Ethics; An Investigation of the Facts and Laws of the Moral Life Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...and for the performance and enjoyment of his work, this impulse is always the ultimate and most constant, although not the only motive to the customs that fall under our first heading. Midway between the individual and the social forms of life lie the forms of intercourse. Considered with regard to the objects concerned in them, these forms of life possess all the characteristics of the social customs proper; but their dominant aim is still individualistic. Thirdly, the social forms of life are those directed upon the furtherance of the purposes of the race, or, at least, upon the satisfaction of needs which arise only when the union of a number of individuals is itself a part of the end to be obtained, and not simply a means for the attainment of individual ends. To this class belong the family, the state, and the organisation of society into definite classes and associations, held together by more or less permanent interests. The social forms of life also constitute the transition from the sphere of custom to that of law. Law is not only identical with custom in origin: it always retains its connection with those forms of society which were prefigured in custom, and especially with that of the state. Finally, we have in the humanistic forms of life our last and most comprehensive category. We understand by 'humanistic' forms the customs which govern the behaviour of man to his fellow-men in its most general aspects,--the behaviour that is independent of any particular social connection, and proceeds from an ultimate similarity of mental attributes. We thus obtain four different departments of custom, which can be distinguished as follows: (1) In the individual forms of life, the individual is at once subject and object of the...