A Study of Ethical Principles - James Seth - Google Книги

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CONTENTS.

THE ETHICAL PROBLEM.

1. Preliminary definition of ethics. What is morality? What is

conduct? Conduct and character

2. In what sense is ethics practical? Relations of moral theory

3. Relations of moral faith and ethical insight. Impossibility of

absolute moral scepticism

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4. Business of ethics to define the good or the moral ideal, by

scrutiny of the various interpretations of it.

5. Ancient and modern conceptions of the moral ideal compared.

(a) Duty and the chief good; their logical connection.

sonality as moral ideal

6. (b) Ancient ideal political, modern individualistic; the inade-

quacy of each, and their reconciliation in personality

7. Various aspects of the ethical problem: (a) the good; (b) the

right; (c) moral law; (d) conscience; (e) virtue; (f) duty ;

(g) pleasure; (h) altruism; (i) self-sacrifice

THE METHOD OF ETHICS.

1. Natural and normative sciences. Ethics a science of the latter

2. Its method scientific, not metaphysical

3. Two misunderstandings of the term 'normative science'

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS.

1. Necessity of psychological basis; an inadequate view of human

life rests upon an inadequate view of human nature

2. Voluntary activity presupposes involuntary; various forms of

3. Voluntary activity, how distinguished from involuntary; volition

as control of impulsive and instinctive tendencies; contrast of

animal and human life

4. The process of volition: its various elements, (a) pause;

deliberation; (c) choice.

5. Nature and character. Effort. Second nature

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6. Limitations of volition: (a) economy; (b) continuity; (c) fixity

7. Intellectual elements in volition: (a) conception; (b) memory;

8. Will and feeling. Is pleasure the object of choice?

THE MORAL IDEAL.

TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY: HEDONISM, RATIONALISM, EUDÆMONISM 79

HEDONISM, OR THE ETHICS OF SENSIBILITY.

I.-Development of the Theory.

1. (4) Pure Hedonism, or Cyrenaicism

2. (B) Modified Hedonism: (a) Ancient, or Epicureanism

Its chief variations

from Ancient: (1) optimistic v. pessimistic; (2) altruistic v.

3. (b) Modern Hedonism, or Utilitarianism.

egoistic; (3) qualitative v. quantitative

4. (c) Evolutional Utilitarianism

5. (d) Rational Utilitarianism

7. (b) Failure of sensibility to provide the principle of its own dis-

tribution. (1) Within the individual life. (2) Between the

10. (e) Its inadequate interpretation of character

11. (ƒ) The final metaphysical alternative

12. The merit and demerit of Hedonism

RATIONALISM, OR THE ETHICS OF REASON.

1. The rationalistic point of view. The two forms of ethical
Rationalism-extreme and moderate. Its sources

2. (4) Extreme Rationalism. (a) Ancient: (a) Cynicism. (B)

Stoicism. How it differs from Cynicism: (1) idealistic v.

naturalistic; (2) cosmopolitan v. individualistic; (3) the Stoic

3. (b) Modern: (a) Christian asceticism

4. (8) Kantian transcendentalism

5. Criticism of extreme Rationalism. (1) Dualism of reason and

sensibility; (2) formalism; (3) egoism; (4) self-sacrifice; (5)

source in metaphysical dualism. Transition to moderate

6. (B) Moderate Rationalism. (a) Its beginnings in Greek ethics.

7. (b) Its modern expressions. (a) Butler's theory of conscience .

8. Criticism of Butler's theory. (1) Its hedonistic tendency; (2)

its psychological character; (3) its dualism (i) of virtue and

prudence, (ii) of benevolence and self-love

9. (8) Intuitionism. Its divergences from Butler. Its defects:

(1) its abstractness; (2) what is intuitive to the individual

may be the result of the race's experience; (3) its formal

defects: it is (i) a mere psychology of the moral conscious-

ness, (ii) a mere re-statement in scientific terms of the or-

dinary moral consciousness; (4) its ethical insight

10. The service of Rationalism to ethical theory

11. Transition to Eudæmonism

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5. The ethical problein: the meaning of self-realisation

6. Definition of personality: the individual and the person

7. The rational or personal self: its intellectual and ethical func-

8. The sentient or individual self

9. "Be a person"

10. "Die to live." Meaning of self-sacrifice

11. Pleasure and happiness

12. Egoism and altruism

13. The ethical significance of law: the meaning of duty. Animal

innocence and "knowledge of good and evil." Various forms

of law. Its absoluteness

14. Expressions of Eudæmonism: (a) in philosophy. (a) Butler.

(8) Hegel. (7) Plato. (8) Aristotle

15. (b) In literature

THE MORAL LIFE.

INTRODUCTORY. VIRTUES AND DUTIES. THE UNITY OF THE MORAL

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9. Necessity of transcending our individuality. The ideal life

10. Dangers of moral idealism

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I.-The Social Virtues: Justice and Benevolence.

1. The relation of the social to the individual life

2. Social virtue-its nature and its limit

3. Its two aspects, negative and positive: justice and benevolence.

Their mutual relations and respective spheres

5. Benevolence and culture

II. The social organisation of life: the ethical basis and

functions of the State.

6. The social organisation of life: society and the State

7. Is the State an end-in-itself?

8. The ethical basis of the State

9. The limit of State action.

10. The ethical functions of the State: (a) justice

11. (b) Benevolence

12. The permanence of the State

Note. The Theory of Punishment

MORAL PROGRESS.

1. The nature of moral progress

2. The law of moral progress: the discovery of the individual

3. Aspects of the law of moral progress: (a) Transition from an

4. (b) Subordination of the sterner to the gentler virtues

5. (c) Wider scope of virtue.

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ III.

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5. The resulting metaphysical problem. The problem of freedom

is the problem of personality. The alternative solutions—

the empirical and the transcendental.

6. The transcendental solution

7. Difficulties of the transcendental solution: (a) psychological

difficulty offered by the presentational theory of will

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