ABSTRACT
The ethical philosophy of the last three centuries in England affords abundant illustration of the dependence of moral opinion on general contemporary influences. If there ever was a man who was driven to speculation by the political necessities of the time, it was Hobbes. A few years later fresh influences stir the intellectual atmosphere and produce corresponding changes in ethical speculation. It is necessary to bear in mind the striking vicissitudes of moral philosophy, in order to understand the present aspect of ethics in England. In March 1860 a Titanic scheme was propounded of works to be issued in periodical parts by Mr. Herbert Spencer. The characteristic doctrine of ‘the Science of Ethics’ is the use made of the conception of a ‘social organism,’ and the employment of an abstract entity called ‘the social tissue. In the matter of ‘associationism,’ however, as applied to the genesis of moral ideas, Mr. Stephen has some trenchant things to say.
