Böcker av Celestine M. Bittle

Everyone is aware of the distinction between right and wrong, between what is morally good and morally bad. The distinction is made by people every day, in the home and in the school, in business and labor, in courts and police actions, in politics and in government. And yet, the attitude of many persons toward human conduct is largely amoral. People know intuitively ¿that¿ some actions are morally good and others morally bad, but they are not sure ¿why¿ they are so. It is therefore necessary to reaffirm the principles which underlie morality. Ethics, or moral philosophy, seeks to lay bare the natural foundations of correct living, to uncover the principles which govern morality and make individual actions to be right or wrong, and thus develop the science of right conduct.

In accordance with the purpose as an introduction for students, the scope of the book is frankly positive and constructive. It attempts to build up an understanding of the matter of ontology in a logical manner, using simple language, illustrating the subjects with copious examples, and extracting the contents of each chapter into compact summaries. Some of the more abstruse problems of ontology, such as the problem of essence and existence, have been omitted; it was felt that the average student would derive little benefit from a lengthy discussion of problems which have taxed the ingenuity and acumen of the most profound intellects. Such problems may be attacked after the student has become acquainted with the ideas and subjects which form the foundation of the science of metaphysics. After all, the student cannot be expected to be a professional philosopher; it should be sufficient if he acquires a thorough grounding in fundamentals, so that he can deepen his knowledge through subsequent reading and study. In a general way we may define metaphysics as the science of the ultimate principles and properties of real beings.