ABSTRACT
Anyone who has read Aristotle’s Ethics and has also read modern moral philosophy must have been struck by the great contrasts between them. Butler exalts conscience, but appears ignorant that a man’s conscience may tell him to do the vilest things. In present-day philosophy an explanation is required how an unjust man is a bad man, or an unjust action a bad one; to give such an explanation belongs to ethics; but it cannot even be begun until we are equipped with a sound philosophy of psychology. In consequence of the dominance of Christianity for many centuries, the concepts of being bound, permitted, or excused became deeply embedded in our language and thought. It is noticeable that none of these philosophers displays any consciousness that there is such an ethic, which he is contradicting: it is pretty well taken for obvious among them all that a prohibition such as that on murder does not operate in face of some consequences.
