Part 1

By RUDOLF EUCKEN

Senior Professor of Philosophy in the University of Jena

The Truth of Religion The Life of the Spirit Religion and Life Ethics and Modern Thought

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Ethics and Modern Thought

A Theory of Their Relations

The Deem Lectures

Delivered in 1913 at New York University

By Rudolf Eucken Professor of Philosophy, University of Jena

Translated from the German Manuscript by Margaret von Seydewitz

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1913

COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY RUDOLF EUCKEN

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

PREFACE

These lectures, delivered at New York University from February 20th till March 1, 1913, appeal less to students and philosophers than to the cultured public at large. I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere gratitude to the New York University, and especially to Chancellor Elmer E. Brown, for all the kindness and interest shown to me during my stay in New York.

RUDOLF EUCKEN.

JENA, June, 1913.

CONTENTS

PAGE I. THE ETHICAL PROBLEM IN THE PRESENT TIME 1

II. THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLE 23

III. A DEFENCE OF THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLE 43

IV. EVOLUTION OF THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLE 63

V. MORALITY AND RELIGION 87

VI. THE PRESENT STATUS OF MORALITY 107

THE ETHICAL PROBLEM IN THE PRESENT TIME

In former times, nothing seemed more plausible and more certain than morality. It was a tower of strength, where men sought refuge in the midst of all the doubts and conflicts of life. This was especially the case during the Age of Enlightenment. Men were beginning to believe less absolutely in the religion handed down to them, but they clung all the more to morality. Metaphysical speculation and theoretical endeavours to reveal the innermost essence of things encountered growing opposition, yet morality was welcomed as something superior to all complications, and valuable to all. It was held to be the pivot of Archimedes, which gives stability to the whole of life.

In our days morality has ceased to be a matter of such unquestionable certainty, and has been drawn into the wave of disintegration which is passing over our minds. Formerly the scientific definition and accurate conception of morality were matters of contention; but it is now the fundamental idea of morality that is questioned. Many of our contemporaries are of opinion that the revelations of modern science and the claims of modern life have destroyed the foundations of morality and made it untenable in the old sense. Morality in the old sense demands dissociation of our aspirations from our own personal interest, and devotion to something that is esteemed higher; whenever an action that appears good is seen to proceed from selfish motives, it can no longer claim any moral value. There is a widespread tendency in modern life, to question the possibility of such detachment from the Ego, and to acknowledge the coercion exercised over man by his instinct of self-preservation. Emancipation from this restraint is not even considered desirable, for constant strife and competition seem necessary to life and progress, and a softening of this strife would inevitably reduce the energy of life.

Morality further demands independence and spontaneity of action. An action performed under the pressure of external coercion or mechanical habit, loses immediately its moral character. Now such independence and spontaneity are not possible apart from some kind of free choice, yet this would contradict the law of causality, which in the present age is generally considered to rule the whole of reality. In man's soul, the supremacy of this law of causality is strengthened by our growing insight into the power of heredity and of social environment. Yet morality in the old sense stands and falls with man's power of spontaneous and independent decision.