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Many moralists would wish to bring into the definition ofmorality as a further criterion beyond the four which we haveoffered, this connection, which seems so clear, between moralityand human needs and interests. They would stipulatethat nothing is to be recognized as part of morality unless itcould survive rational criticism in terms of human interests,and so be shown to advance them (perhaps even in some fairor equal way), in the society whose rules they are. Somemight even go further, and refuse to recognize as moral anyprinciple or rule of conduct, unless the benefits of the forbearancesand actions it required were extended, beyond theboundaries of a particular society, to all who were themselveswilling and able to respect such rules. We have, however, intentionallytaken a broader view of morality, so as to includein it all social rules and standards which, in the actual practiceof a society, exhibit the four features we have mentioned.Some of these would survive criticism in the light of thesefurther suggested tests; others would not but might be condemnedas irrational or unenlightened or even barbarous.We have done this not merely because the weight of usage of the word 'moral' favours this broader meaning, but becauseto take the narrower restricted view, which would excludethese, would force us to divide in a very unrealistic mannerelements in a social structure which function in an identicalmanner, in the lives of those who live by it. Moral prohibitionsof conduct, which may not in fact harm others, are notonly regarded with precisely the same instinctive respect asthose that do; they enter together with the requirements ofmore rationally defensible rules into social estimates of character;and, with them, form part of the generally acceptedpicture of the life which individuals are expected and indeedare assumed to live.
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