Table of Contents
General Preface
Preface to Vol. I
Preface to Part I: When First Issued Seperately
Part I: The Data of Ethics
Chapter I: Conduct In General
Chapter II: The Evolution of Conduct
Chapter III: Good And Bad Conduct
Chapter IV: Ways of Judging Conduct
Chapter V: The Physical View
Chapter VI: The Biological View
Chapter VII: The Psychological View
Chapter VIII: The Sociological View
Chapter IX: Criticisms And Explanations
Part I: The Data of Ethics
Unknown
Copyright, 1892,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
Printed at the Appleton Press, U. S. A.
Chapter I: Conduct In General
CHAPTER I.
CONDUCT IN GENERAL.
§ 1. The doctrine that correlatives imply one another—that a father cannot be thought of without thinking of a child; and that there can be no consciousness of superior without a consciousness of inferior—has for one of its common examples the necessary connexion between the conceptions of whole and part.
Chapter II: The Evolution of Conduct
CHAPTER II.
THE EVOLUTION OF CONDUCT.
§ 3. We have become quite familiar with the idea of an evolution of structures throughout the ascending types of animals. To a considerable degree we have become familiar with the thought that an evolution of functions has gone on pari passu with the evolution of structures. Now advancing a step, we have to frame a conception of the evolution of conduct, as correlated with this evolution of structures and functions.
Chapter III: Good And Bad Conduct
CHAPTER III.
GOOD AND BAD CONDUCT.
§ 8. By comparing its meanings in different connexions and observing what they have in common, we learn the essential meaning of a word; and the essential meaning of a word that is variously applied, may best be learnt by comparing with one another those applications of it which diverge most widely. Let us thus ascertain what good and bad mean.
Chapter IV: Ways of Judging Conduct
CHAPTER IV.
WAYS OF JUDGING CONDUCT.
§ 17. Intellectual progress is by no one trait so adequately characterized, as by development of the idea of causation; since development of this idea involves development of so many other ideas. Before any way can be made, thought and language must have advanced far enough to render properties or attributes thinkable as such, apart from objects; which, in low stages of human intelligence, they are not.
Chapter V: The Physical View
CHAPTER V.
THE PHYSICAL VIEW.
§ 24. Every moment we pass instantly from men’s perceived actions to the motives implied by them; and so are led to formulate these actions in mental terms rather than in bodily terms. Thoughts and feelings are referred to when we speak of any one’s deeds with praise or blame; not those outer manifestations which reveal the thoughts and feelings. Hence we become oblivious of the truth that conduct as actually experienced, consists of changes recognized by touch, sight and hearing.
Chapter VI: The Biological View
CHAPTER VI.
THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW.
§ 30. The truth that the ideally moral man is one in whom the moving equilibrium is perfect, or approaches nearest to perfection, becomes, when translated into physiological language, the truth that he is one in whom the functions of all kinds are duly fulfilled. Each function has some relation, direct or indirect, to the needs of life: the fact of its existence as a result of evolution, being itself a proof that it has been entailed, immediately or remotely, by the adjustment of inner actions to outer actions.
Chapter VII: The Psychological View
CHAPTER VII.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW.
§ 40. The last chapter, in so far as it dealt with, feelings in their relations to conduct, recognized only their physiological aspects: their psychological aspects were passed over. In this chapter, conversely, we are not concerned with the constitutional connexions between feelings, as incentives or deterrents, and physical benefits to be gained or mischiefs to be avoided; nor with the reactive effects of feelings on the state of the organism, as fitting or unfitting it for future action.
