MlDDLETOWN, CONN, August 3, 1914.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY.
What is the field of ethics? Why should we study ethics?
PART I. THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY
CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF PERSONAL MORALITY… How early in the evolutionary process did personal morality of some sort emerge? What were the main causes that produced personal morality? How far has the moralizing process been blind and how far conscious?
CHAPTER II. THE ORIGIN OF SOCIAL MORALITY… How early was social morality developed? By what means was social morality produced? How has morality been fostered by the tribe?
CHAPTER III. OUTWARD DEVELOPMENT-MORALS… What is the difference between morals and non-moral customs? What, in general, has been the direction of moral progress? What definition of morality emerges from this? Is moral progress certain?
CHAPTER IV. INWARD DEVELOPMENT-CONSCIENCE… What are the stages in the history of moral guidance? Out of what has conscience developed? What is conscience now? What is the value of conscience?
CHAPTER V. THE INDIVIDUALIZING OF CONSCIENCE… Why did not the individualizing of conscience occur earlier? What forces made against custom-morality? Conservatism vs. radicalism. What are the dangers of conventional morality?
CHAPTER VI. CAN WE BASE MORALITY UPON CONSCIENCE… What is the meaning of "moral intuitionism"? Do the deliverances of different people's consciences agree? If conscience everywhere agreed in its dictates, could we base morality upon it? What is the plausibility of moral intuitionism?