Practical Ethics

The work treats ethics as both a science of conduct and an art of life, examining how to relate oneself rightly to a series of concrete objects—food, dress, work, property, knowledge, time, nature, art, animals, fellow humans, institutions, self, and God—assigning for each the corresponding duty, virtue, temptation, vice, and penalty. It argues that relations vary: inanimate goods call for sagacious self-interest, ideal objects require self-surrender, personal relations demand respect for personality and the common good, and social institutions deserve deference to collective ends. Practical advice and moral reasoning are interwoven, with religion presented as the consummation of ethical life.