| Summary: | "The present volume is the outcome of several years of continuous reflection and teaching in this department of philosophy. As the title indicates, it does not profess to develop a system of Ethics, but rather to discuss the principles which must underlie such a system; and while the treatment does not claim to be, in any strict sense, original, an effort has been made to re-think the entire subject, and to make the discussion throughout as fundamental as possible. My chief hope is that I may have been able to throw some light upon the real course of ethical thought in ancient and in modern times. I have been anxious, in particular, to recover, and, in some measure, to re-state the contribution of the Greeks, and especially of Aristotle, to moral philosophy. For, in many respects, the ancient statement of the questions seems to me more instructive than the modern. As regards the method of discussion adopted, I have stated in the Introduction my reasons for the position that, to be fundamental, ethical thought must be philosophical rather than merely scientific. The intimate relation of Ethics to Metaphysics necessitated the Third Part, "Metaphysical Implications of Morality." Here particularly, in the investigation of the Metaphysic of Ethics, there seemed a call for further philosophic effort"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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