Read complete books and articles on: History of Ethics

Ethics - in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a particular society requires of its members.

Approaches to Ethical Theory

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions

Approaches to Ethical Theory

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking. Intuitionists (Ralph Cudworth, Samuel Clarke), moral-sense theorists (the 3d earl of Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson), and sentimentalists (J. J. Rousseau, Pierre-Simon Ballanche) postulated an innate moral sense, which serves as the ground of ethical decision. Empiricists (John Locke, Claude Helvétius, John Stuart Mill) deny any such innate principle and consider conscience a power of discrimination acquired by experience. In the one case conscience is the originator of moral behavior, and in the other it is the result of moralizing. Between these extremes there have been many compromises.

The Nature of the Good

Another major difference in the approach to ethical problems revolves around the question of absolute good as opposed to relative good. Throughout the history of philosophy thinkers have sought an absolute criterion of ethics. Frequently moral codes have been based on religious absolutes. Immanuel Kant, in his categorical imperative, attempted to establish an ethical criterion independent of theological considerations. Rationalists ( Plato, Baruch Spinoza, Josiah Royce) founded their ethics on a metaphysics.

All varying methods of building an ethical system pose the question of the degree to which morality is authoritative (i.e., imposed by a power outside the individual). If the criterion of morality is the welfare of the state (G. W. Hegel), the state is supreme arbiter. If the authority is a religion, then that religion is the ethical teacher. Hedonism, which equates the good with pleasure in its various forms, finds its ethical criterion either in the good of the individual or the good of the group. An egoistic hedonism ( Aristippus, Epicurus, Julien de La Mettrie, Thomas Hobbes) views the good of the individual as the ultimate consideration. A universalistic hedonism, such as utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham, James Mill), finds the ethical criterion in the greatest good for the greatest number.

Twentieth-Century Ethical Thought

Among ethical theories debated in the first half of the 20th cent. were instrumentalism (John Dewey), for which morality lies within the individual and is relative to the individual's experience; emotivism (Sir Alfred J. Ayer), wherein ethical considerations are merely expressions of the subjective desires of the individual; and intuitionism (G. E. Moore), which postulates an immediate awareness of the morally good. Agreeing with Moore that the morally good is directly apprehended through intuition, deontological intuitionists (H. A. Prichard, W. D. Ross) went on to distinguish between good and right and to argue that moral obligations are intrinsically compelling whether or not their fulfillment results in some greater good.

Important ethical theories since the mid-20th cent. have included the prescriptivism of R. M. Hare, who has compared moral precepts to commands, a crucial difference between them being that moral precepts can be universally applied. In his arguments for virtue ethics, Alasdair C. MacIntyre has cautioned against unbridled individualism and advocated correctives drawn from Aristotle's discussion of moral virtue as the mean between extremes. Thomas Nagel has held that, in moral decision making, reason supersedes desire, so that it becomes rational to choose altruism over a narrowly defined self-interest. See also bioethics.

Bibliography

See H. Sidgwick, Outlines of the History of Ethics (1902); A. C. MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics (1965); M. Warnock, Ethics Since 1900 (1979); W. D. Hudson, A Century of Moral Philosophy (1980); P. Singer, ed., Applied Ethics (1986).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: History of Ethics

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

A History of Western Ethics » Read Now
by Charlotte B. Becker, Lawrence C. Becker. 208 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

This newly revised and updated edition of A History of Western Ethics is a coherent and accessible overview of the most important figures and influential ideas of the history of ethics in the Western philosophical tradition.
2.

Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues » Read Now
by Steven M. Cahn, Peter Markie. 888 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

The most comprehensive collection of its kind, Ethics is organized into three sections, providing instructors with flexibility in designing and teaching a variety of courses in moral philosophy. Opening with Alasdair MacIntyre's discussion of the importance of the history of ethics, the first...
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The most comprehensive collection of its kind, Ethics is organized into three sections, providing instructors with flexibility in designing and teaching a variety of courses in moral philosophy. Opening with Alasdair MacIntyre's discussion of the importance of the history of ethics, the first section, Historical Sources, moves from classical thought (Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Epictetus) through medieval views (Augustine and Aquinas) to modern theories (Hobbes, Butler, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Mill). It culminates with the religiosity of Kierkegaard, the pessimism of Schopenhauer, the nihilism of Nietzsche, the pragmatism of James and Dewey, and the existentialism of Camus and Sartre. The readings are reprinted in their entirety wherever possible. The second section, Modern Ethical Theory, begins with James Rachels' overview of recent developments, and includes many of the most important essays of the twentieth century. The discussion of utilitarianism, Kantianism, egoism, and relativism continues in the work of major contemporary philosophers (Williams, Brandt, Feinberg, Foot, and Rachels). Landmark selections (Moore, Ross, Stevenson, Baier, Hare, Harman, and Gauthier) reflect concern with moral language and the justification of morality. The concepts of justice (Rawls), rights (Feinberg), and saintliness (Urmson and Wolff) are explored, as well as recent views on the importance of virtue ethics (MacIntyre and Rachels), and an ethic influenced by feminist concerns (Held). Peter Singer's discussion of the significance of applied ethics opens the third section, Contemporary Moral Problems. The readings present the current debates over abortion (Thomson, Tooley, and Sterba), euthanasia (Rachels and Foot), famine relief (Singer and Arthur), animal rights (Regan and Cohen), the death penalty (van den Haat and Nathanson), and affirmative action (Hill and Kekes).
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3.

A Comprehensive History of Western Ethics: What Do We Believe? » Read Now
by W. Allen Ashby, Warren Ashby. 569 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Professor Warren Ashby speaks both to university students in history and ethics and, more generally, to those individuals interested in but perplexed by their own moral values as they attempt to create satisfying lives in an increasingly complex world. Ashby includes the great thinkers and periods...
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Professor Warren Ashby speaks both to university students in history and ethics and, more generally, to those individuals interested in but perplexed by their own moral values as they attempt to create satisfying lives in an increasingly complex world. Ashby includes the great thinkers and periods that have shaped Western ethics: the Greeks, the Hebrew prophets, the Roman Stoics, St. Augustine, the medieval ethicists, the Renaissance and Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Romantics, and the radical revolutions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the period from 1850 to 1920, Ashby notes, the transformations wrought by the four great modern thinkers - Darwim, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud - both extended and significantly challenged the traditional core beliefs of the West and, as a result, bestowed upon us a profound moral crisis, one that we have not yet successfully met. Consequently, as we stand at the brink of the twenty-first century, with its further technological breakthroughs and social upheavals, how will we deal with the moral uncertainties that await us? In his final chapter Ashby contends that while remaining alive to our Western ethical heritage, we will have no choice but to confront its basic presuppositions as we move into a more pluralistic society, for he asserts that the ideology of the future cannot be exclusively Western; future history cannot be purely Western history. So, while this history of ethics cannot tell us how to live, it can offer to the reader what is prerequisite to a more satisfying life: an insightful and inclusive history of where our own ethical beliefs have come from and a sense of the challenges that await us all. A Comprehensive History of Western Ethics: What Do We Belive? embraces all who are concerned with expanding human rights, finding new ways to think about moral experience, and discovering an ethical perspective appropriate to their own
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4.

Real Ethics: Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality » Read Now
by John M. Rist. 295 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular--Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well...
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John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular--Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary "practical reasoners". His accessible study is enhanced by a strong sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to students and scholars of ethics.
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5.

A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century » Read Now
by Alasdair MacIntyre. 280 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Over the past 30 years this work has become a key philosophical contribution to studies on morality and ethics. A new preface for the 2nd edition considers the impact of the book.
6.

The Problem of Choice: An Introduction to Ethics (1941) » Read Now
by William Henry Roberts. 418 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
7.

Outlines of the History of Ethics for English Readers (1960) » Read Now
by Henry Sidgwick, Alban G. Widgery. 342 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF ETHICS FOR ENGLISH READERS...of my subject -- the history of Greek and Greco-Roman Ethics -- is most naturally...less importance in the history...
8.

Ethics, Origin and Development (1934) » Read Now
by Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Louis S. Friedland, Joseph R. Piroshnikoff. 354 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...reader with the history of this work. In his "Ethics" Kropotkin...a work as "Ethics" and its exposition of the history and development...of Spencers ethics. He divides the...
9.

History of Ethics within Organized Christianity (1910) » Read Now
by Thomas Cuming Hall. 605 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

...HISTORY OF ETHICS WITHIN ORGANIZED CHRISTIANITY HISTORY OF ETHICS WITHIN ORGANIZED CHRISTIANITY BY...loyalty to his purpose. The study of the history of ethics may lead, it...
10.

The Recovery of Virtue: The Relevance of Aquinas for Christian Ethics » Read Now
by Jean Porter. 208 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
11.

The Hastening That Waits: Karl Barth's Ethics » Read Now
by Nigel Biggar. 200 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

This book offers a fresh and up-to-date account of the ethical thought of Karl Barth, one of the twentieth century's greatest theologians. In it, the author seeks to recover Barth's ethics from some widespread misunderstandings, and also presents a picture of it as a whole. Drawing on recently...
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This book offers a fresh and up-to-date account of the ethical thought of Karl Barth, one of the twentieth century's greatest theologians. In it, the author seeks to recover Barth's ethics from some widespread misunderstandings, and also presents a picture of it as a whole. Drawing on recently published sources, Biggar construes the ethics of the Church Dogmatics as it might have been had Barth lived to complete it. However, The Hastening that Waits is more than apology and description. For it recommends to contemporary Christian ethics the theological rigor with which Barth expounds the good life in terms of the living presence of God-in-Christ to his creatures; his conception of right human action as that which is able to hasten in the service of humanity precisely by waiting prayerfully upon God; and his discriminate openness to moral wisdom outside the Christian church. Among particular topics treated are: the concepts of human freedom and of created moral order; moral norms and their relation to individual vocation; the relative ethical roles of the Bible, the Church, philosophy, and empirical science; moral character and its formation; and the problem of war.
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12.

Marx and the Ancients: Classical Ethics, Social Justice, and Nineteenth-Century Political Economy » Read Now
by George E. McCarthy. 342 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
13.

Individual and Conflict in Greek Ethics » Read Now
by Nicholas White. 369 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
14.

A Short History of Ethics: Greek and Modern (1911) » Read Now
by Reginald A. P. Rogers. 303 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...A SHORT HISTORY OF ETHICS MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON...OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO A SHORT HISTORY OF ETHICS GREEK AND MODERN BY REGINALD...and practical point of view...