Page 100 - CONSCIENCISM By Kwame Nkrumah_Neat
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94 CONSCIENCISM CONSCIENCISM 95
out and fulfilled. By-laws are an application ofsuch principles. It is position ofthe woman will have to give way to those arising from
obvious that when the conditions in which by-laws operate alter the new position of the man. And yet, the principles standing
seriously, it could be necessary to amend the by-laws in order that behind these diverse dusters ofethical rules may remain constant,
the same statute should continue to be fulfilled. Statutes are not on and identical as between society and society.
the same level as by-laws, nor do they imply any particular by-laws. According to philosophical consciencism, ethical rules are not
It is because they carry no specific implication of particular by permanent but depend on the stage reached in the historical
laws, but can be subserved by anyone ofa whole spectrum ofsuch, evolution of a society, so however that cardinal principles of
that it is possible to amend by-laws, while the statute which they egalitarianism are conserved.
are meant to fulf:tl suffers no change. A society does not change its ethics by merely changing its rules.
The relationship between ideals and institutions is a similar one. To alter its ethics, its principles must be different. Thus, ifa capitalist
That circumstances change is a truism. For all that, it is significant. society can become a socialist society, then a capitalist society will
For it means that, if ideals must be pursued throughout the have changed its ethics. Any change of ethics constitutes a re
changing scenes ofhfe, it may be necessary to modify or replace volutionary change.
institutions in order that the same ideals should effectively be Nevertheless, many times moral rules have changed so startlingly
served. There are no particular institutions, which, irrespective of as to give the impression ofa revolution in ethics. For example, one
local circumstances, are uniquely tied to their ideals. Institutions can take that profound change in our attitude to offenders for
should be shot through and through with pragmatism. which modern psychology is responsible. Modern psychology
It is in the same way that principles are related to rules even when brings to our notice relevant facts ofwhose existence we have no
they are ethical. The idea that ethical rules can change, and indeed inkling in our dreams. When these new facts change our
need to change, is one which a httle reflection can confirm. attitude, moral rules have not necessarily changed. But application
Evidently, even when two societies share the same ethical of them is withheld, for the new considerations provoke a re
principles, they may differ in the rules which make the principles classification of the act involved, and, possibly, bring it under a
effective. Asses were of such overwhelming importance in Israel different ethical rule. In that case, a different moral attitude could
that God found it necessary to regulate human relations by an become relevant.
ethical rule mentioning them specifically. Thou shalt not covet thy Investigations into the psychology ofdelinquency are a case in
neighbour's ass. IfGod deigned to give us a similar rule today, he point. Such investigations tend by their results to attenuate the
would no doubt forbid us to covet our neighbour's motor-car, acrimony ofour moral attitude to delinquents, by compelling us,
hardly his ass. Here God would be giving a new ethical rule, not admittedly to waive moral rules, but to re-classify delinquent
designed at giving effect to an unchanging ethical principle, but acts.
taking full account ofmodern times. The cardinal ethical principle ofphilosophical consciencism is to
Progress in man's conquest and harnessing of the forces of treat each man as an end in himself and not merely as a means. This
nature has a profound effect on the content ofethical rules. Some is fundamental to all socialist or humanist conceptions ofman. It is
ethical rules fall into abeyance, because the situations in which they true that Immanuel Kant also identified this as a cardinal principle
take effect lose all hkehhood ofrecurrence; others give way to their ofethics, but whereas he regarded it as an immediate command of
opposite, as, for example, when a matriarchal society changes into a reason, we derive it from a materialist viewpoint.
patriarchal one, for here many ethical rules arising from the This derivation can be made by way ofthat egalitarianism which,
