Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. FUNDAMENTAL ETHICAL CONCEPTS. Of Action. What do the terms ' moral,' ' the good,' mean ? In such a proverbial expression as ' Conscience is the chamber of justice ' a truth is proclaimed whose value cannot be overestimated, that in actual life there is a common agreement widely prevalent as to what we ought to do, and that the question rather is as to our will to do it. But not only has that common agreement its limits in the wide world and in the individual heart, as we are constrained to confess at the outset; but also the very fact that we frequently do not will what we ought compels us to inquire what is the nature of this remarkable ' ought' with which the will is by no means always at one. In this, magniloquent sentences and formal definitions do not help us. It may, amongst other things, be quite correct to say that morality consists in the submission of our personal life to absolute law. But how much is there in such a proposition which in turn needs explanation ? As good as all of it: Law, and Absolute and Personal. Will all give the like explanation of such terms and all agree to the whole proposition ? Examination, too, as to the usage in ethics of the main concepts ' good' and ' bad' does not help us much, exciting in our minds as the words do so many sensuous ideas; as, e.g., we speak of 'good' food and a ' good' conscience, a ' bad' finger and a ' bad' action. It is thought that more will be gained by comparing moral action with the other activities of the human soul; what we call ' good' with that which is named 'true,' 'beautiful,''just.' But however simple that may seem, still every one understands the same words in a different sense, and the confusion only grows greater. If, then, in such simple explanations there is much that is indefinite, we ... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.