Philosophy of Conduct - 1902 Author:George Trumbull Ladd Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE CONCEPTION OF THE GOOD There is a certain universal way of human thinking and acting, if not a certain determinate form of conception, which ... more »connects the subject of ethics with a number of closely allied forms of inquiry. Indeed, so close is the connection that the investigation of the actions of men from the point of view held by this conception has often been made the most important part of entire ethical systems. Undoubtedly all adult human beings give much consideration to what is " good " or " bad " for them to experience; and, accordingly, they habitually act with the intention to secure as much as possible of what they consider good and to avoid as much as possible those experiences which they consider bad. Writers on the history of ethical opinion are fond of reminding us that, whereas the modern Occidental man dwells more upon conceptions of rights, duties, and the moral law, the ethics of ancient Greece laid stress upon the conception of the Good. Certainly this Idea was, in the Platonic system of thinking, not only the supreme ruler over all the other ethical ideas but the chief and lord over all those ideas with which the philosopher found himself concerned in his efforts to understand the problems of the physical world and of human life. The predominance of this conception in the Greek ethics as compared with the ethical studies of modern times is, however, scarcely more than apparent. The feelings, thoughts, and actions of men, which cluster about and follow along with this conception, are always an inseparable, an integralpart of moral philosophy. It is only as discerning and desiring, as estimating and striving for, whatever is good that man is capable of dutiful and virtuous conduct, or is a subject of moral law. Some study of this conception i...« less