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THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

VOLUME ii NOVEMBER, 1896 NUMBER3

ABSTRACT AND PRACTICAL ETHICS.

THIS paper is meant as a reply to a criticism that was recently made in public on the method of the London Ethical Society and kindred organizations. The method in question, so far as I understand it, is to assist practice by popularizing, through public lectures and printed papers, the best results of the sys- tematic study of ethics. But now we are told that "these results are 'abstract' and, as such, irrelevant to the problems which the practical reformer has to face. At a time when the chief duty of the moralist, who is more than a mere student of ethical theories, is to touch the conscience and stimulate to active service in the cause of social justice, it is a species of solemn trifling to invite people to academic discussions upon the nature of the good and kindred topics." In opposition to this view I wish to show that the method of studying moral and social problems which we here aim at encouraging is not so far removed from everyday life as might at first be supposed, and that the kind of ideas for which we stand, so far from being "abstract" in any sense that is opposed to practice, are the only kind that are really practical.

I.

I shall begin with a definition of our terms What is meant by "abstract" and "practical" ethics, respectively?

By abstract ethics would usually be meant the theoretic dis-

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