Excerpt from The Elements of EthicsThe present work is designed as an introductory treatise upon the fundamental problems of theoretical ethics, and therefore to obtain standing ground from which to consider the practical questions that are affected by general principles. The book may seem rather an elaborate treatise for an introduction, but so great are the complications of ethical problems, so manifold are their interests, and so various have been opinions regarding them, that a writer to-day must choose between the perfunctory task of pro ducing a mere syllabus of words and the more important duty of saying enough to satisfy the wants of those who desire more than platitudes, and who wish some insight into the complexities of the case. The analysis of various questions has been made as complete as reasonable limits would allow, with the special pur pose Of trying to throw some light on the perplexities of ethical theories, and to present the author's conclusions regarding them. This purpose has involved a very exhaustive application of the analytic method, which may try the patience of those who desire synthetic and comprehensive results. But the writer is con vinced that we shall never get out of the wilderness of scholastic controversy and see-sawing with traditional theories until the analytic method is first carefully applied and our exact where abouts determined. We may then give a synthetic survey of the field without embroiling ourselves in the hocus - pocus of endless and futile discussions about 'words that may have a thousand meanings.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.