Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Supplement to the Second Edition of the Methods of Ethics
1 (p. 1, l. An Objection is sometimes taken to the application of the term 'science' to such studies as these. It is said that a Science must necessarily have some department of actual existence for its subject-matter: and. There is no doubt that the term Ethical Science might, according to usage, denote studies that deal with the actually existent: viz. Either the department of Psychology that deals with pleasures and pains, desires and volitions, moral sentiments and judgments, as actual phenomena of individual human minds; or the department of Sociology dealing with similar phenomena, as exhibited by the larger organizations of which individual human beings are ele ments. We Observe, however, that comparatively few persons pursue these studies from pure curiosity, in order merely to ascertain what actually exists, has existed, or will exist in time. Most men wish not only to understand human action, but also to regulate it; they apply the ideas 'good' and 'bad, ' 'right' and 'wrong, ' to the conduct or institutions which they describe; and thus pass, as I should say, from the point of View. Of Psychology or Sociology to the point of View of Ethics or Politics. It is true that the mutual implication Of the two kinds of study is, on any theory, very close and complete, though the precise nature and extent of their connexion is.
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