itself is certainly fixed, while progress consists in its gradual realisation. But there is no special virtue in having an ideal which is itself progressive. A progressive ideal simply means an ideal which is incompletely comprehended, and the comprehension of which proceeds gradually with its realisation. At any time the definition of such an ideal can only be tentative: with the actual assimilation of character to it, the intellect comes to grasp its nature with increasing clearness. I do not myself think that we can expect to have more than such a tentative and progressive comprehension of the moral ideal of humanity. But we must not take objection to a theory because it gives at once a clear and definite view of the final end of conduct: though we must not refrain from inquiring how the end is known. 1 J. T. Punnet, "Ethical Alternatives"--Mind, x. 95. 2 Science of Ethics, p. 363. s Natural Law: An Essay in Ethics (1877), p. 101. But the bearing of the objection to utilitarianism Force of ti becomes apparent when we try to give some definite bln10 meaning to the end greatest happiness. If we are Jj content to receive it as simply a very general--or interpret rather abstract--expression for our ideal, nothing happiness, need be said, except to put the question, which has been already asked, How we came by such an ideal? The difficulty arises when we attempt to apply the by showing...