We are all amply provided, with moral maxims, which we hold with more orless confidence, but an insight into their significance is not attainedwithout reflection and some serious effort. Yet, surely, in a field inwhich there are so many differences of opinion, clearness of insight andbreadth of view are eminently desirable.
It is with a view to helping students of ethics in our universities andoutside of them to a clearer comprehension of the significance of moralsand the end of ethical endeavor, that this book has been written.
I have, in the Notes appended to it, taken the liberty of making a fewsuggestions to teachers, some of whom have fewer years of teaching behindthem than I have. I make no apology for writing in a clear anduntechnical style, nor for reducing to a minimum references toliteratures in other tongues than our own. These things are in accordwith the aim of the volume.
I take this opportunity of thanking Professor Margaret F. Washburn, of Vassar College, and Professor F. J. E. Woodbridge, of Columbia University, for kind assistance, which I have found helpful.
G. S. F. New York, 1921.
CONTENTS
PART I
THE ACCEPTED CONTENT OF MORALS
CHAPTER I. IS THERE AN ACCEPTED CONTENT?1. The Point in Dispute.2. What Constitutes Substantial Agreement?3. Dogmatic Assumption.
CHAPTER II. THE CODES OF COMMUNITIES4. The Codes of Communities: Justice.5. The Codes of Communities: Veracity.6. The Codes of Communities: the Common Good.
CHAPTER III. THE CODES OF THE MORALISTS7. 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 Moral Codes.
PART II
ETHICS AS SCIENCE
CHAPTER IV. THE AWAKENING TO REFLECTION13. The Dogmatism of the Natural Man.14. The Awakening.
CHAPTER V. ETHICAL METHOD15. Inductive and Deductive Method.16 The Authority of the "Given."
CHAPTER VI. THE MATERIALS OF ETHICS17. How the Moralist should Proceed.18. The Philosopher as Moralist.
CHAPTER VII. THE AIM OF ETHICS AS SCIENCE19. The Appeal to Reason.20. The Appeal to Reason Justified.
PART III
MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER VIII. MAN'S NATURE21. The Background of Actions.22. Man's Nature.23. How Discover Man's Nature?
CHAPTER IX. MAN'S MATERIAL ENVIRONMENT24. The Struggle with Nature.25. The Conquests of the Mind.26. The Conquest of Nature and the Well-being of Man.
CHAPTER X. MAN'S SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT27. Man is Assigned his Place.28. Varieties of the Social Order.29. Social Organization.30. Social Order and Human Will.
PART IV
THE REALM OF ENDS
CHAPTER XI. IMPULSE, DESIRE, AND WILL31. Impulse.32. Desire.33. Desire of the Unattainable.34. Will.35. Desire and Will not Identical.36. The Will and Deferred Action.