Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/18

 CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY: ETHICS AND MORAL EDUCATION.

§ 1. What is Ethics? It is usual to enter on the study of any science by giving some definition of it. What, then, is ethics, and what is the subject-matter with which it deals? All sciences consist of answers to questions. The inquisitive child who wearies his mother with his questions is on the high-road to science. He wonders why the fire burns, why the wheels of the watch go round, what the moon is made of, and why his stomach hurts. To satisfy his wonder he asks questions. This is the attitude of the true scientist. Newton asked himself why the apple falls to the ground; and discovered, as the answer to the question, the law of gravitation.

When a science has been developed, it consists of a body of answers to a certain general question. Thus, the science of mathematics consists of a system of answers to the question, What is the nature of number and quantity? Astronomy is an attempt to answer the question, What are the laws which govern the planets and other celestial bodies? Physiology seeks to answer the question, What is the constitution of the human body?