History as Past Ethics; An Introduction to the History of Morals — Philip Van Ness Myers
History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : History as past ethics; an introduction to the history of morals Author : P. V. N. Myers Release date : April 19, 2024 [eBook #73430] Language : English Original publication : Boston: Ginn & Co., 1913 Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73430 Credits : WebRover, Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg HISTORY AS PAST ETHICS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MORALS BY PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS Formerly Professor of History and Political Economy in the University of Cincinnati. Author of “Ancient History,” “Mediæval and Modern History,” and “A General History” GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON ATLANTA · DALLAS · COLUMBUS · SAN FRANCISCO History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 526.2 The Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A. History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg TO I. C. M. My conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it.— Novalis History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg PREFACE This work completes the series of historical textbooks which I began more than thirty years ago. It is an expansion of a course of lectures given for several years to my advanced classes in history, and is designed as a brief introduction to the history of morals. In treating the science of morals as a branch of history my thought is, without trenching in the least upon the domain of the philosophy of morals, to make the work of the department of history more helpfully introductory than it has hitherto been to that of the department of moral philosophy. The book is the outgrowth of a conviction that the philosophy of ethics, if it shall become a stimulus and guide to social service and humanitarian effort,—especially if it shall bring reënforcement to that ethical idealism which so largely motives the present-day movement for world peace,—must be based on a knowledge of the facts of the moral life of the race in all the various stages of the historic evolution, and that to gather and systematize these facts is a part of the task of the historian, indeed the most important part of his task. It is my hope that teachers of both history and ethics may find the book helpful, whether made the basis of classroom discussion or of lecture comment. P. V. N. M. College Hill Cincinnati, Ohio History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg Ethics gives to History its rational goal; and all morality has the perfect shaping of universal history as its ultimate end. A real understanding of history is not possible without ethics; universal history is the realization of the moral ... within humanity.— Adolf Wuttke. The real advance made by Thucydides consists, perhaps, in this, that he perceived the motive forces of human history to be in the moral constitution of human nature.— Leopold von Ranke. Ethics, if it is to become truly a science, must shun the path of speculation and follow closely the historical method.... Range in fancy over the whole circle of the sciences, and you will find there no place for ethics save as a branch of human history.... Given the earliest morality of which we have any written record, to trace from it through progressive stages the morality of to-day; that is the problem, and the only problem which can fall to a truly scientific ethics.... Ethics as the comparative history of universal morality is the vestibule to the temple of moral philosophy.— Jacob Gould Schurman. History As Past Ethics | Project Gutenberg CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE DAWN OF MORALITY: CONSCIENCE IN THE KINSHIP GROUP 12 I. Institutions, Ideas, and Conditions of Life determining the Rules of Conduct 12 II. Essential Facts of Kinship or Intratribal Morality 15 III. The Beginnings of Intertribal Morality 22 III. THE MORAL LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT: AN IDEAL OF SOCIAL JUSTICE 30 I. Circumstances and Ideas which molded and motived Morality 30 II. The Ideal 33 IV. THE BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN CONSCIENCE 45 V. CHINESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF FILIAL PIETY 53 I. Ideas, Institutions, and Historical Circumstances determining the Cast of the Moral Ideal 53 II. The Ideal 60 III. Effects of the Ideal upon Chinese Life and History 69 VI. JAPANESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF LOYALTY 77 I. Formative and Modifying Influences 77 II. The Ideal 80 III. Some Significant Facts in the Moral History of Japan 87 VII. THE ETHICAL IDEALS OF INDIA 95 PART I. THE ETHICS OF BRAHMANISM—A CLASS MORALITY 95 I. Historical and Speculative Basis of the System 95 II. The Various Moral Standards 101 PART II. THE ETHICS OF BUDDHISM: AN IDEAL OF SELF-CONQUEST AND UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE 106 I. The Philosophical Basis of the System 106 II. The Ideal 110 III. Some Expressions of the Ethical Spirit of Buddhism 115 VIII. THE ETHICS OF ZOROASTRIANISM: AN IDEAL OF COMBAT 123 I. Philosophical and Religious Ideas which created the Ethical Type 123 II. The Ideal 126 III. The Practice 131 IX. THE MORAL EVOLUTION IN ISRAEL: AN IDEAL OF OBEDIENCE TO A REVEALED LAW 135 I. The Religious Basis of Hebrew Morality 135 II. The Evolution of the Moral Ideal 140 1. The Development up to the Exile 140 2. The Morality of the Prophets of the Exile 157 3. The Moral Life in the Postexilic Age 162 X. THE MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF HELLAS: AN IDEAL OF SELF-REALIZATION 169 I. Institutions and Ideas determining the Moral Type 169 II. The Ideal 174 III. Limitations and Defects of the I