BY THE SAME AUTHOR. OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF ETHICS FOR ENGLISH READERS. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Third Edition. 8vo. 14s. net. THE ELEMENTS OF POLITICS. 8vo. 14s. net. PHILOSOPHY: ITS SCOPE AND RELATIONS. 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. LECTURES ON THE ETHICS OF GREEN, SPENCER, AND MARTINEAU. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN POLITY. 8vo. 10s. net. MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. 8vo. 10s. net. LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF KANT AND OTHER PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 8vo. 10s. net. HENRY SIDGWICK: A Memoir. By A. S. and E. M. S. With Portraits. 8vo. 12s. 6d. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. THE METHODS OF ETHICS Ἢ οὐ γελοῖον ἐπὶ μὲν ἄλλοις σμικροῦ ἀξίοις πᾶν ποιεῖν συντεινομένους, ὅπως ὄτι ἀκριβέστατα καὶ καθαρώτατα ἕξει, τῶν δὲ μεγίστων μὴ μεγίστας ἀξιοῦν εἶναι καὶ τὰς ἀκριβείας;--PLATO. THE METHODS OF ETHICS BY HENRY SIDGWICK SOMETIME KNIGHTBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE _SEVENTH EDITION_ London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1907 [_The Right of Translation is reserved._] _First Edition 1874._ _Second Edition 1877._ _Third Edition 1884._ _Fourth Edition 1890._ _Fifth Edition 1893._ _Sixth Edition 1901._ _Seventh Edition 1907._ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION In offering to the public a new book upon a subject so trite as Ethics, it seems desirable to indicate clearly at the outset its plan and purpose. Its distinctive characteristics may be first given negatively. It is not, in the main, metaphysical or psychological: at the same time it is not dogmatic or directly practical: it does not deal, except by way of illustration, with the history of ethical thought: in a sense it might be said to be not even critical, since it is only quite incidentally that it offers any criticism of the systems of individual moralists. It claims to be an examination, at once expository and critical, of the different methods of obtaining reasoned convictions as to what ought to be done which are to be found--either explicit or implicit--in the moral consciousness of mankind generally: and which, from time to time, have been developed, either singly or in combination, by individual thinkers, and worked up into the systems now historical.