ABSTRACT
In proposing to discuss the practical value of Moral Philosophy, I had a double object in view. I desired to criticize, on the one hand, some current conceptions of what is meant by practice; but no less I was anxious to maintain, without the slightest indulgence to dogmatism or to doctrinairism, that there is a way in which moral philosophy can usefully affect the guidance of practical life, in the commonest sense of the words. Both parts of this problem seem to merit consideration at the moment. In the present clamour for a “practical” education, it is probable that the full and true meaning of “practice” is in some degree forgotten, partly through the prevalence of a false philosophical theory. While, on the other hand, “where therex is smoke there is fire” and it is very possible that the clamour has some justification, not only, if it be so, in the case of the chemist or the engineer, but in that of the publicist, the philanthropist, the minister of religion, the employer and the representative of labour— of all, in a word, on whom it is directly incumbent to influence social conduct. It is conceivable that for all of these there is something to be gained from a study of human nature in its leading principles, which would prove of value for practice in the simplest meaning of the word. Can we, indeed, bring ourselves to suppose that there was nothing at all of truth in Plato's conception that the supremely important thing is the manner of mind of those who are to influence society? It is noteworthy that many of our universities are setting themselves the definite task of training the captains and the officers of commerce and industry for their part in the working world. No doubt this training is to deal in a great measure with matters of specialized knowledge and the machinery and routine of business. But I am confident that there are those among the leaders of the movement who well understand what is involved in an education which is to treat of commerce and industry as subjects worthy to absorb the entire attention of the most capable men. In one way or another, in a special curriculum or out of it, there will, I think, be brought before such students the meaning of those forces of the human spirit which play so enormous a part in “efficiency.” And I do not care in the least whether you call it Moral Philosophy, or by what professors or instructors it is taught, so long as we are agreed that a large and careful consideration shall be devoted to the real forces of human nature and the deep conditions of its power and of its impotence.
