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CHAPTER II.

THE RELATION OF ETHICS TO OTHER SCIENCES.

§ 1. GENERAL STATEMENT.-From what has already been stated, it appears that Ethics is to be regarded as belonging to the group of sciences that are called philosophic. Now the question as to the general nature and divisions of philosophic study is to some extent controversial; and of course it is beyond our present scope to enter on any discussion of this question; but perhaps the student may find the following statements helpful and not very misleading. He may correct them for himself, if necessary, as he advances in the study of philosophy.

Philosophy is the study of the nature of experience as a whole. The particular sciences investigate particular portions of the content of our experience; but philosophy secks to understand the whole in the light of its central principles. In order to do this, it endeavours to analyze the various elements that enter into the constitution of the world as we know it. This part of the investigation is perhaps that which is most properly described as Epistemology. Next we may go on to trace the genesis of the various elements that constitute our experience to examine, that is to say, the process by which experience grows up in the consciousness of individuals and races. This is the task of Psychology. Now, when we thus examine our experience and trace

its growth, it is found that the content which is thus brought to light consists partly of facts presented in various ways before our consciousness and partly of ideals. The study of the particular facts that come before our consciousness has to be handed over to the particular sciences; or, in so far as philosophy is able to deal with them, they form the content of what is called the Philosophy of Nature. The ideals, again, which emerge in our experience, are found to be three in number, corresponding, it would seem, to the Knowing, the Feeling, and the Willing sides of our conscious nature. They are the ideals of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. The study of these ideals forms the subjectmatter of the three sciences of Logic, Esthetics, and Ethics. Finally the question arises with respect to the kind and degree of reality possessed by these various elements in our experience. This inquiry is that which is properly known as Ontology. The first and the last of these departments of study-Epistemology and Ontology-tend to coalesce; and the two together constitute what is commonly known as Metaphysics, which thus forms the Alpha and the Omega of the philosophical sciences.

From this it will be seen that Ethics stands, along with Logic and Esthetics, midway between Psychology and Metaphysics; and, in fact, whatever may be thought of the foregoing method of stating the relationship, it is generally recognized that there is a very close connection between Ethics and each of these two other philosophical sciences.

Further consideration, however, reveals a variety of other subjects to which Ethics is closely related. On some it is dependent for materials, to others it supplies

assistance.

It may be well to try to bring out a little more in detail some of these relationships, though of course it is only possible to indicate them here very briefly.

§ 2. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND ETHICS.-The relation of Physical Science to Ethics is but slight. It has sometimes been supposed that the question of physical causation has an important bearing on Ethics. It has been thought that morality postulates the freedom of the will, and that there is a certain conflict between this postulate and the theory of the universal applicability of the law of cause and effect. This point will be referred to in a subsequent chapter. In the meantime it must suffice to say that the supposition of such a conflict appears to rest upon a misconception.

Of course, Ethics is indirectly related to Physical Science, inasmuch as a knowledge of physical laws enables us to predict, more accurately and certainly than we should otherwise be able to do, what the effect of various kinds of conduct will be. But this knowledge affects only the details of conduct, not the general principles by which our conduct is guided. A wise man in modern times will be less afraid of the sea and of the stars, and more afraid of foul air and impure water, than a man of similar wisdom in ancient times; but the general consideration of the question, what kinds of things we ought to fear, and what kinds we ought not to fear, need not be affected by this difference in detail, which is due to the advance of knowledge. Physical Science in short is chiefly useful to Ethics in the way of helping us to understand the environment within which the moral life is passed, rather than the nature of the moral life itself.

§ 3. BIOLOGY AND ETHICS.-The relation of Biology to Ethics is much closer than that of Physics or Chemistry, but is essentially of the same indirect character. Many of the most sacred of human obligations rest on physiological considerations; but the general principles on which these obligations rest can be discussed without any direct reference to physiological details, and would not, in their general principles, be affected by any new physiological discoveries.

Some recent writers, under the influence of the theory of evolution,' have represented the connection of Biology with Ethics as being of a much more fundamental character than that which has now been indicated. It has been thought that the criterion of good or bad conduct is to be found in the tendency to promote the development of life or the reverse; and that, consequently, we may speak of good or bad conduct. in the lowest forms of life in quite the same sense as in man. This is a view to which some reference will have to be made at a later stage. In the meantime it seems sufficient to say that conduct, in the sense in which the term is used in Ethics, has no meaning except with reference to a being who has a rational will; and that, in the case of such a being, the development of life is but a subordinate part of the end. Consequently, Biology does not appear to have any direct. bearing upon Ethics. The study of animal life, however, does throw a good deal of light on the development of the moral consciousness; but it does this only 1 See especially Spencer's Principles of Ethics.

2

2 It is only in so far as we attribute some form of self-consciousness to the lower animals that we are entitled to speak of "subhuman" Ethics. Cf. Muirhead's Elements of Ethics, p. 212, note, and see below, Book I., chap, iii., § 3.

in so far as animal life is studied from the psychological, not from the purely biological, point of view.

§ 4. PSYCHOLOGY AND ETHICS.-The relation of Psychology to Ethics is much closer and more important. At the same time, the dependence of the one upon the other ought not to be exaggerated. As Logic deals with the correctness of thought, so Ethics deals with the correctness of conduct. Neither of them is directly concerned with the process by which we come to think or to act correctly. Still, the processes of feeling, desiring, and willing cannot be ignored by the student of Ethics; any more than the processes of generalizing, judging, and reasoning can be ignored by the student of Logic; and the consideration of all these falls within the province of the psychologist. Psychology, in fact, as I have already tried to indicate, leads up to ethics, as it leads up to Logic and Esthetics.

In this connection, however, there is another important point to be noticed, to which reference has not yet been made. Human conduct, as we shall find more and more, has a social reference. Most of our actions derive their moral significance very largely from our relations to our fellow-men. Now Psychology, as commonly studied, has but little bearing on this. Psychology, as a rule, deals mainly with the growth of the individual consciousness, and only refers indirectly to the facts of social relationship. It is possible, however, to study the process of mental development from a more social point of view. The study of language, for instance, the study of the customs of savage peoples, the study of the growth of institutions, etc., throw light upon the gradual development of the human mind in relation to its social environment. The term

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