Moral Science by Alexander Bain (top 20 books to read txt) 📖

PREFACE

The present Dissertation falls under two divisions.

The first division, entitled The Theory of Ethics, gives an account of the questions or points brought into discussion, and handles at length the two of greatest prominence, the Ethical Standard, and the Moral Faculty.

The second division--on The Ethical Systems--is a full detail of all the systems, ancient and modern, by conjoined Abstract and Summary. With few exceptions, an abstract is made of each author's exposition of his own theory, the fulness being measured by relative importance; while, for better comparing and remembering the several theories, they are summarized at the end, on a uniform plan.

The connection of Ethics with Psychology is necessarily intimate; the leading ethical controversies involve a reference to mind, and can be settled only by a more thorough understanding of mental processes.

Although the present volume is properly a continuation of the Manual of Psychology and the History of Philosophy, recently published, and contains occasional references to that treatise, it may still be perused as an independent work on the Ethical Doctrines and Systems. A.B.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I.

THE THEORY OF ETHICS.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY VIEW OF ETHICAL QUESTIONS.


I.--The ETHICAL STANDARD. Summary of views.

II.--PSYCHOLOGICAL questions.
1. The Moral Faculty.
2. The Freedom of the Will; the sources of Disinterested conduct.

III.--The BONUM, SUMMUM BONUM, or Happiness.

IV.--The CLASSIFICATION OF DUTIES, and the Moral Code.

V.--Relationship of Ethics to POLITICS.

VI.--Relation to Theology.



CHAPTER II.

THE ETHICAL STANDARD.


1. Ethics, as a department of Practice, is defined by its End.

2. The Ethical End is the welfare of society, realized through rules of conduct duly enforced.

3. The Rules of Ethics are of two kinds. The first are imposed under a penalty. These are Laws proper, or Obligatory Morality.

4. The second are supported by Rewards; constituting Optional Morality, Merit, Virtue, or Nobleness.

5. The Ethical End, or Morality, _as it has been_, is founded partly in Utility, and partly in Sentiment.

6. The Ethical End is limited, according to the view taken of Moral Government, or Authority:--Distinction between Security and Improvement.

7. Morality, in its essential parts, is 'Eternal and Immutable;' in other parts, it varies with custom.

8. Enquiry as to the kind, of proof that an Ethical Standard is susceptible of. The ultimate end of action must be referred to individual judgment.

9. The judgment of Mankind is, with some qualifications, in favour of Happiness as the supreme end of conduct.

10. The Ethical end that society is tending to, is Happiness, or Utility.

11. Objections against Utility. I.--Happiness is not the sole aim of human pursuit.

12. II.--The consequences of actions are beyond calculation.

13. III.--The principle of Utility contains no motives to seek the happiness of others.


CHAPTER III.

THE MORAL FACULTY.


1. Question whether the Moral Faculty be simple or complex.

2. Arguments in favour of its being simple and intuitive:--First, Our moral judgments are immediate and instantaneous.

3. Secondly, It is a faculty common to all mankind.

4. Thirdly, It is different from any other mental phenomenon.

5. Replies to these Arguments, and Counter-arguments:---First; Immediateness of operation is no proof of an innate origin.

6. Secondly, The alleged similarity of men's moral judgments holds only in a limited degree. Answers given by the advocates of an Innate sentiment, to the discrepancies.

7. Thirdly, Moral right and wrong is not an indivisible property, but an extensive Code of regulations.

8. Fourthly, Intuition is not sufficient to settle debated questions.

9. Fifthly, It is possible to analyze the Moral Faculty:--Estimate of the operation of (1) Prudence, (2) Sympathy, and (3) the Emotions generally.

10. The _peculiar attribute_ of Rightness arises from the institution of Government or Authority.

11. The speciality of Conscience, or the Moral Sentiment, is identified with our education under Government, or Authority.



PART II.

THE ETHICAL SYSTEMS.


SOKRATES. His subjects were Men and Society. His Ethical Standard indistinctly expressed. Resolved Virtue into Knowledge. Ideal of pursuit--Well-doing. Inculcated self-denying Precepts. Political Theory. Connexion of Ethics with Theology slender.

PLATO. Review of the Dialogues containing portions of Ethical Theory:--_Alkibiades I_. discusses Just and Unjust. _Alkibiades II_. the knowledge of Good or Reason. _Hippias Minor_ identifies Virtue with Knowledge. _Minos_ (on Law) refers everything to the decision of an Ideal Wise man. _Laekes_ resolves Courage, and _Charmides_ Temperance, into Intelligence or the supreme science of good and evil. _Lysis_ (on Friendship) gives the Idea of the good as the supreme object of affection. _Menon_ enquires, Is virtue _teachable?_ and iterates the science of good and evil. _Protagoras_ makes Pleasure the only good, and Pain the only evil, and defines the science of good and evil as the comparison of pleasures and pains. _Gorgias_ contradicts Protagoras, and sets up Order or Discipline as a final end. _Politikus_ (on Government) repeats the Sokratic ideal of the One Wise man. _Philebus_ makes Good a compound of Pleasure with Intelligence, the last predominating. The _Republic_ assimilates Society to an Individual man, and defines Justice as the balance of the constituent parts of each. _Timoeus_ repeats the doctrine that wickedness is disease, and not voluntary. The _Laws_ place all conduct under the prescription of the civil magistrate. Summary of Plato's views.

THE CYNICS AND THE CYRENAICS. Cynic succession. The proper description of the tenets of both schools comes under the Summum Bonum. The Cynic Ideal was the minimum of wants, and their self-denial was compensated by exemption from fear, and by pride of superiority. The Cyrenaic ARISTIPPUS:--Was the first to maintain that the summum bonum is Pleasure and the absence of Pain. Future Pleasures and Pains taken into the account. His Psychology of Pleasure and Pain.

ARISTOTLE. Abstract of the Nicomachean Ethics. Book First. The Chief Good, or Highest End of human endeavours. Great differences of opinion as to the nature of Happiness. The Platonic Idea of the Good criticised. The Highest End an _end-in-itself_. Virtue referable to the special work of man; growing out of his mental capacity. External conditions necessary to virtue and happiness. The Soul subdivided into parts, each, having its characteristic virtue or excellence.

Book Second. Definition and classification of the Moral virtues. Virtue the result of Habit. Doctrine of the MEAN. The test of virtue to feel no pain. Virtue defined (_genus_) an acquirement or a State, (_differentia_) a Mean between extremes. Rules for hitting the Mean.

Book Third. The Voluntary and Involuntary. Deliberate Preference. Virtue and vice are voluntary. The virtues in detail:--Courage [Self-sacrifice implied in Courage]. Temperance.

Book Fourth. Liberality. Magnificence. Magnanimity. Mildness. Good-breeding. Modesty.

Book Fifth. Justice:--Universal Justice includes all virtue. Particular Justice is of two kinds, Distributive and Corrective.

Book Sixth. Intellectual Excellences, or Virtues of the Intellect. The Rational part of the Soul embraces the Scientific and the Deliberative functions. Science deals with the necessary. Prudence or the Practical Reason; its aims and requisites. In virtue, good dispositions must be accompanied with Prudence.

Book Seventh. Gradations of moral strength and moral weakness. Continence and Incontinence.

Books Eighth and Ninth. Friendship:--Grounds of Friendship. Varieties of Friendship, corresponding to different objects of liking. Friendship between the virtuous is alone perfect. A settled habit, not a mere passion. Equality in friendship. Political friendships. Explanation of the family affections. Rule of reciprocity of services. Conflicting obligations. Cessation of friendships. Goodwill. Love felt by benefactors. Self-love. Does the happy man need friends?

Book Tenth. Pleasure:--Theories of Pleasure--Eudoxus, Speusippus, Plato. Pleasure is not The Good. Pleasure defined. The pleasures of Intellect. Nature of the Good or Happiness resumed. Perfect happiness found only in the philosophical life; second to which is the active social life of the good citizen. Happiness of the gods. Transition from Ethics to Politics.

THE STOICS. The succession of Stoical philosophers. Theological Doctrines of the Stoics:--The Divine Government; human beings must rise to the comprehension of Universal Law; the soul at death absorbed into the divine essence; argument from Design. Psychology:--Theory of Pleasure and Pain; theory of the Will. Doctrine of Happiness or the Good:--Pain no evil; discipline of endurance--Apathy. Theory of Virtue:--Subordination of self to the larger interests; their view of active Beneficence; the Stoical paradoxes; the idea of Duty; consciousness of Self-improvement.

EPICURUS. Life and writings. His successors. Virtue and vice referred by him to Pleasures and Pains calculated by Reason. Freedom from Pain the primary object. Regulation of desires. Pleasure good if not leading to pain. Bodily feeling the foundation of sensibility. Mental feelings contain memory and hope. The greatest miseries are from the delusions of hope, and from the torments of fear. Fear of Death and Fear of the Gods. Relations with others; Justice and Friendship--both based on reciprocity. Virtue and Happiness inseparable. Epicureanism the type of all systems grounded on enlightened self-interest.

THE NEO-PLATONISTS. The Moral End to be attained through an intellectual regimen. The soul being debased by its connection with matter, the aim of human action is to regain the spiritual life. The first step is the practice of the cardinal virtues: the next the purifying virtues. Happiness is the undisturbed life of contemplation. Correspondence of the Ethical, with the Metaphysical scheme.

SCHOLASTIC ETHICS. ABAELARD:--Lays great stress on the subjective element in morality; highest human good, love to God; actions judged by intention, and intention by conscience.

ST. BERNARD:--Two degrees of virtue, Humility and Love.

JOHN of SALISBURY:--Combines philosophy and theology; doctrine of Happiness; the lower and higher desires.

ALEXANDER OF HALES. BONAVENTURA. ALBERTUS MAGNUS. AQUINAS:--Aristotelian mode of enquiry as to the end; God the highest good; true happiness lies in the self-sufficing theoretic intelligence; virtue; division of the virtues.

HOBBES. (Abstract of the Ethical part of Leviathan). Constituents of man's nature. The Good. Pleasure. The simple passions. Theory of the Will. Good and evil. Conscience. Virtue. Position of Ethics in the Sciences. Power, Worth, Dignity. Happiness a perpetual progress; consequences of the restlessness of desire. Natural state of mankind; a state of enmity and war. Necessity of articles of peace, called Laws of Nature. Law defined. Rights; Renunciation of rights; Contract; Merit. Justice. Laws of Gratitude, Complaisance, Pardon upon repentance. Laws against Cruelty, Contumely, Pride, Arrogance. Laws of Nature, how far binding. Summary.

CUMBERLAND. Standard of Moral Good summed up in Benevolence. The moral faculty is the Reason, apprehending the Nature of Things. Innate Ideas an insufficient foundation. Will. Disinterested action. Happiness. Moral Code, the common good of all rational beings. Obligations in respect of giving and of receiving. Politics. Religion.

CUDWORTH. Moral Good and Evil cannot be arbitrary. The mind has a power of Intellection, above Sense, for aiming at the eternal and immutable verities.

CLARKE. The eternal Fitness and Unfitness of Things determine Justice, Equity, Goodness and Truth, and lay corresponding obligations upon reasonable creatures. The sanction of Rewards and Punishments secondary and additional. Our Duties.

WOLLASTON. Resolves good and evil into Truth and Falsehood.