The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Runze - Ethik

by Walter Francis Willcox

Ethik. Encyclopädische Skizzen und Litteraturangaben zur Sittenlehre. Von Dr. Georg Runze, a. o. Professor an der Universität zu Berlin. I. Praktische Ethik. Berlin, Carl Duncker, 1891. — pp. viii, 274.

Dr. Runze is a professor in the theological faculty of the University of Berlin. The scope of his previous work and his standpoint may in some measure be judged from the title of an earlier work, — Outlines of Evangelical Dogmatics and Ethics, — and from these courses of lectures he has given within the last three years: History and System of Ethics; The Different Opinions upon the Person of Christ; The Christian Doctrines of Reconciliation and Justification, with Especial Reference to the Theology of Ritschl.

The volume in hand contains only the first part of a treatise which is to include two other divisions, Historical Ethics and Abstract Ethics. As stated in the preface, the object of the work is not directly to contribute to scientific inquiry, so much as to enable the student to orientate himself in reference to the scope of the questions and the means of answering them, to point out difficulties and stimulate to independent reflection. The author's reason for the arrangement of his parts is suggested as follows: "This [historical] part we give its position between the synthetic presentation of practical or concrete ethics, which is connected merely with the interest in the individual problems, and the analytical treatment of the universal problems of the theory of morals, the solution of which requires encyclopædic knowledge, and which should not therefore be treated at the beginning as de Wette and most others do, but should rather be postponed with Wundt to the conclusion of the system" (p. 15).

This first division has three parts, dealing respectively with the individual, the community, and the relations between them. Under the first is discussed the being of the individual, his freedom, and the content of his life; under the second, the family, society, and the state; and under the last, property and labor, personal relations to one's neighbor, and the content of the moral life of the community. Within these lines sections are devoted to such diverse topics as suicide, slavery, regeneration, marriage, war, usury, the death penalty, etc. Each of the eighty-six sections into which the volume is divided consists of three parts, — a few lines at the beginning in large print; two or three pages in smaller type elaborating the points, suggesting questions, or stating other views; and, finally, half a page or more of bibliographical references. The following fairly typical passage may serve to illustrate both the general position of the author and his method of treatment:

"$\S \;$19. . . . The concept of regeneration serves as a tie between dogmatics and ethics. Moral regeneration is the objective transformation of character, so far as that occurs without purpose and effort ["without desert," "by grace," or, as Schopenhauer says, "as if coming suddenly" (angeflogen] "from without"], and is felt as a relatively new beginning of the moral life. It shows itself objectively in the actual improvement of the life, and subjectively in the knowledge not only that the oppressive burden of the former feeling of guilt has been rolled off, but also that the life is now guided by a practical law of progressive improvement. [Jer. xvii, 14; John viii, 36; Tit. iii, 5.]

"The idea of the kingdom of God may be regarded, as by Pfleiderer, as the tie between dogmatics and ethics. But in the doctrine of the sumrnum bonum, which is essentially the same as that of the kingdom of God, the religious point of view is not so necessary as it is in the doctrine of regeneration. This latter doctrine Sigwart has recently emphasized, like Schopenhauer before him, as indispensable for ethics. — The ethical value of the concept of overcoming [Ueberwindung] depends on one's idea of the nature of this act of will. Does it consist in choosing the higher good and renouncing the lower [Plato, Locke, Kant], or is it more correct to consider it as the choice on each occasion of the single real good in preference to all really unsatisfying apparent goods [Spinoza, Fichte, Krause, Baader]? Mediating ideas: to suffer evil is better than to do it [Plato, Gorgias; I Peter iv]," etc., pp. 54 f.

Then follows half a page of bibliography.

Such bibliographical references throughout the book are mainly to the German literature, and to a considerable degree to the German theologians. Next to German, the author seems to be best read in English, while the French and Italian books are perhaps less adequately represented. A conspicuous case of ignorance of what is happening across the French frontier occurs in the following passage: "The question of legal divorce has a prominent position in France, especially since the attempt made early in the '8o's to reintroduce it, and the passage of a bill to that effect through the Chamber of Deputies. Through the presentation of French plays on the German stage [Sardou's Georgette, Divorçons], this question for a time aroused unnecessary and excessive attention among us also. Among our neighbors, the antagonism of the Senate and the Catholic Church, and memories of the experiences under the first empire, still keep the question in agitation" (p. 75). The author is evidently ignorant that the bill mentioned became a law in 1884, and that the discussion since then has turned not on its passage, but on its effects. It is but fair to add that this is the only serious error I have noted.

Notwithstanding what seems from this distance the somewhat disproportionate space given to German and to theological books, the chief value of the work seems to me to lie in these bibliographical references. As the author notes, in his preface, such references are a great desideratum in ethics; and thanks are due to one who has attempted the task of supplying them. They give evidence of wide, discriminating, and thoughtful reading, and I know of no other book by which one can be so well guided in studying any problem of concrete ethics. Take, for example, a question of present interest to us, — the death penalty. Where else shall one find over a page of references on this subject, extending from Tertullian to Lasson, and including Latin, Italian, French, and English references, along with a large number of German ones? Professor Runze has certainly made it more possible for students on this side of the Atlantic to learn what are the foreign books on any topic within the scope of his treatise.

W. F. Willcox.