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History as past ethics; an introduction to the history of moralsMyers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness)

Philosophy

History as past ethics; an introduction to the history of morals

Name: History as past ethics; an introduction to the history of morals
Author: Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness)

Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness)

Ethics -- History

Ethics gives to History its rational goal; and all morality has the
    perfect shaping of universal history as its ultimate end. A real
    understanding of history is not possible without ethics; universal
    history is the realization of the moral ... within humanity.--ADOLF
    WUTTKE.

    The real advance made by Thucydides consists, perhaps, in this,
    that he perceived the motive forces of human history to be in the
    moral constitution of human nature.--LEOPOLD VON RANKE.

    Ethics, if it is to become truly a science, must shun the path of
    speculation and follow closely the historical method.... Range in
    fancy over the whole circle of the sciences, and you will find
    there no place for ethics save as a branch of human history....
    Given the earliest morality of which we have any written record, to
    trace from it through progressive stages the morality of to-day;
    that is the problem, and the only problem which can fall to a
    truly scientific ethics.... Ethics as the comparative history
    of universal morality is the vestibule to the temple of moral
    philosophy.--JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN.

CONTENTS

  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

      I. INTRODUCTION                                                  1

     II. THE DAWN OF MORALITY: CONSCIENCE IN THE KINSHIP GROUP        12

            I. INSTITUTIONS, IDEAS, AND CONDITIONS OF LIFE
                DETERMINING THE RULES OF CONDUCT                      12

           II. ESSENTIAL FACTS OF KINSHIP OR INTRATRIBAL MORALITY     15

          III. THE BEGINNINGS OF INTERTRIBAL MORALITY                 22

    III. THE MORAL LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT: AN IDEAL OF SOCIAL
          JUSTICE                                                     30

            I. CIRCUMSTANCES AND IDEAS WHICH MOLDED AND MOTIVED
                MORALITY                                              30

           II. THE IDEAL                                              33

     IV. THE BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN CONSCIENCE                           45

      V. CHINESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF FILIAL PIETY                     53

            I. IDEAS, INSTITUTIONS, AND HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES
                DETERMINING THE CAST OF THE MORAL IDEAL               53

           II. THE IDEAL                                              60

          III. EFFECTS OF THE IDEAL UPON CHINESE LIFE AND HISTORY     69

     VI. JAPANESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF LOYALTY                         77

            I. FORMATIVE AND MODIFYING INFLUENCES                     77

           II. THE IDEAL                                              80

          III. SOME SIGNIFICANT FACTS IN THE MORAL HISTORY OF JAPAN   87

    VII. THE ETHICAL IDEALS OF INDIA                                  95

          PART I. THE ETHICS OF BRAHMANISM--A CLASS MORALITY          95

            I. HISTORICAL AND SPECULATIVE BASIS OF THE SYSTEM         95

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History as past ethics; an introduction to the history of morals

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