A Handbook of Ethical Theory

With the general spirit of these utterances the typical intuitionist is in sympathy, although he need not assent to the doctrine of innate ideas, nor need he hold that all moral...

rationality, for no better reason than that it is our whim? Shall we _believe_ and join ourselves with other _believers_, for no better reason than that something happens to tem...

122. THE SELF-REALIZATION DOCTRINE.--The ethical school which makes the realization of the capacities of the self the aim of moral action has for a generation, especially in Eng...

31. IMPULSE.--Commands and prohibitions address themselves to man as a voluntary agent. But it seems right to treat as willed by man much more than falls under the head of consc...

115. HUMAN NATURE AS ACCEPTED STANDARD.--The three doctrines, that the norm of moral action is to follow nature, that it is to aim at the attainment of perfection, and that it i...

53. THE IRRATIONAL WILL.--As dreams do not consist of an insignificant medley of elements drawn from the experiences of waking life, but, in spite of their fantastic character,...

76. THE APPARENT AND THE REAL SOCIAL WILL.--It is important to distinguish between the apparent and the real social will. We may begin by pointing out that the question "apparen...

kinds of selfishness. The task set himself by the egoist who aims at outshining his fellows in an unselfish self-forgetfulness would seem to be a particularly difficult one; yet...

154. THE AIM OF THE STATE.--He who has resolved to devote but a single chapter to the Ethics of the State must deliberately sacrifice nine- tenths, at least, of the material--so...

82. REASONABLE ENDS.--We have seen in the chapter on "Rationality and Will," that we cannot consider a man rational unless his choices are harmonized and converge upon some comp...

III. THE DIFFICULTIES OF OTHER SCHOOLS.--It would be unjust to the utilitarian not to point out that those who advocate other doctrines must find some way of coping with the dif...

139. THE DOCTRINE SUPPORTED BY THE OTHER SCHOOLS.--- I urge the more confidently the Ethics of Reason, or the Ethics of the Rational Social Will, because there is so little in i...

24. THE STRUGGLE WITH NATURE.--It is not possible to disentangle from each other and to consider quite separately the diverse elements which enter into the environment of man an...

159. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM.--I am almost tempted to avoid the discussion of this thorny subject by simply referring the reader to what has been said already on "The Spread o...

66. CUSTOM.--We have seen above that even the forms of political and social organization may justly be regarded as an expression of the social will. Such forms are the result of...

40. THE OBJECT AS END TO BE REALIZED.--The expression "the object before the mind in desiring and willing" is not free from ambiguity. It may be used in referring to the idea, t...

165. SCIENCES THAT CONCERN THE MORALIST.--There are certain sciences that the Moralist must lay under contribution very directly, and yet he seems to be able to make little retu...

We may define it as a group of human beings associated in a common life, depending upon and cooperating with each other. This definition will apply, to be sure, to lesser groups...

61. WHAT IS THE SOCIAL WILL?--The social will is not a mysterious entity, separate and distinct from all individual wills. It is their resultant. The resultant of two or more ph...

27. MAN IS ASSIGNED HIS PLACE.--The old fable of a social contract, by virtue of which man becomes a member of a society, agreeing to renounce certain rights he might exercise i...

95. WHAT IS EGOISM?--Egoism has been defined as "any ethical system in which the happiness or good of the individual is made the main criterion of moral action," [Footnote: _Enc...

136. KANT.---It is impossible, in any brief compass, to treat of the many individual moralists, some of them men of genius and well worthy of our study, who offer us ethical sys...

4. THE CODES OF COMMUNITIES: JUSTICE.--In view of the existing tendency in the average man, and even in some philosophers, to pass lightly over the diversities exhibited by diff...

The moralist, who accepts religious duties, has a difficult task. It is not enough for him to say that men have religious duties "in general," just as it is not enough for him t...

49. FEELING. [Footnote: See the notes on this chapter at the end of this volume.]--Two men may recognize with equal clearness the presence of a danger. That recognition may evok...

37. CONSCIOUSLY CHOSEN ENDS.--Our volitions, deliberate, less deliberate, and those verging upon what scarcely deserves the name of volition, weave themselves into complicated p...

7. THE MORALISTS.--If, from the codes, or the more or less vague bodies of opinion, which have characterized different communities, we turn to the moralists, we find similar foo...

146. GOOD AND BAD; RIGHT AND WRONG.--As a rule, men reflect little touching the moral terms which are on their lips every day. It is well worth while to take some of them up and...

151. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM?--Men collected into groups and organized in various ways we call states, and we treat a state as a unit. We look upon it as having rights and as...

87. MAN'S MULTIPLE ALLEGIANCE.--We have seen that each man has his place in a social order. This order is the expression and the embodiment of the social will, which accepts him...

bunch of grapes should receive a blow for every grape in the bunch. This has an agreeably mathematical flavor of exactitude. But what shall be done to the man who steals half of...

The depressing thing is that rapacity and oppression become glorified, when the cloak of patriotism is thrown over their shoulders. I drew my illustrations in the last section f...

"conformable to the principle of utility." What is thus conformable he declares ought to be done, what is not conformable ought not to be done. Right and wrong he distinguishes...

143. DUTIES AND VIRTUES.--We saw, at the very beginning of this volume [Footnote: Chapter i, Sec 2.] that a single moral law, so abstractly stated as to cover the whole sphere o...

19. THE APPEAL TO REASON.--The proper aim of the scientific study of ethics appears to be suggested with sufficient clearness by what has been said in the chapters on the accept...

The second of these positions cannot be deduced from the first, nor can the third be inferred from the other two. Bentham appears to have taken the "principle of utility" for gr...

134. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PESSIMIST.--With philosophy in general this volume has little to do; but as pessimism is not the doctrine of normal men generally, but is apt to be id...

(1) Evidently he should reflect upon the moral judgments which he finds in himself, the moral being with whom he is best acquainted. He should endeavor to render consistent and...

131. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE.--The title, "The Ethics of Evolution," seems to assume that the evolutionist, frankly accepting himself as such, must be prepared to join som...

Manifestly, the lists may be indefinitely prolonged. Why not add to the first class the pachydermatous indifference to rebuffs which is of such service to the social climber, an...

(4) A very similar conclusion may be drawn, when we consider the influence of an acceptance of the doctrine of evolution upon those who would turn to man's nature, to perfection...

nature. [Footnote: MARCUS AURELIUS, _Thoughts_, v, 1.] Butler, [Footnote: _Sermons on Human Nature_, ii] many centuries later, found in man's nature a certain "constitution," wi...

reinforce his reasonings with a wealth of illustration not open to the men of an earlier time. They present us with codes, not a code; with multitudinous standards, not a single...

Those interested in the ethics of evolution, treated in Chapter XXVII, should not miss reading the fourth chapter of Darwin's _Descent of Man_. Huxley's essay, _Evolution and Et...

13. THE DOGMATISM OF THE NATURAL MAN.--In morals and in politics it seems natural for man to be dogmatic, to take a position without hesitation, to defend it vehemently, to main...

"1. A boy, in order to divert himself, reads an inspiring book; the motive is accounted, perhaps, a good one; at any rate, not a bad one. 2. He sets his top a-spinning: the moti...

He points out that many methods are natural and are habitually used, but claims that only one can be rational. By which he means that the several methods of determining right co...

45. COMPLEX ENDS.--I may desire to clear my throat and may do so. The action is a trivial one, is over in a moment, and is forgotten. On the other hand, I may desire to spend my...

Men of quite varying views have inclined to the doctrine which appeals to me. I think it is to be gotten out of Hegel. Green, who is much influenced by him, takes, as the ration...

It must be confessed that to put one's parents, one's children, one's neighbors, strangers, foreigners, the brutes, all upon the same level, is contrary to the moral judgment of...

21. THE BACKGROUND OF ACTIONS.--In estimating human actions we take into consideration both the doer and the circumstances under which the deed was done. Actions may be desirabl...

105. WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM?--The division of things desirable into those desirable in themselves, and those desirable for the sake of something else, is two thousand years old....

infanticide. The Greek city-state was a crowded little affair, and in danger of over-population. Some may propose radical measures to increase the population. To France and Arge...

To be sure, certain eminent moralists have inclined to maintain that men are in substantial agreement in regard to their moral judgments. Joseph Butler, writing in the first hal...

Church regarded _belief, as such_, as an object of censure. Yet each was willing to punish heresy. The point is most interesting, and I hazard an explanation. The churches were...

be regarded by him, not as self-evident, but as simply absurd; nor can it claim general acceptance even among ourselves. Who is that 'Another' to whose greater good I ought not...

the brotherhood of man, and since Christian divines began to preach it with passionate fervor. Yet civilized nations today are still seeking to find a _modus vivendi_, which may...

90. WHAT IS IT?--"We come into the world," said Epictetus, "with no natural notion of a right-angled triangle, or of a quarter-tone, or of a half-tone; but we learn each of thes...

There are certain considerations which appear to favor the view that the reason is a faculty which may be regarded as an independent law-giver. A man may be possessed of great i...

III. _Self-realization_ 122. The Self-realization Doctrine. 123. The Doctrine Akin to that of Following Nature. 124. Is the Doctrine More Egoistic? 125. Why Aim to Realize Capac...

105. What is Utilitarianism? 106. Bentham's Doctrine. 107. The Doctrine of J. S. Mill. 108. The Argument for Utilitarianism. 109. The Distribution of Happiness. 110. The Calculu...

95. What is Egoism? 96. Crass Egoisms. 97. Equivocal Egoism? 98. What is Meant by the Self? 99. Egoism and the Broader Self. 100. Egoism not Unavoidable. 101. Varieties of Egois...

40. The Object as End to be Realized. 41. Human Nature and the Objects Chosen. 42. The Instincts and Impulses of Man. 43. The Study of Man's Instincts Important. 44. The Bewilde...

15. INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE METHOD.--Professor Henry Sidgwick has defined a method of ethics as "any rational procedure by which we determine what is right for individual human...

76. The Apparent and the Real Social Will. 77. The Will of the Majority. 78. Ignorance and Error and the Social Will. 79. Heedlessness and the Social Will. 80. Rational Elements...

53. The Irrational Will. 54. One View of Reason. 55. Dominant and Subordinate Desires. 56. The Harmonization of Desires. 57. Varieties of Dominant Ends. 58. An Objection Answere...

159. What is Meant by the Term. 160. Our Method of Approach to the Subject. 161. Some Problems of International Ethics. 162. The Other Side of the Shield. 163. The Solution. 164...

7. The Moralists. 8. Epicurean and Stoic. 9. Plato; Aristotle; the Church. 10. Later Lists of the Virtues. 11. The Stretching of Moral Concepts. 12. The Reflective Mind and the...

61. What is the Social Will? 62. Social Will and Social Habits. 63. Social Will and Social Organization. 64. The Social Will and Ideal Ends. 65. The Permanent Social Will.