Three men, according to J. A. Dorner (in Herzog's Recd-Encyklop. iv, 199), form the transition stage to the emancipation of jihilosophy — Hugo Grotius (Z>e jure pads el belli), PufTendorf, with his school, and Christian Thomasius. Then come Wolf, Mosheim (in his Moral, 9 vols.), Steinhart, Bahrdt, Buddeus, Chr. AuEC. Crusius, and J. F. Reuss {E'ementa iheolcgice Mo- ralis, 17G7). Even the Romni Catholic ('hurch of the last two centuries has felt the influence of the modern
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philosophy ; the following Romanist writers are Wolf- iiins : Liiliy, Schwar/.liiiber, Sclianza, and Stadler; and the following are Kantians : Wanker, Mutschelle, Hermes, with his disciples Braun, Elvenich, and Vo- gelsang. Weiller is a Schellingian ; independent, and, at the same time, mild and evangelical, pious and rich in thought, are Michael Sailer and Hirscher. Geishiittner is a Ficlitian.
Kanfs "practical reason," the metaphysics of eth- ics, occupies in the pliilosophy of morals a most im- portant place, and, notwithstanding certain defects, it has the immortal honor to liave discovered that the most certain of all things is the conscience in its rela- tion to the practical reason, and to have made an end of the eudaamonism of etliics by means of the majesty i of the moral law, whicli he compares with the glory i of the starry heavens. To his "categorical impera- , tive" certain rationalistic Kantians adhere ; for exam- j pie, J. W. Schmid, Karl Christian Schmid, and Krug. Some of the supernaturalists, as Staudlin and Tief- trunk, Ammon and Vogel, incline to Jacobi's philoso- phy. See also Fichte, Syslein of Ethics (1797). To the Jacobi-Friesian school belong De Wette {Chrisiliche Sittenlehre, 4 bde. 1819-23), Kilhler, and Baumgarten- Crusius. To the school of Hegel belong Michelet {System der Philosoph. Moral, Berlin, 1828), L. V. Ken- ning {Princip. der Etliik in historischer Entwicklunfi, 1824), Vatke, Von der menschl. Freiheit im Verhaltniss zu Sii/iJe und Gnade, 1843) ; Marheineke {Chnstliche Moral, 1847), Daub {Chnstliche Moral, 1840). Of tliis school, yet more under tlic influence of Schleiermacher, are JIartensen (_Sys/. Moral Phllos. 1841), Wirth {Sys. specul. Ethik, 1841), H. Merz {Syst. Christl. Sittenlehre, nach den GrundsiUzen des Protestantismus, etc., 1841).
The activity of Schleiermacher in Christian ethics, as in other departments of tlieologj', was immense. From 1819 he published his treatises on "the idea of virtue," "the idea of duty," and on " tlie relation between the moral law and the law of nature;" also on the idea of what may be " allowed" and the "chief good." His sj'stem was not further published by him- self, but after his death A. Schweizer edited his Philos. Ethik in 1835, and Jonas his Christl. Sitte in 1843. See also Sartorius, Heil. Llebe ; Ilarlcss, Christliche Ethik ; and especially Rothe, Theoloy. Ethik (2d edit. 1867). Rothe (translated by Jlorrison, Clarlv's Library, Ed- inburgh, 1868, 8vo) seeks to combine Hegel's stand- point of objective knowledge with Schleiermacher's fine moral tact and organizing power, and to excel them both in his highly original method. See also Riitenick's Christl. S'ttenlehre (1845) ; Gelzer, D'.e Re- ligion im Lchen, etc. (1854) ; Schwarz, Evan. Chr. Ethik (1836, 3d ed.); W'endt, Kirchliche Ethik v. Standpunkte d. christl. Freiheit (2 vols. 8vo, Leipz. 18G4-65); Cul- man, D. chridliche Ethik (Stuttgardt, 1864-66, 2 vols. 8vo). This sketch of the history of ethics is chiefly condensed from Dorner's article {Ethik^ in Herzog, Real-Encyklop. iv, 165 sq. (B. H. N.)
Appendix. — It is proper to add to tlie above a brief account of the history of ctliics, or moral philosophy, in England. A survey of this field will be found in Mackintosh, General Vieic of the Progress of Ethical Philosophy {Encyc. Britannica, Prelim. Diss.), sepa- rately printed in his Miscellaneous Works (Lond. 1851, 12mo), and in a separate volume (Pliila. 1832, 8vo); also in Wliewell, Lectures on the Hist, of Moral Philos- ophy in England (Lond. 1852, Svo) ; there is also a sum- mary sketch of tlie history in Brande, Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art, i, 821 sq. (Lond. 1865, 3 vols. 8vo). From these and other sources we con- dense the following sketch :
The modem English theories may be classed as selfish or disinterested, according as they "found vir- tue on a seltisli or a Ijencvolent principle. The selfish theory is advocated l)y Hoblics (f 1679), who makes self-love the exclusive passion, and consid-
ers pleasure the only motive to action (see his Ilth man Nature, his Leviathan, and our article Hobbes). Tlie same theory is adopted in substance bj' Jeremy Bentham (f 1832), who assumes Hobbes's principle as self-evident, that everj' object is indifferent, except for its fitness to produce pleasure or pain, which he de- clares are tlie sole motives to action. '' Bentham is the most distinguished propounder of the principle of utility as the basis of morals, a principle explained by him as in contrast, first, to asceticism, and next to 'sympathy and antipath}',' bj* which he meant to de- scribe all those systems, such as the moral-sense the- ory, that are grounded in internal feeling, instead of a regard to outward consequences. In opposing utility to asceticism, he intended to imply that there was no merit attaching to self-denial as such, and that the in- fliction of pain or the surrender of pleasure could only be justified by being the means of procuring a greater amount of happiness than was lost" (Chambers, s. v.). See Bentham, Treatise on Morals and Legislation ; and our article Bentiiaji, Jeremy. Locke (f 1704) de- nied the existence of a separate faculty for perceiving moral distinctions. In his Essay on the Human Under- standing (bk. i, ch. iii), he maintains that virtue is ap- proved of, not because it is innate, but because it is profitable. Paley (f 1805) also rejected the doctrine of a moral sense, and held, in substance, the utilita- rian theoiy, maintaining that " virtue is the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness" {Moral and Polit- ical Philosophy). The utilitarian theory is tauglit by ; all the recent English writers of the materialistic school: see James Mil], Analysis of the Unman Mind (Lond. 1829 ; see Mill, James) ; Austin, Prov'nce of Jurisprudence determined (2d ed. London, 1861) ; John Stuart INlill, Dissei^tations and Discussions (1859) ; and his Utilitarianism, reprinted from Eraser's Magazine (1862 ; 2d ed. 1864) ; Bain, The Emotions and the Will (Lond. 1859) ; The Senses and the Intellect (Lond. 1855) ; also his 3Iental and Moral Science (Lond. 1868, 8vo), where he teaches that conscience is solely the product of education. See also, in reply to these writers. The Xorth British Revieio, September, 1867, art. i ; The British Quarterly, January, 1868, art. vi.