Study of Ethics BY WARNER FITE = LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK LONDON AND BOMBAY 1903 166,459 ! COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. All rights reserved. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE THE study of conduct which is here offered to students and teachers of philosophy was begun with the intention of furnishing simply a plain statement of the existing ethical situation, - by which I mean an analysis of the moral problem and a definition of the several types of ethical theory. But it was found impossible to make a plain statement without adopting a point of view for the definition of the problem and the theories in question. And in the search for a satisfactory point of view I have been led to a more or less independent reconstruction of the situation as a whole. In a study like ethics, where nothing can be uttered which has not been in a measure foreshadowed, it is difficult to know how far one has succeeded in really contributing to the discussion; yet I hope that the following pages may be found not only useful to students beginning the study but of interest to those already familiar with its problems. I hope also that they may appeal to some who are not, in the stricter sense, students of philosophy. Without ignoring the necessities of scientific treatment I have endeavoured to avoid some of its narrower limitations and to meet the point of view of the educated man. There is a large public of thoughtful persons whose attitude toward philosophical study is one of serious interest yet at the same time somewhat |