Prolegomena to Ethics

Thomas Hill Green

Clarendon Press, 1899 - Ethics - 485 pages

Contents

• INTRODUCTION: 1
• The speculative part of Moral Philosophy being thus reduced: 7
• Why is this conclusion which seems to be implied even: 10
• 1 Does: 13
• CHAPTER I: 15
• and if experience means merely a process of change or a series: 16
• The real cannot be defined by antithesis to the unreal for that: 22
• But a particular reality standing in certain relations may have: 23
• something therefore the same as or analogous to our intel: 29
• Not that our intelligence is to be regarded as a result of nature: 35
• But b can we on this view admit with Kant that there: 38
• But mere sensation could not be even a beginning of conscious: 44
• Thus the unaccountable residuum on which the distinction: 51
• CHAPTER II: 66
• For this if true must mean not a number of sensations revived: 74
• And it is implicitly admitted that the perceiving consciousness: 77
• But how can the presence of this eternal principle be reconciled: 80
• As consciousness distinguishes itself from impressions and thus: 85
• The selfcommunication to us of the eternal consciousness: 86
• This does not imply that the motive is in part an animal want: 91
• Selfreflection then shows that the motive is always an idea: 95
• Hence also the self in this aspect has a history in the same: 101
• To call it strongest is misleading because this would: 105
• 97: 112
• Is the unity implied in our speaking of certain phenomena: 116
• and as the knowledge so gained is the presupposition of: 123
• And 3 the same action of selfconsciousness is farther implied: 127
• Still an objection may be raised in the form of the question: 130
• This latter desire is said a to be simply the strongest of: 139
• and so does an impulse arising from the revived image of: 143
• But to call the will the strongest desire is to obliterate: 145
• the answer is that from such a beginning no selfconsciousness: 148
• 132: 154
• And this unity in desire and intellect may be expressed: 156
• For if pleasure alone is the ultimate good or desirable on what: 163
• And apart from selfconsciousness animal desire would have: 169
• Will and Intellect: 172
• As being such reproduction under limitations man is: 175
• Hence comes the search and the vanity of the search: 176
• BOOK III: 180
• In any case in persons personality meaning selfconsciousness: 182
• Will seems to be distinct from desire and capable of opposing: 183
• Whatever be the difficulties attending it the idea of human: 186
• The attempt to answer the first question materialistically involves: 187
• 162: 190
• The practical value of the idea of good as a criterion will: 198
• 170: 200
• 176: 206
• The humanitarian idea is no unreal extension of the social: 208
• 181: 214
• Owing to the presence of reason in man the self is distinguished: 219
• but whatever object a man seeks selfsatisfaction inwhether: 220
• we may answer that from our knowledge of them we can: 224
• And even when the misinterpretation is rejected and a dis: 225
• When asked what this good is we can only answer that it: 230
• CHAPTER III: 236
• 202: 239
• For the former already involves the idea of a good which: 241
• for there is no identity between the developed state of: 245
• At a certain stage of reflection arises an effort to discover: 249
• 213: 253
• and the philosophers still further defined it and also raised: 255
• For the extension of the range of duty to the whole of humanity: 258
• Progress of Humanity again can mean only progress: 259
• But the principle on which these pleasures were to be con: 262
• Further while the more developed state of man certainly: 276
• And the wellbeing of a family which is identified by a: 278
• It is an illusion to suppose that the desires of different men: 282
• The happiness he seeks for them is the same as that he seeks: 284
• And though it is true that a man might think of his good: 285
• Nor is the objection valid that selfdevotion as implying: 287
• This permanent good may be conceived in very different forms: 294
• and admitting: 297
• And under present conditions the difference between the social: 303
• As the presence of the moral ideal in the character cannot: 310
• In the second place moral progress is not only the widening: 312
• 10: 321
• we find 1 that the really tenable principles used by Aristotle: 324
• This practical service will best be rendered if philosophy: 327
• Thus here again progress is due to the greater comprehen: 330
• At the same time the question may be raised whether this: 333
• If for example a man thinks of acting against inclination: 339
• Now the good as defined by the Greek philosophers was: 346
• BOOK IV: 356
• Further while such practical guidance as this criterion seems: 362
• But since for practical purposes enquiry into motive is restricted: 365
• Out of the earliest conception of virtue as valour in the struggle: 366
• We return to the comparison of the theories as possible sources: 372
• With Universalistic Hedonism the presumption must be against: 378
• For the ideal in the conscientious mind is not a mere: 381
• Temperance and Selfdenial were limited by Aristotle to: 390
• CHAPTER III: 409
• Nor can the reformer even hope that by his labours: 426
• 346: 432
• THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF UTILITARIANISM COMPARED WITH THAT: 443
• To this it may be objected that in almost all cases a Utilitarian: 449
• 362: 457
• And thus it is the creator of existing moral practice and: 480
• 12: 487

Bibliographic information

• Title: Prolegomena to Ethics
• Author: Thomas Hill Green
• Editor: Andrew Cecil Bradley
• Edition: 4
• Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1899
• Original from: the New York Public Library
• Digitized: Sep 17, 2007
• Length: 485 pages