Civilization and ethics
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Contents
Reviews
Language
English
ISBN
3125533821
PREFACE
CIVILIZATION AND ETHICS
CHAPTER I
THE CRISIS IN CIVILIZATION AND ITS SPIRITUAL CAUSE
The material and spiritual elements in civilization
Civilization and World-View
CHAPTER II
THE PROBLEM OF THE OPTIMISTIC WORLD-VIEW
The Western and the Indian conceptions of civilization
The struggle for the optimistic world-view
Optimism and Pessimism
Optimism, Pessimism, and Ethics
CHAPTER III
THE ETHICAL PROBLEM
The difficulties of ethical perception
The importance of thought about ethics
The search for a basic principle of morality
Religious and philosophical ethics
CHAPTER IV
RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL WORLD-VIEWS
The world-views of the world-religions
The world-views of the world-religions and that of Western thought
CHAPTER V
CIVILIZATION AND ETHICS IN THE GRÆCO-ROMAN PHILOSOPHY
The beginnings: Socrates.
Epicureanism and Stoicism. The Ethic of Resignation
Plato’s abstract basic principle of the ethical. The ethic of world-negation
Aristotle. Instruction about virtue in place of ethics
The Ideal of the Civilized State in Plato and Aristotle
Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius
The Optimistic-Ethical World-View of the later Stoicism
CHAPTER VI
OPTIMISTIC WORLD-VIEW AND ETHICS IN THE RENAISSANCE AND POST-RENAISSANCE PERIODS
Belief in Progress and Ethics
Christian and Stoic Elements in Modern Ethics
CHAPTER VII
LAYING THE FOUNDATION OF ETHICS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
Hartley, Holbach. Devotion as Enlightened Egoism
Hobbes, Locke, Helvetius, Bentham
Altruism as a natural quality. Hume, Adam Smith
The English ethic of self-perfecting
CHAPTER VIII
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF CIVILIZATION IN THE AGE OF RATIONALISM
The Mentality and the Achievements of the Ethical Belief in Progress
Obstacles to the reform movement. The French Revolution
The undermining of the rationalistic world-view
CHAPTER IX
THE OPTIMISTIC-ETHICAL WORLD-VIEW IN KANT
Kant’s ethics, deepened, but lacking content
Kant’s attempt to reach an ethical world-view
CHAPTER X
NATURE-PHILOSOPHY AND WORLD-VIEW IN SPINOZA AND LEIBNIZ
Spinoza’s attempt to reach an optimistic-ethical nature-philosophy
Leibniz’s optimistic-ethical world-view side by side with nature-philosophy
CHAPTER XI
J. G. FICHTE’S OPTIMISTIC-ETHICAL WORLD-VIEW
Speculative philosophy and Gnosticism
Fichte’s speculative founding of an ethic and of optimism
Fichte’s mysticism of activity incapable of being carried through
CHAPTER XII
SCHILLER; GOETHE; SCHLEIERMACHER
Schiller’s ethical world-view; Goethe’s world-view based on nature-philosophy
Schleiermacher’s attempt at a nature-philosophy
CHAPTER XIII
HEGEL’S SUPRA-ETHICAL OPTIMISTIC WORLD-VIEW
Ethics in Hegel’s nature-philosophy, and in his philosophy of history
Hegel’s supra-ethical world-view. His belief in progress
CHAPTER XIV
THE LATER UTILITARIANISM. BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL ETHICS
Beneke, Feuerbach, Laas, Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill
Darwin and Spencer
The weak points in biological and sociological utilitarianism
Sociological ethics and socialism. Mechanical belief in progress
CHAPTER XV
SCHOPENHAUER AND NIETZSCHE
Schopenhauer. An ethic of world- and life-denial
Absorption of ethics in world- and life-denial
Nietzsche’s criticism of current ethics
Nietzsche’s ethic of higher life-affirmation
CHAPTER XVI
THE ISSUE OF THE WESTERN STRUGGLE FOR A WORLD-VIEW
Academic thinkers: Sidgwick, Stephen, Alexander, Wundt, Paulsen, Höffding
The ethic of self-perfecting. Kant’s successors: Cohen, Herrmann
Martineau, Green, Bradley, Laurie, Seth, and Royce
Nature-philosophy and ethics. Fouillée, Guyau, Lange, Stern
Nature-philosophy and ethics in Eduard von Hartmann
Nature-philosophy and ethics in Bergson, Chamberlain, Keyserling, Haeckel
The death-agony of the optimistic-ethical world-view
CHAPTER XVII
THE NEW WAY
Why the optimistic-ethical world-view cannot be carried through to the logical conclusion
Life-view independent of world-view
CHAPTER XVIII
THE FOUNDATIONS OF OPTIMISM SECURED FROM THE WILL-TO-LIVE
The pessimistic result of knowledge
The world- and life-affirmation of the will-to-live
CHAPTER XIX
THE PROBLEM OF ETHICS, STARTING FROM THE HISTORY OF ETHICS
An ethic of self-devotion, or an ethic of self-perfecting?
Ethics and a theory of knowledge. Ethics and natural happenings. The enthusiastic element in ethics
The ethic of ethical personality, and the ethic of society
The problem of a complete ethic
CHAPTER XX
THE ETHIC OF DEVOTION AND THE ETHIC OF SELF-PERFECTING
The widening of the ethic of self-devotion into a cosmic ethic
The ethic of self-perfecting and mysticism
Abstract mysticism and the mysticism of reality. Supra-ethical, and ethical mysticism
CHAPTER XXI
THE ETHIC OF REVERENCE FOR LIFE
The basic principle of the moral
The ethic of resignation. An ethic of veracity towards oneself, and an activist ethic
Ethics and thoughtlessness. Ethics and self-assertion
Man and other living creatures
The ethic of the relation of man to man
Personal and supra-personal responsibility. Ethics and humanity
CHAPTER XXII
THE CIVILIZING POWER OF THE ETHIC OF REVERENCE FOR LIFE
Civilization as a product of reverence for life
The four ideals of civilization. The struggle for a civilized mankind in the machine age
Church and State as historical entities, and as ideals of civilization
The moralizing of the religious and political community
FOOTNOTES
Preface Notes
CHAPTER III Notes
CHAPTER V Notes
CHAPTER VI Notes
CHAPTER VII Notes
CHAPTER VIII Notes
CHAPTER IX Notes
CHAPTER X Notes
CHAPTER XI Notes
CHAPTER XII Notes
CHAPTER XIII Notes
CHAPTER XIV Notes
CHAPTER XV Notes
CHAPTER XVI Notes
CHAPTER XX Notes
INDEX
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
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