Ethical Systems - PDF book by Wilhelm Wundt

Ethical Systems by Wilhelm Wundt

This volume is a translation of the second book of Professor Wundt s Ethik, comprising pages 270-432 of the second German edition. It forms a concise history of Ethics, which (apart from its intrinsic interest as a feature of Wundt s ethical system) will serve to supplement Professor Sidgwick s Outlines by reason of its more extended treatment of Continental schools. The terminology of the first volume has been followed, and English references are substituted for German wherever possible. Especial thanks are due to Professor E. B. Titchener, of Cornell University, for many helpful suggestions, and for a revision of the proof.

Contents:

I.ANCIENT ETHICS

1. The Beginnings of Ancient Ethics

(a) Pre-Socratic Ethics . . 3

(b) Socrates and the Socratic Schools . 5

2. Plato and Aristotle .... Io

(a) Platonic Ethics . . . . . 10

(b) The Aristotelian Ethics . . . . . 17

3. The Stoics and Epicureans . . ... 24

(a) Stoic Ethics .... 25

(b) Epicurean Ethics . . ... 28

4. Transition to Christian Ethics . . ... 31

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN ETHICS

I. The General Basis of Christian Ethics . . 33

2. The System of Augustine, and the Pelagian Controversy. 38

3. Scholastic Ethics . . . ... 41

4. The Fall of Scholasticism and the Ethics of the Reformation. 48

CHAPTER III.
MODERN ETHICS

The Development of Empirical Ethics . . 53

(a) Bacon and Hobbes . . 53

(&) John Locke and the Intellectualism of the Cambridge

School . . . ... 59

(c) Shaftesbury and the English Ethics of the Understanding .... 67

(d) David Hume and the Scotch Ethics of Feeling . . 73

(e) The Ethics of French Materialism. 84

2. The Metaphysical Ethics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . . . ... 87

(a) Descartes and Cartesianism . . 87

(b} Spinoza . . . ... 92

(c] Leibniz . . . ... 97

(d) Wolff and the German Enlightenment . . . 104

3. The Ethics of Kant and of Speculative Idealism . . . 106
\a] Kant . . . . . 106

(b} Fichte . . . . . 119

(c) Hegel . .124

(d) Intermediary Tendencies between Universalism and Indi

vidualism . . . . 127

4. Modern Realistic Ethics . . . 134

(a) Herbart s Practical Philosophy . . . . 135
(b} German Naturalism and Materialism . . .139

Utilitarianism and Positivism in England and France. 142
(d] Utilitarian Ethics as Influenced by the Theory of Evolution . . . ... 153

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL CRITICISM OF ETHICAL SYSTEMS

1. Classification of Ethical Systems . . . . 160

(a) General Standpoints for such a Classification. .160

(b) Classification according to motives. . . .161

(c) Classification according to ends . . . . 163

2. Authoritative Ethical Systems . . . . . 165

3. Eudsemonistic Systems . . ... 168

(a) Egoistic Utilitarianism . . . . . 168

(b} Altruistic Utilitarianism . . . . . 171

4. Evolutionary Ethical Systems . . . . . 186

(a) Individual Evolutionism t . . . . 186

(b) Universal Evolutionism . . . . . 187

INDEX OF NAMES . . . ... 191

INDEX OF SUBJECTS . . . ... 193

the book details :

Author: Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was the first person ever to call himself a psychologist.

Translator: Margaret Floy Washburn

Publication date: 1911

Company: NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.

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