The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Martineau - Types of Ethical Theory
This is a cheap edition of the monumental work of Dr. Martineau, which was first published in 1885. It appears to give the text of the second edition unchanged, but with the addition of an appendix containing a translation of passages quoted in the work, — a translation demanded, it would seem, by Oriental readers. The publishers are to be congratulated on presenting to the public so great a work in so cheap a form. Intelligent general readers of narrow means will now be able to enrich their libraries by a rare accession, and there will no longer be any hardship in requiring students to purchase it as a text-book.
Such hardship was felt until now. For of the two stately volumes in which the "Types " has hitherto appeared, only about one-third was required for use as a text-book. The whole of the first volume, excepting the introduction, is taken up with historico-critical expositions of the systems of Plato, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Comte; and the last fourth of the second volume with similar accounts of Cudworth, Clarke, Price, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson. Valuable as is this examination of the ethical theories of typical thinkers (would that it had embraced Butler, Kant, and others!), Dr. Martineau is too good a teacher (if one may speak from experience) to wish to have it substituted for a more systematic history of ethics. On the other hand, Dr. Martineau's own ethical theory, with his criticisms of contemporary rival theories, is simply invaluable to the student. For that it is not too much to ask him to buy the complete work. For Dr. Martineau has recast the Intuitional Ethics, which is still the reigning system in Britain and America, and strengthened it at many points against utilitarian, evolutionary, and other relativistic critics. Whether his modifications are at all points tenable, and whether they have the effect of making Intuitional Ethics invulnerable, are questions that need not be discussed in this brief notice of a new edition. It is enough at present to recommend, in its new form, to teachers and students, this classic exposition and defence, by one of the greatest masters of the Philosophy of Common Sense, of a doctrine of intuitional and absolute morality.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1892, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1924, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 99 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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