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THEORETICAL ETHICS
BY
MILTON VALENTINE, D.D., LL. D.
Ex-President of Pennsylvania College, and Professor of Theology
in the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa.,
Author of "Natural Theology or Rational Theism."
CHICAGO
SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO.
1900
Copyright, 1897, by
Scott, Foresman & Co.
PRESS OF
THE HENRY O. SHEPARD CO.
CHICAGO
PREFACE.
Ethical Theory has felt the full force of recentscientific and philosophical agitation. The earliersystems have been subject to earnest and continueddiscussion. The severest tests available by the progressof knowledge have been applied to both their premisesand their conclusions. New theories, based on changedconceptions of man and the world, have been variouslyelaborated, presenting greatly altered views of the wholephenomenon of morality. While not overthrowing oldviews these have given instructive suggestions. Theethical field has thus been largely re-surveyed, and whateverlight modern science and speculation have furnishedhas been thrown upon this great and unceasingly importantsubject. In some respects the agitation hasbrought confusion and uncertainty. The clash of theorieshas been disturbing. But on the whole ethicalphilosophy has been the gainer. The discussions havecertified the immovable foundations and essentialfeatures of the moral system. The fresh light fromthe advance of knowledge has proved, as it always does,not destructive, but corrective and confirmatory. The4abiding truth has been shown and vindicated by theordeal through which it has passed.
This volume is largely the outcome of the author'smany years of class-room lecturing on the subject. Itsobject is to furnish for students and general readers acompendious view of the ethical facts and principlesas the author believes them to be established by thebest accredited knowledge and thought of our times.There seems to be room for such a work. The methodis believed to give proper recognition to both theempirical and metaphysical sides of the subject.Starting from the universal phenomenon of moraldistinctions in life, it determines the conscience psychologically,as a rationally intuitive power discerning themoral distinction and the reality and authority ofmoral law. The implications of conscience and morallaw necessarily become theistic. The metaphysicalexamination finds for the real phenomena of the subjectivefaculty the objective and abiding reality of theethical law which the faculty discerns, and the rightor morally good itself so perceived as consisting proximatelyin a conformity of conduct with the relationsof life in which moral requirement meets human freedom,and as ultimately grounded in the absolute andperfect source of the moral constitution of the universe.The movement carries to the conclusion of eternal and5immutable moral law. The disclosures of revelationconfirm the ethical law of the natural reason, completingthe moral view and supplying, in the divineforces of Christianity, the proper dynam