Outlines of the History of Ethics for English Readers

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PREFACE: THE nucleus of this little book is formed by an article on Ethics which I wrote some years ago for the E zc cIopaB f iiat nnnica. I found that, in the opinion of persons whose judgment had weight with me, this article appeared likely to meet the needs of English students desirous of obtaining a general knowledge of the history of ethical thought I have, therefore, by the permission of Messrs. Black, the publishers of the EnglcZop riaB ritannica, reprinted it in this separate form. In so doing, I have considerably altered and enlarged it but, aftcr some hesitation, I determined to adhere to the main outlines of the original article, according to which the chapter IV. dealing with the modern pcriod is mainly confined to English Ethics, and only deals with foreign ethical systems in a subordinate way, as sources of influence on English thought. I adopted this resolution, partly because it seemed to me that the merit of my article-if it had any-lay in a certain compact unity of movement which would v inevitably be lost if I tried to include a treatment of French and German moralists on a scale corresponding to my treatment of English moralists while at the same time a considerable portion of what I thus omitted appeared to me to have a distinctly subordinate interest for English readers as compared with what I included. I ought further to explain that, for somewhat similar reasons, I have taken pains to keep Ethics as separate as I conveniently could from Theology and Metaphysics, and also from Politics this separation, however, is naturally less complete in some parts of the subject than in others -e. g. in dealing with the medireval period the relations of Ethics to Theology are necessarily more prominent than in the modern period. Finally, I may perhaps say that I have aimed throughout at the greatest possible impartiality and objectivity of treatment and in order better to attain this rcsult I have not attempted to deal with contemporary modes of ethical thought-with which I have been engaged controversially-except in a very brief and summary way. In the greater part of the book-i. e. in by far the larger part of Chapter II., in almost all Chapter IV., I draw attention to the words a consitlerable portion because they were overlooked by a reviewer who selected this sentence for severe criticism. The omission of the111 substitutes an o i ionur llicli I should regard as indelensi1 le for one which I still think almost incontrovertible and in some of Chapter 111.-my exposition is primarily based on my own study of the original authors. Where this is not the case I have tried to guard myself from error by comparing different historians of philosophy, and referring to the original authors whenever this comparison left me doubtful. And throughout I have endeavoured to correct and supplement the results of my own study by comparing them with the views expressed in other historical worlts. I a n especially indebted, as regards Chapter I I ., to Zellers Geschichte der Griechischen Philosophic but, in revising the chapter, I have also derived useful suggestions from Ziegler, Geschichte der Ethi, , and from an excellent little book on Epicureanism by Rlr. Wallace. The account of Christian morality in Chapter 111...