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CHAPTER VI

ETHICS

INTRODUCTION : Difficulties of the moral problem as presented in the nineteenth century—Recognised as a social problem— Influence of Comte important in this connection—Other influences—Christianity—Kant—The practical reason.

  1. Taine and Renan—Renan's critique of Christian morality— Early socialistic views—Change in his later life—Prefers criterion of beauty to that of goodness.
  2. Renouvier the great moralist of our period—Relation to Kant —His Science de la Morale—Personality in Ethics—Justice.
  3. Fouillée, Guyau, Ollé-Laprune and Rauh pass further from the Kantian rigorism to an ethic in harmony with the philosophy of idées-forces of life and action—Humanitarianism of Fouillée and Guyau—Idées-forces and Morale sans Obligation ni Sanction —Rauh's doctrines—Other thinkers.

CONCLUSION: Action and belief—Ethics and Religion.

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