Ethics
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~220,000 words · 1,048 passages
Cite this work
- APAJohn Dewey. (n.d.). Ethics. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-dewey/ethics
- MLAJohn Dewey. "Ethics." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-dewey/ethics.
- ChicagoJohn Dewey. Ethics. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-dewey/ethics.
What it is about
A textbook of ethics in three parts: the history of morals, moral theory, and its application to the social and economic problems of the day.
Context and history
This has to be said because the catalogue does not: the book is not Dewey's alone. He wrote it with James Hayden Tufts and it appeared in 1908 under both names; the division of labour is documented, and the historical part is largely Tufts's. Attributing the whole to Dewey is a common error that comes from the title pages of later reprints. The third part, on labour, property and the family, is the most dated and at the same time the clearest demonstration of what Dewey meant by applied ethics.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
The significance of this text in Ethics lies in its effort to awaken a vital conviction of the genuine reality of moral problems and the value of reflective thought in dealing with them. To this purpose are subordinated the presentation in Part I. of historic material; the discussion in Part II. of the different types of theoretical interpretation, and the consideration, in Part III., of some typical social and economic problems which characterize the present. Experience shows that the student of morals has difficulty in getting the field objectively and definitely before him so that its problems strike him as real problems. Conduct is so intimate that it is not easy to analyze. It is so important that to a large extent the perspective for regarding it has been unconsciously fixed by early training. The historical method of approach has proved in the classroom experience of the authors an effective method of meeting these difficulties. To follow the moral life through typical epochs of its development enables students to realize what is involved in their own habitual standpoints; it also presents a concrete body of subject-matter which serves as material of analysis and discussion. The classic conceptions of moral theory are of remarkable importance in illuminating the obscure places of the moral life and in giving the student clues which will enable him to explore it for himself. But there is always danger of either dogmatism or a sense of unreality when students are introduced abruptly to the theoretical ideas. Instead of serving as tools for understanding the moral facts, the ideas are likely to become substitutes for the facts. When they are proffered ready-made, their theoretical acuteness and cleverness may be admired, but their practical soundness and applicability are suspected. The historical introduction permits the student to be present, as it were, at the social situations in which the intellectual instruments were f← Back to John Dewey