THE NATURE OF GOODNESS

BY

GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
Alford Professor of Philosophy
In Harvard University

[Illustration: Tout bien ou rien]

1903

A. F. P.

BONITATE SINGULARI MULTIS DILECTAE

VENUSTATE LITTERIS CONSILIIS PRAESTANTI

NUPER E DOMO ET GAUDIO MEO EREPTAE

PREFACE

The substance of these chapters was delivered as a course of lecturesat Harvard University, Dartmouth and Wellesley Colleges, WesternReserve University, the University of California, and the TwentiethCentury Club of Boston. A part of the sixth chapter was used as anaddress before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard, and anotherpart before the Philosophical Union of Berkeley, California. Severalof these audiences have materially aided my work by their searchingcriticisms, and all have helped to clear my thought and simplify itsexpression. Since discussions necessarily so severe have been felt asvital by companies so diverse, I venture to offer them here to a wideraudience.

Previously, in "The Field of Ethics," I marked out the place whichethics occupies among the sciences. In this book the first problem ofethics is examined. The two volumes will form, I hope, an easy yetserious introduction to this gravest and most perpetual of studies.

CHAPTER I

THE DOUBLE ASPECT OF GOODNESS

I. Difficulties of the investigation
II. Gains to be expected
III. Extrinsic goodness
IV. Imperfections of extrinsic goodness
V. Intrinsic goodness
VI. Relations of the two kinds
VII. Diagram

CHAPTER II

MISCONCEPTIONS OF GOODNESS

I. Enlargement of the diagram
II. Greater and lesser good
III. Higher and lower good
IV. Order and wealth
V. Satisfaction of desire
VI. Adaptation to environment
VII. Definitions

CHAPTER III

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

  I. The four factors of personal goodness
II. Unconsciousness
III. Reflex action
IV. Conscious experience
  V. Self-consciousness
  VI. Its degrees
VII. Its acquisition
VIII. Its instability

CHAPTER IV

SELF-DIRECTION

   I. Consciousness a factor
  II. (A) The intention
III. (1) The end, aim, or ideal
  IV. (2) Desire
   V. (3) Decision
  VI. (B) The volition
VII. (1) Deliberation
VIII. (2) Effort
  IX. (3) Satisfaction

CHAPTER V

SELF-DEVELOPMENT

   I. Reflex influence of self-direction
  II. Varieties of change
III. Accidental change
  IV. Destructive change
   V. Transforming change
  VI. Development
VII. Self-development
VIII. Method of self-development
  IX. Test of self-development
   X. Actual extent of personality
  XI. Possible extent of personality
XII. Practical consequences