study; and I should like, if possible, to make
it appear so.

The references which I have embodied in the notes are intended to serve
the English reader as an introduction to accessible and untechnical
literature on the subjects treated in the several chapters. These
chapters coincide with the main divisions of ethical inquiry: Goodness,
Duty, Virtue, Progress, Culture, and Religion. And although so brief a
treatment of so large a programme is impossible without sacrifice of
thoroughness, it does provide both a general survey of the field, and a
varied application of certain fundamental ideas.

RALPH BARTON PERRY.
CAMBRIDGE, 1909.

{ix}

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
MORALITY AS THE ORGANIZATION OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

I. THE GENERAL CLAIMS OF MORALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The practical necessity of morality, 1. The interplay
of dogmatism and scepticism, 4. The fundamental
character of morality, 7.

II. GOODNESS IN GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The dependence of value on life, 9. Definition of the
simpler terms of value. Goodness: the fulfilment of
interest, 11. "Good" and "good for," 12.

III. MORAL GOODNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The moral organization of life, 13. Definition of the
terms of moral value. Moral goodness: the fulfilment of
an economy of interests, 15. Moral goodness and
pleasure, 16. Rightness or virtue, 18. Morality and
life, 19.

IV. MORALITY AND NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The alleged artificiality of morality, 20. Morality
and the struggle for existence, 21. Morality and
adaptation, 22. Morality is natural if life is, 24.

V. MORALITY AND CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Morality and competitive struggle. Morality the
condition of strength, 24. The value of conflict, 23.
The elimination of conflict, 26. Morality and the love
of life, 27.

VI. THE DIGNITY AND LUSTRE OF MORALITY . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The effect of war on sentiment and the imagination, 28.
Real power is constructive, not destructive or
repressive, 29. Moral heroism, 31. The saving or
provident character of morality, 32. Morality and the
consummation of life, 33.

CHAPTER II

THE LOGIC OF THE MORAL APPEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

I. THE S