http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1913093

Philosophy of conduct a treatise of the facts, principles, and ideals of ethics

"The number of voluminous works dealing with man's moral life and moral development which have recently appeared has been by no means inconsiderable. Among these some have been especially noteworthy, both for the array of phenomena which they have marshalled, and also for the scientific spirit and method which have characterized their treatment of these phenomena. It is difficult to say how much this fact discloses as to the revival of a more profound and vital interest in the study of morality--properly so-called. Doubtless the history of the evolution of the race on the side of manners and morals arouses in many minds only the same kind of curiosity as that to which the sciences of biology and anthropology are so vigorously ministering, all over the scientific world, at the present time. But such interest is by no means necessarily the equivalent of that which is demanded by the kind of inquiry upon which I have entered in this volume. For this inquiry proposes at least to raise, even if it cannot completely answer, the more ultimate problems of conduct as our experience forces them upon the reflective thinking of mankind. I have, therefore, called this treatise of human moral life and moral development a "Philosophy of Conduct." In Part First, the nature of the Moral Self, or of man as equipped for the life of conduct, has been described as this nature appears in the light of psychological science, both individual and ethnic. In Part Second, which treats of the Virtuous Life, it has been my aim to show how, in spite of the bewildering variety of opinions and practices which has always existed, there is still, and, so far as can be discovered, always has been, a very substantial agreement touching the characteristic traits and habitual practices of the "good man." And, finally, in Part Third I have discussed the Nature of the Right. It is, of course, this Part in which the method of philosophy is most prominently and unmistakably employed"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

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