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Examine F.H. Bradley’s social naturalism (20)Naturalism is the theory that moral terms can be understood by analysing the natural world. It is
cognitivist and realist as it corresponds to the external reality, thus, it is not based on our opinions or
judgements. It can be verified or falsified with reference to the empirical realm. Naturalism proposes
that, once verified, moral statements become objective truths and universal. In his book, Ethical
Studies, Bradley argues that we can see what is good or bad based on the natural world. Because
certain propositions can be demonstrated to be true or false, these moral judgements are grounded
in reality. Although he believed that morality is relative, it was ‘nonetheless real’.
In his essay ‘My Station and Its Duties’, Bradley argues that morality rests on facts about our place in
society, that is, to be moral is to live in accordance with morals of one’s country. This leads to self-
realisation which is the main goal of human life. The ‘station’ to which he is referring is the society,
whilst ‘duties’ are the moral obligation which are given to us by other people in society. According, to
Bradley, every person has their station and its duties. Indeed, each person is born into a set of
relations which can lead to self-fulfilment as well as benefiting the others. Furthermore, what we
have to do depends on what place we have in society; this place gives us our way to interact with the
social environment. Bradley also came up with the idea of concrete universal which proposes that
the self is not isolated but is derived from dialectical relations to the world, meaning that ethical
statements derive from the external world and help us to fulfil the internal. Therefore, to be a good
person we must know and realise our station and its duties.
Additionally, Bradley argues that we do not get to choose the duties that society places upon us,
although we can choose between duties but with certain limits. This is what makes our life moral as
we are not just pleasing ourselves, but we can choose to engage with the society. This attitude gives
us a chance to realise and express who we really are.
Bradley’s theory of social naturalism attempts to solve the conflict between Hedonistic Utilitarianism
and Kant’s idea of duty. His inspiration, Hagel, attempted to solve dualism by putting hypothesis and
antithesis together which would conclude with synthesis. In the same way, Bradley combines the
empirical basis of naturalism and the idea of duty. Bradley rejected hedonism because he argued that
pleasure does not lead to self-understanding as it is too centred around the self and does not take
the society into account. He also rejected Kantian Ethics which proposed the idea of duty for duty’s
sake. For him, this was just a false abstraction. Whereas his essay was seen to be an advancement of
Hedonism, it was also seen as an improvement of Kant’s transcendental idealism. Bradley realised
that, without society, the individual would just be a ‘bad self’, limited to isolated pleasure-seeking.
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