ABSTRACT
Ethics is concerned with the good of the individual, politics with the good of the State: but the State is in fact an accumulation of individuals, so that the good of the State really means the good of the individuals who compose it. The State or society was therefore for the Greeks an indispensable adjunct to the good life, and the Ethical philosopher must of necessity embrace the good of the State in his purview, when writing out his prescription for the good of the individual. The guardians of the current code of morals have sought to show that a menace to the morality of society was involved in the material betterment of the lowest classes, and have invoked the system of ethical values approved by the State and Church to discredit attempts to secure higher wages. The security therefore which is necessary for the possibility of Ethics can be provided by the State and only by the State.
