Introduction to Ethical Studies - Philosophy Home Page

[Pages:381]Introduction to Ethical Studies

An Open Source Reader

Lee Archie John G. Archie

Introduction to Ethical Studies: An Open Source Reader by Lee Archie

by John G. Archie

Version 0.11 Edition Published August, 2003 Copyright ? 2003 by 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

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. 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 W?hler. 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. 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 l'Equilibre des Liqueurs et de la Pesanteur de la Masse de l'Air. (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, K?nisberg, East Prussia (LC-DIG-ppmsca-00741); University and Royal Gardens, K?nigsberg, East Prussia (LC-DIG-ppmsca-00738); Rauschen, K?nigsberg, 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 ?ronautics & 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 Propyl?a of the Acropolis Restored, 255; Erechthe?um Restored, from Southwest, 356; Side View of These?um, 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; S?ren Kierkegaard; Socrates; David Hume; Relief of Plato. Centre for Social Philosophy (). Universit? 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

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Table of Contents

"Preface" ..................................................................................................i

Why Open Source? ............................................................................i A Note about Selections .................................................................. ii

Part I. The Nature of Ethical Inquiry.....................................................i

1. "Conscience Determines What's Right" by Hubbard Winslow....1 Ideas of Interest from Moral Philosophy .................................2 The Reading Selection from Moral Philosophy.......................2 Conscience.......................................................................3 Conscience Has Three Functions ....................................4 First Function of Conscience...........................................4 Second Function of Conscience ......................................5 Third Function of Conscience .........................................5 Related Ideas ............................................................................7 Topics Worth Investigating.......................................................8

2. "Conscience Is Learned" by Alexander Bain ...............................9 Ideas of Interest from Moral Science .....................................10 The Reading Selection from Moral Science ..........................10 [Nature of Conscience]..................................................10 [Conscience Formed by Association]............................11 Related Ideas ..........................................................................15 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................16

3. "It Doesn't Pay to Be Religious" by G. W. Foote.......................17 Ideas of Interest from Infidel Death-Beds ..............................18 The Reading Selection from Infidel Death-Beds ...................19 [Religious Use of Dying Repentance]...........................19 [Psychological Aspect of Dying] ..................................19 Related Ideas ..........................................................................23 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................24

4. "Ethics Are Culturally Relative" by Charles A. Ellwood...........25 Ideas of Interest from "The Study of Society".......................26 The Reading Selection from "The Study of Society" ............27 The Study of Society .....................................................27 The Bearing of the Theory of Evolution .......................28 Related Ideas ..........................................................................35 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................36

5. "Ethics Are Relative" by Edward Westermarck .........................37 Ideas of Interest from Ethical Relativity ................................38

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The Reading Selection from Ethical Relativity......................39 [Ethics Is Not Normative] .............................................39 [Moral Principles Are Not Self-Evident] ......................40 [Whether God Is the Source of Right]...........................43 [Moral Subjectivism Is Not Arbitrary] ..........................43 [Moral Judgments Are Not Objective] ..........................45

Related Ideas ..........................................................................46 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................47 6. "The Objectivity of Moral Judgements" by G. E. Moore...........48 Ideas of Interest from Ethics ..................................................49 The Reading Selection from Ethics .......................................50

[Emotivism: Is Ethics Based on Feelings?]...................50 [Is Ethics Based on What Society Thinks?] ..................54 [Is Ethics Sociologically Based?]..................................56 [Relativism: Is Ethics Based on What People Think?] .57 Related Ideas ..........................................................................58 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................58

Part II. Free Will and Determinism.....................................................60

7. Some Varieites of Determinism ..................................................62 Philosophical Ethics ...............................................................62 Varieties of Determinism .......................................................63

8. "Positive Philosophy" by August Comte ....................................67 Ideas of Interest from Cours de Philosophie Positive ............68 The Reading Selection from Cours de Philosophie Positive .68 [Fundamental Law of Development].............................69 [The Theological State] .................................................69 [The Metaphysical State]...............................................70 [The Positive State] .......................................................70 Related Ideas ..........................................................................71 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................71

9. "Science of Natural Processes" by Frederick Engels .................73 Ideas of Interest from Ludwig Feuerbach ..............................75 The Reading Selection from Ludwig Feuerbach ...................75 [Unification of Science of Natural Processes]...............75 [Transformation of Energy and Motion] .......................76 [Life Explained by Scientific Law] ...............................77 [Origins of the Varieties of Organisms].........................77 [Origin of Life]..............................................................78 [Scientific Materialism].................................................79

Introduction to Ethical Studies: An Open-Source Reader

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Related Ideas ..........................................................................79 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................81 10. "A Science of Human Nature" by John Stuart Mill.................83 Ideas of Interest from A System of Logic ...............................84 The Reading Selection from A System of Logic.....................85

[Human Nature as a Subject of Science].......................85 [The Theory of the Tides]..............................................86 [Aspects of a Science of Human Nature] ......................87 [The Science of Human Nature]....................................89 Related Ideas ..........................................................................89 Topics Worth Investigating.....................................................90 11. "Statistics as Applied to Human Action" by John Venn...........91 Ideas of Interest from The Logic of Chance...........................92 The Reading Selection from The Logic of Chance ................93 [The Application of Logic to Human Conduct] ............93 [Critique of Mill's Science of Human Nature]..............95 [Exact Prediction Is Compatible with Free Will] ..........96 [An Independent Observer Can Be Practically

Impossible] ...........................................................97 [General Laws Are Not Deterministic] .........................98 [The Fatalistic Fallacy]................................................100 Related Ideas ........................................................................103 Topics Worth Investigating...................................................104 12. "Human Beings are Determined" by Baruch Spinoza...........105 Ideas of Interest from The Ethics .........................................107 The Reading Selection from The Ethics ..............................107 [The Unknown Causes of Human Action] ..................107 [Meaninglessness of the Mind's Control of Body] .....108 [Similar States of Mind and Body]..............................108 [Infinite Complexity of Nature]...................................109 [The Illusory Nature of Free Decisions]......................109 [Decision Defined] ......................................................110 [Nature of Human Action] ..........................................110 [The Idea of Free Will]................................................111 Related Ideas ........................................................................111 Topics Worth Investigating...................................................112 13. "The Will to Believe" by William James................................115 Ideas of Interest from The Will to Believe............................116 The Reading Selection from The Will to Believe .................117

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Introduction to Ethical Studies: An Open-Source Reader

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