In the course of my consideration of this subject, I looked into a
text-book on moral philosophy and the general system of ethics with the
hope that I might find something there that would suggest, by analogy,
a proper treatment of the subject in hand. I consulted Paulsen's "A
System of Ethics." The analogy between moral philosophy and legal ethics
is not very close, but I found a passage or two bearing on this very
issue, which it seems to me might not be inappropriately quoted here. In
the conclusion of his introduction, Paulsen says:
"Let me say a word concerning the _practical value_ of ethics. Can
ethics be a practical science, not only in the sense that it deals
with practice, but that it influences practice? This was its
original purpose. 'It is the function of ethics,' says Aristotle,
'to act, not only to theorize.'"
Paulsen refers to the fact that Schopenhauer takes a different view:
"All philosophy," he says, "is theoretical. Upon mature reflection
it ought finally to abandon the old demand that it become
practical, guide action, and transform character, for here it is
not dead concepts that decide, but the innermost essence of the
human being, the demon that guides him.
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