The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Moral Economy, by Ralph Barton Perry

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Title: The Moral Economy

Author: Ralph Barton Perry

Release Date: July 24, 2007 [eBook #22135]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MORAL ECONOMY***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

Transcriber's note:

Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page
breaks occurred in the original book. For its Index, a page
number has been placed only at the start of that section.

THE MORAL ECONOMY

by

RALPH BARTON PERRY

Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Harvard University

Author of

The Free Man and the Soldier
The Moral Economy
The Approach to Philosophy

Charles Scribner's Sons
New York -- Chicago -- Boston -- Atlanta
San Francisco -- Dallas

Copyright, 1909, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without
the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons

DEDICATED TO N.

MARCH 30, 1909

"Things and actions are what they are, and the
consequences of them will be what they will be;
why then should we desire to be deceived?"

BISHOP BUTLER.

{vii}

PREFACE

This little book is the preliminary sketch of a system of ethics. Its
form differs from that of most contemporary books on the subject
because of the omission of the traditional controversies. I have
attempted to study morality directly, to derive its conceptions and
laws from an analysis of life. I have made this attempt because, in
the first place, I believe that theoretical ethics is seriously
embarrassed by its present emphasis on the history and criticism of
doctrines; by its failure to resort to experience, where without more
ado it may solve its problems on their merits. But, in the second
place, I hope that by appealing to experience and neglecting scholastic
technicalities, I may connect ethical theory with every-day reflection
on practical matters. Morality is, without doubt, the most human and
urgent of all topics of