:-^-:-T>; Glass_ Book. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT A Syllabus of Ethics Bryant Chicago S. C. Griggs and Company BY THE SAME AUTHOR: I. The World -Energy and its Self- Conservation. (Griggs.) - ^i 50 II. Hegel's Philosophy of Art, Trans- lation with Introduction. (Out of print.) I 75 III. Philosophy of Landscape Painting, i 00 IV. Goethe as a Representative of the Modern Art-Spirit, - - 25 V. Historical Presuppositions and Foreshadowings of Dante's ** Di- vine Comedy," - - - 15 VI. Eternity, a Thread in the Weaving -of a Life. (Griggs.) - - o 25 VII. A Syllabus of Psychology. (Griggs.) 25 VIII. A Text-Book of Psychology. (In prep- aration.) A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS ^* BYJ WILLIAM MpBRYANT, M.A. INSTRUCTOR IN MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, ST. LOUIS NORMAL AND HIGH SCHOOL n^7 CHICAGO S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 1894 \ Copyright, 1894 By S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO,, CHICAGO PREFACE. The present sketch is an outgrowth of work done during several years with my classes in the St. Louis High School. In its present form, however, the sketch has been prepared directly with a view to meeting the needs of the St. Louis Society of Peda- gogy in so far as one of the Sections of that Society is organized for the express purpose of studying Ethics. My aim has been first of all to furnish a guide to what I cannot but regard as a specially fruitful method in the study of Ethics, rather than to present an elaborate scheme of the science of Ethics as such. On the other hand, as in my Syllabus of Psychology, so here, I have omitted details and have sought thus to bring into so much the clearer view the essential aspects of the subject, and have attempted also to indicate the vital relation which those aspects sus- tain one to another in the organic unity of human life. It is such emphasizing of already more or less clearly recognized fundamental principles, and this with reference to their practical application, rather 5 O PREFACE. than subtilizing upon obscure points of theory, that is most needed in our general (and for the greater part elementary) educational work. If Ethics is really to be taught to any good purpose in our schools this distinction between the earnest and intelligent pur- suit of what is really of practical import, in contrast with the merely dilettantish inquiry after what is at best but curious, must not only be kept clearly in view, it must also be consistently observed in practice by the teacher. And further, no one can successfully teach what he does not explicitly and sincerely believe. Nor is this all ; the growing de- mand for definite Ethical teaching means nothing less than that the teacher is more and more positively expected to have a clearly defined Ethical creed. More than anything else, in fact, could we but look into the heart of it, the great educational revival of to-day means that now at length there is emerging into clearly conscious form a deep-lying universal conviction to the effect that all teaching is merely phantasmal unless it has a genuinely Ethical core. The teacher can meet this conviction only by sharing it and becoming a leader in the fuller and more reasonable expression of it in its positive im- port. Let each contribute his mite. As for the present writer, this sketch is the best he has now in form to offer. Nevertheless, imperfect as it is, he hopes it may not be without use ; and so it is offered. PREFACE. Perhaps at some future time he may attempt a more adequate representation of the Science of Human Conduct. A selected list of hand and reference books will be found at the close of this Syllabus. A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. I. INTRODUCTION. Like every other science the Science of Ethics is at once both inductive and deductive. In the pro- cess of its development as a science it is predomi- nantly inductive and synthetic. In the process of its application it is predominantly deductive and analyt- ical. In the former case search is made, consciously or unconsciously, for a first principle that shall really unify knowledge and hence serve as a true, ade- quate, and hence unvarying standard of judgment in the given field. In the latter case such principle is assumed as already discovered ; and what is really striven after is the precise valuation of given particu- lar facts by means of the assumed principle. In reality, as need hardly be said, the develop- ment of the science of Ethics on the one hand and its application on the other have never been and could never be wholly separated. They are but com- plementary aspects in the development of any degree of life that could properly be called human. And this is evident from the fact that the incessant practical necessity of forming judgments upon given particular 9 10 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. concrete instances has stimulated, and could not but stimulate inquiry concerning the required general principle ; while each stage in the clearing up of consciousness as to what the principle really is has served to insure an increase in the adequacy and accuracy of the judgments actually formed. Looked at as a result Ethics may be defined as the Science of Human Conduct. Looked at as a pro- cess it may be defined as the jEvolution of the Human Conscience. In the latter sense there never w^as a period when Ethics was wholly wanting. In the former sense there never has been and can never be a period when Ethics could be conceived as altogether matured diwd finished. But further, just as in its very beginning, the Sci- ence of Ethics presupposed the actual existence of the Ethical process, and this as being already well ad- vanced, so also in its more mature forms this Science presupposes the existence of other sciences. In its form and method especially, it presupposes the two mutually complementary sciences of Logic and Meta- physics ; while in its subject-matter it presupposes more directly the Sciences of Psychology, Social Phi- losophy, and Theology — that is, the sciences which trace out, first the fundamental, typical nature of the human individual; secondly, the fundamental prin- ciples involved in associated human life; and finally, the ultimate nature of the supreme primal Con- INTRODUCTION. 1 1 sciousness, together with the chief aspects of man's relationship to that Consciousness. In other words, the Science of Ethics can develop into actual, con- sistent realization as a Science only in so far as it is logical in method ; only in so far as it frankly meets and solves the metaphysical problems inevitably aris- ing in the course of Ethical investigation; only in so far as it is able to present in their vital relations as well as in their proper form the psychological aspects of its own subject-matter ; only in so far as it clearly recognizes and adequately deals with the complex Ethical aspects involved in human association ; and finally, only in so far as it apprehends, appreciates and proves able to rationally represent the theolog- ical trend of all Ethical problems. In doing which it will carefully maintain its own specific limitations in contrast with each and all these sciences. (It may be noted here in parenthesis that just as Logic is to be regarded as constituting in the stricter sense the science of the rhythm of Thought, and as Esthetics constitutes what may rightly be called the science of the rhythm of Feeling, so Ethics may properly be described as the science of the rhythm of Conduct. Though it is never to be forgotten that Thought and Feeling and Conduct are the absolutely interfused and mutually complementary aspects of every concrete human life and indeed of all conceiva- ble spiritual life.) 12 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. It is next to be remarked that the essential aspects of Ethics are all discoverable through a gen- eral (critical) survey of the chief historical forms in which the fundamental Ethical conceptions have found concrete expression from age to age; and to these forms, therefore, it will be well in the next place to give some, however brief, consideration. IL FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ETHICS. Historically, as was but just noticed, the develop- ment of an explicit science of Ethics has always pre- supposed the Ethical process as already far advanced beyond any mere ''beginning." Nor could this order be conceived to be reversed, since the unfold- ing of any science necessarily presupposes the actual existence of the facts of which the science is but the reasoned account — not to mention the fact that only an Ethical being relatively matured as such is capable of any activity resulting in the unfolding of any sci- ence, and above all of the science of Ethics as such. I. Mythic Aspect. But long before there could be a science of Ethics, properly speaking, the Ethical consciousness attained expression — as it will never cease to attain expression — in mythic form. At the basis of all this is the contrast between Light and Darkness. Light stimulates the vital process. The increased vigor thus attained results in added sense FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS. 1 3 of power, whence arises a feeling of buoyancy. With darkness, on the other hand, the vital process is lowered. Hence a relative sense of weakness and depression. Such is the physiological explanation of courage in tne Light and of fear in the Darkness. But the spir- itual factor involved in these experiences is no less real and vital than is the physiological. Indeed there can be no experience^ properly speaking, that is not itself essentially spiritual in its nature. The spiritual factor here referred to consists of Personification. The human unit differs primarily from the animal unit especially in this : That he knows a Past and a Future, and in the very fact of knowing them proves able to gather and hold both Past and Future in the Present. The actual experi- ences of the Past can be known as past only as they are present in consciousness through the representa- tions of memory. The possible experiences of the Future can be known as future only as they are present in con- sciousness through the representations of Imagina- tion. And the representations of Memory and of Imagination are constantly interfused in greater or less degree even in the relatively critical mind of modern man. How much more must this have been the case in the uncritical mind of "primitive" man! Hence the confident construction on his part of a 14 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. Past that never was and of a Future that never could be. Just as in visual Perception the mind creates " images " consisting of form and color and at the same time projects these subjective products into space and never doubts their objective reality ; so primitive man unconsciously mingled human ele- ments with elements drawn from nature and in doing so created Ethical conceptions which he no less un- consciously and confidently projected into a Divine world that in turn became to him a model for the human world. The central, permanent element of truth in all this, as the sequel should show, is the identity in type as between Divinity and Humanity. II. Scientific Aspect. Ethical consciousness first attained explicit Scientific utterance in the mouth of Socrates. And yet this very struggle toward sci- entific definition could not but result in more or less of exaggeration ; and here the special form of excess consisted in the emphasizing of the importance of knowledge as a factor of right-doing until knowledge itself became fairly identified with Virtue, instead of being clearly recognized in its proper limitation as constituting only one of the essential factors of Virtue. It is with Aristotle, in fact, that a true science of Ethics as such has its beginning. He it is who first sees clearly the real clew to a- specific and adequate science of human conduct. He, first of all. FUNDAMENTAL HISTORICAL ASPECTS. I 5 sets out with and steadily pursues an inductive study of the facts within this sphere and through such study traces out those fundamental relations which find their unity in the central principle of conscious self-consistency concretely unfolded in a well-poised individual human character. Nevertheless, as the facts of the Hellenic social world only served to give emphasis to the individual, so the Ethics of Aristotle is, in reality, simply the Ethics of Individualism, If now we turn to the Roman world we find that it contributes only indirectly to the development of the science of Ethics. At the same time the contribution is none the less valid and valuable. For it is noth- ing less than the disciplinary conception of conscious conformity to principles concretely unfolded in the various phases of institutional life. So that here we may be said to have the Ethics of Institutionalism. (It is, as we may remark in passing, precisely in this complete subordination of the Individual to In- stitutions that the stoical aspect of Ethical doctrine, in its negative character as emphasizing resignation, finds its natural and ample ground of development. In the later — Christian — world this aspect finds con- crete realization in the monastic orders.) Again while the ancient Hebrews made no formal presentation of Ethics as a science, yet on the other hand their whole literature is pervaded with the pro- foundly Ethical presupposition (gradually unfolded 1 6 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. into clear, though still unreflecting, form in the national consciousness through the whole course of their experience as a people) that all human conduct is fundamentally related to the requirements of a primal, infinite (and hence absolutely rational) Con- sciousness. The Individual; Institutions, as involving the imme- diate, concrete relations of individual to individual; the Ideal of a divinely given (i. e., perfect) Law as the absolute standard of human conduct — such are the fundamental factors that have fused into organic unity in the modern or Christian Ethical Conscious- ness. Thus this richer aspect of the Ethical Con- sciousness is but the more elaborate unfolding (in- fused union) of the earlier germinal forms, all which may be found to be included under one or other of the three types, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew. It is only as such well-balanced, organic unity of the earlier and one-sided forms of Ethical Conscious- ness that the modern consciousness can deal success- fully with the problem of the true Conduct of Life, infinitely enhanced as it is in complexity. The modern consciousness recognizes more and more clearly that continued and unbiased study of human deeds, and that alone, can bring into ever clearer, more accurate and more adequate (i. e., more truly Scientific) view the whole vital sum of significance involved in the relations of each individual human being (i) to those THE ETHICAL END. 1/ fundamental principles which are progressively as- suming concrete reality for this world through in- stitutional forms, and (2) to that infinitely vital, typical and eternally perfect Consciousness manifested every- where in and through the infinitely varied aspects of the World as a Whole. Thus the modern or Christian form of the science of Ethics has unfolded, and must continue to unfold, as the actual process of tracing out the evidence of the. divine (absolutely rational) Law as unfolded in the Individual through the medium of Institutions. Only as such concretely rational pro- cess can Ethics attain and maintain a genuinely vital character. III. THE ETHICAL END. We have next to notice that throughout the whole Ethical process there is necessarily presupposed a defi- nite end or aim toward the realization of which every act of any and every human being is directed, (i) If that end really consists of and is restricted to Pleasure, then the Science of Ethics will have for its chief func- tion to discover the utmost measure of significance denoted by the term Pleasure, and to point the way to the fullest attainment of that end. Such, in its sim- plest form, is the view known as Hedonism (historically the standpoint of the Greek Sophists, and of course also, later, of the Epicureans ; though by no means in the gross sense commonly supposed). (2) If, again, z 1 8 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. the chief end of human activity is assumea to be the securing of universal Well-being then the Science of Ethics must have for its task to present a consistent and adequate view of what true well-being is, and also to unfold a systematic general view of the media essen- tial to its realization. In which case the Science of Ethics must be of the Utilitarian type (represented in modern times especially by J. S. Mill and Prof. Sidg- wick). (3) Or it may be that the true aim of human conduct is to be found in the fulfillment of Duty ; that is, in obedience to a supreme Law as expressive of an ultimate, divine Will. And in this we should have what may be properly named theological Ethics (the philosophical ground of which is developed in its most uncompromising form by Kant). (4) If, finally, the true end of human conduct should prove to be that of the Self-realization of individual man, then the Science of Ethics is bound to ascertain first of all as its ulti-^ mate prmciple, the true nature of man as man, includ- ing all the fundamental aspects of that nature ; and having formulated this, its further task must be to trace in outline a consistent, reasoned estimate of the means and the method necessary to the realization of such true end. In the former sense our science would be theoretical or speculative Ethics. In the latter, practical or applied Ethics ; and in this sense its fully elaborated form must include an intimation of the fundamental aspects THE ETHICAL END. 1 9 of the special Sciences of Economics and Politics — in short, the whole range of what has been com- prehensively styled Social Philosophy. (In its spec- ulative phase the chief modern representative is T. H. Green. Of the practical aspect the fundamental principles are strongly outlined — though not with- out bias — in Plegel's Philosophie des Rechts.) On reflection, indeed, it would seem by no means impossible that in the actual process of perfecting human life upon the express view of man's ultimate nature, there would be realized the fullest possible measure of all really pleasurable experience, when the whole range of what is to be counted as truly pleasur- able is rightly estimated. And further it would seem quite possible that in the same process the utmost attainable degree of Well-being must also be most cer- tainly secured. In which case all that is valid in the aims of both Hedonism and Utilitarianism must be raised to the highest possible degree of significance through a system of Ethics based on a thorough-going analysis of human nature as manifested in the individual consciousness on the one hand and in the history of the race on the other. If, further, it should turn out that the indi- vidual human consciousness is one in type with the ultim.ate, eternally perfect Consciousness manifested in every phase of the total World-Order, then it would appear that the divine Law as expressive of the ulti- 20 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. mate and absolutely holy Will, must be involved in the very nature of the human Will. And thus it must be evident that in the very process of his own self- realization man must be fulfilling the divine Law (as comprehended in and through Reason) and so, per- forming his highest ''duty." It can only be remarked here that to assume Pleas- ure as the chief end of human life is to reduce the self- conscious activity of man to its lowest instead of rais- ing it to its highest term. In the very nature of the case any given pleasure is but for the moment. The merely pleasure-seeking life is therefore necessarily an endless search that never ceases from fear and long- ing. In other words such ajife is essentially nothing else than a more or less prolonged self-contradiction. At the same time Utilitarianism, in its highest sense, i.e. in the sense of the utmost attainable extent of Well-being, is after all simply a ''general-happiness" principle which only resolves itself into a more subtle Hedonism in which as many individuals as possible are conceived as attaining each the highest degree of more or less refined pleasure or " happiness." On the other hand the actual attainment of self- perfection, in whatever degree, must thus far involve genuine self-consistency or rhythm of experience — that is, it must involve a corresponding measure of self-satisfaction. And here (let us note carefully), it is the abiding THE ETHICAL END. 21 self that is satisfied, and satisfied the more, the more fully and clearly it apprehends as certainly possible for itself, unlimited further self-perfection. Whence it would seem that only when self-realization is taken as the real Ethical end, can the end proposed either by Hedonism or by Utilitarianism or by theological Ethics be actually attained. If pleasure, if well-being, if duty — if either or all these together can be justly re- garded as constituting a worthy motive to human action then much more may self-realization be justly regarded as the one highest and really adequate Ethical End, since in the unswerving pursuit of this end and in that alone is it possible that even the lower and less adequate aims can be surely realized in their truest significance. With this understanding, then, there need be nothing invidious in designating the System of Ethics based on this principle (were the system once developed) as Ideal or Rational Ethics. Such system has, indeed, long been in process of development; each succeeding generation will make more or less important contribution to its improve- ment ; the system will be ever approximating com- pletion ; it will never be actually completed. If, now, we reflect upon the profound significance of the statement that '' the Kingdom of Heaven is within you" — that is, that in the very nature of the case the *^ Kingdom of Heaven " is involved in human con- sciousness and to be realized only through the pro- 22 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. gressive unfolding of human consciousness — it would seem that the supreme Ethical principle is already involved in the dogmatic affirmation : " Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." For this would seem to mean nothing else than this: — Comply unreservedly in the whole range of your activity to the actual demands of Reason as the eternal form of your own true being and all really good things will be yours ; for they are but the inevitable result of such compliance. IV. COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS OF ETHICS. We have next to note that from its very nature as the Science of human conduct Ethics must at every stage present two fundamental and mutually comple- mentary aspects. These are (i) the Subjective Aspect and (2) the Objective Aspect. In the ethical Process these aspects are of course coincident and even absolutely interfused; for they are but correlative phases of human life. On the other hand in the formulation of the science of Ethics these complementary aspects can only be treated serially. It is evident, too, that since the subjective aspect consists of the individual character as the ethical unit strictly speaking, this aspect properly falls to be considered first in the formal unfolding of the Science. COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS OF ETHICS. 23 For the objective aspect consists of the fundamental relations between individual and individual ; and the scientific consideration of these relations must there- fore presuppose, as something already explicitly un- folded, the results of a critical and more or less adequate consideration of the essential nature of the individual character constituting the type of ethical units so related. It is here, indeed, that Ethics is found to be in closest relation with Psychology. In the latter science the most comprehensive term is Consciousness. In Ethics the most comprehensive term is Conscience which is simply consciousness in its ethical aspect. Again while Psychology restricts itself to the simple (but reasoned) representation of the whole individual mind, preserving, as far as possible, perfect balance of all its modes ; Ethics, on the con- trary, singles out the Will as that mode of mind which predominates in all human conduct, makes a special study of mind in that mode, and carries its investigation over into the sphere of the relations between individual and individual. But while in the latter respect Ethics is contrasted with Psychology it still presents further phases of close relationship to this science in the fact that, besides constantly pre- supposing the results of psychological investigation, it must still take up certain aspects of mind and press their analysis beyond what is required in Psychology properly speaking. This is especially true in respect 24 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. of that fundamental quality of mind known as Virtue and which presents its essential phase of differentia- tion in the so-called ''Virtues." Finally, the objective aspect of Ethics unfolds into a systematic (and reasoned) statement of the essential Rights and Duties of the individual human being (as involved in his relations to other individuals) together with an analysis of the fundamental forms through which these aspects of human life are brought into ever richer degrees of realization. It is in this sphere that Ethics is found to expand inevitably so as to include the whole of Social Philos- ophy in so far as the special subject of consideration is that of the fundamental relations between person and person (i) in Property, (2) in the Family and (3) in the State. At the same time Ethics must take into consideration (4) those special relations between per- son and person involved in the institution of the Church and in the special ends sought to be attained through that institution. Whence it is evident that here also the science of Ethics tends to fuse with that of Theology. The central interest giving rise to association in the church is that of the ultimate nature and destiny of man. The highest form of the practical unfolding of this interest constitutes Re- ligion. The science of the principles determining the rela- tions thus involved constitutes Theology. This in SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 2^ turn reflects back upon the civil aspect of human relations and gives them a distinctly theological trend. Hence there is nothing surprising in the fact that systems of Ethics have been developed under the specific designation of Theological Ethics (e. g. that of Rothe.) Note, finally, that Rights and Duties are relations; and, as will appear later on, not merely mutually complementary relations, but mutually complementary aspects of 07te and the same relation. And this is true, not of one but of all ethical relations properly speaking. Every Right is also a Duty. Every Duty is also a Right. A, SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. I. Conscience. Human conduct is really ethical only in so far as it involves the factor of Conscious- ness. The mind is a unit of Energy, one and indi- visible. It is at once a Power-to-know, a Power-to-do, and a Power-to-feel. And in all these aspects of its actual concrete existence it is in greater or less degree aware of itself or ''conscious." But as Will (that is, as a Power-to-do) mind exhibits the characteristic of con- sciousness in a peculiar form. Here the conscious- ness is of a relation between a standard apprehended as objectively valid on the one hand, and some action already performed, or contemplated as possible to be performed by the individual himself on the other. 26 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. The peculiarity of the aspect of consciousness here manifested is that it consists not merely in the recog- nition of the given relation, but that it involves the rec- ognition of a binding quality in the relation, such that the individual feels as well as sees that the action (per- formed or proposed) is inherently right or wrong — that its essential tendency is for good ox for evil in his own individual life, that its effect is necessarily either constructive or destructive to the very being, and above all to the 7£/^//-being, of the one performing the action. Indeed, to this phase of Consciousness it is always in greater or less degree apparent that the ///-being of the individual must ultimately mean the same as his no7i-h€\x\g (in the sense of utter negation). It is in this peculiar character that Consciousness properly bears the name of Conscience and that it proves to involve this further characteristic — that it prompt? the individual to the performance of a given proposed action or restrains him from its performance. So that, as already noted, Conscience is seen to be in truth just the ethical aspect of Consciousness. (In this connection it is well worth while to note that since Conscience is not merely intellectual, but that it also involves Feeling and Will; and since it can never be said to pertain to Feeling alone or toWill alone — for thus it would exclude the intellectual factor, with- out which nothing whatever could be known of its existence — then in every case it is evident that the SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 2^ absolute unity of the mind is seen to be emphasized in high degree not merely by consciousness in general but also by its specially ethical aspect, Conscience.) We personify Conscience and '' listen to its dic- tates;" rejoice in its ^^ approval " or suffer from its "stings"; we follow its "promptings" or heed its "warnings." In reality, the truth felt-after in such forms of expression is that in its complex unity the mind apprehends '^(intellectually) with greater or less clearness an objective standard by which to measure its own processes; that the realization by the mind in its own being (through volitional activity) of the ideal presented in that standard necessarily results in a special state of such mind consisting of a sense (feeling) of inner rhythm or of dissonance; and further that even the mere subjective representation of this process of realizing the given ideal in and for one's self is sufficient to awaken a lively sense of rhythm or of dissonance. But also it is to be noted that, as the ethical aspect of Consciousness, Conscience is primarily crude and is always liable to perversion as well as to arrest of development; just as, on the other hand, there is pos- sibility of indefinite elaboration and refinement of all its positive ethical values through nurture and educa- tion. Conscience, let us note further, is not a *' faculty" of the mind. (In truth, there are no " faculties," but 28 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. only modes of the mind, the mind itself being, as already observed, an indivisible unit of Energy.) On the contrary Conscience is a fundamental aspect of mind in its totality, and hence it must in greater or less degree be present as an essential factor in each and every one of the modes of mind. The extreme view, even yet so widely accepted, to the effect that Conscience is a kind of supernaturally given and initially perfect '' guide " and which there- fore is incapable (and wholly without need) of educa- tion need here be mentioned only to point out the fact (evident enough to the reflective mind) that such extreme view is possible only upon condition of imperfect knowledge of the deep-reaching significance which heredity bears in the development of human character. And yet, on the other hand, it is not to be overlooked that glimpses of the truth that the character of the individual is dependent primarily upon descent are clearly manifest in many ways in all literature (Hebrew and Christian included). Above all is it manifest in the deeply significant but much misunderstood doctrine of "Original Sin." Doubtless at the very moment of birth the indi- vidual human being is already a real mind with already well defined tendencies, the determining factors of which reach back through an unbroken chain to the "first parents" of such being. But by the very complexity of the process of descent it is also evi- SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 29 dent that great differences must exist between one and another such being, even at the moment of birth. So that many a child has " by nature," (i. e. from birth) a refined sense of the ethical fitness of things, such as many another would be wholly unable to attain through a life-time of discipline. On the contrary, however, it is evident that at the best the "innate " (in the sense of the inherited) Con- science is but elementary and merely instinctive in its character, and that therefore it needs to be awak- ened into reflection and self-criticism, so that the solu- tion of ethical problems may be reached knowingly and not merely through the ethical consciousness in its purely rudimentary form. The Conscience that i^ not enlightened — that is, unfolded to the degree of deliberate, rational self-examination — is still crude in fact however refined and delicate it may outwardly appear. Only when the Conscience is at once both practically developed so as to insure right action and also enlightened to such degree that the individual is " able to give a [really valid] reason for the faith that is in him" — only then can the Conscience be rightly regarded as matured and trustworthy. It is just the deliberate, persistent neglect to realize one's self as a rational, self-conscious unit — it is precisely this that constitutes the fact of '' Original Sin." No doubt this is a negative "fact." But then all sin consists in negation, either by way of neglect to realize some 30 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. possible form of the essentially Good in man or in nullifying one or another of its actually realized forms. And since Conscience, as the ethical aspect of Con- sciousness, is in its very nature necessarily the ultimate practical *' guide" in all human conduct, it is evidently impossible to overestimate the practical importance of the fullest possible cultivation and rationalization of Conscience. Meanwhile, for our present purpose, the full significance of Conscience can be brought into clear view only through a careful analysis of the mind considered as Will. II. The Will. And here we have to notice at the outset that the discussion in detail of the more specific character and functions of the Mind as Will, together with the special relations which the Will necessarily sustains to the other modes of mind is a distinctly psychological task. Nevertheless, since Ethics as a Science is just the science of human conduct, and since all human conduct consists of nothing else than the endlessly complex forms in which the human mind, as Will, manifests and realizes itself, it is evi- dent that a Science of Ethics from which all considera- tion of the Will were excluded would be simply a contradiction in terms. And further, it is to be care- fully noted that the ethical significance of any act of the Mind as Will depends in any given case upon whether the given act really has its origin within such mind or whether the origin of the act is to be sought SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 3 1 for beyond that mind. Only an act that is really de- termined by and within a given individual Will can rightly be taken as a valid ground for an ethical judgment concerning such Will. Only as the actual determiner of change (whether within or without itself) can the mind be properly regarded as an ethi- cal unit at all. The moment the individual is con- ceived as merely instrumental in any given process, that moment it becomes clearly inconceivable that any ethical significance should attach to the part taken by the individual in such process. Hence to ascertain precisely the manner in which the Will (that is, the Mind as Will,) is determined to activity must be of vital significance to the Science of Ethics. If, indeed, it could be shown that all acts^ of the Will are determined by some cause lying wholly beyond the Will, then a Science of Ethics, strictly speaking, must be impossible; for thus the human Will would prove to be devoid of ethical significance; there would be no known ethical unit, and hence no real content for a science of ethics. Thus while the investigation of the Will in its entire range constitutes one fundamental part of the entire task of psychology, it is evident that the science of ethics must also take into consideration the funda- mental nature of the Will; though for this science the central, vital question is manifestly that of the precise manner in which the Will is determined to activity — 32 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. that is, whether it is self-determined or determined by an external agency or agencies. In its traditional form the question is: Whether the Will is free or whether it is compelled to activity by an external power or powers. From this point of view it is Free- dom or Necessity that is to be predicated absolutely of the Will. And from this point of view doubtless no really scientific answer can ever be attained. Now the question of the original determination of the Will may take either of two forms. In the one form the question is historical and the search for its answer is resolved into a study of the process through which the individual Will actually arises and unfolds to (or rather toward) maturity. In its other form the question is metaphysical (in the true sense of that term) and the search for its answer then assumes the nature of a specially careful and searching critical study of the ultimate character- istics seen to be necessarily implied in the known peculiar phenomena of the Will. In the former case the method of inquiry is of course predominantly induc- tive (i.e. observational) ; in the latter it is predomin- antly deductive (i.e. inferential). But it is also a matter of course (as the mutually complementary sciences of logic and metaphysics make plain) that neither of these methods can in any case be pursued to the entire exclusion of the other. Rather are they simply the complementary aspects of all true scientific method. SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 33 Pursuance of the inquiry in its historical form has resulted in the discovery of a chain of evidence strongly tending to justify, if not absolutely justify- ing, the conclusion that man is but the culmination of an evolutional process, including the whole animal kingdom at the least. Such evidence seems further to justify the conclusion that when this process is looked at in inverse order it is seen to have its begin- nings in the interplay of merely mechanical and chem- ical forces. Again it is he brain which specially serves as the structural form directly organic to mind, while mind is itself a mere function of the brain. Hence it would seem that the individual mind is predetermined by the whole course of evolution lead- ing up to, and culminating in the existence of, such mind. Such, in briefest intimation, is the result ar- rived at by the extreme evolutionary school of scientists; and of course the inevitable corollary from such conclusion is that Freedom is a mere illusion when regarded as a characteristic of the individual human Will. So that in strict logical consistency this school must wholly dispense with ethics as a science, since they have eliminated all real ethical content from human activity. On the other hand the metaphysical aspect of the question cannot be wholly excluded. It needs but a little deliberate reflection to see that a higher (more complex) form of existence can really have 3 34 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. its origin in a lower (less complex) form or series of forms only upon this condition: That a highest (i. e. most complex) unit of Energy works with con- sistency of purpose in, and manifests itself through (and throughout) the whole process leading up to the final result. And if this result consists of a mind in one or another stage of its evolution, then there is presupposed as the origin and essence of the whole evolutional process, a primal, perfect, and hence eter- nal and eternally self-unfolding Mind. The evolu- tion of mind, in whatever degree, necessarily presup- poses Mind in perfect degree. And Mind in perfect degree is conceivable only as independent of all external conditions. It is conceivable only as includ- ing in its own Consciousness every phase of rational relation and of rational purpose. It must therefore be self-poised and self-active in absolute degree. To nothing less than such perfect Mind can the descent of man be legitimately (that is, by any strictly scientific process) traced. Consideration of the metaphysical aspect of the question, then, would seem to justify us in concluding that as man (in so far as he is mind) must be conceived as descended from (that is, as arising through, and constituting the culminating aspect of) the creative self-unfolding of the primal perfect Mind, he must be credited with fundamentally the same characteristics as those inhering in the primal Mind itself. And it has just been noted that self-activity — that SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 35 is, self-determination — is the central characteristic of that Mind. How this characteristic can be conceived as unfold- ing into reality in man — in other words, how man as man can be conceived as actually coming into existence — this again pertains to the historical aspect of the question as to the way in which the human Will is actually determined. It is of course impossible here to more than barely indicate the chief aspects of the question together with the central conclusions which it seems possible to reach by inquiry along these lines. Let us note in the first place that by the very con- ception of a mind evolved through the process of heredity each mind must be unique in the actual degree and in the special trend of its development. Its actual relations are therefore also unique. Hence its reactions upon tfie stimuli it receives from its envi- ronment cannot be a mere repetition of reactions of any of its ancestors upon the then existing environ- ment. It is at any moment appealed to by many forms of stimuli and in any given case responds to bnt one. As mind its reactions upon stimuli involve intellectual estimate as well as mere ixiomentary impulse or feeling. But intellectual estimate consists in com- parison — in holding two or more representations in consciousness as forms of possible activity and result ; and this in such way as not merely to compare the forms themselves, but also so as to compare the results 36 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. of realizing the two forms through one's own individ- ual action and in one's own individual experience. Further, while in such comparison the activity of the mind may be said primarily to take place in time, it is also evident that in all its intellectual representations of possible actions the mind takes up the form of suc- cession (time) into its own activity. Or rather it may be said to unfold that form in the very process of its own activity, seeing that it apprehends the order of suc- cession necessary in a given represented series of acts. Nay in this very fact of representing to itself a series the mind includes past and future in the present, and thus transcends time as a mere succession of activities. The mind is not a stretched-out chain of experiences; it is a present, self-unfolding totality of experiences. I am now aware of what happened to me yesterday : and I am now aware of it because whatever has passed hitherto in my consciousness is now present in its results in my actual individual (and that means indi- visible) conscious existence. My own consciousness is always the central factor in every experience I have. That factor (emphasizing as it does the indissoluble, absolutely continuous unity of my existence) is, indeed, always undergoing modification in extent, in clearness, in intensity. But it is ever for me the one possible measure of both itself and all other things. (Even when I refer most deliberately to an objectively valid standard I do so, and can do so, only through the fact SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 3/ that I have taken up into my own consciousness, as one aspect of it, precisely that standard. In becoming aware of it I recognize it as independent of my con- sciousness ; but also in becoming aware of it I appro- priate it as a fact of my consciousness.) As a conscious unit the mind does indeed respond to stimuli coming from without, but it responds, and must respond, in its own way. That is, it must, from its very nature as a deliberative unit, decide between one and another possible way of responding to such stimuli. And in just this process of deciding between the various apprehended ways of responding to these stimuli (which as represented in consciousness constitute motives) the mind proves itself to be, from its very con- stitution as mind, a self-active, self-determining unit of Energy. Indeed, while it deliberates, and in the very fact that it deliberates, upon a given course of action it refrains from such course of action. And this very refraining from action is itself a form of self-activity, of self-de- termination. Nor can it be too strongly insisted upon that it is precisely in such process that the mind proves to be always in its essential, typical nature the one truly self-active, and therefore Ethical unit, and that this typical nature progressively unfolds into realiza- tion in each normal {i.e., law-abiding) individual Will. And this conclusion is confirmed by a study of mind in all its relations, sensuous, social, and cosmic. The 38 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. higher the degree of Will considered the more unques- tionable becomes the conclusion. At the very beginning of its own particular existence no doubt the individual mind is merely initial. Its typical nature is as yet, for it, mainly an abstract form, a mere unfulfilled possibility. But every normal reac- tion upon the environment, in its character of a rational World-Order, only tends to fulfil that possi- bility and thus empirically to demonstrate in ever higher degree the validity of the abstractly conceived universal or typical form. It is next to be noted that in the entire process of its self-unfolding the individual mind as Will, no less than in its character as Intelligence, necessarily pre- sents both a subjective and an objective aspect. At the same time only the barest intimation can be given here of the distinction between, and the extent of, these two phases of the Will — phases which, in their various degrees of realization, may be designated respectively as subjective Freedom and objective Freedom. When I deliberate and compare any two forms of representation in my own mind I am by that very fact controlling the modes of myself as mind. That is, in such case my activity, whatever its extent, is in its nature self-activity. It is such inner self-activity that constitutes subjec- tive freedom. But the representations developed in, as modes of, SUBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 39 my mind and held in consciousness by my own delib- erate (and deliberative) act may yet have direct refer- ence to my practical relation to one or another phase of my environment. I compare a past action with a proposed action and infer the character of the results to be expected in case the proposed action is really performed. This inference is now a new mode in (and of) my own mind and becomes a positive factor in determin- ing me to act (or to refrain from acting) in the way proposed. Whence it is evident that my practical relation to my environment is thus far determined by my own practical self-definition (/.eed as an instrument giving formal expression to the rela- tion subsisting between an individual Will and the col- lective Will of the whole community — that is, the State. And this formal expression of such relation is to the effect that the individual is formally recognized as having exclusive right to hold and use during his pleasure (but subject to taxation) a given portion of land. And since all commodities are obtained from the land it is evident that the Deed is the form guar- anteeing to the individual the right to the prime orig- inal means of his own physical self-preservation, which in turn is but the condition precedent to his own self-maturing as a self-conscious unit. The land is ^'' reaV property — the permanent, real Possibility of all possible forms of property. Hence all activity of the individual in respect of property must refer ulti- mately to land. But the act of the individual is a deed — the outer, organic form of his Will, And be- OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 53 cause assured possession in use of land is necessary to a production of property of any kind whatever, it is evidently indispensable to the existence of society as the necessary medium for the self-realization of the individual that the universal Will of the com- munity should assume a clearly defined objective form, assuring to the individual such undisturbed use of a given portion of land. It is just this clearly de- fined objective, organic form of the communal Will in such case that is properly and significantly called a Deed. It is the form or instrument in which indi- vidual Will and communal Will coincide. But thus far we have only intimated the essential ways in which Will may realize itself through and embody itself in Property. This is but the positive aspect of the ethical import of Property. The nega- tive aspect is next to be noticed. B. Negative Aspect. This negative aspect consists in Modes of withdrawing the Will from things as Prop- erty. (i) As in the positive aspect the simplest phase is mere appropriation; so in the negative aspect the simplest phase is the mere abandonment of what is already in possession. And here it is essential to notice that the abandonment of property is ethically justifiable only when the thing in possession no longer has any real value — only, therefore, when it has ceased to be real as property ; that is, when it has ceased to 54 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. be in any proper sense of the term the outer form of the Will. In this case, then, the withdrawal of the Will in ^'abandonment" is merely formal. Though there must still remain the Ethical demand that the abandonment shall not be in such manner as to prove an occasion of injury to others. (2) In withdrawing the Will from things as property through simple abandonment the relation of the indi- vidual Will to other Wills is implicit even in precisely the same degree (though in inverse order) as in the expression of the Will in things through simple appro- priation. In point of real import, however, the rela- tion is still, even at this stage, a thoroughly real and valid one in both the positive and the negative phase. In the second stage of withdrawal of the Will from things as property the relation of the individual Will to other Wills (more commonly to one other Will) is explicit and direct. Here the simplest form of with- drawal is that of Gift. But this necessarily implies the acceptance of the gift. ^But thus the actual withdrawal of the one Will from the given object is possible only in so far as at the same moment another Will affirms itself in the same object. The Gift is thus a joint act of two Wills, and can take place upon no other condition. Such in simplest form, is the ethical ground of the Gift. In point of detail it is impossible in a summa- rized view like the present to do more than merely in- OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 55 dicate the limits of the moral right to give and receive presents : namely, within the family group, including friends who have acquired a relationship similar in character. Beyond this range the gift must be im- moral as implying obligation; the greater the prop- erty value of the gift the greater the sense of obliga- tion; that is, the greater the hindrance to subsequent free activity on the part of the one receiving the gift; while the one making the gift must suffer moral in- jury in the form of confused and exaggerated notions as to his own claims upon the one to whom the *\gift '^ is made. Further, the moral quality of a gift must de- pend in part upon the means of the giver. If in any case, for any purpose, I make a gift of my means to such extent, no matter how limited, as in any measure to put it beyond my power to meet my own just obli- gations, then the gift is thus far an immoral act. (3) But a further and still more adequate form of the expression of Will in property is that of Exchange, In every case of exchange the entire process of the creation of property is already presupposed (the pro- cess itself consisting of the appropriation and trans- formation of material things rendering them suited to special human uses). Ethically, then, each party to an exchange is presumed I0 be already rationally devel- oped as a Will. It is further presumed that this pro- cess has been creative of values the immediate outer concrete form of which is that of the particular articles 56 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. to be exchanged. But each has produced more of some one kind of commodity than he can consume and has produced nothing of that kind of property resulting from the work of the other. Yet each requires for his own well-being some part of what the other has produced. Each therefore can without loss give up to the other a part of his own product and receive with advantage a part of the product of the other. Each has what the other lacks and lacks what the other has. An exchange, therefore, will be to the benefit of each. Here, too, the exchange properly speaking is the joint act of the two Wills. Each, in one and the same act, withdraws his Will from one object and affirms his Will in another object. And further, both Wills act simultaneously ; other- wise no exchange is effected, and neither Will has really accomplished its own transfer from one object to another as its own outer form of manifestation. (4) But also in the very fact that exchange con- stitutes a highly complex medium for the development of the Will as really moral, it also proves to be a ready means for the development of the Will as immoraL Exchange may be unjust as well as just; and it is here to be noted that unjust exchange presents three distinct ethical degrees. These we can here do no more than merely enumerate. The first is due to ignorance of the ethical principle applicable in the given case; or more commonly to ignorance of the OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 57 actual ethical relations involved. The second degree of immoral exchange is presented in cases where there is conscious, deliberate ignoring of the principle involved and where careful effort is made to conceal (from the other parties concerned) the actual ethical relations involved, and to deceive as to the relative values of the objects to be exchanged. This is the degree known as fraud. In the thif^d place, finally, the immoral purpose may become so wholly unre- strained as to lead to open defiance of the ethical relations necessarily implied and thus to the use of violence in the obtaining of desired objects. Here all pretense of exchange as such really ceases and actual undisguised robbery begins. A glance through even so summary a view of the ethical aspects of Property as that here presented will serve to show that in each and every stage Property is possible only as a form of the manifestation of Will and that as such it necessarily brings each man into relation with all other men. Similarly it is precisely these concrete relations of Will to Will as involved in property that constitute the indispensable media in the elementary stages of the education of the human Will. And that this relation, again, may be of a moral or of an immoral character is not to be overlooked. Chiefly then, within this sphere. Ethics as science is the tracing out of the truly rational or just relations of man to man as involved in the appropriation and 58 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. adaptation of things to human uses. And even in so meagre a sketch it has already been foreshadowed as impossible that these simple forms of relation through things as property can actually be realized save through the unfolding of the various still more complex forms of direct relation constituting the essence of the social world. For evidently the rela- tions of Will to Will as involved in property can be realized only in so far as they are regulated; and this necessarily implies that the social world is already more or less definitely and consistently unfolded. The forms of relation involved in the social world will therefore next call for analysis. II. The Family. The simplest forms of direct relation between human Will and human Will are found in the Family; and here again certain specific phases of relation appear as pertaining to the rational unfold- ing of the Family as such : A. The primary phase consists of Marriage, that is, the Founding of the Family. (i) In tracing the relations here necessarily involved it is to be observed at the outset that each of the con- tracting parties in marriage is a representative (because an organic member) of an already existing family group. Hence whatever each does inevitably affects the entire group of which he is a member. So that in entering into the marriage relation the individual, by uniting his life with another life, adds that other OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 59 life to the family group of which he is himself already a member. And because their interests are thus bound up with his own he is morally bound to consult them upon the question of the proposed union. To ignore the convictions and interests of those thus related would amount to denial of the universal character of the Will. It would in reality amount to the extravagance of affirming that the individual's own rights are absolutely without restriction and that therefore the other personages involved have no rights that can hold good in opposition to those claimed by the individual. And yet this must be nothing less than to assume the more immediate resolutions of the individual Will (that is, the mere determinations of caprice) as the supreme standard. But this could only have for its effect to destroy society and render the maturing of the individual himself impossible. (2) It is, in fact, only through association that the individual can attain maturity in any degree as a self- conscious, self-determined being. And the family is just that form of association through which alone all the finer qualities of character — forbearance, tender- ness, confidence, love — can be nurtured into full vigor and refinement of reality. And primarily this associ- ation consists in the fusing of two individualities into one. This is, in fact, the first step in the clear, un- selfish recognition of the essentially rational, universal 60 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. nature of Self-hood. It is the forgetfulness of self through apprehending the ideal Self in another self. And when this recognition is reciprocal as between two Wills not otherwise debarred there is present the true moral basis of marriage. Meanwhile in order that the union may be morally valid and valid in full measure^in order that it may be really efficient as a means to ethical maturity on the part of the personages involved — it is essential that those personalities should bring to the union a sub- stantial basis of common interest in respect of tastes and of moral and religious convictions. (3) The inequality of the sexes is not to be ignored. Such inequality is at once the product and the meas- ure of civilization. In respect of massiveness of power there can be no question that man is superior to woman. In respect of delicacy of power there can be no question that woman is superior to man. These differences are less in savage races ; greater in civi- lized races. It is not for advancing civilization to reduce them but to foster them. It is not that massive strength shall become coarse nor that '* delicate " shall come to be synonymous with ^* weak." Power may become more refined while becoming more massive, and grow more vigorous while increasing in delicacy. It is thus that the man becomes more manly, the woman more womanly. It is through this increasing superiority of each over the other that the rational OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 6 1 equality of the two sexes (their absolute unity in ulti- mate spiritual type) is to be progressively and most perfectly demonstrated. (4) It is precisely through the differentiation of the sexes, brought about and constantly emphasized by the whole course of civilization, that the proper sphere of either sex is determined. It is the heavy and highly complex work, requiring prolonged and exhaust- ing nervous tension, that in the true economy of the world falls naturally to man. On the other hand the delicate, intermittent tasks fall no less naturally to woman. Whence it is in the sphere of the Home that woman finds her natural sphere of activity; just as man finds his powers specially suited to the ruder and more exhausting pursuits of Commercial and Political activity. But because woman's most natural sphere of activ- ity is within the Home, and because the Home is the one medium through which the elements of person- ality can all be securely and normally unfolded in utmost degree, it is evident that he tessential Rights of woman are to be realized in precisely that degree in which the Family attains, chiefly through her per- formance of her duties, the true measure of its prac- tical maturity as a human institution. And further, as there is but one Type of Personality, in which all question of Sex as well as of race is completely merged, it is evident that only the monogamic marriage, in 62 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. which the essential equality of the contracting parties is explicitly recognized, can be a truly moral one. But again, genuine Freedom means rational living. And to be truly rational in this practical sense the individual must conform his own Will to the enlight- ened Will of the Race; and this both in the civil and in the religious sense of the term. Hence, genuinely moral Marriage must have both a civil and a religious sanction. The interests of society require this, and the interests of the individual as a member of society cannot possibly be (morally) separated from the gen- eral interest. Ignoring these fundamental organic relations means practical self-contradiction, and prac- tical self-contradiction means nothing less than self- destruction — that is, the absolute inversion of the pro- cess of self-realization in one or another degree. (5) Finally it is to be noted that increased facility for divorce means increased facility for destroying the Family with all the moral values which the Family is the sole medium for realizing. The Mosaic law per- mitting divorce was truly declared to be because of the ** hardness of heart " — that is because of the bar- barous condition — of the people of that early time. The law of Reason recognizes the equality in nature of all men — of all human beings. Hence each of the contracting parties in marriage, being recognized as having equal rights (and duties, which are but the obverse side of rights) with the other — being rec- OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 63 ognized, that is, as having substantial freedom — is bound to assume the full measure of the consequences of the relationships into which he or she enters. The more enlightened men become the more justly are they to be held rigidly accountable as individuals for what they as individuals do. Increase in facility of divorce, means reversion to barbarism. Only with complete, final estrangement through conduct that already destroys the family as a moral unit can divorce be other than immoral. B. The Relation between Parents and Children con- stitutes a further fundamental phase of the compound life of the Family. (i) The central right of the child as toward the parent is, comprehensively, that of a totality of the best conditions available for his own moral and intel- lectual development. It is especially the moral aspect of his spiritual growth that depends most upon and finds its best medium in the (normally constituted) home. (2) Nevertheless the more complex phases of the spiritual development of the child demands media of a correspondingly complex and carefully chosen char- acter. These media are those specially known as educational and can be best realized only through association in large groups. (The practical questions here are classification of pupils and gradation of their work, with division of labor to the extent of securing 64 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. the highest degree of efficiency in teaching.) Here voluntary association is the ethical demand and its highest form is found in the schools supported by self imposed taxation in a free or self-governed com- munity. Further, the relation which on the part of the child is to be counted as a right, is also on the part of the parent a duty. So also the duty of the parent to secure educational facilities for the child is no less a right on the part of the parent as toward the child, who, by the very fact of his right to these advantages, is under moral obligation to make the best possible use of them. (3) It is of special importance to note in this con- nection that the obligations of the parent to the child in respect of moral oversight are absolute and cannot by these or any other means be in the least reduced in degree nor can they, in any measure, be delegated or transferred. The duties of the teacher are sui generis and can only be added to, but can never take the place of, those of the parent to the child. To both parent and teacher the child owes the absolute duty of obe- dience, as he has also the absolute right to be always reasonably commanded by both. (4) The sacrifices made by the parent in performing his duty toward the child also constitute a means of discipline to the parent himself. So that here, too, in performing his duties he is (however unconsciously) realizing his own highest rights as well. OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 65 On the other hand the child, stimulated to increased exertion by his sense of obligation to his parents, is by that fact securing in increased degree his own essential rights in point of intellectual and moral development. — Thus, in this sphere also, and from whatever point of view the relation between parents and children is approached, it is again manifest that every right is also a duty and that every duty is also a right. C. Rational Dissolution of the Family. As the essential moral purpose of the family is that of means to the maturing of the moral units or indi- vidual Wills composing it, it is but inevitable that as this end is accomplished the given family group must dissolve into a number of independent individuals. Thus the children, as they attain moral maturity (i. e. became actual persons^, form each a new alliance — become each a party to the founding of a new family. (Rational exceptions must be from reasons of health, or of renunciation for the purpose of more perfectly fulfilling a given mission rightly regarded in such exceptional cases as a higher duty.) The final stage in the normal dissolution of the family group appears in the death of one or other of the parents after having aided the children to the attainment of rational independence. III. The State, (i) By its own expansion the family becomes many families. These groups again, and the individuals composing them, are necessarily 5 66 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. related one to another. And further, to be rational in the sense of real these relations must become organic. The organic form assumed by these wider human relations is, on one side, the State. This organic form is a measure of the real extent and character of the political life of a people. What is called a '' constitution," if it has vital significance in the state, is but an outer form showing how the people as a political body are constituted. As the state is but the expansion of the family on the side of securing to each individual his rights as toward all other individuals it follows that, as in case of the family, so also here, those in authority are morally bound to secure the best possible conditions for the intellectual and moral development of each and all the members comprising the group. These conditions are : {a) Settled order involving security against invasion of individual rights whether ^ of person or of property; {S) Security against inva- sion of social and political rights as against foreign power; and (c) An educational system providing for an intelligent, moral and therefore efficient citizenship. (2) In all this the ideal is, not repression but rational development of the individual — the fostering and cultivation of his powers toward rational self- government. Such being the duty of the State, the State in that OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 6/ very fact has also the right to demand of every citizen that he shall perform whatever functions may be de- manded of him for the realization of these rational ends proposed by the State for the benefit of the individual citizen. Conversely the citizen has the right to demand of the State security of person and property together with means for his education as a citizen; and such right involves the duty on his part to loyal obedience to such commands as the State may give, within such limits, as toward himself. (3) In the '' absolute " monarchy all this is implicit in greater or less degree. The '' paternal '' aspect implies the " filial." In the nature of the case there are limitations to arbitrary use of power. The more truly paternal the authority the more rapid the advance of the people toward comprehension and appreciation of their rights — that is, the more rapid must be their advance toward maturity of active rational Will which in turn must find articulate expression in the form of a demand for a constitution and written laws — that is, the more efficient and reasonable an "■ absolute " monarchy proves itself to be, only so much the sooner must it dissolve as such and become merged into a "limited " or constitutional monarchy. (4) Similarly, the more enlightened and efficient the monarchy under its constitutional form, the more rapid the advance of the people in intelligence and 68 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. morality — in the elements of real Freedom — and hence the sooner must it become merged into a purely Rep- resentative form of goverximent — the entire govern- ment being conducted by the chosen agents of the people themselves. (5) The Ideal of the State is one and continuous. What particular phase of its realization is most efficient or ^' practical " with any people at any given time must depend upon the stage of intellectual and moral advancement already attained by the people themselves. A purely representative system must be as impracti- cable in a barbarous State as an absolute monarchy would be with a highly enlightened people. IV. The School. Already included in the Family, in the State and in the Church the School is still a dis- tinct institution, with unique, well-defined and increas- ingly complex functions. The individual Will in its character of Instinct is due to heredity in the more direct sense of the term. Already at birth, indeed, such Will is a positive, com- plex unit of energy specially predisposed to action of one or another particular kind. Again in its char- acter as Habit the Will may still be regarded as in large measure the outcome of heredity, though here the inheritance is not only spiritual instead of physical, but it is also of an exceedingly subtle character. From the moment in which his distinctly individual existence begins, indeed, the human being is not only OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 69 surrounded by a humanized nature (the temperature and humidity of the air in the room, as well as the degree of light, are carefully regulated to his needs, to say nothing of specially prepared food and clothing) but he is also ceaselessly bathed in what may be called the spiritual fluid of Custom. This again, in its existing peculiar character, has been evolved through the entire process of human history and to this the individual progressively assimi- lates himself in those specific qualities of his life which in their outer forms are revealed as his Habits. But also in every moment of his life the individual is bathed in that subtle, but none the less real ^'atmosphere" of universal, abiding relations consti- tuting the unity of the world, physical and spiritual; which relations are to be more or less securely <^/prehended indeed by the whole being of man ; while on the other hand they are to be really comi^x^- hended by man only through the fullest discipline as well as the utmost and most consistent and persistent exercise of that peculiar mode of mind known as reflective Intelligence, as Thought properly speaking. Only through the fullest cultivation, onlv through the most persistent exercise of the intellect in its highest modes can human consciousness attain its most ade- quate degree of maturity. And that amounts to say- ing that in no other way than through the fullest intellectual development can Conscience as the Ethical 70 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS, aspect of Consciousness become truly enlightened and thus prove a safe guide through the r^;;^plexities of life which to the unenlightened conscience so often prove to be the fatal /^/ of each then inevitably it is equally the absolute Duty of each to contribute of his whole being — property, sympathy, thought and deed — to the richest possible realization of this Right for each and every other member of the community (which in the fuller sense is the State, and in the fullest sense is the whole human race). Here as elsewhere if I refuse to be, in absolute good-faith — in very deed and truth — my brother's keeper, then by the very fact of such refusal I become for myself an immeasurable lose?-. Because the indi- vidual mind is universal in its nature or type it is not merely included in all, ifc-also and none the less truly includes all within itself. The State is above the In- OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 73 dividual only so far as the individual is capricious. In so far as the Individual is rational he is the State itself; for there is no rational (/. e. truly Ethical) de- mand which the State can make upon him that is not already present within him as an absolutely vital, un- alterable law of his own being. Nay he is more than the State, for there are demands of his nature which the State as such cannot possibly satisfy. Hence are there other institutions organic to man's inner or spiritual nature and indispensable to the full expres- sion or embodiment of that nature. And the School is one of these institutions. The State can decree the School, and must do so. It can provide the outer form and instrumentalities of the School, and must, on penalty of self-dissolution; but the School in its essential character as the medium through which individual minds are to be stimulated and guided into such self-activity as results in the mastery and very assimilation of the fundamental principles or phases of Reason which constitute the essence of the World, whether of Nature or of Man — in this sense the School is and can only be the crea- tion of the mature individual mind — ripe in its intel- ligence, refined in its sensibilities, gentle in its as- sured power as Will, and withal transfused with that genuine ^^ enthusiasm of humanity" which must ever characterize the true teacher. All this every pupil has a right to expect of his teacher 74 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. just as, on the other hand, every one who assumes the responsibilities of teacher is in duty bound to fulfil such expectation. On the other hand in so far as the teacher performs his duty toward the pupil, patiently pointing out to him the essential facts and relations involved in the given stage of the pupil's own development, in so far the teacher has a right to expect of his pupil the full- est measure of attention and patient effort of which he is capable. And further, just as the teacher is in duty bound (negatively) to avoid all that could dis- courage or embitter the pupil on the one hand, and on the other hand (positively) to make use in kind- liest way of all proper means to stimulate healthful effort toward self-realization on the pupil's part, so again the pupil is in duty bound to give patient, doc- ile obedience to the directions of the teacher and to bend all his energies to the performance of tasks as- signed. And evidently the enthusiasm of the teacher, his eager, self-forgetful performance of his own duty tow- ard the pupil must ever prove the surest way of secur- ing his own rights in the way of cheerful obedience and eager performance of work on the part of his pupils; just as the earnest performance of duty on the part of the pupil must in general put beyond ques- tion the fullest recognition of his rights on the part of the teacher. It is in the rhythm of work performed OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 75 in such spirit in the school-room that all bitterness is canceled, all discords annulled, and the beauty of a world of Reason prophesied, and even in some degree made real here and now. It is in such teaching that the finest values in the way of the practical results of Ethical teaching consists. Though also it cannot be too much insisted upon that the direct ethical function of the School consists in the development of consciousness on the part of pupils of the great central principles involved in human existence, conformity to which means life and disregard of which inevitably entails death. In a word the ethical function of the School is to raise the con- science of the individual pupil from the merely in- stinctive degree to that of an enlightened Conscience. Or again its ethical function is to aid in rendering the progressively unfolding individual Will truly free through the complete interfusion of that Will with trained intelligence. But to this end the religious factor is equally neces- sary. Hence the objective aspect of ethics must in- volve a further institution — the Church. V. The Church. The State is the expansion of the family in one of its essential aspects. The Church is the expansion of the family in another and comple- mentary aspect. The Church cannot be rightly re- garded as merely one aspect of the State. Just as out of the rudimentary stage of consciousness (in the pro- "J^ A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. gressive development of the individual) the two cog- nate and always inseparable, while yet increasingly distinct, modes of mind — Intelligence and Practical Sentiment— are developed; so from the Family as the rudimentary form of the social organism there are found to develop the two cognate and always inter- fused while yet increasingly distinct modes, namely the State and the Church. The State is the organic form which the political life of man assumes while the Church is the organic form into which the religious life of man unfolds. In either case the functions involved must fail of realization save through the appropriate organic struc- tural form; and those functions constitute life itself. Without the State man must have remained a savage ; or rather, could never have become man at all. With- out the Church man could never have arisen above the grossest superstition ; and even this implies at least a rudimentary Church. Man can be fully realized as man — can live the life of man in the fullest sense — only by the unfolding of that life in all the organic forms which its nature demands. Religion has no doubt been rightly defined as the ''relation of Man to God." But man is related to God through all forms of Reality and especially through that most complex form of reality, man him- OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 'J'J self. Individual man rises to God through associa- tion with his fellow-man. In property (looking to the least adequate phases of human creation) man finds himself even there necessarily related to his fellow-man. In Religion (looking to his own direct relation to the Supreme Creator) man still finds himself related to his fellow- man. Religion is the practical relation of man to God — \\\^ process by which man fulfills the divine nature in himself and so attains to harmony with the Divine. Theology is the scientific (or philosophic) tracing out and representation of that practical relation or process in its fundamental principles. The Church is the direct medium — the organic structural form — through which that process is to be made real. Thus the Church is itself essentially an educational institution having especially for its purpose to foster and develop the moral qualities of man into conscious conformity with the divine Ideal of all spiritual life — the fusion of the human life with the divine Life. To this end the Church has the right (and the duty) to demand of each member that he put forth with utmost earnestness and sincerity every possible effort to unfold his intellectual powers so as to comprehend, and his moral powers so as to perform, in the wisest and most efficient manner his unalterable obligations 78 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. to the Divinity — such obligations necessarily includ- ing all his obligations to his fellow man — financial, social, political, religious. For thus only can individual man hope to fulfil his own obligations to himself. It is absolutely true that ''he who offends in one offends in all." Thus it is the duty of the individual to attend with utmost care to the teachings of the Church; and this necessarily implies the absolute right of the individual to be taught by the Church the true lesson of his rela- tion to the Divinity, including all that is of permanent validity in the relation of man to man. Again the Church as the organic form into which the religious spirit of man unfolds, proves to be itself a growth — a form perpetually undergoing modifica- tion. Its form therefore will depend — has ever de- pended — essentially upon the degree and character of the actual religious life of the people. In primitive ages uniformity was impossible because there was no common standard — not even a common object of worship. As enlightenment increases uni- formity seems an impossibility from the multiform divergence of views arising in consequence of the in- creasingly complex intellectual activity of man. But the same principle runs through all — to aid man in his efforts to live a more consistently rational, more adequately moral, more richly religious life. Whence religious teaching must ever involve a dis- tinctly ethical factor. And further, the science of the OBJECTIVE ASPECT OF ETHICS. 79 object and process of religion must include the pre- sentation of fundamental Ethical principles from the religious (and theological) point of view. Whence Ethics must here appear rather as a department of Theology; just as throughout the Science of Ethics in the ordinary sense there is always and inevitably to be discovered a distinct theological tinge. Thus Ethics, or the Science of the fundamental principles underlying the relations of man to man, merges into Theology, or the science of the funda- mental principles underlying the relations of man to God. SELECTED LIST OF HAND AND REFERENCE BOOKS. The beginner in any department of study can only be bewildered by an extended " bibliography," while a few titles will really serve to introduce him to the subject he proposes to investigate. The following are likely to be most helpful to one entering upon the study of Ethics. I. For the history of the subject, Sidgwick^s Ouf- lines of the Histo7j of Ethics may safely be balanced by the admirable summaries of ethical theories in Schweg- ler's handbook of the History of Philosophy, (This book ought to be carefully read as a whole, so as to seize the standpoints of the various schools in their proper perspective.) IL Among elementary presentations of the science of Ethics as such, Muirhead's Elements of Ethic will be found specially fresh and suggestive. III. Of the more extended ethical treatises, ancient and modern, the following may be recommended as best presenting the various points of view : (i) Aris- totle's Nicomachean Ethics (Trans. F. H. Peters)- — presupposed in all ethical theory since his time ; (2) Epictetus, The Discourses (Trans. George Long) — highest expression of the Ethics of Stoicism ; (3) Kant's HAND AND REFERE^XE BOOKS 8 1 Theory of Ethics (Trans. Thomas Kingsmill x\bbott); (4) Hegel's Philosophic des Rechts. The latter is of the utmost importance for the objective aspect of Ethics. To this the present writer is indebted more than to any other single work.* — Kant and Hegel are the chief rep- resentatives of the most thorough-going German Idealism; (5) Spencer's The Data of Ethics \ (6) Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics. — Spencer and Stephen have given the fullest formulation to evolutional Ethics ; (7) Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics — represents Utilitarianism in its most refined form ; (8) Lotze's Microcosmus, especially Books V-VHI, inclusive. — Lotze's position is independent though idealistic; at the same time it is strongly pervaded by the spirit of modern Science ; (9) Emerson's essays on The Con- duct of Life — No more a formal treatise on Ethics than the Microcosmus of Lotze ; and yet, a richly suggest- ive and ennobling view of the essentials of ethical relation ; (10) Green's Prolego^nena to Ethics^ together with his Introductions to Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, especially that to Vol. IL — Green's works are rigidly philosophical and are not surpassed by any ethical treatise in the English language in point of penetration and stimulating quality; (11) For suggestive intimations of the principles underlying *Readers not familiar with the German will find this work summarized in "Hegel's Philosophy of the State and of History " by George S. Morris. Published by S. C. Griggs & Co. 6 82 A SYLLABUS OF ETHICS. n J ^ / ^t the objective aspect of Ethics it need hardly be said ^ ^ that Plato's Republic is invaluable, while as a modern survey of the whole general sphere of social life Mac- kenzie's Introduction to Social Philosophy will be found specially suggestive; and finally (12) Bradley's Ethi- cal Studies can scarcely fail to prove specially suited to clear the mind of ethical confusions and thus pre- pare the way for sound and consistent views in this sphere. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatnnent Date: Dec. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomso.n Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724) 779-21 1 1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 544 275 6