NOTE ON BOOKS
If the reader wishes to form an impartial judgment as to what the fundamental problems of Ethics really are, and what is the true answer to them, it is of the first importance that he should not confine himself to reading works of any one single type, but should realise what extremely different sorts of things have seemed to different writers, of acknowledged reputation, to be the most important things to be said about the subject. For this purpose he should, I think, read, if possible, and compare with one another, all of the following works:—
1. Some of the dialogues of Plato (translated by Jowett). Among the shorter dialogues the Protagoras, the Gorgias, and the Philebus deal almost exclusively with fundamental ethical questions, and may be taken as typical examples of Plato’s method of dealing with Ethics; but the reader should, if possible, read also the whole of the Republic, because, though, in the main, it is concerned with points of comparative detail, it contains, in various places, discussions which are of great importance for understanding Plato’s general view.
2. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. (There are several English translations.)
3. Hume’s Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals.
4. Kant’s Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals. (Translated, along with other works, under the title Kant’s Theory of Ethics, by T. K. Abbott: Longmans, Green & Co.)
5. John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism.
6. Henry Sidgwick’s Methods of Ethics (Macmillan & Co.).
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