Introduction to Ethics: Including a Critical Survey of Moral Systems

Introduction To Ethics: Including A Critical Survey Of Moral Systems by Théodore Jouffroy. This volume presents an English translation of Jouffroy's Introduction to Ethics, which surveys major moral theories in a critical, historically informed light. The translator explains that the lectures, recorded from Jouffroy’s extemporaneous Parisian courses, examine the grand problem of human destiny and the four principal relations of ethical inquiry: to God, to oneself, to things, and to other people (with extensions to social and national ethics). Across lectures, Jouffroy argues that ethics is a science rooted in psychology, tracing human moral development from primitive passions through self-love to a moral law grounded in universal order. The work surveys systems from necessity, mysticism, pantheism, and skepticism to Hobbes’s selfish theory, defending a rational, liberty-based account of obligation. This volume is notable for its systematic critique and its lucid, methodical approach to moral philosophy.