Abstract
THE author received the degree of D. Litt. from the University of Glasgow for this thesis, and though primarily dealing with a subject of philosophy, it is of peculiar scientific interest. The moral law is generally held up to wonder and veneration as something utterly unintelligible on ordinary scientific principles, indicating a supernatural origin and bearing witness to a divine purpose in individual lives. Dr. Levine, in a clear and trenchant argument, sweeps this whole conception away. The moral law is shown to be the simple condition on which human society can exist. Without morals common life is impossible, and without common life the survival of the human species is impossible. The existence and maintenance of social life are the inevitable expression of the life-impulse itself. The essay concludes with a brief historical survey, in which it is claimed that the rational tradition in moral theory has received in modern times its complete vindication in the discoveries of psychology.
Reason and Morals: an Enquiry into the First Principles of Ethics.
Dr.
Israel
Levine
By. Pp. xi + 177. (Glasgow: MacLehose, Jackson and Co.; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 6s. net.
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Reason and Morals: an Enquiry into the First Principles of Ethics . Nature 115, 225 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115225c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115225c0