Book Description:
MORAL PHILOSOPHY THE CRITICAL VIEW OF LIFE By WARNER FITE O 8e di ee ov fi os The unexamined life is not fit for human living. Socrates, in The Apology. NEW YORK LINCOLN MAC VEAGH THE DIAL PRESS COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY THE DIAL PRESS, INC. PRINTED IN U. 8. A. THE VAIL BALLOU PRESS BINQHAMTON AND NEW YORK PREFACE The purpose of this essay is to present a moral philoso phy in the form of what may be called a philosophy of life. It is not my purpose to offer a constructive system, such as to display an increasing conclusiveness as it ap proaches completion. What I will present is a point of view which becomes necessarily less distinct, and raises ever deeper questions, as it broadens towards the horizon. And a point of view, because I believe that nothing in philosophy, however truly objective and it is my purpose to offer something objective, is either intelligent or intelli gible except as the expression of a point of view, in the last analysis inevitably personal. For this reason I have not hesitated to speak in the first person, to draw upon personal experience, or to give expression to personal opinion, taste, or feeling, whenever this would best convey my meaning. Somewhat for the same reason the book is not addressed exclusively, or perhaps primarily, to students of philosophy. It has been my hope to speak intelligibly to every cultivated man to every person curious about the meaning of human life as presented, not in philosophy only, but in literature, art, and science. To those acquainted with my Individualism, printed in 1911, I would suggest that the point of view of the present volume is a further development and therefore, I hope, a juster and more mature expression of the point of view of the former volume. There I was interested in V1 PREFACE tracing the consequences of self consciousness in social and political relations here in the working of self consciousness throughout human life. The present volume is an attempt to follow the motif of self consciousness not to the end, for there is no end but until I can follow it no further. I take the opportunity of expressing my obligations to the friends who have given me the benefit of their judg ment to Mr. Herbert Agar and Mrs. Agar, whose criticism convinced me of the necessity of rewriting some more im portant passages to Professor Charles W. Hendel, Jr. of Princeton University, Dr. Laurence Buermeyer of The Barnes Foundation, and Professor S. McClelan Butt of the University of North Carolina, former pupils and some time colleagues, who have helped me by their counsel in matters innumerable. It will be understood that the author alone is responsible for the views expressed in the essay. W. F. Princeton University June, 1925 CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER PAGE S MORALITY WHAT Is IT 1 1. The meaning of morality. 2. Obligation vs. choice. II. THE MORAL PHILOSOPHER 3. The orthodox moralist. 4. The moralist as a naturalist. 5. Moral insight. III. THE MANY MORAL WORLDS 24 6. Orthodox morality and the moral standard. 7. The moralities of race, class, and occupa tion. 8. Differing moral tastes. 9. The good men of the moral philosophies. IV. THE LOGIC OF THE STANDARD 40 10. The odiousness of comparisons. 11. The moral standard and the business point of view. 12. Social utility in law and orthodox moral ity. 13. Positive morality. V. THE MOTIVE or AUTHORITY 57 14. The categorical imperative. 15. The basis of authority. 16. The authoritarian tradition. 17. Austere morality. 18. Au thority vs. morality. 19. The sentiment of reverence. VI. THE ORDERED SOCIETY 76 20. The order of reverence. 21. The utility of the reverential order. 22. The ordered society and the biological species. 23. Or dered relations vs. social relations. 24. The decay of reverence and the dawn of morality. VII. THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT 95 25. Morality among the values. 26. Utility and the system of means and ends, vii Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTBB VIII. THE PRAGMATIC ATTITUDE 103 27. The forward looking attitude. 28...
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