Chapter III: Hedonism.
§ 63.
The second
cause I have to give why Egoism should be thought reasonable, is simply its
confusion with that other kind of Egoism—Egoism as a doctrine of means. This
second Egoism has a right to say: You ought to pursue your own happiness,
sometimes at all events; it may even say: Always. And when we find it saying
this we are apt to forget its proviso: But only as a means to something else.
The fact is we are in an imperfect state; we cannot get the ideal all at once.
And hence it is often our bounden duty, we often absolutely
ought,
to do things which are good only or chiefly as means: we have
to do the best we can, what is absolutely right,
but not what is
absolutely good. Of this I shall say more hereafter. I only mention it here
because I think it is much more plausible to say that we ought to pursue our own
pleasure as a means than as an end, and that this doctrine, through confusion,
lends some of its plausibility to the utterly distinct doctrine of Egoism
proper: My own greatest pleasure is the only good thing. (§ 63 ¶ 1)