Introduction to Ethical Studies

An Open Source Reader

Lee Archie

John G. Archie

GDFL

The current version, Version 0.11, of this open source textbook in philosophy is a work-in-progress and is being released in draft form. The collaborators would be grateful for corrections or other suggestions to this preliminary draft. Please address comments to

philbook@philosophy.lander.edu

.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License."

Image Credits

American Sociological Association. Charles A. Ellwood.

Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library. University of Pennsylvania. Adaptations: Charles Darwin with Friedrich Wöhler.

Antropologica, Helsinki, Finland. Edward Westermarck from The Edward Westermarck Memorial Lectures.

Antiquities Project. Aristotle; Epictetus; David Hume; Immanuel Kant; Map of the Roman Empire; John Stuart Mill; Nero Persecuting the Christians; Plato; Socrates.

www.thais.it. Balestrini, Bruno. The Erechtheion and Parthenon, (420-440 B.C.), Acropolis; Acropolis (about 500 B.C.) view from northwest. By permission.

The Edward Westermarck Memorial Lectures 1983-1997. Edward Westermarck.

GNU Free Documentation License. GNU Philosophical Gnu.

Goodrich, S. G. A History of All Nations, (New York: J. C. Derby & N. C. Miller, 1854), 710. A Greek Galley.

IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering: History of Hydraulics Collection. University of Iowa. Pascal's Traitez de ľEquilibre des Liqueurs et de la Pesanteur de la Masse de ľAir. (detail).

H. D. Francis, In Memorium. Cambridge: private stamp, 1928. John Venn.

George M. Hopkins. Experimental Science. Vol. 1, Munn & Co., 1903. Detail of Mount of Newton's Rings for the Microscope.

India Post. Bertrand Russell: stamp commemorating 100 years birth-anniversary. Oct. 16, 1972.

Library of Congress. P&P Online Catalog. Cathedral, Marseilles, France (LC-DIG-ppmsc-05106); Ullswater and Eamont from Pooley Bridge, River District, England; Dartford, Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome &'s Factory, London and suburbs, England (LC-DIG-ppmsc-08610); Interior of Bank, Creedmoor, North Carolina (LC-USF34-029264); Fort Defiance, Arizona (PAN US GEOG-Arizona no.2); Union Terrace, Aberdeen, Scotland (LC_DIG-ppmsc-07514); Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scotland (LC-DIG-ppmsc-07515); Religious sign on highway between Columbus and Augusta, Georgia (LC-USF34- 056459-D); The Quay, Helsinki, Finland (LC-DIG-ppmsc-03807); Trinity College, Cambridge (LC-DIG-ppmsc-08091); Crowds at Squires (PAN SUBJECT Sports no. 16); Socrates standing before seated group, engravings by L. P. Boitard (LC-USZ61-1502 and LC-USZ61-1502); Views from Morocco (LC-G396-T-0011, LCG396-T-0011); Trinity College, Cambridge (LC-DIG-ppmsc-08091); The Madeline and Rue Royale, Paris, France (LC-DIG-ppmsc-05184); Albert Camus (LC-USZ62-108028); Hollis Hall, Harvard College (HABS,MASS,9-CAMB,3D-); The Cemetary, Algiers, Algeria (LC-DIG-ppmsc-0552); Dr. Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) (LC-USZ62-102275); Eagle Feather and Baby; Zitkala (Gertrude Bonnin) Dakota Sioux (LC-USZ62-119349); Fasting (LC-USZ62-99611); Winter Camp, Sioux Tepee (LC-USZ62-76221); Crow Dog, Souix Indian (LC-USZ62-102187); Prayer to the Mystery and Invocation (LC-USZ62-69325 and LC-USZ62-51434); Fish and Vegetable Market, Könisberg, East Prussia (LC-DIG-ppmsca-00741); University and Royal Gardens, Königsberg, East Prussia (LC-DIG-ppmsca-00738); Rauschen, Königsberg, East Prussia (LC-DIG-ppmsca-00743); The Tivoli Park, Copenhagen, Denmark (LC-DIG-pmsc-05757); Royal Theater, Copenhagen, Denmark (LC-DIG-pmsc-05751); Parthenon-—Near View (LC-USZ62-44291); The Acropolis, (Mt. Lycabettus in background) (LC-USZ62-44291); The Prison of Socrates and Statue of Pan, Theatre Bacchus (LC-USZ62-115215 and LC-USZ62-10897); Parthenon, view from southeast (LC-USZ62-44292); El Socrates, A. Bijur, 1859 and The Prison of Socrates, Athens, Greece (LC-USZ62-39939 and LC-USZ62-115215); The Parthenon, west and east sides (LC-USZ62-94169); (Edinburgh Canongate Tolbooth 1591 and Melrose Abbey (LC-USZ62-109096, LC-USZ62-109099); Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (LC-DIG-ppmsc-07584); Athens, Greece, 400 BC (LC-H814-2654-002x); Parthenon (LC-USZ262-44291); General View from Mustapha, I, Algiers, Algeria (LC-DIG-ppmsc-00510); The Parthenon, far view, Athens, Greece (LC-USZ262-44291); Athens, Greece, 400 BC, Book illustration by Theodor Horydczak (LC-H814-2654-002x); The Parthenon, far view, Athens, Greece (LC-USZ262-44292); "Van der Werf" Park, Leyden, Holland (LC-DIG-ppmsc-05827)The Embankment, Rotterdam, Holland (LC-DIG-ppmsc-05842); A Tea Resale Establishment near Lincoln's Inn Fields (LC-USZ62-77448-E); The Royal Gallery, House of Lords, London, England (LC-USZ62-77448); High Street, Oxford, England (LC-DIG-ppmsc-08764); Houses of Parliment from the River(LC-DIG-ppmsc-08560); The University of Bonn, the Rhine (LC-DIG-ppmsc-00789); The Boat Landing, Lake Chautauqua, New York (Lot 12006); Switchtender on Pennsylvannia Railroad (Library of Congress, LC-USW33-025829-C); Three Peasants Walking to Market, Hungary (LC-USZ62-113783); Steelworker with Daughter, Ambridge, Pennsylvania (LC-USF34-062196-D); Harvard Gate, Harvard College (Lot 12003); (Harvard Medical College, Boston, Mass. (LC-D4-34452); Scene from "Othello" with Paul Robeson and Margaret Webster (LC-USW33- 054945-C) College of the City of New York (LC-D4-500724).

Library of Congress Rare Book & Special Collections Division. Persecution of Catholics by Hugenots; Frightful Outrates perpetrated by the Hugenots in France; Massacre Fait a Sens en Bourgogne par la Populace.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Death of Socrates (1787), Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825) Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Collection; Wolf Fund, 1931 (31.45).

Fridtjof Nansen, Farthest North, Harper & Row, 1897. Engraving of Nansen, frontspiece; (detail) photograph of Fram, Nansen's ship.

National Æronautics & Space Administration. NSSDC Photo Gallery. View of North America from Apollo 16 (ID AS16-118-18873); Spectrum JPL; Asteriod Ida (ID P-42964).

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Photo Library. Tabulae Rudolphinae:quibus astronomicae… by Johannes Kepler, 1571-1630 (NOAA libr0312); Maria Mitchell (ID theb3534); Saxton Self-Registering Tide Gague (ID theb116)>

National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Health Statistics. U. S. Suicide Rates by Age, Gender, and Racial Group, 03.28.2003

Denison Olmsted. An Introduction to Natural Philosophy, Charles Collins, 1844, 341. Mechanical Equivalent of Heat.

George A. Peltz. Grandpa's Stories. Hubbard, 1885, 285. Jonah Preaching to Nineveh.

Smith,William. A History of Greece. Boston: Hickling, Swan, and Brown, 1855. The Bema of the Pnyx at Athens, xxv; Homer Enshrined, 38; Coin of Athens, 107; The Propylæa of the Acropolis Restored, 255; Erechthēum Restored, from Southwest, 356; Side View of Thesēum, 593.

Smithsonian Institution. Bee on Hive (detail)

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Abraham and Isaac. Ferdinand Bol, etching, 17th Century.

Thoemmes Press: History of Ideas. Alexander Bain; August Comte; John Stuart Mill; Baruch Spinoza; William James; Blaise Pascal; Søren Kierkegaard; Socrates; David Hume; Relief of Plato.

Centre for Social Philosophy. Universitá di Pavia Galleries. George Edward Moore, Jean-Paul Sartre.

MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. University of St. Andrews. Fredrich Engels; Plato.

Vatican Museums. The School of Athens, Raphael.

Portraits of Well-known Economists.The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University. Jeremy Bentham; August Comte.

Hubbard Winslow. Moral Philosophy; Analytical, Synthetical, and Practical. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1856. Title page.

Some Copyright Considerations

All essays and images in this work, with the exceptions mentioned below, are believed to be in the public domain or are published here under the fair use provision of the US copyright law. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with anyone desiring to reuse the item under to GDFL. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. An independent legal assessment has been made after a search for copyright status of text and images. No representation as to copyright status outside the United States is made. If an error occurs in spite of the good faith efforts, the offending item will be removed upon notice to

philbook@philosophy.lander.edu

.

The U.S. Copyright Office Circular 22 points out, "Even if you conclude that a work is in the public domain in the United States, this does not necessarily mean that you are free to use it in other countries. Every nation has its own laws governing the length and scope of copyright protection, and these are applicable to uses of the work within that nation's borders. Thus, the expiration or loss of copyright protection in the United States may still leave the work fully protected against unauthorized use in other countries."


Table of Contents
"Preface"
Why Open Source?
A Note about Selections
Part I. The Nature of Ethical Inquiry
1. "Conscience Determines What's Right" by Hubbard Winslow
Ideas of Interest from Moral Philosophy
The Reading Selection from Moral Philosophy
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
2. "Conscience Is Learned" by Alexander Bain
Ideas of Interest from Moral Science
The Reading Selection from Moral Science
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
3. "It Doesn't Pay to Be Religious" by G. W. Foote
Ideas of Interest from Infidel Death-Beds
The Reading Selection from Infidel Death-Beds
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
4. "Ethics Are Culturally Relative" by Charles A. Ellwood
Ideas of Interest from "The Study of Society"
The Reading Selection from "The Study of Society"
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
5. "Ethics Are Relative" by Edward Westermarck
Ideas of Interest from Ethical Relativity
The Reading Selection from Ethical Relativity
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
6. "The Objectivity of Moral Judgements" by G. E. Moore
Ideas of Interest from Ethics
The Reading Selection from Ethics
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
Part II. Free Will and Determinism
7. Some Varieites of Determinism
Philosophical Ethics
Varieties of Determinism
8. "Positive Philosophy" by August Comte
Ideas of Interest from Cours de Philosophie Positive
The Reading Selection from Cours de Philosophie Positive
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
9. "Science of Natural Processes" by Frederick Engels
Ideas of Interest from Ludwig Feuerbach
The Reading Selection from Ludwig Feuerbach
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
10. "A Science of Human Nature" by John Stuart Mill
Ideas of Interest from A System of Logic
The Reading Selection from A System of Logic
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
11. "Statistics as Applied to Human Action" by John Venn
Ideas of Interest from The Logic of Chance
The Reading Selection from The Logic of Chance
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
12. "Human Beings are Determined" by Baruch Spinoza
Ideas of Interest from The Ethics
The Reading Selection from The Ethics
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
13. "The Will to Believe" by William James
Ideas of Interest from The Will to Believe
The Reading Selection from The Will to Believe
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
Part III. Religious and Duty Ethics
14. "The Wager" by Blaise Pascal
Ideas of Interest from the Pensées
The Reading Selection from Pensées
Related Ideas
15. "The Soul of the Indian" by Ohiyesa
Ideas of Interest from The Soul of an Indian
The Reading Selection from The Soul of an Indian
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
16. "Act in Accordance with Universal Law" by Immanuel Kant
Important Ideas from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
Reading Selection from the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
Topics Worth Investigating
17. "Truth is Faith" by Søren Kierkegaard
Ideas of Interest from Fear and Trembling
The Reading Selection from Fear and Trembling
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
Part IV. Search for Happiness
18. "The Socratic Paradox" by Plato
Ideas of Interest from Protagoras
Reading from The Protagoras
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
19. "Pleasure is the Good" by Epicurus
Ideas of Interest from "The Life of Epicurus"
The Reading Selection from "The Life of Epicurus "
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
20. We Should Value What's In Our Control by Epictetus
Ideas of Interest from The Enchiridion
The Reading Selection from The Enchiridion
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
21. "Egoism Is Mistaken" by David Hume
Ideas of Interest from "Of Self-Love"
The Reading Selection from "Of Self-Love"
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
22. "What is the Life of Excellence?" by Aristotle
Ideas of Interest from the Nichomachean Ethics
The Reading Selection from the Nichomachean Ethics
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
Part V. Ethics and Society
23. "The Ring of Gyges" by Plato
Ideas of Interest from The Republic
The Reading Selection from The Republic
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
24. "Human Beings Are Selfish" by Bernard Mandeville
Ideas of Interest from The Fable of the Bees
The Reading Selection from The Fable of the Bees
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
25. "Happiness Is the Greatest Good" by Jeremy Bentham
Ideas from Principles of Morals and Legislation
The Reading Selection from Principles of Morals and Legislation
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
26. "Slave and Master Morality" by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ideas of Interest from Beyond Good and Evil
The Reading Selection from Beyond Good and Evil
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
27. "What Makes a Life Significant?" by William James
The Reading from "What Makes Life a Significant?"
Related Ideas
A. Useful Philosophy Research Links
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Philosophy Gateways
B. "GNW Free Documentation License"
GNU Free Documentation License
0. PREAMBLE
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
2. VERBATIM COPYING
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
4. MODIFICATIONS
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
8. TRANSLATION
9. TERMINATION
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
Index
Colophon